Librarian

When initially beginning to peruse the blog I had earmarked for my second commentary, I came across a much more interesting choice. Amongst The Rambling Librarian's information on his 'about' page were links to other blogs and websites which he was the creator or member of. One of which is the one I will be discussing now. It is called The Memory Tree.

This site functions both as a collaborative weblog and also as a community weblog. There are two main people who are working collaboratively on a story. However, they are placing the process of their story writing online for several reasons , one of which is "To allow others to comment, as a way to refine the stories should they choose to help." The other reasons for posting online is to be able to work together on a children's story, while also archiving the process as they go. When changes are made, such as deletions, the viewer can see what was crossed out, because there is a line through the sentence. The old material was not deleted without evidence of what used to be. The genre of this blog appears to be of a personal nature. They are using this blog as a creative outlet, rather than soliciting for a publisher which might have made it a journalistic or professional blog.

The site takes note of the number of visitors. This means that they are aware that others will view their story. Who this audience is they don't specify more than 'whoever cares to read this story'. By allowing comments from others though, the authors have not only acknowledged the help an audience member(s) may provide, but are seeking it out.

The memebers of this collaborative weblog posted a notice stating that "All content in this blog, including comments from readers, remains the Intellectual Property of the blog owners," on their page. I found this an interesting decision, it is one of the things Blood comments on as being unnecessary and done more for giving the owner a feeling of legitimacy in what they are doing. She also says it doesn't hurt. Better safe than sorry I guess. The Memory tree does have pictures and drawings for the story they are creating, which blood comments 'may be stolen' (Blood 46).

Blood talks about the need to distinguish in a collaborative blog whether the property of an entry is for who posted it, or to the weblog itself. The Memory Tree has done this. As stated above, Any and all content is property of the weblogs owners and not the individual who posted them.

When reading through the comments, I noticed that outside of one anonymous quote which says "I think its good" the rest of the comments appear to just be notes that the authors write for each other. There was a mention of starting a 'bud' and working on other story ideas together in the same way.

The last posts to this site were in July of 2006. The story does not appear to be complete, which leads me to conlcude that they must have run out of time or desire to continue. But the beauty of the blog is that the work they have done so far is sitting and waiting to be resumed. No need to worry about lost papers or faded ink. Only one of the two members has a blog other than the memory tree. (The Rambling librarian last updated his own site on the 8th of February.)

It is interesting for me to take note and pick apart how people use the blog in new ways. The Memory Tree use it as not only a place to store and play around with new ideas, but as a way to gain feedback from a wider range of people. This blog has lead me to wonder whether or not the author of a book one day may not be a person's name, but the name of a collaborative weblog. I look forward to watching this new form of media expand and grow.