Ron’s comment in my previous post was enough to send me down another path…
After all your hard work… what’s the future look like for that content you labored so long in putting on the Web? Considering the way in which we, as bloggers, celebrate milestones in blogging (someone hits 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 posts, etc) … frankly, that’s a lot of work. Granted some of those posts might be informational (passing along news about an event or site, for example)… and some bloggers say that they write for themselves… but still, some content… again, back to content… is darn good!
What’s the future of it? Does it matter to the blogger? Will bloggers inevitably be forced to go “retro” (despite having used advanced technology in writing for the Web… and the Web reader) and transfer the blogged content onto paper pages (and, in many ways, diminishing the overall presentation and value therein)? Or… do some bloggers, in general, have faith enough that the content will be preserved on the Web… eternally??? And… keep in mind… as I mentioned, the old Geocities sites were laid to rest years ago. Granted, some content still survives in “way back machines” on the Web, but… even as it lay a moulderin’ on the Web, in Web 1.0 form, most of it isn’t as connected as it was when originally placed on the Web.
So, what’s the promise of blogging sites such as WordPress or Blogger… is it solely up to the blogger to archive material on a disk? What sort of implications does that hold? As a resource that can easily be wiped clean from the Web, I assure you… there are no promises without being formally archived.
On top of that… consider, for example, print publications, published today, that cite Web sources… even blog posts. If those same posts vanish from the Web… what about those footnotes, in published books, that cited posts of the past? At that point, is it really the sole responsibility of individual bloggers to archive?
There’s some interesting stuff to consider…
Cenantua's Blog 
mib8
December 4, 2012
“despite having used advanced technology in writing for the web… and the web reader”
Sorry, I must have missed that “advanced technology”, because I certainly have not seen anything worthy of that label when it comes to web logs.
If you move or the site goes down, you just reload onto a new site from your back-up/archive.
Robert Moore
December 4, 2012
In 40+ years of writing, I’ve gone from pencil/pen to paper… to typewriter… to a word processing machine… to using a Commodore 64 (for the manuscript of my first book, believe it or not)… to building Websites in the 1.0 environment (and, with the exception of hyperlinks, using it exactly like ink on paper)… to advancing to Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 (though yet undeclared), and being aware of hypertext theory, the electronic writing space, and a number of other things that utilize the advanced technology that we see in use on the Web; yes, I feel comfortable saying that this is advanced technology.
mib8
December 4, 2012
OTOH, I was just reading Boorstin’s chapters on the development of writing, books and printing… and Hangul and the English language.
The remarks along the lines of, “Kids today are sooo spoiled. They’re not developing their memories as they should. Why when I was that age, I could recite thousands of verses of Homer… backwards with nary an error.”
Progress is a miracle we should celebrate no matter how minor.
Robert Moore
December 4, 2012
You cite works that precede the Web writing era; worthy of acknowledging in the evolution of writing, but… for the Web, I would recommend J. Bolter’s Writing Space, and Landow’s work on hypertext theory.
Bummer
December 4, 2012
Wow, you guys blew right by me. Left me in a brain warp. Bummer is still writing as if on an old Underwood. If this “old guy” can stay above ground long enough, maybe he can catch up.
Bummer
Robert Moore
December 4, 2012
Lol! You’re doing fine, Bummer, and starting a blog, I imagine, is the beginning of what stands to be an interesting journey.
Craig Swain
December 4, 2012
“Or… do some bloggers, in general, have faith enough that the content will be preserved on the Web… eternally???”
Yes! There are several archival projects running today that are “caching” web content. The most formal of which is the LOC’s “Born Digital” – http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0410/digital.html
Robert Moore
December 4, 2012
O.K. We’ll take the five alarm fire down an alarm or two, but with multiple caching efforts, what’s the % of Web content covered?
