Jorn Barger

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Jorn Barger

Jorn Barger in 2008
Born 1953 (1953)
Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA
Residence USA

Jorn Barger (born 1953 in Yellow Springs, Ohio) is an American blogger, best known today as editor of Robot Wisdom, an influential early weblog. Barger coined the term weblog to describe the process of "logging the web" as he surfed. The short form, "blog," was later coined by Peter Merholz. Some of his writings have been a source of controversy, provoking accusations of anti-Semitism. He has also written extensively on James Joyce and artificial intelligence, among other subjects; his writing is almost entirely self-published.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Barger's first computer in 1964 was one of the first programmable digital computers available, a Minivac 601 designed by Claude Shannon and advertised in Scientific American.

In high school Barger specialized in math and science, but also read Freud, James Joyce, and Jiddu Krishnamurti. He graduated a year early, as valedictorian. Around 1978 he lived for a time at The Farm, Stephen Gaskin's intentional community in Tennessee. During the first half of the 1980s he programmed games and educational software for the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and the Atari 800. At one time Barger worked at Northwestern University's Institute for the Learning Sciences under the leading AI researcher Roger Schank, eventually departing over what Barger has called "philosophical differences".

In the late 1970s, Barger devised a theoretical methodology that demanded hypotheses be expressed as computer simulations, and that the simulations be refined by analyzing literary descriptions of human behavior. He called this method "cybernetic psychology", or "Robot Wisdom". An active participant in Usenet during the 1990s, he wrote early FAQs on ASCII art, Kate Bush, Thomas Pynchon, and James Joyce. In 1994 he formulated an "Inverse Law of Usenet Bandwidth": "The more interesting your life becomes, the less you post... and vice versa."

Barger has published (mostly via his website) material on artificial intelligence (AI) and the Irish novelist James Joyce. He has referred to Joyce as an early pioneer of artificial intelligence and as the master of descriptive psychology.

Barger is conflicted about employment and has suffered financial hardship as a consequence. He put the maxim "You can't serve God and Mammon" at the top of his site's "issues.literate" section and in December 2001 he mentioned an interest in employment by telecommute but noted his philosophical concerns: "I have a gigantic psychological block against Mammon-in-general, and no longterm ideas how to overcome it. Alternative currency? Retreat to a cave?" [1] In July 2005, Paul Boutin reported that Barger was "homeless and broke" in San Francisco, California, "living on less than a dollar a day" and that he had been carrying a panhandling sign thad read, "Coined the term 'weblog', never made a dime."[2] Barger has since dismissed the article as a piece of "libelous fiction"[3] and its author has retracted the statement that Barger was homeless.[4]

Previously a longtime resident of the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago, Barger was living in Socorro, New Mexico as of late 2003.[5]

As of April 2007, Barger was in El Dorado, Arkansas, and reportedly made frequent use of the Barton library.[citation needed]

[edit] Weblog

A prolific Usenet poster since 1989, Barger started his Robot Wisdom site[6] in February 1995, publishing essays and resources on James Joyce, AI, history, Internet culture, hypertext design, and technology trends. Announcements of plans for a future "hardcopy edition" of Robot Wisdom for purchase began appearing at the foot of some of the site's pages.

On December 17, 1997, Barger began posting daily entries on his Robot Wisdom Weblog featuring "links to articles about politics, culture, books and technology that he found interesting" [7] and "amounted to something of a day-to-day log of his reading and intellectual pursuits" (ibid.), thus pioneering the "weblog" as it is known today. He has described his intentions in terms of exploration and discovery:

I was a very, very late adopter of the Web, not switching from lynx (text-only, Unix-based) to Netscape until late 1997. But by that point the Web had grown into a vast impenetrable treasure cave, generally in pitch blackness. I desperately wanted someone to 'turn on the lights' so I could see what was where, what treasures were there for my enjoyment.

So I determined to take on that task for a while -- to devote full time to lighting up the dark corners, building my "Net.literate" portal, and keeping up a running commentary in my weblog.[8]

Robot Wisdom's Net.literate "portal", started in July 1998, was a human-edited web directory that served as a complement to the weblog and aimed to provide the best links on a wide range of topics classified under "Fun," "Art," "Media," "Issues," "Internet," "Technology," "Science," "History," "Search," and "Shop."[9]

In Barger's view, a weblog is edited rather than written, as personal expression is secondary to the task of providing links to good reading matter. He has suggested a set of principles intended to guide bloggers towards that end[10].

