mashup of flickr cc licensed photos by digital_trash and by h.koppdelaney
I had a blast with this session from Northern Voice that I arm twisted Brian Lamb and Chris Lott to be part of, which I had pitched originally as
Every few months some pundit posts something online stating that blogging is dead (invariably posted in a blog). The only thing truly dead is a statement that “X is dead”.
Yes, blogging defined as publishing in blog software may be on a downslope, but blogging as the act of self publishing online has just diffused to more outlets from status messaging to YouTube dialogues. That said, there are deep problems with all the forms that are eclipsing blogs in the social media space. Blogging may yet emerge as the only hope in preserving what is best in human intellectual endeavor.
Come debate us, and bring out your dead (there will be coconuts ringing out).
I was pretty hooked onto a Monty Python / Holy Grail / “I’m Not Dead Yet” shtick,  with this hastily done over dub video
From the outset, I stated that the question of “Blogs Are Dead” is silly, and as Chris noted, he had led the same discussion in 2006. We had a very lively audience who wanted to interject, which was good, and what we wanted. The energy was good, but in the tight 45 minutes of the session, it felt like the heat had just turned up to a nice simmer before we had to let them go to lunch.
The session was recorded, so at some point you should find it on the conference web site. Until then you have my faulty memory. I had fun with this one using the free open source script, keynotetweet, Â that allowed me to have twitter messages sent out on certain slides.
Update! Thanks to Grant Potter for sharing his ustreamed/recorded version (now dead, thanks Ustream for breaking the web)
Rather than having us take false stands, our approach was for each of us to take 5-7 minutes to name some points on both sides of the questions- which were also set up in advance with two open wiki pages http://cogdoghouse.wikispaces.com/BlogsAreDead and http://cogdoghouse.wikispaces.com/BlogsAreAlive
I had a lot of fun just listening to my co-presenters different approaches to answering the silly question, and the data is in from our twtpoll:
What I got out of this is that what we are really interested in, and what feels alive, is the blog-like activity that at one time, took place only in these things called “blogs”– and that even trying to call this “blogging” was not a good fit because it doe snot fully describe the range of ways people are publishing and creating content online.
Bring out your dead!
Footage and audio from your preso can also be found here: http://www.ustream.tv/myvideos/1/6774576
I livestreamed and recorded from the front row 🙂
I walked away from this session with a great deal to think about regarding how I express my identity and ideas online. Never been a Facebook user, but use Twitter quite often. This session challenged me rethink my online plumbing and reconsider how I might use my domain more effectively to ensure my clips, rants, links, and meanderings online are with me in 5 years rather than funnelled through conduits I can not control or predict.