Clickable Culture is the addicting tech-culture blog from Toronto-based developer Tony Walsh. I’m introduced to Tony’s worldview by a post about digital decay–the question of weather or not decay could actually be something practical for the digital world. I think of this question, and I look to the blog culture. The article discusses a project in which simulated aging is added to digital documents, based on their “handling” in order to reveal their “analog” wear. I wish this was the case with blogs. It would be interesting to investigate Clickable Culture’s vast archive of nearly 3700 blog entires on everything from tech, culture, commerce and gaming by seeing the “digital wear” of the articles. However, this is a self-published, nicely ad-free ezine, so complicated scripts are tossed in favour of credible and fascinating blog posts. The layout of the site lists a series of varied topics in a side bar, with text size indicating the volume of entries. A nice addition is a list of recent comments to posts listed along another side bar, allowing the casual visitor to get some idea of what’s sparking interest at the moment. Unfortunately, it seems like most of the posts are from a couple of dudes debating the existential particulars of the world of Second Life. I wonder, if we finally see some digital decay enter into Second Life, will some of these guys grow old, lose their motor skills, bowel functions and eventually just erupt in a pixelated mess? If so, I know Tony would post on that. (James King)
www.clickableculture.com