by: Jennifer Rice
So if a monologue is one person talking, and dialogue is two people talking, what's a multilogue?
I've been thinking about the societal and psychological reasons for the emergence of blogs, wikis and the like. Markets are conversations, etc etc. Everyone's talking about blogs, but there's not really a word to describe the purpose. So I made one up.
People define blogs as online journals. That definition leaves out blogs' linky nature that elevates them into a completely different arena. Just as a web site should be more than 'brochure-ware', a blog should be more than 'journal-ware.' I see the blog as personal, scalable conversation tool that happens to resemble an online journal. Social networks like LinkedIn, wikis and discussion forums all serve the same purpose. We're engaging in multilogues, and using the tools at our disposal to make it easier.
The reason I've been thinking about this is because I've gotten push-back on the term "social technologies" as an umbrella term for blogs, wikis & forums. Perhaps the word 'technologies' is too tactical for a concept that's really quite a strategic/culture shift for companies. One suggestion was "social engagement framework"; but someone else bashed using the word "social" because it doesn't seem to fit internal corporate applications.
Anyway, not sure where I"m going with this, but it would be fun to multilogue this topic. 🙂
Original Post: http://brand.blogs.com/mantra/2005/04/multiloguing.html
