In 12 days "think:lab" will close its blogging doors for good.
(Deadline: 3.1.06, if you're keeping track at home.) (pause)
Why?
(the key question. pause again)
Because "think:lab" has become successful. (good thing) But it has not fulfilled its self-created promise. (hey, you can't always predict outcomes ahead of time) And it has failed to live up to what blogging is ultimately all about. (that's the bad thing)
(pause again)
But was it all bad? (smile. 'bad' is the wrong word, but i'll use it as a challenge to get to other ideas. we do like dichotomies in our western culture, so you gotta have a 'bad' to have a 'good')
(pause one more time...)
Mmmm. Here's what I think "think:lab" did do in the last 7 months, and much of it I know makes it the receiver of accidental gifts and others' good presence:
- "think:lab" has been invited into some extraordinary conversations with people and groups
- "think:lab" managed to 'sky-rocket' via Technorati's silly little mathematical evaluation tool. (I laugh as I say this, by the way) The rest of it is all waxpaper magic and smoke-n-mirrors, I think.
- "think:lab" occasionally found itself on a few good people's blogrolls, a link in their side bar or a reference in a post. (considering that in the beginning nobody knew about it, I still consider every link back to "think:lab" to be a 'happy accident' and frankly humbling)
- "think:lab" has crossed a few boundaries and potentially linked a few passionate thinkers together who might not have otherwise met each other, or not as quickly.
- "think:lab" became the fly-paper I needed it to be, to keep track of ideas and links and research and great projects others are doing. (but the beast grew and grew like the plant named Audrey II in "Little Shop of Horrors" and frankly needs to be fed more than my 24-hour days sometimes have the ability to do; a good problem, but still a problem)
- "think:lab" rekindled my passion for writing and the world of ideas. (yes in spades)
- "think:lab" got me thinking about blogging and collaboration and the collective energy of idea-sharing. (and that's a good, good thing)
(okay, seems like good stuff...right?)
Yes. And no. So here's what I believe "think:lab" did NOT do during the same span of time (and it is only a list one-item long!):
- "think:lab" did NOT become a multi-authored conversation, gaining momentum in an exponential manner, becoming open-source and co-owned.
And this is what I have to face. Because when a 'successful' blog simply becomes better and better at "Hey, look at my links!", and doesn't fulfill its genetic promise to be a collectively-owned conversation that ebbs and flows like a young river growing larger and larger as its meander pulls in the river bank little by little until its a wiser and more powerful river following its destined call towards the larger seas...then something precious is getting lost.
And thus, in 12 days it'll be time to close up shop on "think:lab".
Hey, as MJ and Lance showed us when they 'walked away' with a winning shot (6.14.98 vs. the Jazz) or 7th yellow jersey at the pinacle of their sport's 'championship' moment, leave before they stop coming. (sadly, MJ came back and something never felt right. hopefully lance won't do the same, leaving jersey #7 as our final memory)
(ok, "think:lab" is certainly NO MJ or Lance of the blog world -- that goes to "BoingBoing" and a few others -- but it has in its own tiny 'little league' way created something dynamic and interesting for a few months, but this still feels like window-dressing...)
So, "think:lab" is going to close its blogging doors in 12 days. (yes, by the 1st of march)
Unless, I can figure out a way to re-purpose its voice as one that is shared, authored by many, produced by a collective of folks from across the "here's what we think the future of learning will look like" spectrum. Unless I can stop making it about flypaper. Stop making it about what caught my attention alone. Stop using it as a cardboard trojan horse site when it blogging really is about a dynamic sphere of 'open-source' dialogue.
As they say, better to go big or go home.
(reminded of this when i ran into the "How to Put Yourself Out of Business" article from the 2.28.04 LeaderValues e-Newsletter and a few other such provocative titles that warn us that if we're not willing to re-invent ourselves and put ourselves out of business on a regular 'cycle', then the audience will do it for us one day sooner than later)
And unless "think:lab" can figure out how to "go big" in the next 12 days and turn this into a shared conversation rather than just a site to blog-check on occasion, it will be padlocking the front gates and disappearing into the etheral memory of the Internet.
