Just keep on reading and let me know of the rare gems

You may find this debate transcript interesting….
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118460229729267677.html

Called to my attention by none other than Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog.

-Chris

Point is …
Why is it either or? I write blogs (and wiki postings) to capture throughts as they emerge over the event horizon of my richly and chaotically interconnected brain. Sometimes I get responses, sometimes I go in and edit them myself. But its a process. Sometime later, I return to a posting, pick it up, dust it off, and start writing an article for publication based on a posting or two.

Call it a safe deposit box if you like, for untidy minds. But does Nielsen understand the concept of fun? Having fun with ideas is part of how I develop ideas, or is this too frivolous an approach to the serious pursuit of money and fame? [I tend to write respectably 'serious' stuff about epistemology and the theory of knowledge].

In fact Write On.

In fact, I could give a monkey’s toenail about whether we can encourage “good writing” in blogs, articles, journals, wiki pages– does the place where writing happen really matter? to misquote the lyrics of The Who in “Water”

We need writing
Good, good writing
We need writing
And maybe somebody’s lightning

C’mon, gimme good writing
C’mon, gimme good writing
C’mon, gimme good writing

So yes, I can see concern over quickly dashed blog posts, IM chatter, or 140 character cryptic twittering being seen as less than “good writing” (open to debate).

I fell in love with writing due to an influential 10th grade English teacher who really got us to see the power and influence of written ideas. I had outstanding mentors in college who inspired, cajoled, motivated sounds written work. I spent a year in graduate school writing a 4 page published paper, as it was harder to write coherent science research in fewer words.

I am full under the banner of Good Writing.

But I fail to see why the form or place of the writing matters. Writing only articles does not make you a better writer nor does anything about the form of a blog post cause bad writers. Look at the incredible quality and quantity of writing like Henry Jenkins who use his blog as a forum for… Good Writing.

So yes, I agree with Nielsen. Good writing is a Good Thing. I remain to be convinced that the container matters.

If you’re an expert who wants to live from adding to the world’s knowledge, you must go beyond the mainstream Web model of single page visits driven by search traffic. It’s easy enough to build a website that freeloaders will use, but that shouldn’t be your approach. You must change the game and create content that’s so valuable that business users are willing to pay for it.

Write Articles, Not Blog Postings (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)

Maybe students aren’t looking for business users to pay for their content, but I feel like we have been successful with students when they build a cadre of readers who return because of the quality of the content of their blogs. Students become “experts” among their peers who do indeed begin to “live from adding to the world’s knowledge.” The distinction that Nielsen draws between quickly-written blog posts and in-depth content is instructive for teachers who are guiding their students toward becoming knowledge-producing bloggers.

It might take you only an hour to write a blog posting on some current controversy, but a thousand other people can do that as well (in fact, they’ll sometimes do it better…) In contrast, in-depth content that takes much longer to create is beyond the abilities of the lesser experts. A thousand monkeys writing for 1,000 hours doesn’t add up to Shakespeare. They’ll actually create a thousand low-to-medium-quality postings that aren’t integrated and that don’t give readers a comprehensive understanding of the topic — even if those readers suffer through all 1,000 blogs. Thorough content’s added value can rise above the threshold where customers become willing to be separated from their money. This is the true measure of a sustainable business.

Write Articles, Not Blog Postings (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)

Again, the goal is different, but the point is still clear. I agree that we want students to produce “thorough content” because the “added value” of their writing can “rise above the threshold” of merely connecting on the web. Students who learn to produce blogs with “in-depth content” maintain a “sustainable” group of followers. In the end it all gets back to one of my key philosophies of high school education. Online or in the classroom, most young people come to school and to the web to socialize. Our job is to give them something to socialize about.

Thanks!

It makes sense, though at a casual glance, the article still has an odor of dismissiveness towards blogs