Paper given at MiT5, Cambridge, MA, April 27-29, 2007, as part of a panel on Appropriation and Collaboration in Digital Writing with Nick Montfort and Scott Rettberg.

1. MiT5, Cambridge, MA April 27-29, 2007 Repeating, appropriating, blogging Jill Walker Associate Professor of Humanistic Informatics University of Bergen, Norway Photograph by Alev.adil: http://flickr.com/photos/alevadil/371037311/ Used with the photographer’s permission.

2. Everything is appropriation.

3. How can we not appropriate?

4. Blogs are built on templates (so are all genres - but it’s so very visible in blogs...)

5. All blogs are copies of each other

6. All blogs are copies of themselves (Photograph by Alev.adil: http://flickr.com/photos/alevadil/371037311/ Used with her permission.)

7. This is a clich é of a map http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/mad/articles/MeimarisMap.html

8. Ortelius: Theatrvm orbis terrarvm (1570) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage The world’s first atlas Most of the maps were reproductions. Collaboration, networks of contributors, at least 28 editions.

9. ...the ferment engendered by access to more books... 'All the world is full of learned men, of most skilled preceptors, of vast libraries...neither in Plato's time nor in Cicero's was there ever such opportunity for studying. . .’ (Rabelais) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Francois_Rabelais_-_Portrait.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Francois_Rabelais_-_Portrait.jpg

10. splog bad Splogs are blogs where the articles are fake, and are only created for search engine spamming. (Wikipedia) fake content thieves malevolent

11. Boing Boing

12. A copy of Boing Boing

13. Homage or plagiarism?

14. Is there an original?

15. Boing Boing is not a romantic individual genius.

16. We all copy. But we still think originality should still exist. Boing Boing post, Friday April 27, 2007.

17. Here’s an opposite kind of copying, appropriation. My blog is at jilltxt.net

18. This is jilltxt.org

19. Let’s see if this blog has appropriated any other domains.

20. Copyscape results

21. Craphound.com reloads to samsonblinded.com - craphound.net is Cory Doctorow’s website.

22. So: we appropriate ideas, words, images, patterns, links and domain names.

23. What’s the difference between appropriation as art, crime and just...life?