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July 17, 2008
Some Questions About Unpublishing
Deven Desai discusses an abnormally interesting case of the removal of a post from Boing Boing. You can read about this case at Concurring Opinion. In the course of his discussion, Deven makes this observation, "For the law folks, the event raises questions about norms and perhaps who owns the posts." I want to reflect on these questions myself but from a somewhat different perspective. I offer no answers, abnormal or otherwise.
As bloggers we have the ability to at least partially un-ring a bell once rang. We can delete a post or a whole blog. I've done it twice. Once I deleted a post about ten minutes after I put up some pure nonsense, not that other posts I've kept up weren't. Another time, I deleted a post after several months when it became apparent that that post put someone at risk. The second case may seem rather melodramatic but there was a real danger. I hope someday I can explain it. It will make a truly abnormal post, one worth keeping. If you should comment here or elsewhere, I ask that you not speculate about this second case.
I said we can "partially un-ring a bell" because once Google and the other caching databases get hold of a post, there is very little one can do about it.
At one level, I feel that my posts belong to me and I can do with them as I like. But does that change when someone else links to them? Does that change when someone cites a post in a paper or includes it in a syllabus? I think these events do change things. Such posts are no longer mine alone. And how about the case of hosting a web carnival? Does such a post belong only to the host or does it belong to the blogging community it represents?
Now, I don't think blogs are forever or even should be. They have an ephemeral quality that is undeniable. They come and go like the wind. That said, what are our responsibilities to preserve posts that are to some extent no longer ours? What is our responsibility to maintain our content even after we retire from this noble pastime or die? Any thoughts?
PS I think one of the science bloggers wrote a great post on this sometime ago but I can't find it. Perhaps he or she took it down!
PSS I'm not thinking about retiring from blogging or dying just yet.
Posted by Duane Smith at July 17, 2008 8:47 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
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Comments
One could select what one thinks are one's best posts & publish them in a book. But then it would be necessary to send copies to libraries or get it scanned into Google Books.
Posted by: Aydin at July 18, 2008 12:48 PM
Personally, more and more as I blog my own nonsense :) i think of blogs as you eloquently say: "ephemeral, coming and going in the wind". I think the value of blogs is in the here and now, used as a tool to unite people together in common interest and to work on problems collectively. In the end, the people who value these "public chats" and the results they produce will find ways of recording them in more durable forms like physical books. Maybe I'm naive but I notice that media to me is starting to seem like a "hierarchy of durability" with the internet being the most immediate, temporary and raw (much like thoughts one has in the shower or, dare I muse, on the toilet) while physical books are more durable, longer-lasting and polished (much like a well-thought-out idea one has developed for years). I don't think we should think that books are unnecessary in the Information Age and it might be disastrous if we begin too...
Posted by: Glen Gordon at July 18, 2008 7:17 PM
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