Inside Higher Ed today features a piece by my colleague Donald E. Hall (whom, I know, I mention fairly often here) that mentions the now-quietonline discussion group that read his The Academic Self this summer.

I don't really have the time to tease through this entirely, but the reference, I think, says something about academic blogging and its interstitial situation in the academic discourse. I met Hall last year interviewing for this job, but knew him no further than the job seacrh process until I arrived in July. The online discussion grew up completely independent of me knowing Donald, although I did mention it once or twice. Now, many of those bloggers are featured occasionally on Inside Higher Ed's "Around the Web" feature, while Hall is responding to our comments as part of a serial for that site, a serial that comes out of the book he's currently working on. Books, blogs, professional websites, and colleagues are are circulating here, and blogs in this case seem to be a crucial connector.

So as the "to blog or not to blog" debates rage on, I stick to my guns on why I participate here and in sites like the discussion group on Hall's book; because this is exchange. No, it's not the well-researched, laboriously constructed writing we do for journals and books, but it is part of a deeply vital conversation all the same. And these conversations--in the classroom, in the hallways, at conferences, and now in the blogosphere--are precisely why I am compelled to love this profession.