This week Isthmus, in an interesting role for a print medium, visits the blogosphere. We are taken there to visit one of its most prominent members, UW law professor Ann Althouse, on a trip conducted by one of its more popular local denizens, Jack Craver, otherwise known as The Sconz.
Althouse, 59, is considered a darling of conservative bloviators, though judging her a conservative is something of an overreaction to some of her opinions - she is pretty much a lifelong Democrat who backed Jesse Jackson in '88. She's an East Coaster who went to the University of Michigan as an undergrad and then returned to the East Coast for her work life and law school. She came back to the Midwest in '84 to join the UW Law School faculty.
Jack Craver is a senior history major at the UW who has become a local person of note through his elucidation-of-place blog, The Sconz. He recently shifted his blog to residence on Isthmus' website. Craver pronounces his purview to be "Breaking news on campus, city and state politics." You can visit The Sconz here.
Judging by the title of the article, "The Ego Has Landed," and the fact that Ms. Althouse would not stand still for a typical interview, we'd have to say that camaraderie is not a part of the ethos of the blogosphere. Which is not surprising given the nature of the material pumped out in voluminous quantities each day. All too often we find a surfeit of opinion, absent documented rationalization, and a paucity of information. This leads to much posturing in order to maintain one's "brand."
We who labor at turning dead trees into public knowledge feel some obligation to make the sacrifice of the atmosphere-cleansing, oxygen-producing creatures worthwhile. It's possible that the theoretical infinity of cyberspace encourages throwing whatever is lying around into the void. It achieves nothing. It is simply wasting time by people who have time to waste.
