(2003-09-05) Coates On Weblogs Context

Tom Coates on why WebLog-s matter. I'm going to try and explain how weblogging fits into the wider world with an eye to showing how weblogs may form a ragged centre for our small-scale (SmallWorld) personal creative endeavours... The dramatic increase in available information constituted the second shift towards mass amateurisation (and was the first that the internet provided). Suddenly it became effectively effortless to research information online and to connect with communities of people interested in the same things (Group Forming Networks)... In terms of self-representation, the homepage is like a statue carved out of marble labelled carefully at the bottom where the weblog is like an Ava Tar in CyberSpace that we wear like a skin. It moves with us - through it we articulate ourselves. The WebLog is the Home Page that we wear.