blogs in the Crimson
In case you didn't see it, Cambridge Common and Team Zebra got their very own story in the Crimson today. Fun stuff.
UPDATE: The article has also ilicited a shout out on the New Democratic Network's blog from Harvard alum Ilan Graff. (another thought in expanded post)
UPDATE: The article has also ilicited a shout out on the New Democratic Network's blog from Harvard alum Ilan Graff. (another thought in expanded post)
I knew my spelling was bad, but is my grammar and syntax this bad?
“There are a group of people who find The Crimson’s coverage fairly superficial and meaningless,” said Golis, who co-created Cambridge Common last year as an alternative to the opinions expressed in The Crimson. “I think that people have got a lot of inside information [from the blogs] on the machinations of campaigns, how they work, a lot of which was unknown to people outside before. Not knowing about the dynamics and inner workings and context [of the UC campaigns], why should people care?”Hi, me Andrew, me writer.
posted by andrew golis @ 1:42 PM
9 Comments:
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Man. In a couple of days Team Zebra's second reason for existence will have gone down the tubes. I wonder what'll happen to the Team then?
www.TeamZebra.org
Whereas the most visible UC blogs this time around have been neutral discussion boards (more or less), comparisons with 2004's national election indicates that blogs can fill an enormously important niche in future UC politicking:
The "527" UC attack blog.
Suppose Haddock supporters threw up a "Harvard-Yale Shuttle Veterans for Truth" blog castigating Voith for CLC failings. Suppose Grimeland's minions produced "www.moveonjohnjohn.org" advancing nasty rumors (or even valid ones such as the ones aired in this particular election). Suppose Voith's pals created "www.haddockisacrimsonpuppet.org"!
The possibilities for completely unfounded blogs are endless for next year's election. Here are two: www.[candidate]dishonoredmysister.org, and www.[candidate]doesntwashhishands.org.
As a result, the budding Harvard blogosphere would absolutely explode. And candidates could claim ignorance of their attack blog wings. And UC Presidential elections would prepare everyone for a new generation of participatory democracy.
Move on, Team Zebra. Make way for the revolution.
We ARE the revolution, Steve.
but who is reading them? i feel like the newly emerging harvard blogosphere is fairly masturbatory, with a small set of people writing about themselves/each other. is the general harvard population reading CC/team zebra, or are UC insiders/followers just using it to make their work feel more important. sure, you have plenty of page hits, but how many of them are just from the same people reading from different IP addresses (in lamont, at the sci ctr kiosks, on wireless in class). to look at 5000 hits and assume that a large portion of the student body is reading is unrealistic-- what percentage of your readers do you think have no greater affiliation with the UC, any of the campaigns, or the crimson? i'm not saying that i, as a UC insider, don't enjoy reading our new blogs... i'm just skeptical about how wide-reaching their influence is....
I think this is a totally legitimate critique and I think that it is generally true that a large portion of the readers of these sites have been "insiders." I do know, however, from talking to people on the outside, that they have provided a level of insight into the daily machinations of the entire process, as well as an understanding, that was previously limited to a very small handful of insiders, and is now available to a broader (albeit not completely representative) audience...
As a non-insider very interested in the comparative politics of smaller bodies (be they political divisions like cities, towns, school districts, etc.) I find the campaign and the analysis here fascinating :)
Sure, cynic, the 5,228 total hits number could be misleading. But yesterday Team Zebra had 1563 *unique* hits from this campus.
Are you saying that a quarter of this campus count as "insiders"?!
WHO'RE YOU CALLING MASTURBATORY
www.TeamZebra.org
richie, i'm simply saying that 1563 unique hits likely doesn't represent nearly that many people, as many readers of the site access it from different IP addresses (classroom wireless, bedroom, computer lab, etc.... counts as multiple unique visitors, but is really one person)
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