So long to My Dog Meg

Hope you all had a nice Holiday. I’m back in town, and this being a college town, the streets are deserted. I’m sorry to see tonight that one of my favorite blogs, My Dog Meg, which was written by Shannon Hale, is no more. She writes:

my desire to keep up this site has, after nearly four years, fizzled out. when it gets to two months between posts, it’s time to move on.

Looking back at my own site, I see my first blog entry is from February 1, 2000, meaning I’ll be able to celebrate my first five years of blogging soon. For the first three years, I was blogging more sporadically, but for the last two years, I have been writing online fairly consistently (for a variety of reasons). At any rate, I can see Shannon’s point. When the interest isn’t there, what’s the point of publishing a blog?

For me, self-publishing has always been a strong research interest. Of course, pamphleteers were distributing their message ever since the advent of the printing press. I’m primarily interested in the use of electronic technology for creation/distribution of personal texts. What role does the internet play in the distribution of personal texts? How does the lack of an editorial process in personal publishing hinder distribution and acceptance? Do individual blogs need some kind of editorial oversight to become widely read?

By the way, there’s a two-day invitation-only blogging conference at Harvard happening in January. My friend Jane has been invited to attend. The attendee list (about 40 people) reads like a who’s who of the digerati. Should be interesting. The conference, which is titled Blogging, Journalism & Credibility, has a blog. The entire conference will be webcast as well. Check it out.