0Hmm...from various conversations both on- and off-line about my post about HASTAC III, methinks I touched a nerve or two, or at the very least might have had the opposite effect of what I was shooting for. Either way, it's all prompted some additional reflections.

0 On there being (seemingly) few bloggers, and the suggested use of the HASTAC blog. I've been mulling over possible reasons for that to be true, and the extent to which it really is true. After all, there are HASTACers blogging out there. So one possible reason is the basic disconnect between the two tech. worlds that I saw in my previous post about HASTAC.

0 But the possibility that I'm starting to suspect is most likely, and the most troublesome, is exactly the same thing that the ed. tech. folks see and hear from faculty: "I can't until I have tenure". That is, blogging is still viewed as a liability more than a benefit in academic career development by plenty of people. I obviously think that the idea that blogging should not be a part of the general academic discourse is muffin-headed, but I have to acknowledge that there are people who think so, and that they sometimes sit on tenure and promotion committees. Now, when it comes to HASTAC it could be even worse. Many of the attendees were graduate students, either currently on the job market (uggh...I shudder just thinking about the days of MLA and the job market), or soon-to-be on the job market. If new faculty have those fears about blogging, certainly grad students do too (and that doesn't begin to address the guidance they are getting from their dissertation directors).

0 On the theory/practice bit. I know of few people who are strangers to theory done poorly, which illuminates neither the critical framework nor the object of study. And few who are strangers to theory done well, which provides helpful new insights into the scope of the theory and the object of study. We'll always get a good ear- and eye-full of both no matter where we turn. Hopefully, a stronger mix -- in whatever venue -- of the practitioners with the Knock Your Head Off Ideas and theorists with the strong critical framework will be a rich garden for well done theory (and for weak theory, but that's why gardens have compost piles). I think that's where some brand new ontologies might pop out -- and I don't mean just the Semantic Web kind. :)

0Overall, my biggest worry is that I've left the impression or impulse to self-segregate into a 'HASTAC' crowd and a 'THATCamp' crowd. They are very different events, with very different foci. But that's where I would look for a lot of cross-pollination. I plan to attend THATCamp for as many times as they are willing to take me, and the same goes for HASTAC. And I talked to people at HASTAC who will also be at THATCamp. Plato and Aristotle may be gesturing in opposite directions, but they are also walking together.