In my newfound zeal to publish online, I've started at what I think is the easiest, but often overlooked place. I've started commenting on other people's blogs.

Here are links to the last two comments I made.
Gaming Insider
Poynter Institute - Roy Peter Clark
The Meyer Mess
The Mormon Battalion Gaming Community
(OK, those last two aren't really business related, but I just had to throw them in. It shows you what I really spend my time on.)

Now you can look at this activity two ways. The first, and cynical way, is all I'm trying to do is up my page views. If I understand how the search engines work, one of their major criteria is how many times other pages link to your page. I'm smart enough to include my address each time.

But if boosting numbers was my only intention, I'd be posting a lot more, and probably choosing other forums. Instead, I'm trying to comment on the pages I read most often and the pages that deal directly with what I'm studying. I find it's not only a good way to generate ideas for my own blog, but it's also instrumental is helping me distill and explain the ideas I have rattling around my head. There's nothing like knowing that someone might actually read what your write and may even call you out on it online to focus your thoughts. I must have rewritten my entry on the Cyberbrains last night 10 times because I referred to a post by a man I really respect, Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute.

Now I guess this tactic runs contrary to some of my blogging philosophy. Blogging is supposed to be freeing. You're not supposed to be constrained by an editor. However, like any good writer, I've leared the best writer comes when you have an audience in mind, and you have someone to help you make that vision clear. So please read and, more importanly, please comment on what I'm writing. Hopefully I've made myself clear enough to pique your interest.

My goal tonight was to post to the Cyberbrains, but after an hour I saved it for another day. The problem is I think I have these original ideas until I sit down and write them. Then I do the research and realize others have already said it, and they've said it better than I could.

That's one of the reason why I find it hard to blog. I know a blog is supposed to be free-flowing, not perfect, but I guess the old newspaper columnist in me still thinks his writing has to pass muster from an editor with a fifth of scotch in his desk. OK, I never actually had an editor like that, but you get the picture.

The other area this originary desire comes into play is deciding what to post. I surf a lot, probably more than I should. I love to sample all the meats in the Internet stew, and I love to share them. Heck, I even love to comment on why I think they represent the future of communications. But I worry sometimes if I'm just saying what's already been said.

Anyway, what I would like to share today has received some press, but I wanted to add my two cents to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I thought it was really clever and funny. Only Joss Wedon can pull off an online musical and make a cynical guy like me actually want to sing along. I also find it so subversive, and maybe I'm reading way to much into it, but I see it as a way to stick it to the media industrial complex that just doesn't get it. Whedon says the show was originally written as a TV pilot, but when the networks wouldn't pick it up, he decided to publish it on its own. I can't really see what his motives might be besides sharing a work he feels passionate about. The credits at the end of Act III suggest this show was a family affair.

Financially, I can't see he's making a ton of money off this. The only ad you see while watching is a small blip for Apple. He's probably not doing it to make a name in Hollywood either, because he's already done that.

I guess in the end, it's all about trying to be original, without having the nagging voice behind you telling you to "be more funny." If Joss doesn't worry about it, maybe I shouldn't either. That's what I love about the Internet, and what I'll probably write about 150 times in the life of this blog. The Internet removes any barriers that exist to sharing. So watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog or don't. Laugh or ridicule it. In the end, it doesn't matter as long as you are sharing too. And don't feel like you have nothing to say because online, anything is something. (See what I mean?)

I know I said I was going to keep this blog going after class was over. I had all the best intentions. Then life, and, let's be frank, sheer laziness (and maybe a little thing called World of Warcraft) got in the way. But I have new motivation now. I'll start interviewing for jobs in less than a month (AEJMC starts Aug. 6 and I'll be participating in the convention's placement service.) If I'm going to convince university dean's I'm a talented up-and-coming expert on blogging, I'd better start writing. I've got a Cyberbrains post in the works too.

Besides, my wife is killing me in the blogosphere. Her sister forced her to start a blog, and not only did she start, but as she often does, she's attacked it with zeal and produced a pretty doggone good recap of our family life. It's got a loyal following too (her sisters and friends, Meg, Mal, and McCall from my side.) Here's her blog. More links can't hurt, even though I probably lost my audience when the semester ended.

