I’ve been thinking about David Wiley’s post all day now, as I ended up laying in bed last evening contemplating the differences I am experience as a blogger compared to being a member of a discussion forum, mailing list, usenet group or any of the various collaborative communications forums I’ve participated in over the years.
In some sense the answer to David’s questions seem straightforward
– yes, the reason the people he mentions on the list are not the same ones in this ‘conversation’ or community is probably largely because they don’t blog
– no, it’s not surprising, at least not to me, that there are so many groups in such a ‘small’ space because a) I don’t think it’s that small a space, b) they all seem to be coming together anyways (I would guess only 2-3 degrees of separation ‘in real life’ and even less online for everyone he lists and everyone on the edubloggers list George published today)
On the other hand, as I think the responses on David’s site by George and Brian are getting at, there are a lot of real subtle differences that a many people have been trying to get at for the past year or two (