If you have any ideas, love to hear them.
And if not, I've still got 12 days to take a few risks and see what is possible...before handing over the reins to someone who can figure out how to get it there for real.
"it has failed to live up to what blogging is ultimately all about"
I guess it's all about expectations... and our perceptions about the what, why, how and when of things...
Anyway thanks for the work you have done... it's been a great resource and inspiration - if not a conversation :-)
Posted by: Roger | February 17, 2006 at 02:34 PM
I keep discovering bands that have already broken up by the time I hear them for the first time. It's so disappointing because there's no potential for further engagement and new connections. That's kinda how I feel reading this post, but on the other hand, these things have to be sustainable. I went through a process of rethinking the blogging thing after exactly one year -- http://headspacej.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_headspacej_archive.html -- (first two posts on that page).
If I did learn any lesson at that point, it was that it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Why not keep it live, but post only when it seems fruitful and fun to do so? I've gone months with hardly any posts, and then while I'm on a specific project I might post heavily for a while. It seems to work out ok.
Posted by: Jeremy | February 17, 2006 at 02:52 PM
I echo the thoughts of my fellow readers, it's a shame for you to stop - put simply, you mined the (information) river and turned up nuggets for us all to test our teeth on!
In my opinion, the success was in the attempt!
Posted by: DK | February 17, 2006 at 06:11 PM
Well... considering how many times you and I piggy-backed ideas off of one another, I'm very sad to see think:lab go... but I have a sense that we haven't seen the last of Christian Long in the blog-universe.
Posted by: Chris Lehmann | February 17, 2006 at 07:37 PM
I like what Roger has to say about it not having to be an "all or nothing thing."
Recently a Nigerian living in the U.S. blogged about a trip home to Nigeria. The photographs and writing was superb. I knew he intended it as a temporary publication. But I was shocked when it wasn't there, taken down. I would have liked for it to be kept up for a little while so I could have gone back to read the earliest posts I'd missed. I wanted time to savor the whole document for a while.
Unless, you have some pressing reason to take this down in a hurry--like having to pay your subcription--why not leave the site standing for a while? The links the alerts to books are all valuable as are the archives.
Whatever you decide, I'm very pleased to discover think:lab. I'm not in the education business;-) But education is a subject most of us are interested in, as citizens if nothing else.
When I was in college years ago I volunteered at a state hospital in the evening recreation activities with profoundly retarded kids. There were two dozen kids in a gymnasium. I felt convinced that the space was partly responsible for their crazy behavior. The sapce was dehumanizing to staff and children alike.
Sometimes I embarass myself when discussions about schools come up by mentioning how bad bathrooms in most schools are. People must think I have an anal fixation or something. But my point is simply that schools often aren't very pleasant places to be.
I can't tell you how good you make me feel about the work you do.
And then there's blogging. I'm convinced it's a great tool for learning. But we've got to learn how to use it. Right now everyone's so afraid of it. A friend used a blog in his most recent Saturday Art classes at a local museum. It was thrilling for me to read and watch what the students were doing.
LOL my comments left made one student ask: "Who's that creepy guy who keeps leaving comments on our blog?" And that was a teachable moment for my friend. Now the museum wants him to talk with other instructors about using blogs.
This blog has allowed me to alert my friend to other educators trying to figure this medium out.
Mr. Long, you've done a good thing here. There's no trouble with moving along, and I'm sure you'll go on to build really cool stuff. Remember that we don't all fall off the world when you close this up. You've built a reputation among a group of readers--that's capital you can use.
Thanks and hooray for think:lab!
Posted by: John Powers | February 17, 2006 at 10:06 PM
Don't be too hard on yourself. Blogs are great collaborative tools for knowledge management and your blog has made a significant contribution. The dirty little secret of most blogs is there's precious little conversation going on. Most readers don't take (or have) the time to post comments on the many blogs they subscribe to. I think your expectations are unrealistically high in this age of information overload. You are doing good, valuable work with this blog. Stay with it.
Posted by: Kurt Komaromi | February 18, 2006 at 07:44 AM