Thursday, December 04, 2008

The Friday Abstract: The State of the Blogosphere Address 2008

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My fellow bloggers, distinguished readers, newcomers and loyalists, mobile readers and RSS feeders, I welcome you all to the State of the Blogosphere Address.

(Applause)

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight I am here to tell you that the State of the Blogosphere is strong.

(Applause)

But, I hasten to add, it requires our constant vigilance.

When I look upon this great blogosphere of ours, I see dark clouds of change on the horizon. I see the status quo in peril; I see business-as-usual facing tremendous turmoil.

For there are those in the blogosphere right now proposing Archives 2.0, an ideology that runs contrary to our way of life.

We will suppress them.

(Applause)

Furthermore, there are rogue blogs and rogue bloggers in the blogosphere who are determined to shake up our beloved and guarded status quo. There are three blogs in particular written, edited and designed by one individual.

These three blogs—arch.i.vi.us, The DIGITAL Archive, and Archives*Open—constitute an Axis of Archivists that threaten the very soul of the status quo that we so dearly cherish.

Most of you have heard about the mayhem these first two blogs have caused. Take arch.i.vi.us, for example, a cheap imitation of delicious.com, its mission and stated goals are to aggregate information and to inform archivists about digitization and digital preservation. This is a tragedy of unprecedented scale.

We will suppress them.

(Applause)

Furthermore, take a look at The DIGITAL Archive, a front organization that takes readers to the front lines of archives and technology and beyond, and boasts provocatively of making things last longer since 2005. Such obscenity has never been heard of before.

We will suppress them.

(Applause)

The worst offender of them all, however, is Archives*Open, a new cabal so sinister it actively solicites contributions from readers—archivists who want to promote their exciting archival projects—and attempts to form community and collaboration – buzzwords for large-scale, global ideological subversion.

Archives*Open must not launch; must not gain support, for even the tiniest of support will embolden our enemies and further the march towards change.

My fellow bloggers: We will suppress th--.

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about the author

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dkemper
David Kemper is an analyst, archivist, writer, and digital access specialist. His interests include enhancing user access to information and improving the user experience.

He has a B.A. in History and a Master's in Library and Information Studies with seven years experience working on information management and information technology projects, conducting research and analysis, and implementing websites and developing and managing Web content.

He plans, implements and maintains web-based solutions (see portfolio). He has spoken in the U.S. and Canada about the value of the Web in providing access to archival materials and on digital preservation research. Besides The DIGITAL Archive blog, which he started in 2005, he maintains archivius, an aggregator blog on digitization and digital preservation news.

David believes that empowering people with quality content can enrich lives and transform the world.
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