Noam Chomsky's Online Evolution
Press Action
Monday, March 29, 2004
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/hand03292004/
With a little help from his friends and fans, Noam Chomsky’s political writings are getting an online makeover. Last week saw the launch of a Noam Chomsky weblog. And in December, web designer Pablo Stafforini unveiled the official Noam Chomsky website, Chomsky.info.
Chomsky’s new blog, Turning the Tide, is the brainchild of ZNet’s Michael Albert. “We decided to try some blogs, Noam was game,” Albert tells Press Action.
In its welcome message to readers, Chomsky’s blog says: “This blog will include brief comments on diverse topics of concern in our time. They will sometimes come from the ZNet Sustainer Forum System where Noam interacts through a forum of his own, sometimes from direct submissions, sometimes culled from mail and other outlets — always from Noam Chomsky.”
I wrote to Chomsky last week, thanking him for providing me his opinion on the fairness of a military draft and informing him that I had included a link to his new Turning the Tide weblog on Press Action. Chomsky responded: “I don’t know what the new web log is (or even what the term refers to). I know that Mike Albert put up something, but don’t know anything about it.”
Author and activist Rahul Mahajan told his Empire Notes blog readers last week that Albert had set up a blogging area on ZNet. “The biggest feature is a ‘blog’ by Noam Chomsky called Turning the Tide,” Mahajan said. “I use the scare quotes because it’s actually a selection of Chomsky’s responses to readers in the Znet forums. Doesn’t quite have the feel of a blog, but it’s good to see those responses getting out to a wider audience.”
During its first couple days as a live site, Turning the Tide had an interactive comment feature. But the component was turned off due to the abusive nature of some of the messages posted. “Comments have been removed from the Chomsky blog — thank goodness!” Brian Leiter wrote in his blog. “It’s a shame, of course, that one couldn’t have a forum for intelligent discussion of the range of issues Chomsky raises, but it is inevitable, it seems, that the comments will be filled with garbage from the hordes of resentful Chomsky haters.”
Chomsky.info is a nicely designed website, “straightforward” and “minimalist” as described by Stafforini, its creator, who worked in conjunction with Chuck Lundgren on its construction. The site serves as a reference portal to Chomsky’s body of political work. Among Chomsky.info‘s features are excerpts from many of Chomsky’s books and a wonderful list of links to interviews with Chomsky going all the way back to 1971.
Stafforini tells me that he’s in regular contact with Anthony Arnove, Chomsky’s manager, about the content of the site. “He himself speaks frequently with Noam and with Carol Chomsky, Noam’s wife,” Stafforini says.
For the design and technical aspects of Chomsky.info, Chomsky was hands-off. “Noam doesn’t really care much about these things,” Stafforini says. “He focuses his energy on writing and giving speeches; and I think he does the right thing. Too much diversification can be counter-productive.”
As for Turning the Tide, Stafforini says, “I strongly believe the blog will have a positive impact — the sort of effect I was trying to achieve when I first started programming the website [Chomsky.info].”
— Mark Hand