>A few days ago, Jim West wrote about the problem facing the biblioblogging community.  He said that since the SBL meeting in Philadelphia in November 2005, the biblioblogging community began to disintegrate because bloggers have gone their different ways and have failed to maintain dialogue with each other.

To Jim, the bibliobloggers “have turned towards the biblioblogging equivalent of ‘splendid isolationism’- addressing themselves to a very small, even fringe audience of people who share their very narrow interests.”

I disagree with Jim’s statement that what is happening in the biblioblogging world is the “splendid isolationism” of bibliobloggers.  As Chris Heard mentioned in his response to Jim, dialogue among bloggers still exists, even though not as much as it should exist.

Blogging takes time.  Reading the posts of other bibliobloggers also takes time.  Most of the bibliobloggers have academic responsibilities: some teach, some are writing theses, and many others have responsibilities that limit how much time they can dedicate to writing and reading blogs.
                         
Tyler Williams is about to have his 43,000th visitor to his blog.  This is a clear indication that Tyler is not living in “splendid isolationism,” writing to “a very small, even fringe audience of people,” people who share his “very narrow interests.”

I began blogging on August 15, 2005.  My commitment was to post three times per week, since my many responsibilities at Northern Baptist Seminary and at the church where I pastor demand much of my time.  Thus, lack of time prevents me from posting daily.  In fact, this is my first post this week.

Since August, I have had more than 10,000 visitors to my blog.  I have a long way to go before I reach Tyler in the number of people visiting my blog, but I do not consider the people who read what I write a “fringe audience” that shares a very narrow interest.

In addition, not all of the 10,000 people who have read my blog are scholars.  I have received hundreds of emails from pastors and lay people, men and women who respond positively to what I write.  People link my blog to their blogs because they want other people to read what I write.  

I have written on Abraham and ice cream, on the whale that swallowed London, on the Kentucky-Kansas basketball game, on Hillary Clinton, and several other different topics, but always relating them to the Old Testament. I have received emails from Lebanon, Brazil, England, Singapore, and many other countries.  People are reading and commenting on these topics.

The audience of bibliobloggers includes people who may not have the same level of academic preparation that many bloggers have.  For this reason, bloggers must be willing to write to people who are scholars and to many others who want to be in touch with the academic world.

I agree with Jim that there must be more dialogue among bibliobloggers.  In order to foster dialogue among bibliobloggers, several things should happen:

1.  Bibliobloggers should link their blogs to other bibliobloggers.  This reciprocal linking allows for better contact among bibliobloggers and helps a blogger know what other bloggers are doing.

2.  Bibliobloggers should register their blogs with Technorati.com.  When a blog is registered with Technorati, every time a blog is linked to another blog, Technorati will register the link.  Now, Technorati is not perfect, because a few times it has failed to register a link.  However, Technorati is a good way to help bloggers know who is linking to their blogs.

3.  We should find ways to create dialogue among bibliobloggers by purposefully encouraging dialogue among bloggers.  Here is one suggestion:

I propose that we find a group of ten to twenty people who will take turns in posting a blog on the topic of his or her choice on Mondays (or any other day of the week) to which all bibliobloggers will post comments.  Thus, every week one specific blog would become the discussion blog of the week.

Some may say that this is an artificial way of generating discussion, but it is better to have weekly discussion among bibliobloggers than to allow discussion to be sporadic.  If there is more discussion among bibliobloggers, then, all of us will learn from each other.  If this idea is not good then let someone offer an alternative proposal that will help generate discussion among bloggers.

I agree with Chris: biblioblogging is not dead.  And I don’t think it is ready to die yet.  As long as bibliobloggers are willing to share their ideas and opinions through their blogs, there will be always people who want to learn a little more from them.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary