ISOJ 2004

1. When the Audience is the
Producer: The Art of the
Collaborative Weblog
Lou Rutigliano
University of Texas at Austin

2. Collaborative/Group Weblogs
• Weblogs that rely on participation of thousands
of members/authors for content
• Open-source philosophy – share resources,
share work, increase credibility through “army of
fact-checkers”
• Develop systems to “keep the noise low” so
mass participation does not become mass
confusion
• A decentralized/horizontal journalism model?

3. Emergent theory
• Out of Control, Kevin Kelly (1994)
• Emergence, Steven Johnson (2001)
• Smart Mobs, Howard Rheingold (2003)

4. MetaFilter.com (homepage)

5. MetaFilter.com (comments)

6. Plastic.com (homepage)

7. Plastic.com (comments)

8. Kuro5hin.org (homepage)

9. Kuro5hin.org (homepage)

10. Kuro5hin.org (comments)

11. Slashdot.org (homepage)

12. Slashdot.org (comments)

13. Conclusions
• Symbiotic relationship with mainstream
media
• Less aggressive and polarizing than
individual weblogs
• Have discovered ways to increase
freedom and participation while
decreasing chaos