The weblog as A Place

[see: Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p29)]

When speaking of Container Metaphors Lakoff & Johnson say: "There are few human instincts more basic than territorality. And such defining of a territory, putting a boundary around it, is an act of quantification."

I have been playing around with weblog metaphors such as Middle Place, Cyberhome, Written World and Walled Garden. Each of them suggest: Somewhere which isn't The Real World.

The territorality element is evidenced by the furniture bloggers put around their weblogs: e.g. the template and the third-party tools they choose. And also by the people they invite to their Somewhere-other-than-Real-World space: blogrolls, blogmaps (e.g. FeedMap), syndication, and enabling commenting. Both of these elements (how they decorate their space, and who they invite) are ways that identify that space as their own.

[tag: concept]