Go Endorse Tony!

The Blogger's Congress has a nomination process going on for caucus leaders. Tony “I Am Always Right” Rosen currently needs three more nominations by tonight if he is going to compete in the election and try for the title of “Supreme Potentate” (his choice of titles) of the Blogger's Congress. If you haven't nominated someone already, why not nominate him?

The International Small Town

On e-mail lists, I've met a number of great people that I've later gotten to know better via private e-mail or perhaps even a phone conversation. I've also made a lot of friends on the list I started with a few fellow Christian GNU/Linux users last year. It's small enough people can post a bit more about themselves there. However, for the most part, the people still feel distant. Personal web sites also seem somewhat distant, perhaps because they are often stale and non-interactive.

Blogging is different. I really feel like I “know” many of the bloggers on my blogroll even if I only know them through blogging. Through blog postings you sort of experience what the people are going through in a way that seems very different than other forms of remote communication. Comments and trackbacks also help in this respect.

It's interesting too how the different “communities” of the blogosphere form, perhaps that's part of the charm. It's like a small town. I might link to something Kevin or Christopher has to say or some such. Sometimes its just a link, sometimes it starts something much larger than just a link — such as Pressed's Southern Baptist posts that got me motivated to write on the UCC's current state (Part III is on the way).

Like a small town, when someone new “moves in,” word spreads pretty quickly. When Sophoristically Speaking launched, it took only a month or two for many blogs I read, and my blog, to link to it. While this happens in the web at large, it doesn't happen nearly as much. I posted stuff on my site when it was just a site and didn't have a blog, and it went largely unnoticed in the billions of pages on the internet. It was only entering the blogosphere, or more precisely, the small community of it that I'm largely in, that I really started to get interaction about what I posted.

By small community, I'm referring to the set of bloggers that I link to that largely link back and forth between each other. Like a small community, probably each “resident” knows people they border on that others in the community might not have met yet. For instance, Josiah “flickerfly” Richie's blog links mostly go to blogs outside of the community of bloggers I link to. But, as I link to stuff he mentions and vise versa (as he recently did on a post or two of mine), those communities come together to an extent like two small towns converging toward their borders.

Through this method, you get to meet a lot of great people. My personal experience with blogging began when Ciaran gave me this blogging script. I read his blog, but I didn't venture out into the blogosphere. Then another friend of mine, Kevin started a blog and slowly reading comments and visiting links I was “introduced” to bloggers he read, such as Christopher. From there I went on to run into Pressed, Le Renard, Susan and Katie, Tony, Justin (Sophorist) and others. In a reverse manor I met Jake and Owen (of the late gooddogbaddog.ca).

The interesting thing about this community within the blogospheres is that it may actually be more of a “virtual community.” In that there are no real boundaries, each blogger exists in a community that is slightly different than his neighbors. My “community” covers a slightly different region of the blogosphere than another blogger's community. I can't simply say “my blog is located in Blogosville.” To someone outside of the blogosphere, there is no community, only an incomprehensible number of blogs. However, once inside the blogosphere this “virtual community” forms between one's blog and the blogs of those who read and link back and forth to that blog. Certainly not a community in the sense we are use to in the physical world, but still strangely similar in many senses.

All of this is part of the nature of the blogosphere and makes blogging the interesting activity it is. I wonder — are different sectors of the blogosphere sort of forming a replacement for the small community that most of us no longer have the opportunity to live in? How will these “virtual communities” grow and change in the future? And most of all, are you thinking I'm off my rocker for talking about virtual communities at all?

The World as a Blog

Well, that's neat! I found World as a Blog, and when I signed on under my URL (to show I was online), I noticed Sisters' Weblog: It Boggles the Mind is also on… (hi Susan or Katie!). I thought that was kind of interesting that two b4G'ers were among the few people currently on that site. Even more interesting, for some reason it never dawned on me that the weblogging sisters aren't all that far away on the map (I should read their blogchalk entries better).

Blogging certainly does make the world seem smaller… I mean, who'd think that I'd end up running into a number of bloggers that are just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from here (Christopher, Pressed, and Le Renard)? For that matter, Jake isn't all that far from here either. Midwestern bloggers are clearly a force to be reckoned with! Perhaps we need to start a Midwestern Bloggers Association (MwBA).

Le Sabot Post-Moderne: Not Down... Moved.

John, Discoshaman himself, wrote me about his site. I just mentioned that I added it to my blogroll last night. Unfortunately, it seems, in the process of moving to a new location, his old site went down due to lack of bandwidth. He asked if I would mention the new address, so here ya go… If you are looking for Le Sabot Post-Moderne, stop by www.postmodernclog.com instead of the old address you may have.

Hmm...

I can't say I've completely gotten my mind to grasp what this is suppose to do, but here's something intriguing at any rate. It's called a Blog Coop (Web Log Cooperative):

Blog Cooperatives are businesses jointly owned and operated by their members. BlogCoops are for-profit ventures that embrace emergent democracy as a means for governance and decision-making.

Here is the site if you want to read more about it. Thoughts?

Don't forget to VOTE!

The first monthly BlogShares Player Securities Board vote has begun and will go for one week. PLEASE vote and let your voice be heard. I'd appreciate your vote in my “campaign” for a Free and Fair Market (just vote Timothy Butler on the ballot), but even if you choose to vote for someone else, it's good if you do exercise your cyber voting privilege.

Click the button to be taken to the BlogShares Voting Page

I just did that???

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I just decided to run for office. Not a real office, but the BlogShares Player Securities Board. To get in the real election, all I need is someone to second me as a candidate, and then of course during the polling days, I need votes. If anyone is interested in reading my platform and/or seconding or thirding me, please take a look here. If you really want to get into the fun, feel free to take a copy of my campaign sign too:

This should be kinda fun. Being an avid political observer, it's fun running for a virtual office. I'm not use to trying to sell myself in such a manor, so who knows how this will go, but it should be fun no matter what…