But as with any revolution, we must ask whether we are being sold a naked emperor. Is blogging really an information revolution? Is it about to drive the mainstream news media into oblivion? Or is it just another crock of virtual gold – a meretricious equivalent of all those noisy internet start-ups that were going to build a brave ?new economy? a few years ago?

Shouldn’t we just be a tiny bit sceptical of another information revolution following on so fast from the last one – especially as this time round no one is even pretending to be getting rich? Isn’t the problem of the media right now that we barely have time to read a newspaper, let alone traverse the thoughts of a million bloggers? —Trevor ButterworthTime for the last post (FT.com)

The point of blogging isn’t that you can easily read what other people write. It’s that they can easily read what you write. It’s not the reading that’s a new component of the blogosphere, it’s the writing.

View Comments

  • I guess we can get all chicken-and-eggy over this question, but it seems to me that if it weren't so easy to write and publish, it wouldn't matter how easy it is to read.

    Of course the blogosphere isn't all about the writer. My point is that the ease of publication is the *new* thing. Vannevar Bush imagined that people would trade the chains or trails of annotation and connection that add value to the conventional published material. RSS is another excellent step towards that vision. But for me RSS is not the sine qua non of blogging.

  • Blogging is writer-centered rather than reader-centered? I dunno, Dennis. Maybe it is for you, but there's more than one way to approach a thing, and the existence of RSS feeds might offer a counter to your argument. Butterworth's argument misses the point in many ways -- but doesn't saying, in effect, "Blogging is all about me!" kinda miss the point too?

Share
Published by
Dennis G. Jerz

Recent Posts

The choreographer daughter is doing a thing.

The choreographer daughter is doing a thing.

2 hours ago

So I’m starting a thing. Wish me luck. #blender3d #medieval #york #mysteryplay #corpuschristi

So I’m starting a thing. Wish me luck. #blender3d #medieval #york #mysteryplay #corpuschristi

7 hours ago

No interior yet. Getting there. Gotta start somewhere. Low-poly background detail for a medieval theater project. #blender3d

No interior yet. Getting there. Gotta start somewhere. Low-poly background detail for a medieval theater…

13 hours ago

This is manageable. Far better than some semesters.

This is manageable. Far better than some semesters.

1 day ago

Creating textures for background buildings in a medieval theater simulation project. I can always improve this later. #blender3d

Creating textures for background buildings in a medieval theater simulation project. I can always improve…

2 days ago

Yesterday my stack of unmarked assignments was about 120, so this is not bad.

Nothing in this stack is pressing, but they do include rough drafts of final papers,…

3 days ago