on the interconnectedness of information

Fri, Jun 6, 2008

Since the (hopefully temporary) demise of Solitary Walker’s blog, I’ve been rootin’ around for other sources of inspiration for the outdoors. Philosophical musings, poetry and the like. So I thought I’d do a quick round-up of the subject content of the blogs I read. Starting up Google Reader, there were a load of updates waiting to be read and perusing them it suddenly struck me that most of the blogs I follow concentrate on gear reviews.

Just about all the blog postings waiting to be read contain at least one gear review. Some of the blogs have nothing but gear reviews. One chappie, rushing to evict an invading cat in the wee sma’ oors even stops to consider the heritage of his sandal collection on his mad dash to the scene of carnage! There’s not a lot of inspirational writing out there, in relation to the great outdoors anyway. I’ve heard told, again and again that the web will supplant the printed medium but raking through this lot, I can’t see how that can be. Turning to the latest TGO, it’s full of interesting articles on the outdoors. OK there are gear reviews but there are philosophical topics too and interviews with interesting people. All it needs is some mountain poetry or articles that bring in other views of the outdoor world, perhaps from Chinese philosophy, Lao Tzu and all that. Perhaps even some articles on Gaelic mountain names.

Ol’ Cameron seems to be sailing the good ship TGO along a fair tack through reefs of mediocrity, balancing gear content with more philosophical musings. Compare this with my bloggish reading list, which tends to the far reaches of the gear reviewing spectrum, or the digestibility of Trail. Lots of “bite size” snippets of information. Picking one up at random, I notice that someone has won a 2 person tent for sending in a picture of them yawning in a tent! TGO, on the other hand has philosphical articles by Jim Perrin and Mike Harding and normally features more scientific ones by Colin Prior and Eddy Meechan. So there’s a really good balance among reviewing gear, topical essays, philosophical musings and articles on the science of outdoor gear. It all points to an eclectic readership market for that magazine. To be fair, Trail positions itself in a completely different market, I would think. It seems to tend towards the complete beginner, to whom the stuffy beard brigade or extreme lightweighters are descriptions of creatures unknown. Here be dragons they may say of the mainstream mountain walker. There be the you in 20 years time, young ‘uns, say I to them!

On the subject of exotic creatures, consider my Audax magazine subscription. They are aimed at an entirely different audience. That of the hard core long distance cyclist. Only someone who is into long distance cycling and loads of gear reviews would read this. You could say that Cycling Plus is the Trail equivalent to Audax UK, catering to a younger and more radical audience that the 600km beardies.

So the printed media sit in their respective niches and cater for their respective markets, whereas the outdoor blogosphere tends (from my reading list anyway, of about 30 UK bloggers) to the gear end of the content-o-meter. Indeed, even if someone blogs about their latest trip, it’s more than likely they’ll visit a gear shop either on the way to the hills or the way back to the chippy and I’m more than likely going to read about how their latest trail pants/featherweight ‘sack/running shoes combo has performed. In fact the only mention of the weather, or clouds or rain or snow is in the context of how their gear coped with it. Why not just cut out the middle man and spend the night in a gear shop, or you own bath?

It might seem I’m ranting about too many gear reviews in blogs these days but it’s not really that. It’s the lack of thought provoking blog writings out there. There are some however. I find Dave Macleod truly inspirational. Blogpackinglight has some interesting articles. Beating the Bounds is superb for flora and fauna and is virtually gear free and I find the posts on Summit Dreams inspiring and very well written, occasional though they are. Another very well written blog is Walking Home to 50 and I occasionally find nuances of the outdoors on Hermit’s Thatch. Chris Townsend has some great articles too.

What it all boils down to in the end is an interconnectedness of information. Nothing is going to replace anything else. They all have their filling stations on the information superhighway. As an example, I’m currently researching a new pair of boots, so I might dip into PTC* World’s extensive reviews of gear but at the same time I’m reading TGO in the bath, while being halfway through Solitude: A Philosophical Encounter, having already read Solitude cover to cover in one sitting, both of which books I found by reading The Solitary Walker’s blog.

When you start up the computer and step onto the digital highway, you never really know where you’re going to end up and that’s the real beauty of the connected media. Following each hyperlink is an adventure in itself.