In my readings, I have run across contradictory comments on social software. Some writers and participants think it promotes increased communication. Others think the pressure of 24/7 commentary hinders publication of questionable and difficult facts. One commentary was that blogs failed to develop critical communities unless the participants failed to reinforce connection through meat-world contact. I know that I have been surprised by how my requests for comments have failed to start discussion. The Future of the Book Blog http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/ gets lots of commentary.
It would be interested to survey library-land blogs and see which have the most in-depth commentaries, the interests of the participants, how the blogs get started and changed over time.
I think getting participation requires more than asking a question on one's blog. When I *really* want feedback, I'll email other bloggers and ask for a comment or response post.
ReplyDeleteAnother technique is to ping them via the post, and link to their blog with a mention of the blogger's name. Most bloggers have vanity feeds set up to track their name or their company name. It works well if you want to get on someone's radar.
There are a lot of blogs out there, and you often have to nudge to get into their community, or to expand your own community. Blogging solitary rarely works for anyone.