Robot Wisdom Weblog acquired a large and enthusiastic following: Village Voice called it "one of the best collections of news and musings culled from the Web,"[11] Fast Company called it "one of the best Web logs on the Net,"[12] Feed Magazine wrote that the site was "frequented by thousands of the Net's most knowledgeable,"[13] and The Register found that "there's no better reader on the Internet than Jorn Barger."[14]

In September 1999, Barger posted one of the first in-depth examinations of weblogs, the "Weblog FAQ,"[15] and he led a weblog forum[16] between August 1999 and April 2000. In 2000 Barger felt he had exhausted the formal possibilities of weblogs, and began to explore the timeline format, annotating each timeline entry with a link to a relevant resource.

Robot Wisdom has gone offline repeatedly for protracted periods of time. By December 2001, Barger was experiencing financial difficulties that he announced would cause an interruption in keeping Robot Wisdom online.[1]. The site then went offline for a couple of months. Barger allowed his domain registration to lapse in early 2005, but managed to bring the site back online a few weeks later.[2] Robot Wisdom went offline again in late January 2007. On 10 February, Barger placed a note on his Robot Wisdom Auxiliary[17] weblog soliciting $10 (US) donations, payable to his web host, to help "save robotwisdom.com". By 12 February, Robotwisdom.com was online again.

Barger has experimented with Robot Wisdom as a revenue-generator, soliciting advertisements in 2000, and, in 2005, donations via PayPal.

Since October 2006, Barger has maintained the Robot Wisdom Auxiliary[17] "to supplement the Robot Wisdom link blog."

[edit] On Jews, Judaism, and Israel

Barger's political comments and the wording of his weblog's headlines linking to articles concerning the history of Judaism, policies of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict have been found offensive. Some of the participants in a 1997 Web forum discussion Barger moderated on these issues accused him of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism[citation needed]. The same accusations arose again in 2000, when Barger linked to an external article by means of the headline, "Is Judaism simply a religion of lawless racists?" (Barger has since reused the headline at least once.) In an ensuing discussion (titled "What is Racism?"), Barger suggested that the "Jewish ideology" of being God's chosen people was analogous to Hitler's ideology of an Aryan "master race". Shortly thereafter, the September 11 attacks on the United States prompted Barger to make several posts to Usenet suggesting that there was a Jewish conspiracy behind them.

Barger's positions on Judaism and Israel remain controversial. For a brief period in October 2005, Barger placed the sentence "Judaism worships fraud" atop his weblog.[18] Almost one year later, in September 2006, the phrase "judaism is racism" replaced "the road to hell is paved with hasbara" at the top of robotwisdom.com. The text was quickly amended to read "judaism is racism is incompatible with democracy".

In December 2005, a poll entitled, "Are You a Holocaust Skeptic?" was initiated. Barger's "Judaism timeline" makes only oblique reference to the Holocaust, identifying it merely as a catalyst for Jewish immigration to the United States. In a post to his weblog on 2 July 2006, Barger linked to an external article entitled "Racial hatred as the real essence of Israel", with his own headline: "The real nazis show their true colors". [19]

In 2007, Barger also linked to articles[20] critical of Judaism published in The Occidental Quarterly, which has been described[21] as a white supremacist journal, and, after nine firefighters died when a roof collapsed at a Charleston, South Carolina furniture store, he complained[20] in his weblog how few news outlets had printed the store owner's (apparently Jewish) name.

[edit] On James Joyce

Barger has studied Joyce's own notebooks and manuscripts (for Ulysses and Finnegans Wake) for insight into the author's own statements about his work; he has also prepared an online "shorter" annotated version of Finnegans Wake. Barger's website offers hundreds of pages of documentation for this research, although critics have noted that very little of his Joyce research has passed academic peer review. As a result, it can sometimes be difficult to tell what is agreed upon by Joyce scholars and what is Barger's conjecture. Barger seemed to acknowledge this when he published his list of "50+ Joycean Conjectures".[22]

Barger has contributed one book chapter on Finnegans Wake[23] and a book review in the James Joyce Quarterly.[24]

