Goodness, who can blog every day for a semester? We're going to go insane over the shit that's going to show up in the Berkeley blogosphere.

And we now have a question. Are we as the de facto figureheads of the Cal blogosphere (I speak of Beetle, Cal Patriot, Marlow, and me I suppose) responsible for the nurturing of the Berkeley blogosphere, or do we point out these newbie's flaws and in turn mold it into our own image?

We make fun of the Daily Clog, but we say it doesn't count because it doesn't allow comments and it's merely an extension of the Daily Californian.

And on a point of megalomania, I would hope any discussion of the "power of the blogosphere" would include yours and my own contributions to the OVJJ (Oren, Vishal, Jason, Joyce) affair.
 

To be fair, the class asks for just a minimum of 5 posts per week, with at least one of them being a page in length. A typical week might allow for 2 posts with 3 posts over the weekend. It's more than what we're used to, but still manageable.
 

Well, speak for yourselves. I'm on break, but I normally post at least once a day, and used to post around three times a day. I consider not blogging on a particular day to be a failure, but of course, that's just my style, and I wouldn't demand such a standard for others.

The course appears to be tuned towards developing writing skills through a blog rather than towards the blog itself. So I dunno if the "power of the blogosphere" is going to come up.

The reason I don't count the Daily Clog is because it doesn't engage the rest of the Berkeley Blogosphere. The comments policy is one part of that, but there's more to it. While I'm hesitant about its relation to the Daily Cal, I felt the same way about the Patriot blog, and that blog showed me up, because it worked like a blog does. The Clog does not work like a blog, it works like some folks trying to be different.

Chris, do you want me to add you to the linkbar?

I think it's important to differentiate the kinds of blogs there are. What I call the "Berkeley Blogscape" and have declared myself outreach coordinator of would, if I had my way, be a group of punditish/newsy blogs that focus on things going on at Cal. There aren't enough such blogs anymore for me to be all that picky, though.

The thing is, a bunch of private journalish blogs, or a bunch of blogs which primarily concern themselves with national affairs and such, don't really need to be tied together in a community. Journalish blog communities are around friends, and aren't all that publicly accessible, while national affairs blogs are pretty obviously eclipsed by the more famous ones (i.e. whatever we say, someone else has probably already said it).

The level at which we have power is at the local level, as evidenced by the Student Action thing. But politicians cower and hide from public commentary, so we don't get the balance that we used to.
 

If I am reading the website right, the course is offered in the African American Studies department. If it could satisfy my AC requirement I might take.
 

I doubt a decal could be used for an AC, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

If the class does reach a full occupancy of 20 (it had about 10 since last the website was updated), that will more than double Berkeley's blogging presence. Given they will all be taking the class and encouraged to comment/critique on each others' posts, perhaps that will start something big. Shrug.

And link away! I've got you down now.