Folks often tell me that they give pointers to my blog to people in the industry to get a sense of what’s happening in social media. I find this embarassing and tend to play ostrich so that i can go about writing about whatever. At the same time, i kinda realized that this blog is hard to navigate if you don’t know me… so i started thinking i should do something to help strangers find things that are particularly relevant and interesting. I decided i should create a best-of list. In trying to create a best-of, i got super self-conscious again. I started looking at entries and wondering if that was really that interesting to people who didn’t know me. So, i decided that i should turn to you…. What do you think is particularly interesting here? What entries do you think i should include in a best-of list? Sorry – i’m a bit neurotic about things like this but i’m trying to suck it up and realize that more than a few people read this blog. ::gulp::
You’re doing fine. I found the stuff I wanted to see pretty quickly. And anyway maybe more blogs should be more haphazard. As someone who actually loved roaming libraries and bookshops, then your site is a treasure trove. I adore the serendipity!
Holy figure and ground, Batman! Best of? It’s all “best of” if it’s the specific insight I’m looking for right now. Otherwise, it’s just mildly interesting, amusing, clever, quirky, insightful, thought-provoking, wrong, right, upsetting, calming, reassuring…. time to haul out the ol’ thesaurus for more adjectives. Your stuff spans the gamut! 🙂
Between sophisticated site searches and the links to your stuff from the front page, I, for one, have been able to find your “best stuff” when I’ve needed it, and especially when any particular item emerges as the best for any specific instance.
FWIW, best not to set stuff in marble just yet; I’ll bet your real best is yet to come.
(Also, you might want to meditate on, and seek advice from your spiritual guide about, the embarassment – as a person privileged with insight, wisdom and access, it may well be part of your role in this incarnation to provide such useful contributions and guidance to the world at large. For many, this becomes a “comfortable in your skin” issue.)
i find your self-consciousness and embarrassment absolutely adorable… for someone so knowledgeable and intelligent to doubt the intrigue of said blog… doesn’t the fact that your words are read by “more than a few people” speak for itself?
as a complete stranger, i’ve had no difficulties navigating my way through and finding the topics of discussion that interest me the most. now i feel like a stalker.
the best of? i’d say the post above (an ode to a math teacher) would be one example of a “best of” but so are your everyday life posts… and i just realized i’m not helping you narrow down anything so… just keep doing what you’re doing!
Anything on myspace of course. Due to my own field of interest I also point a lot of people to ‘autistic social software’
Good idea btw.
Danah,
I trust your instincts that you know which are defining posts on a particular topic and which are ordinary ranting.
keep up the great work!
A.
Can you pull out the hits you get on pages, minus robots, and make one ranking based on this?
Definitely this one…
http://www.danah.org/papers/Etech2006.html
I’d say the most interesting posts are the longest (so not the easiest to start from) and I would rather point people to your (enven longer) academic works. A very modern approach to that would be to use a search engine: make a “most interesting” list from the inward links / number of comments and hand-adjust it for newcomers.
I’ve sent more than one cyberethics student (I’m a TA) to your site specifically for your pieces about MySpace and anonymity. Grouping these would be great. (woah – just checked – you’ve already done it!)