This is for the connectivity section of my sidebar, allowing me to say more about the blogs in it. When the blogger archive link starts working I'll change the subheader for that section to a hypertext link to this page, and just leave a list of blogs in the actual sidebar itself. Most of the blogs here have some in depth thinking about the blogosphere, connectivity, the global brain, and other related subjects.

Steven Berlin Johnson writes most often about science and computing, although sometimes about other subjects as well. He's been published in Discover magazine, Wired magazine, the New York Times, the New Yorker, and Harpers. Much of his column is about things he's worked on, and links to his work published online, and other links and essays that interest him. The reason I added him to my blogroll as soon as I found him is mostly his book Emergence, which I reviewed here.

In some ways this is the most interesting chapter of the book. Like many bloggers, I'm interested in the idea of the Global Brain. This idea has enthusiastic boosters and a few enthusiastic detractors. Steven Johnson looks at it quietly, talks about some characteristics of the web which might hinder the organization of any kind of collective intelligence, and about some of the ways it may be changing to make learning of some sort possible, although not necessarily conscious intelligence.

Joi Ito's Web is at the center of the discussion of Emergent Democracy. His latest writing about it is Emergent Democracy Version 1.3, reflecting the ongoing nature of the online discussion. He has a great looking blog with lots of fun gimmicks - oops I mean advanced features. He talks about both the business side and the programming side of software and computers, has a lively interest in moblogging. He also plays a major role in 'happenings' and other offline interactions of the blogging community. He sometimes writes about politics as well, and his blog is a great place to pick up a high level view of what's happening in Japan. He doesn't write about it every day, so just look in the 'items by category' section of his sidebar.

PN - The Political Network
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