BLOGJECTS: SAVING THE WORST FOR LAST

What the hell is a Blogject? I read Julian Bleecker's 'Why Things Matter' and im still not sure. According to Bleecker (2006), a Blogject is an "object that blogs" and has three main peculiarities:

• Blogjects track and trace where they are and where they’ve been;
• Blogjects have self-contained (embedded) histories of their encounters and experiences
• Blogjects always have some form of agency — they can foment action and participate; they have an assertive voice within the social web.

Bleecker (2006) uses the example of "the pigeon that blogs" where a number of pigeons are rigged with technology thats tracks their location and records the levels of toxins and pollutants in the air through which they fly. I pretty much use this example for the whole basis of understanding the blogject. If we consider the fore-mentioned "peculiarities" of the blogject, they all seem to apply to the pigeon example. The technology traces where the pigeons are and where they have been as well as store information. The agency the blogject has (from my understanding) is its ability to spark and fuel conversation once the data has been transferred to the web.Bleecker (2006) puts it like this: "Their agency attains through the consequence of their assertions, and through the significant perspective they deliver to meaningful conversations". Even with my very basic understanding of the blogject (strapping technology to animals), i can see how this tool can help us learn more about many different aspects of our existence. If anyone had an easier time understanding this let me know. Thanks for reading. Peace out.

References

Bleecker, J. (2006) 'Why Things Matter: A Manifesto for networked objects', accessed on 30/10/2011, http://www.nearfuturelaboratory.com/files/WhyThingsMatter.pdf

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