To herald the new coming of my blog, I've prepared a short comedic video. OK, I just used the easy online tools to add my chubby head to it, but I thought it was funny, and I think what the JibJab guys are doing represents an ingenious business model for the Web. I'll leave that discussion for the Cyberbrains.

Even though I devoured everything sword and sorcery I could could as a teenager, I never did get around to reading Beowulf. I mean it had everything I could ever want - heroes, dragons, damsels in distress and even demons with cool names like Grendel but something kept me away. Maybe it was my bad experience with the non-poetic version of the Iliad. Now, I don't have an excuse, and I'm not saying that because the insight I've gained on the epic poem as an oral tradition in Dr. Foley's class has thoroughly prepared and inspired me. I say that now because, thanks to Robert Zemeckis, reading the book is as easy as going to the movies.

Yes, the computer-animated, motion-captured movie version of probably the oldest known oral tradition opens in multi-plexes across the nation next week, complete with an animated naked Angelina Jolie. I'm not sure what I really think of this project. I guess in the spirit of oral tradition, this truly epitomizes re-performance. A master storyteller - if you count Back to the Future, Castaway, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? as masterpieces - has made the tale his own using modern tools. The writer, Neil Gaiman, better known for the comic book the Sandman - said he tried to stick pretty closely to the original story in an Entertainment Weekly interview, so I guess this could really introduce a whole new crowd to Olde English poetry, right?

Then again, this hardly qualifies as an oral performance. Knowing Hollywood, there's no way they'll allow any one else to even distribute their version for less than a $10 ticket, let alone alter it for specific audiences. No matter what a movie is based on, it remains a text. It's an experience you are meant to participate once. The only control you exert over it is deciding when to dash out for a little popcorn or Junior Mints.

The movie's advertising doesn't help. "Unlike anything you will see this year, 'Beowulf' represents a decade long quest for ..." blah, blah, blah. Sounds to me like they are billing this as the definitive version.

Surprisingly on the official site, the producers are sponsoring a machinima contest. It will be interesting to see what users can produce using "pre-cut video clips from the original trailer and from Sony Playstation’s game 'LAIR'." Will it be as transcendent as the ancient bard's tale that preceded this myth? Probably not, but I think it's a step in the right direction. This movie may be a text, but it and its online presence might help some people think beyond its textuality and toward the oral tradition that spawned it. If nothing else, maybe it will make the difference for the kid, who like me, is on the fence about reading it.

I've been struggling lately with what to write about. I've been trying to focus on my wiki, but I think I've probably bitten off more than I can chew. In trying to apply the oral tradition (the oAgora) to the new media (what Dr. Foley calls the eAgora), I struggle to find true online examples of the interactivity and context that would make electronic communication truly like oral. My latest idea is to make this a true wiki, where everyone has the opportunity to add their own examples. Maybe all I have to do is establish the criteria and the rules. That's when I stumbled on what might be the greatest application of the oral tradition online - the wiki itself.

I'm a huge wiki fan. I use wikipedia constantly, and I enjoy correcting people who think it's less accurate than Encyclopedia Brittanica. I also love wikia, the online platform the wikipedia folks provide for others to use. (For some great examples, see Lawrence Lessig's wiki, this great collection of computer game wikis, and even a wiki for the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game.)

The video and card game communities especially demonstrate how the Internet works better as an oral than a textual tradition. Of course, most of the information on these sites are textually based, but they offer such a high level of interactivity that none of these texts are really permanent. They are all just iterations of one tradition. On the game sites, I think you also see the application of reperformance. I know I'm a geek, but I love to watch the replays people save of their Defense of the Ancients games. (One warning: If you really want to watch these, you need to have Warcraft 3 installed on your computer.) I also love the machinima tradition. I have already mentioned using graphics from computer games to make your own videos, but I don't think I've accurately encapsulated the wealth of art that exists. If you don't believe me, here is a simple YouTube search. I really enjoyed this video that shows how it all comes together.


Most of these movies are also released under the creative commons license which allows others to recut and re-edit them. One organization even provides the tools and the forum to encourage people to use them. I dare you to watch more than three of the videos without getting hooked. My son's only five and he's already trying to create his own videos.

I know I'm only scratching the surface here, and probably confusing more people than I'm helping. But it's helpful for me to think through my final project ideas in public, and hopefully I'm introducing you to something new.