[edit] Notable postings

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Barger, Jorn (2001-12-13). "Yet another financial crisis". Robot Wisdom. http://web.archive.org/web/20011223103905/http://www.robotwisdom.com/weblogs/yafc.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-04. 
  2. ^ a b Boutin, Paul (2005-06-13). "Robot Wisdom on the Street". www.wired.com. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/posts.html?pg=6. Retrieved on 2007-07-02. 
  3. ^ Barger, Jorn (2007-08-22). "Jorn Barger (Wikipedia template)". Robot Wisdom Auxiliary. http://robotwisdom2.blogspot.com/2007/08/jorn-barger-wikipedia-template.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-05. 
  4. ^ Boutin, Paul (2005-07-03). "Jorn Barger lost, found, lost again". Paul Boutin. http://paulboutin.weblogger.com/2005/07/03/jorn-barger-lost-found-lost-again/. Retrieved on 2009-02-05. 
  5. ^ Kahney, Leander (2003-05-12). "Jorn Barger Has Left the Building". Wired. http://www.wired.com/print/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/12/61458. Retrieved on 2009-02-04. 
  6. ^ Barger, Jorn (1999-12). "My.Internet: Jorn's Internet years". Robot Wisdom. http://web.archive.org/web/20000817183613/http://www.robotwisdom.com/jorn/internet.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-04. 
  7. ^ McCullagh, Declan; Anne Broache (2007-03-20). "Blogs turn 10 -- who's the father?". CNET News. http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6168681.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-15. 
  8. ^ Rhodes, John S. (1999-09-27). "The Human Behind Robot Wisdom: An interview with the power behind Robot Wisdom, Jorn Barger". Web Word. http://www.webword.com/interviews/barger.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-15. 
  9. ^ Barger, Jorn (1998). "Net.Literate: The smarter portal". Robot Wisdom. http://web.archive.org/web/19981206160534/www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/netlit.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-17. 
  10. ^ Barger, Jorn (2007-12-15). "Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers From Original Blogger Jorn Barger". Wired. http://www.wired.com/print/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/12/blog_advice. Retrieved on 2008-10-30. 
  11. ^ Bunn, Austin (1998-09-02). "Signal and Noise". Village Voice. http://web.archive.org/web/20060622151809/http://villagevoice.com/news/9836,bunn,3421,8.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-16. 
  12. ^ Regent, Nancy (2000-04). "My Favorite Bookmarks". Fast Company (34). http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/34/favregent.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-12. 
  13. ^ Dibell, Julian (2000-05-02). "Portrait of the Blogger as a Young Man". Feed Magazine. http://web.archive.org/web/20000510161001/www.feedmag.com/feature/cx329.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-11-15. 
  14. ^ Orlowski, Andrew (2002-07-29). "The Greatness of Robot Wisdom". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/07/29/the_greatness_of_robot_wisdom/. Retrieved on 2008-11-15. 
  15. ^ Barger, Jorn (1999-09). "FAQ: Weblog Resources". Robot Wisdom. http://web.archive.org/web/20000817093828/http://www.robotwisdom.com/weblogs/. Retrieved on 2009-02-04. 
  16. ^ Barger, Jorn (1999-08). "Weblogs eGroup". http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/weblogs/. Retrieved on 2009-02-04. 
  17. ^ a b Barger, Jorn. "Robot Wisdom Auxiliary". http://robotwisdom2.blogspot.com/. Retrieved on 2009-02-04. 
  18. ^ Barger, Jorn (2006-10). "Archived copy covering Oct 2005". robot wisdom weblog. http://www.robotwisdom.com/log2005m10.html. Retrieved on 2006-07-03. 
  19. ^ Barger, Jorn (2006-07-02). "Headlines (Sunday)". robot wisdom weblog. http://www.robotwisdom.com/. Retrieved on 2006-07-03. 
  20. ^ a b Barger, Jorn (2007-06). "01-30 June 2007 links". Robot Wisdom Auxiliary. http://robotwisdom2.blogspot.com/2007/05/01-june-2007-links-ongoing.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-04. 
  21. ^ Berkovitz, Bill (2004-08-24). "White Supremacist Love Connection". Dissident Voice. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug04/Berkowitz0824.htm. Retrieved on 2009-02-04. 
  22. ^ Barger, Jorn (2007-07-29). "50+ Joycean conjectures annotated". Robot Wisdom Auxiliary. http://robotwisdom2.blogspot.com/2007/06/50-joycean-conjectures-annotated.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-05. 
  23. ^ Barger, Jorn (1994). "A Preliminary Stratigraphy of 'Scribbledehobble'". in Andrew Treip (ed.). "Finnegans Wake": "teems of times". Amsterdam: Rodopi. pp. 127-137. 
  24. ^ Barger, Jorn (1997). "Review of Hayman, David; Slote, Sam, Genetic Studies in Joyce, 1995". James Joyce Quarterly 34 (3): 389-93. 

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Barger, Jorn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American blogger
DATE OF BIRTH 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Yellow Springs, Ohio
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorn_Barger"
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