Linguist's Essay on Weblogs Presented on NPR's "Fresh Air"
Dave Aiello wrote, "Dave Winer on Scripting News pointed out this RealAudio stream of an essay by linguist Geoff Nunberg that was a segment of the December 10 edition of Fresh Air, the National Public Radio program." (Note: The link points to a stream that requires RealPlayer. Here is the text summary of that day's Fresh Air program.)
"This is a really interesting essay because it describes weblogs, a type of news or information-oriented web site. CTDATA.com, Scripting News, and Slashdot are all examples of weblogs, to one extent or another. Nunberg likens weblogs to a novel called Diary of a Nobody written in 1892 by George and Weedon Grossmith. As far as I know, this is a new insight. I will have to read at least a portion of the book to better understand what he means."
"I found his attempt to explain weblogs to the average NPR listener entertaining. And, I think that his description has contains a number of useful ideas that can be applied to explaining weblogs to other new audiences."