As a rhetorician, I’m fascinated by this conversation! I think you are definitely right on the need to losely connect. It is like when I studied syntax of spoken speech, it is radically different from spoken language. And how we get Jakob Nielsen discussing the different style of writing that is “usable” on the web (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html). However, what I find most intersting about this is that your statement paraphrases what I want my ENG102 students to do…make their own use of sources, build their own argument, and then put it into their own “cubby” that is also a single instince of “participation.” I guess I’m just thinking that you still have to meet the conventions of your readers during individual instances…and usually those readers want some form of organization, right?
All of this rambling just to say…good thinking, I hope the collective academic “we” continues to have this conversation.

To the topic, I found out about your reply to my comment via email. Will talked about RSS as a glue that holds the conversation together. Being able to subscribe to comments as well as posts is a terribly useful feature, especially when the conversation may be distributed across several blogs. That distribution makes it challenging enough to follow when you’re actively participating in the conversation; the lurker is likely to miss out on a great deal.

I’ll expand on that thought over at the Intra-Active blog…