Monday, December 27, 2004

When Lawyers Blog

Described as a a cultural phenomenon, the anonymous lawyer's blog became a popular outlet for frustrated associates at elite law firms, commenting on his post at late hours. The anonymous lawyer, "in short, a petty, cynical, sexist, miserable, overpaid corporate creep", was immensely popular with his readers who recognized his world, in spite of his fictional existence.

"Gosh. I seem to be in the New York Times today." blogs Jeremy Blachman, a Harvard law student, claiming authorship of the anonymous lawyer.

What does this mean for the anonymous lawyer? Does fictional blogs end when the author steps into the limelight?

Monday, December 27, 2004

Blog Bridging

Pito Salas recently made his new blog reader, Blog Bridge, available for download:

BlogBridge is a new kind of Blog Reader, making it practical for a non-technical user to discover, follow and enjoy literally hundreds of feeds without losing their mind.

The Boston Globe writes: "It's the 'pure entrepreneur who often leads the way"

''I sometimes liken my personal approach to the BlogBridge project to writing a book," Salas writes via e-mail. ''I have a burning desire to tell this story, and am willing to forsake a conventional job to do it."

Monday, December 20, 2004

War between the Roses

Kieran digs into the gender issue and asks where the female bloggers are:

This process of association affects content, too. which in turn affects the probability of reading and linking. It may be that explicitly political blogs are more male-oriented because of the confluence of male concerns and linking patterns. For example, earlier this year Matt Yglesias was wondering why women weren't interested in politics. There's a time-demands answer to this, which I'll get to in a minute, but it's also the case that many of the political concerns of women are not well-addressed in mainstream political commentary, or are simply not thought to be political issues at all (e.g., "work/family choices").

Bitch Ph.D. argues that Kieran is missing the point:

The other thing I've been thinking is this. As academics, it is our job--is it not?--to read things and think about them. Not seeing that there is meaning in domesticity, that there is meaning in daily life, that there is meaning and thinking in these silly, diaristic women's blogs, really demonstrates a lack of reading skill.

This process of association affects content, too. which in turn affects the probability of reading and linking. It may be that explicitly political blogs are more male-oriented because of the confluence of male concerns and linking patterns. For example, earlier this year Matt Yglesias was wondering why women weren't interested in politics. There's a time-demands answer to this, which I'll get to in a minute, but it's also the case that many of the political concerns of women are not well-addressed in mainstream political commentary, or are simply not thought to be political issues at all (e.g., "work/family choices").

Bitch Ph.D. argues that Kieran is missing the point:

The other thing I've been thinking is this. As academics, it is our job - is it not? - to read things and think about them. Not seeing that there is meaning in domesticity, that there is meaning in daily life, that there is meaning and thinking in these silly, diaristic women's blogs, really demonstrates a lac

Monday, November 1, 2004

Playground Blues

Zeldman is fond of the design of Nathan Paul Borror's weblog, Playground Blues.

Sure, it looks like a weblog. It is a weblog. And the color scheme sort of shouts "I am naive", until you notice the detailing. The design is holystoned, and then buffed, and then polished some more.

Cindy really likes the mouseovers, though do they really need to track mouse movement? Does the moving popup help us in some way, or is this just showing off?