The rest of the world may well have missed the unfolding of his tragedy. Behind it, however, is a bigger trend. Blogging has entered the mainstream, which—as with every new medium in history—looks to its pioneers suspiciously like death. To the earliest practitioners, over a decade ago, blogging was the regular posting of text updates, and later photos and videos, about themselves and their thoughts to a few friends and family members. Today lots of internet users do this, only they may not think of it as blogging. Instead, they update their profile pages on Facebook, MySpace or other social networks.
They may also “micro-blog” on services such as Twitter, which recreate the raw, immediate and intimate feel of early blogs. Twitter messages, usually sent from mobile phones, are fewer than 140 characters long and answer the question “What are you doing?” Tellingly, Evan Williams, the co-founder of Blogger—an early blogging service that is now owned by Google, the Wal-Mart of the internet—now runs Twitter, which he regards as the future.
As for traditional (if that is the word) blog pages, these tend increasingly to belong to conventional media organisations. Nearly every newspaper, radio and television channel now runs blogs and updates them faster than any individual blogger ever could. (The Economist, November 6, 2008.)
A part of the blogosphere has transformed into blog networks with individual bloggers gathered at a specific place, e.g., Pajamas Network. I don't think it is a contradiction to both be an individual blogger, writing and publishing blog posts and at the same time belonging to a network of other bloggers. As I said in my post, THINKING IN WRITING:
I will try to follow some kind of weekly schedule, but now and then I will take a break from my EGO blog, concentrating on other assignments, for example writing pieces for other sites and preparing interviews for my podcasting show. I want to get into the right flow and start to microblog on a regular basis. (EGO, November 11, 2008.)
[Editor's note: I will write a short Twitter message on this blog post later on...]
Martin,
ReplyDeleteI would argue against the Economists point that blogging has entered the mainstream. Just because mainstream media is utilizing blogging, does not make it so. It's all about adoption from a READERS standpoint. And as far as readers go we are still in the Early Adopter phase. Case in point, if you would ask 10 random people on the street in the U.S. if they're familiar with blogging, 8-9 or so would say yes. But when you ask the same people if they've ever actually read one or regularly read one themselves, the numbers drop to 2-3 out of 10. I detail the reasons for this discrepancy in the cover story of this month Blogger & Podcaster Magazine(www.bloggerandpodcaster.net/BPMN_Article.htm, and share the specific things we must do to Cross the Chasm and make it to the mainstream market.
Larry Genkin
CEO, Blogger & Podcaster Media Network
Publisher, Blogger & Podcaster Mag.
www.bloggerandpodcaster.net