Homework 2: Task A

http://abandonedfootnotes.blogspot.com/

I looked up blogs on Classical musings that might just inspire the rest of the population who share an orientation towards modernity rather than antiquity. I found this blog, which I could immediately appreciate as he took the time to explain an ancient joke about the nuances between a featherless biped and plucked chicken.

The author of the blog is Xavier Márquez, a Lecturer in Political Theory at the Victoria University of Wellington. His research interests range from ancient political thought (especially Plato and Cicero) to more general questions about power, democracy, and expertise. His target audience is any intellectual who appreciates common interests. But the subject matter is largely political, as well as philosophical. Each post is centered upon a relevant theme, e.g. power. The purpose of this blog is to expand classical thought into modern day applications across multiple genres.

It’s simple design and surplus negative space makes this blog visually accessible. This fact is crucial in that by making his blog easy to read, he is able to put all apprehensive readers at ease about the content material. Putting his readers at ease in this way, allows the author more freedom to include anxiety inducing or intimidating content, such as including foreign language.

The ability to comment on content is extremely unique to blogging. It allows not only the opportunity for a hugely wider group to participate in a discussion, but allows for a richer discussion between users ( in way that websites and discussion forums can not). Fundamentally, there is a special singularity that exists in blogging that doesn’t exist in other technological equivalents. E.g. The purpose of a blog is a one-to-many relationship, where arguable the purpose of a discussion forum is many-to-many.

Furthermore there is an efficiency related to blogs that doesn’t exist with websites or discussion forms. As your own personal publisher, your content is distributed much more broadly than on a website. Blogs also inherently hold more personality than websites or even discussion forums, as the voice is a more personal voice, empowered by the ability to become part of what is happening now. The content of the blog is also quickly pinged all over the web and indexed to be searchable.