The value of this blog is in three dimensions

I have imagined this blog’s contribution depends almost entirely on what factual insights it offers. That perception may be too narrow.

This blog offers at least three forms of value, a source of information to be sure, but also entertainment and amusement (See my post of Sept. 3, 2006 on jokes embedded in these posts.), and solidarity.

Solidarity value comes about because the blog brings together people who are fellow travelers, who also have an interest in effective management of departments. As with the efforts of the public intellectuals described by Richard A. Posner, Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline (Harvard University Press 2001), from which book comes this tripartite notion of worth, facts are good and are this blog’s main tent pole, but two shorter poles are levity and collectivity.