Ron Baumgarten
December 4, 2012
Robert–Glad I could stimulate this line of discussion with my comment! I have thought about this issue as well. We bloggers would like to believe that our information will always be there, living in cyber immortality, but I am not so sure. The LOC doesn’t capture all worthy blogs, but just selects a few if I am not mistaken. Will there be many other such other efforts out there to capture content? And even if our blogs survive somewhere in cyberspace 50, or 100 years from now, is anyone guaranteed to find the content readily when it was done so long ago? By that time, it will be on page 100 of a Google result, if we even have Google then! Of course, I’ve also thought about how vulnerable our information is out there. What happens if something wiped the files at Blogger or WordPress clean, like a cyberattack or technological accident? Then where would our information be? I have started to print annual volumes of my blog content. It isn’t as satisfying as the on-screen version, but I just don’t want to lose what I’ve done. And I have even contemplating donating the printed version to the Fairfax Library so someone, somewhere, can find this research I have done if it ever disappears from the web!
Craig Swain
December 5, 2012
Depends on your Archival “Subscriber.” LOC will cache 100% of their targets. Archive.com has cached copies of Cenantua going back to 2008: http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/https://cenantua.wordpress.com
Steve G
December 6, 2012
That is an interesting bit of news! I am sure blogs like yours, Rons and Roberts will be archived, but what of the lesser known (unknown?) blogs such as mine? Is there criteria these projects follow when caching? I am curious since I do work hard on most of my posts… such as they are!
Robert Moore
December 6, 2012
Steve, See of you can find any reference to your work in the wayback archive. If not, maybe Craig has a recommendation.
Steve G
December 6, 2012
Thank you Mr. Moore, I will check into it.
Leslie Fisher
December 5, 2012
“Sorry, I must have missed that ‘advanced technology,’ because I certainly have not seen anything worthy of that label when it comes to web logs.”
My brother has started a small business providing technical editing services for scientists who speak ESL and want to publish their research to American or British publications. He recently asked me for feedback on some of his pages and emails. In our conversation, we spoke about various typefaces and colors, the use of white space, the color and position of the submit button, the listing of the steps and payment options the user can select. All of this with the objective of catching, keeping, and directing the attention of the audience. We spoke about chunking information to make the content easier to scan. We spoke about using rotating quotations and a graphic slideshow on the homepage that not only displays images but provides additional information.
For his emails, we decided to use a descriptive, catchy subject line, hyperlinking the logo so that it takes the user directly to his website, and providing an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the page to give the user control. And everywhere, information is cross-listed and hyperlinked.
Now take a look at social media and blogs. Most bloggers created their sites using the same considerations my brother used for his website—with the exception of the e-commerce parts. Social media and blogs all provide the opportunity for people to like, comment, and share information.
Are we seeing a trend here?
No longer is text author-centric like in decades past. Now text is audience-centric or, rather, USER-centric. The author is no longer writing his thoughts and having it sit in a static writing space like the page in a journal never to be seen by anyone but the author himself. Instead, the author is engaging in a two-sided conversation that is dynamic.
How is writing a blog using advanced technology? By controlling the look and function of the text, by engaging readers in conversations with multiple people. By cross-referencing quickly and efficiently to endless amounts of additional information. By using archival features and search tools that allow easy access to information immediately. By enabling the ability to share with others. By allowing the author to promote his/her writing by merely sending an email or a posting a link to social media. Just to name a few.
And here’s the kicker: the dynamic nature of blogging and online writing can actually redirect and alter what is being said! Really think about that for a minute; it’s mind boggling.
Robert Moore
December 6, 2012
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Leslie! You make some excellent points from the perspective of one who knows what it means to write in the advanced tehnology offered via the Web. Dr. Pass used to call these tools that we manipulate (as Web writers)… “affordances”, and they are clearly made possible by the advanced technology. It’s no longer the day of ink on paper. It also makes me think about the ability to reach a writer that exists in this environment, that did not exist before. Good stuff.
Craig Swain
December 6, 2012
Robert, I would add this – not so much for you, but for the dozens of visitors who will arrive at this post hoping to divulge in another round of internet banter – READ the other posts on this blog. Seriously, don’t go for the digest versions. Read eight or ten posts at least. Understand where the author on this blog is coming from and what he’s trying to do with this platform.