thanks for the replies guys.I find observing and loosely analysing communities really interesting. human behaviour in groups I guess. online behaviour is a particular interest.

(likely another non topic message, so delete now if not interested)

ok, it's a really hot sat afternoon here now (Auckland) and I've just returned from lunch and taking photos of street art & graf so have turned on the aircon and am emailing to cool down. at lunch I mentioned videoblogging to my friend, who hadn't really heard of it or realised it had a name. but one of the conversations was the difference between personal blogs and personal videoblogs. the main differentiation I see, is that written blogs (or even books), is really the little voice in your head speaking - letting it have a voice, whereas video diary entries are more real as you see the persons expressions and location not just descriptions of it. so you (the viewer) can connect differently to it. ie almost real vs imaginary, though not imaginary in the context of made up, but rather descriptive / virtual reality open to interpretation - the reality inside your mind compared to reality that you see. (prob not explaining this properly, perhaps I should have had the camera running at the time of the conversation as it was more coherent then).

also, I see differences due to differences in speech - ie people write differently to how they actually speak - both in terms of grammar, and sentence structure, pauses, proper/formal language vs colloqialisms and even manner etc as well as topics. in a personal video blog a person might speak about something they might not be able to say to other people, or on a topic which isn't part of their normal day's conversation. perhaps this is due to working with people with different interests and ways of thinking. or they might show you something that they were thinking about, what was going through their mind at a point in time. this also happens in a written blog entry - more so I expect, as many people find it easier to write than speak especially in front of an audience/camera/possible audience.

and one more point I mentioned was that I'm constantly amazed at some of the things people can say in front of a camera and to an audience on a personal vlog - such personal things. I think this has more to do with my confidence levels in comparison. I could use one videoblog entry I've watched recently as an example (hopefully without causing offence. I don't mean to and apologise if it's taken that way) the person recently posted videos of he and his now girlfriend's private videoblog (they were taken at an earlier point in time). it was almost voyeristic of me to continue watching it, but as I watched the video, and could see them falling in love. it's such a great and special time, and it was shared with whoever was subbed to the vlog. I think that's amazing and something I could probably never do. I suppose there've been similarities in published books and letters, but to see their faces & hear the voices and realness during that awkward, exciting and special time brings back such memories of when it's happened to me. I think that's really powerful and something you don't often see except from your own personal perspective. sending their emotions out to the world for anyone to see.

I think perhaps I've been a bit sceptical of videoblogs in the past and have mostly seen video on the internet types, but seeing this level of 'personal-ness' (not really a word but all I can think of atm) available to anyone to see is changing my views of them. still not sure I could do one like that (prefer the live video conference with friends & no archive) but I can see the attraction to them. viewers will almost be watching other people's videos as they do soaps on tv these days. seeing a single video entry from a blog isn't probably going to mean much, but if you watched that person's vlog for a few months you'd have a personal connection to them - whether you interact with them with comments or not. almost like calling your friends to find out how their day/week went. it's reality on the internet. tv reality programs & soaps/scripted dramas on tv have nothing on these ;)

anyway, I'm probably destined to write non-topicness, but wanted to jot down some thoughts whilst it's fresh in my head and see if anyone else is thinking similar. (it's probably all been said before and I've missed it or wasn't listening properly)

ps - Robert, I suppose I'm not watching ebay for RB because I don't care about the result! I guess I don't have a personal attachment/interest to the outcome either way :)