The Pittsburgh Foundation has a new blog, or, rather a "Community EForum."
The fact that one of Pittsburgh's leading foundations is edging cautiously into the blogosphere is a good thing, so welcome!
Unfortunately, it is not at all clear that the Foundation is making the best of use of this Internet thing. There seems to be some real blogging going on -- that's good -- but the site makes noises about building some kind of "community" at the Pittsburgh Foundation blog. That's bad.
No one wants to be told to be a communitarian at the Pittsburgh Foundation or anywhere else. Communities take time and a lot of hard work. You can't manufacture them with blog posts and comments.
Just blog. Post. Say things that foundations are not expected to say. Have opinions; bring news. Read other blogs. Link to them. Rinse. Spin. Repeat.
2 comments:
I disagree about the potential to create some sense of community with "blog posts and comments."
This August a few thousand people who have created some semblance of community on Daily Kos (and other progressive blogs) will arrive in Pittsburgh for
Netroots Nation.
Are we ready for them?
I was member 2000-something on Daily Kos back in 2003, and have watched it grow into a passionate community of activists who have changed electoral politics as we know it. They didn't do it isolation, but by working together.
BTW, I think the ability to have threaded comments and user diaries on the original blogging platform (Scoop) helped individuals find their voice and lead to the original growth of Daily Kos.
It's different "community," but there's community there.
Joe, your comment is entirely consistent with my post. Communities arise from the grass roots and are formed over time; they can't be commanded into existence. The Daily Kos is a brilliant example of that phenomenon in action.
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