And the difference is me.

Of course the use of hypertext isn't the only thing that differentiates between the Boidem and any other web based writing that deals with similar topics. As I've noted elsewhere, I doubt that I've made any specific observations throughout the Boidem columns that haven't (or at least couldn't) have been made by others. Many of those others can probably do so with better writing skills and with a greater grasp of the wider social issues that spring from those observations. And if that's the case, then perhaps asking "what's the point in writing all of this?" is justified.

The answer has to take into account more than just the technical aspects of the use of hypertext. It must also take account of the broader social aspects of the possibilities of what might be called "personal publishing". Essentially the ongoing development of the Boidem reflects the process of building a personal universe of associations. My observations as they appear in the columns are an ongoing part not only of what I think, but of how I learn to view myself. I may not be the subject of this ever-developing network, but I certainly am its context.

With this in mind, it is important to reflect a moment on what has become one of the most neglected pages of the Boidem: the page that promises to give some biographical information about myself and refers the reader to various personal web pages of mine that are (or were) available on the web: Who's That?. At one point in the earlier evolution of the Boidem that page actually performed an important function. After a purposefully cryptic couple of introductory sentences the page sends the reader to other web pages that contain personal information about me. But the last update of that page, from the summer of 1996, refers to pages that are no longer accessible (and even the rather minimal information on the page is no longer accurate). What's significant here is much more than the fact that this page contains my own examples of linkrot. What's significant is the shift of focus that the page, and its present neglect, exemplifies about how I've come to view the Boidem.

The Boidem started out as a series of columns. Those columns were to be written by me, and as such they were to reflect my impressions and opinions on the phenomena that I discussed. Unavoidably, they were to be subjective. But being subjective didn't mean that they would revolve around me. As time transpired, however, I discovered that more and more the columns not only dealt with my opinions, but drew from my experience, including what might be considered private aspects of my life. Parallel to the blossoming of the personal aspects of the Boidem came the decline of my other, outrightly personal, web pages. For various reasons I no longer felt a need, or found a reason, to continue to post static and ultimately uninteresting facts about myself on the web, while I found that weaving personal stories into a seemingly objective framework offered me something that personal web pages didn't. I found myself staking a middle ground. As my personal home pages grew dormant and neglected, the Boidem pages drew more and more upon my personal experience, included more and more of my own distinct world. Ultimately they became identified with me.

This particular middle ground (there is at least one other) was the territory between what might be called the vanity page, and the source of information. It was a means of bringing the dust cover to the inside pages. I tend to think that if the Boidem has developed a readership (and whether that's the case or not is really not the issue at hand here) it is not solely, and perhaps not even primarily, because that readership is interested in knowing what I have to say on a particular subject. I think it is because the context from which I relate to the subjects under discussion  - a personal, subjective and ever developing context - is at least as interesting to that readership as are my semi-objective observations.

In the Jewish tradition authors of texts have traditionally been known not by their proper names, but by the names of the books which they wrote. This has been seen as a form of respect - a way of remembering people for their deeds. But in internet terms a new twist on this same idea comes to the fore. If we see in a web site not only the information that a person makes available to the community of netizens, but also a presentation of self (as Chandler claims, for instance) then there is also a congruence between that person's web site and his or her identity. And I no longer need a web site along the lines of a home page that tells about myself, because the Boidem is doing the telling. Frankly, I would consider it an honor to be known as the Boidem rather than by my name

Go to: Trying to make some sense out of all this, or
Go to: An introduction to the extroduction, or
Go to: Web Essays - The evolution of a (personal?) medium