The Living Blog

Reading, a fundamental aspect of modern life (though some would argue no - and they’d probably be right), has traditionally been an analog endeavour. We went from the Sumerian cuneiform to the papyrus scrolls of ancient Egypt to Gutenberg’s printing press. Updates to these texts have been resource-intensive and infrequent, a fact that has carried over into the realm of the Tim Berner-Lee’s World Wide Web.

From the inception of the Internet, we’ve been content to post our thoughts for the world to see, visitor counters ticking up with each view. Yet, as the Internet has matured, we’ve largely failed to take advantage of the capacity to continually update and refine our content.

An exception to this rule exists in the realm of journalism, where fact-checking and updating fast-moving topics is part of the job. However, even this is often limited to the creation of new articles, rather than the revision of existing ones.

Over the past year, my attention has been drawn to two entities that diverge from this norm: The Athletic, a popular sports news outlet, and the website of Maggie Appleton, a wonderful illustrator cum product designer and digital anthropologist. The former utilizes subscription-based model that provides its journalists the leeway to delve back into older articles, updating them as needed. The latter heavily employs the concept of digital gardens. It was the first I had heard of it, and I naturally did a deep dive on the subject. So…what are they?

Digital gardens are flexible online platforms where individuals curate and share their thoughts, knowledge, and insights. Unlike traditional blogs or websites, digital gardens are characterized by non-linearity, interconnected ideas, and the sharing of both fully formed and nascent thoughts. They encourage folks to share both fully developed concepts (“blooms”) and unfinished thoughts (“seedlings”), promoting ongoing learning and collaboration.

Digital gardens don’t have a universally agreed-upon set of core tenets, but there are several principles commonly associated with this concept. From my research, I narrowed the tenets and ethos to a few key points:

1. Non-Linearity and Diversity: Digital gardens favour a non-linear structure, interconnecting ideas to enable flexible exploration, fostering a web of knowledge rather than a rigid hierarchy. These should also display and promote creativity by leveraging the power of multimedia.
2. Incremental Growth and Evergreen Content: Ideas are shared at varying stages of development, from initial “seedlings” (unfinished thoughts) to fully developed “blooms,” encouraging continuous learning and reflection.
3. Public Sharing and Engagement: Open to the public, inviting collaboration and engagement, promoting collective knowledge-sharing, and often featuring accessible and open content.
4. Attribution and Citation: Encouraging proper attribution and citation of sources when referencing external information supports intellectual honesty and acknowledges the broader knowledge ecosystem.
5. Accessibility: Digital gardens strive to be accessible to users of all abilities by adhering to web accessibility standards and guidelines.
6. Versioning: People keep track of changes and versions of their content, allowing readers to witness the evolution of ideas over time.
7. Privacy and Data Ownership / Longevity: Providing options for people to retain control over their data and privacy settings, particularly when sharing personal reflections or sensitive information. Gardeners also consider strategies to ensure the long-term availability of their content, potentially including archiving solutions.

With these principles in mind, I plan to gradually shift my approach to blogging to more closely align with the ethos of a digital garden. This won’t happen overnight, as I’ve been conditioned to follow the conventional blogging format, but over time, I hope to make meaningful changes to my process.

This will start with me creating the necessary components for this garden, and updating posts throughout it. Posts? Garden plots? I dunno! Stay tuned!

We’re live!

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For more on digital gardens, I highly recommend reading Maggie Appleton’s clear, intriticate and thoughtful piece on the subject. Appleton’s writing, meanwhile, is a treasure trove of clear, intricate and thoughtful insights.