Entries tagged “jason kottke”

I'd intended to post a correction to this NY Times story's recounting of the history of blog book tours, but was pleased to see that my friend, and intermittent blogger, Jason Kottke has already done the legwork.

For my part, here's Greg Knauss' post on my blog from his seminal tour for Rainy Day Fun And Games For Toddler And Total Bastard. (Which book I still heartily recommend, by the way.)

And then two years later, I hosted Danyel Smith for a quick stop as she promoted More Like Wrestling. Since then, Danyel's gone on to return as Editor in Chief of Vibe. Sure, it's a role she's uniquely qualified for, but I like to think that having a brief stopover at my blog on her book tour was really what sealed the deal.

So The Manual's been written for music, but a how-to manual hasn't been written for blogging yet. The closest thing is Rebecca Blood's Weblog Handbook, which is the best blog book ever written, even at four years old.

If you want a more bloggish example of how to be a better blogger, though, you can't do better than her series of interviews about Bloggers on Blogging. The list includes several of the greatest bloggers of all time, especially since Rebecca's one of the greatest herself and asks appropriately insightful questions. Interviewees include Matt Haughey, Jessamyn West, Heather Armstrong, Rashmi Sinha, Glenn Reynolds, Adam Greenfield, David Weinberger, Megan Reardon, Fred First,and most recently Jason Kottke. Jason illustrates the strength of the interview questions well, if you compare his recent "How I Blog" post to Rebecca's interview:

Jason's self-descriptions are useful but brief, but his responses in Rebecca's interview, while equally considered and thoughtful, sound more like the real person I'm friends with. Part of it is the difference in tone that Jason has on his own site, but I think part of it is the intelligence and thoughtfulness of the inquiry.

On Tuesday, Jason Kottke announced that he was devoting himself full-time to working on maintaining his weblog, and asking for his readers to support him financially so he could do so. There was, of course, a lot of attention and a lot of discussion, since Jason is arguably the most popular individual weblogger on the Internet, and because his framing of his effort is fairly unique in its motivations and execution. What's more important to me, though, is that Jason's decision to work on his site professionally matters.

Of course, that's the kind of statement that gets bloggers ridiculed (often rightly so) for hubris, or for losing perspective. So let me explain. In short, Jason's decided that blogging as a medium deserves to be supported for its own sake, not as an adjunct or a lesser sibling to other media, and to put his money where his mouth is.

And this comes down not just to believing in blogs, but in choosing what blogs can be. Blogging isn't about politics, or technology, or food, or design. It's about all of those things, or none of them, or whatever topic catches your eye. It's as idiosyncratic and compelling as an individual, and it's a different medium to every person who's ever participated, or to every one who's ever dropped out. (Though they always come running back.) So Jason's betting on the potential of the medium.

More impressively, he's bet his rent that bloggers are generous enough and adventurous enough to support their own. That we all care about the medium so much that we'll make his risk worth his while. Given the track record of in-fighting and cliquishness and polarization that has characterized the weblog realm since its earliest days and worsened over the years, it's an optimistic and brave endorsement of the medium that Jason's decided to wager his entire lifestyle on our generosity.