It took me two years to notch up my first two hundred posts on this blog. It’s taken only six months to reach this three hundredth entry. I wondered whether the increased posting frequency was due to several months without work, but looking back it seems I actually blog at least as frequently during the busy times. I suspect the pressure to focus disparate thoughts and observations in a tighter timeframe results in less procrastination and more writing.
With the flurry of January Series posts one thing that slipped through the cracks was a planned post on wikipedia. Some very public criticism of the wikipedia project from one of its founders was followed by a storm of entries on the subject. The core of the discussion was whether the anyone-can-contribute, peer-reviewed model embraced by wikipedia resulted in a ‘trustworthy’ information source.
There’s been plenty of discussion over recent years, but we’re going to hear a lot more about the question of ‘trustworthiness’ of sources as time progresses and web-based resources become more and more the norm. I link to wikipedia as they often provide the best introduction to concepts, not because I consider it in any way authoritative. There’s a series of booklets published in Cambridge that describe themselves as “not the last word… but often the first.” That’s probably what wikipedia does best.
Huzzah! 300 posts? I demand balloons, cake and a speech.
And then a party. We need a party. We can all bring presents and be happy.
Tell you what, my present can be about being made happy by an intellectual and emotional passion lived out over time and where the contentment comes from the journey, not the indefinite and uncertain destination.
“Tereza leaned her head on Tomas’s shoulder. Just as she had when they flew together in the aeroplane through the storm clouds. She was experiencing the same odd happiness and odd sadness as then. The sadness meant: we are at the last station. The happiness meant: we are together. The sadness was form, the happiness content. Happiness filled the space of sadness.”
(from Milan Kundera’s 1984 ‘Nesmesitelná lehkost byti’, here translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim.)
I think I’ve probably offered enough words here, without making speeches. But if you want to come and visit, I’m sure we could find a few balloons and a cake (or at least some brownies or something).
Nice present 🙂