The blog of Dave Chen has really given me a great deal of food for thought lately. His posts have provoked thought and caused me to seek out background information on a variety of topics:
http://www.davechen.net/
As an example, a week or so ago, Chen posted briefly in disdain about the proposed abridged (or censored, depending on who you ask) version of Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A publisher is replacing all 219 uses of the N-word with the word "slave", which Chen termed a victory for the "idiocracy":
http://www.davechen.net/2011/01/newsouth-is-removing-n-word-from.html
He also referenced the Twitter account of Scott Mendelson, from which he'd presumably culled news of the publisher's plan.
After posting a brief reply on the blog post, I was able to reply to both Mendelson and Chen via Twitter and point out a differing view by Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon.com. Afterwards, I not only got a response from each of them but also enjoyed the continuation and deepening of the debate in a subsequent blog post by Chen.
In that post, Chen linked to the article by Williams, thanked me for pointing it out to him, and then Williams herself commented on the post as well:
http://www.davechen.net/2011/01/is-selectively-altering-great-works-of.html
The end result is that Twitter and blogging allowed me to contribute to a more informed, interactive debate that I think elevated the discussion. The only reason I know of Chen's blog is through my consumption of the Slashfilm Podcast he co-hosts weekly about movies, which is yet another interesting way technology is allowing us to reach, learn and interact with and from each other.
Connect to me on Twitter @malikg
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