Blogosphere: A Real and Virtual Community?

Have you ever knocked at a stranger’s home, found the door open and then invited yourself into the living room where two good friends were chatting by the fireplace? Have you then sat in the sofa between the friends and just enjoyed their conversation? Well, I have. That is how I started following Gérard’s blog ‘Contraste et Lumiere’.

In his own words, ‘Contraste et Lumiere’ is about:

“Le contraste c'est la dualité. La lumière c'est ce qui donne la vie aux choses, ou du moins une certaine apparence. L'objectif de ce blog est de réunir des choses très différentes souvent même opposées et de faire le pari que loin de s'annihiler, elles peuvent se combiner, se renforcer les unes et les autres et déboucher sur une plus grande clarté."

Gérard’s interests range from politics, art, literature, jazz, film, to good wine, cuisine, and philosophy. I did not know how much I enjoyed philosophy until I started reading his blog. Here are some examples. The comments his friend, Pergame, leaves him are equally interesting and hilarious. In fact, the other friend, who was chatting with him by the fireplace when I dropped in, is Pergame. His daughter Lili, who is a newcomer to the blogosphere, also passes by from time to time.

Before starting to blog, I have lurked in different blogs and even left some comments. What I did not expect is the blogosphere to be like a real community. To my surprise, I found the blogger community really real in a virtual medium kind of way. Folks, that is very interesting to me!

*Photo: web 2.0 memosphere map by i_wish_you_could_talk