Like I wrote in my comment on the post, this feels a bit like when you discover incredible new music and then find out that the band has just broken up: think:lab closing its doors in 12 days. It reminds me of my own blog-soul-search a couple of years ago, so I think I understand some of the reasons (read the whole post for some interesting insights on the challenges)...but this is a bummer.
Update 3/21/06: I haven't expressed how psyched I was when Christian decided to keep think:lab going, and he's been totally on fire ever since. This week he covers Time's cover story asking whether kids are too wired, with his usual depth and intensity...along with piles of other great stuff. So, extending my metaphor of the just-discovered-but-broken-up-band, I'm so glad this band decided to reunite and start touring again.
2 comments:
Jeremy,
Certainly the first time that anyone has been so gracious as to describe anything I've considering no longer doing like hearing a band for the first time before they put the guitars away. My mother -- who had to explain to me why the Maine State Boys Choir in 1978 would not accept me after the try-out -- will be very, very proud!
As you've undoubtedly figured out -- since I've seen you pop a comment or two up lately -- "think:lab" is not closing its doors, it just needed to dry off a bit and re-think the next high dive. Philosophically, all bloggers "hit the wall", so to speak, wondering what it's all about -- I think you've already put good language to that in the past. And I am no different. Funny, you'd think 'success' (in whatever shape you bake it) would be enough, but along the way you begin to wonder about the underlying point of it all. Fortunately, my dear wife and a good friend reminded me that NO ONE BLOG needs to be THE converstation. Once I let that register, it finally dawned on me that having a blog was merely the 'price of admission' into a much more dynamic concert of conversations spread throughout the globe. Good thing I listened to them. And thus, "think:lab" will continue to be a good place to play in the sandbox of ideas and a doorway (wardrobe, perhaps) into other worlds like yours.
And the same day I was starting the countdown to closing the "think:lab" doors, I was offered the opportunity of a lifetime to help re-energize the www.designshare.com site by creating and being the administrator for their new blog (www.designshare.com/blog) that is truly a conversation of school designers and their communities from around the world.
I guess it comes down to, "Ask, and ye shall receive" in one funky blog form or another.
Great seeing you swing by the "think:lab" -- hope to keep the dialogue ball rollin'
Be well -- And great work here on your site. Something pretty amazing you've kept going since '03!
Cheers, Christian
Thanks for this wonderful note, Christian. I've so been enjoying your writing these last couple of months, so I consider it an honour to connect this way.
I heartily agree with your price-of-admission analysis -- I arrived at a similar point with my own writing online. I'm really glad you've decided to keep think:lab going, and to keep participating in the network/community emerging around your unique voice.
I'm fascinated by this personal-learning-environment concept as a way to connect physical spaces to online networks, courses, mentors, goals, etc...your exploration of the design of physical spaces has triggered all kinds of good thinking about how people will be learning a generation from now. Thanks again!
Post a Comment