I broke my self appointed goal to write here once a week, on the weekends, and I'm probably the only one to notice this. Non-blogging life has gotten in they way of blogging-time.

I've been attempting to pull together my thoughts on a topographical analysis of the blogospheres in whatever time I've been able to spare. Hopefully I'll be able to pull something together this week. In the meantime I'll post some links.

In formulating thoughts on web-based topographies I've rediscovered this essay by Mark Nunes: Virtual Topographies: Smooth and Striated Cyberspace. So if I do manage to get something out tomorrow or the day after, it will most certainly cite this essay. (It's also amusing to read an essay concerning the internet written in 1999, when the popular terminology was so different.)

Secondly, The Economist has an excellent piece on why economists blog. If you have any questions about why academia must begin blogging and why it is to their advantage to do so, read this article. In discussions about academic blogging I'm often asked why one would want to "give away" their ideas "for free" on a blog - essentially it comes down to the fact that academia is not unlike independent music: obscurity is far worse than piracy.