Bits not atoms. It’s become a famous phrase–almost a cliche–but it becomes more important with every passing day.

I admit, I jumped onto the blog thing a little late. For instance, my friend Jared Bridges began his internet experience way back in the dark ages of 1996. But, I’m glad I finally did get on board. There are many reasons why I think blogging is a valuable activity for scholars (for one example see Kevin Wilson‘s comment on my post The Ubiquitous Cultic Object) but one of the most valuable reasons was brought home to me just today.

In my previous post I made a couple comments regarding two comparative semitic grammars.

1) I noticed that on Eisenbrauns‘ web page they said that Lipinski’s volume was published in 2002 when it was in fact published in 2001. It’s a good thing that the person in charge of marketing at Eisenbrauns reads my blog (he has a really great blog that I read as well, ANEbooks) because he noticed my observation and made the changes on the Eisenbrauns page.

2) I made the comment that Moscati’s volume is out of print. To be honest, since this volume was published a long time ago, I just assumed that it was out of print, I should have checked into this more thoroughly before I said this. But, it’s a good thing that Jim reads my blog because he left me a comment saying that Eisenbrauns had just recieved a shipment of Moscati’s volume today! So, within 30 minutes of Jim’s comment on my blog, I changed the info. Furthermore, in his comment on my page, Jim left a link to Moscati’s volume on the Eisenbrauns page which I then went to, copied Eisenbrauns’ blogging tools and now you have a picture of the volume along with all the relevant publishing info about it on awilum.com.

That’s awesome stuff! People collaborating to make information more user-friendly, up-to-date and accurate. And it happens in a matter of minutes. Another reason why blogging is a great tool for scholars.

P.S. Another good friend of mine, David Esrati, has a really good post about brand managing. He recomends that companies monitor blogs more closely in order to preserve brand equity. Sounds like Eisenbrauns is doing a great job at maintaining their equity! I think Jim should get a raise