Having finalized the abstract for my invited presentation on blogging at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Atlanta, I want to share it with you. The alternative title I came up with was “Attack of the 50-Foot Blog that ate the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting,” but in the end I thought it was best to go with something that made clearer what the subject will be. And so the title (which I still reserve the right to tweak, regardless what appears in the printed program!) is “The Blogging Revolution: New Technologies and their Impact on How we do Scholarship.”
ABSTRACT
Not that long ago, in an academic galaxy not that far away, scholars steeped in traditional models, paradigms and technologies marveled that young academics would “fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way” by engaging in that rather frivolous activity referred to as “biblioblogging.” But as blogging (and other new technologies and media) become increasingly mainstream, not only do the activities of blogging and online publication seem less frivolous, nor do they merely begin to appear to be highly appropriate topics for a session at the SBL annual meeting, but these technologies show themselves to have the potential to revolutionize the ways we do scholarship, every bit as much as the transportation and printing technologies that have made possible the types of interaction in person and in print that scholars in our time have come to take for granted. Two key examples will be discussed: the possibility of “blog conferences” to supplement if not replace conferences such as the one at which this paper is being read; and the possibility for harnessing interactive media to create textbooks which not only address readers but do so in response to readers’ answers to questions the textbook has asked them. The key issue is no longer whether new media will impact the academy, but how to utilize them to their full potential, and not merely as yet another means of transmitting and viewing material which is otherwise presented in a traditional format.
Jim Davila has also shared his abstract, and it mentions Biblical scholars interacting with LOST! So too has Michael Barber, who will also be presenting on the topic of biblioblogs.
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