Coffee Crone: Taming Coffee Blog

October 31 2006

Plain Brown Blog

I didn't buy M&M candy when I went shopping for Halloween swag yesterday. I thought about it, but the only packages available at my local grocery store were M&M 2.0—the pastel variation of that otherwise tasty treat.

It's not that I dislike pastels, or even that I think the M&M folks were thinking about web 2.0 branding when they came up with the idea of doing a version of their candy coloured in this non-traditional way. That being said, I have gotten to the point where I don't explore anything on the web, or anywhere else, that is created using that recognizable 2.0 palate.

Bah. Colour me grumpy. Bah, colour me anything but baby blue.

Web 2.0 is sold as being all about the social aspect of on-line life. We have social bookmarking, social photo sharing, social clipping, social sorta-blogging, and so on, and so on. I'm a big fan of finding a sense of community on the web, so, in theory, I should appreciate these things, even if their target audience is 30-35 years younger than I am. However I'm finding that even when I could use the tools themselves, the planned community aspect of them makes me want to run away.

There's an aspect of this that reminds me of the summer of love (that would be 1968) as sold in discount stores all over the US in 1974. By the mid 70s kids from the suburbs were buying pre-frayed jeans and everyone had a bong hidden under their bed, purchased from the head shop in the mall. Any connection to the anti-war movement was gone and Janis was dead.

If you have to google Janis, go find a baby blue sorta-blog to read. There's nothing for you here.

posted by taming at 06:02 | link | comments (9)|
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Comments:

#1 31 October 2006 - 12:50

Web 2.0 has been a big deal for the Library and Info world. Everyone's supposed to know how to subscribe to blogs, be part of something like Myspace and get a Meebo account.

I like a community that happens by accident. :)
xoEri

Anonymous

#2 31 October 2006 - 12:54

hey plain brown bloggy -- you used to have some pretty spiffy halloween blog decorations. de-luxe they were.

limine

#3 31 October 2006 - 14:28

2.0 is about using technology to create a service with a certain panache and turning it into a profit centre. I have nothing against people making money off of their work on the web, but there is something artificial and contrived about so much of 2.0 that it raises my hackles.

I am turning into a curmudgeon.

v

taming

#4 31 October 2006 - 14:34

I'm turning into a curmudgeon. I have no problem with people figuring out how to provide a service that people find useful and either getting people to pay for it, or finding some other way for it to turn a profit. But the 2.o creations seem contrived and artificial to me--the look, the marketing, and the content itself.

I have the skills to blog on my own, without a service like Motime, but I decided to blog here in part because I like the idea of becoming part of a community, so I get the notion that having a community component is a good thing. It's just not the thing.

vicki

taming

#5 31 October 2006 - 15:03

I had a little problem. Thus the double posts.

v

taming

#6 01 November 2006 - 05:41

I too have enjoyed the community aspect of writing through Mo'time but sometimes it is not enough. It reminds me of living in the west of Ireland (which I did for 11 years) and the town of Sligo. It was the first time I had lived in a "smallish" place (as opposed to say London). It was small enough to meet alot of people quickly and more intensely than in a big city but large enough to have a constant stream of new contacts.
Sometimes I want to be in a bigger place, sometimes I think the investment in a few friends is more important.
My sister emigrated to Canada and now lives in Alberta...
Frewin

Frewin

#7 01 November 2006 - 06:17

Prefab communities and artificially constructed social norms bother me too, but community is so important. It's why I keep coming back to Motime.

As to Sligo, Frewin, I'm jealous! We live in neither a subdivision nor a real neighborhood, but lately we've been looking at small towns for a possible relocation. I do love small towns, but I can't abide small-town thinking. Actually, I can't stand anyone telling me what to think or do or be. Perhaps that's why my circle of friends is so small and so important to me.

I like the way you think.

InMyLife

#8 01 November 2006 - 11:38

Building community, whether in the meatworld, or virtually, takes some effort. And then there are issues around how much of yourself it feels safe to share in this very public way.

I know that in addition to my blog, I participate in two other on-line (non-blogging) communities--one of which offers a great deal of privacy, and the other, well, more than Motime, less than the other one.

I also had more blogging friends when I wrote more, visited and commented more, and made myself more visible here.

taming

#9 01 November 2006 - 11:40

yup, you need to invest something of yourself in order for others to feel your heat. :-)