Interesting "Work"...

I must say, I have found this last half of Rettberg's book to be quite interesting. I think it's because in the latter half of the book, we finally get past all of the perfunctory "what is blogging" stuff (stuff that was more necessary to write when she wrote the book, even only a couple years ago, and stuff that is more necessary for some who haven't blogged before). It's not that any of the individual concepts that she discusses are all that philosophically complex (such as blogs as episodic narratives), but the full range of interacting concepts is really intriguing - making the whole of the inquiry so much more than the sum of its parts.

One of those concepts - one that operates on a number of levels - that I kept thinking about during this latter half was WORK.  Work happens in a number of different ways with blogs, and Rettberg gets at that conversation through a variety of her examples.  Given the number of ways that it works and the rate at which my gears are trying to turn, I'll strive to be concise...   

Successful blogging takes many hours of work - limiting those who can do it well (e.g. "[Kottke] found blogging to be increasingly time-consuming and that it put a drain on other important parts of his life, so he had considered quitting" [136].") and the trade-off is not always worth it (e.g., Justin Hall [119] who quit blogging [final VideoBlog entry in '05], but is now married and blogging again).  Maintenance/Management of the blog can be quite intense as well, such as Slashdot's mechanisms ("registered users are assigned moderation duties on certain days" [104]).

Journalistic and filter blogging (e.g., 135) has its own immense time requirements (e.g., CNN's iReport vetting process gives unwritten "rules" to follow along with standard journalistic practices - everyone over 18, aware of iReport intentions, etc.).

This work by bloggers can decrease the amount of work done by traditional media and consumers (e.g., provide a form of "survey" for the media [108] as well as a wealth of material such as in CNN's iReport; Filter blogs decrease prosumer work). 

Generating and Maintaining Readership/Followers takes work (e.g., "[Fictional high-school student with leukemia] Kaycee's creator put a lot of time and care into building and maintaining relationships with her readers" [124]; Explicit strategic work is sometimes necessary, such as when Allbritton [blogger traveling to Iraq] "placed [readers who donated to his trip] on an email list where they received his reports from teh field several hours earlier than regular blog readers" [102]; and the IMaLUCY YouTube channel has required further marketing and upkeep since its creation - including responding to messages and courting subscribers to elicit videos.)