Link love from NU’s DOSA
I check my site statistics every day, paying particular attention to the search query and referrer sections. A few months ago, I caught a link from an interesting and curious little Web page: “And We Shall Know Them By Their …. Weblogs?” by Kristin Yates Thomas. She works in the Housing Administration office at Northwestern and gave a presentation on social software and weblogs at Northwestern at the DOSA’s conference.
Not all of our students rely on services like LiveJournal to publish their own websites. Sites such as Underscore Bleach, Manufacturing Mystique [Chapino Jenn] and JasonNellis.com are all NU student/alumni owned personal web sites.
Although the page is interesting, it also includes some pretty over-the-top (and funny) quotes about the power of technology and community and blah blah blah. Examples:
The thing to remember is, just because a community starts online, it doesn?t make the community experience any less ‘real.’
I absolutely agree. The hours upon hours I’ve wasted reading weblogs are no less “real” than time spent out on the town, actually talking to people. With my voice.
We should understand that our notions of community and theirs may be vastly different, especially if we are not embracing technology in the ways that they may be.
I believe this translates to, “People who work at Northwestern’s Division of Student Affairs don’t bitch and moan on stupid websites as much as the spoiled, twenty year-old kids they’re charged with babysitting.”