GodBlogCon I

I didn't get much sleep last night, and it didn't help that the hotel, like all hotels, short-sheeted the bed. I need the covers to be up around my shoulders, and hotels only let the blanket come up to my armpits. How can I get warm? How can I sleep that way? I had to scrunch down in the bed and turn at an angle so my feet didn't run out of room, and it still took until after 1:30am untli I fell asleep.

Last night's opening session of GodBlogCon was a lecture by Dr. John Mark Reynolds on blogging and the question raised by the premise of Hugh Hewitt's Blog book. Is blogging really akin to the cultural revolution brought about by the invention of the printing press, which gave us the Gutenburg Bible, which gave us the Protestant Reformation? Reynolds' answer was an emphatic yes.

He talked about the ages-old tug-of-war between preserved performance and live performance. Preserved performances (books, music CDs, film, etc.) never change, never respond to their audiences--and can even be inappropriate to some members of their audiences.

Live performances (conversation, concerts, live theater, etc.) are fleeting, yet they respond to their audiences--and can even filter out inappropriate contact with certain members of their audiences. The example he gave was, if a crazy man came into the room and asked, "Where are the guns?" As a live performance, Dr. Reynolds could refuse to give him the answer (assuming that because this is a conservative Christian college, of course there must be guns all over the place), knowing that it would be inappropriate. But if this were a preserved performance, such as a written list of where the guns are, then the crazy man would have access to it, even though it is only appropriate for the responsible administrators to have that list.

What does this have to do with blogging? Everything.

Blogging is revolutionary, because it's the first time we have been able to blend both preserved and live performances. A book stands alone. A blog ("a good one," he said) has liinks to other websites and other blogs, so there is no way to hold onto the blog without holding onto all of the linked-to posts in the entire web of links. There is interaction between the blogger and his or her audience that captures the essence of live performances, while preserving the interactions.

And it's available to the masses, instead of being controlled by by an exclusive elite (although he warned that sometimes having elites is good, because sometimes the masses can be stupid).

It's all a blend. Of preserved/live, of brilliant/stupid, of elite/regular folk. Our conference is well-begun.