The Difference between Blogs and the Blogosphere
Dismissal of blogging is easy when you consider an individual website. Take Jason Kottke. Long known as the blogger’s blogger, Kottke has recently decided to give up his full-time blog to search for greener pastures. Kottke was a well-linked and well-liked guy, but if he decides to depart from the blogosphere entirely (he says he won't) he would quickly be passed over as new and eager entrants display their skills online.
Kottke, though an important blogger, was not the revolution. His blog was a platform for his ideas, and individually it meant a lot to his readers, but the blogosphere as a whole will quickly replace him. This is because a blog, by itself, is easily dismissed.
The blogosphere is a different story. Blogs are just tools, more effective than user groups or chat rooms or bbs’s, but tools nonetheless. Each blog alone is like a single star in the cosmos – beautiful, interesting, possibly insignificant, maybe soon to be extinguished. The blogosphere in that metaphor is like the heavens. Breathtaking, inspiring, and overwhelming to the human senses. 50,000 posts an hours and 600 billion webpages is a lot of reading, and blog software, from hyperlinks to trackbacks to comments to online communities links it all together.
A blog is just a website of ideas, where comments can be posted, links sent, and passive readers choose to come read the material. They are a good source of niche information about products and people, taken with a grain of salt and for the most part unpaid.
The blogosphere is a network of interconnected sites and people – a series of communities of like-minded activists who are at times scrupulously fair-minded, and alternately libelous and dangerous mobs.
The big mistake most blog critics make is distilling blogs as a phenomenon down into individual websites. The revolution is the system. A worldwide amplifier of everyday conversations that through network laws filters relevant information to the top of the world consciousness. So the only question in my mind, will be who is the next Jason Kottke?
Kottke, though an important blogger, was not the revolution. His blog was a platform for his ideas, and individually it meant a lot to his readers, but the blogosphere as a whole will quickly replace him. This is because a blog, by itself, is easily dismissed.
The blogosphere is a different story. Blogs are just tools, more effective than user groups or chat rooms or bbs’s, but tools nonetheless. Each blog alone is like a single star in the cosmos – beautiful, interesting, possibly insignificant, maybe soon to be extinguished. The blogosphere in that metaphor is like the heavens. Breathtaking, inspiring, and overwhelming to the human senses. 50,000 posts an hours and 600 billion webpages is a lot of reading, and blog software, from hyperlinks to trackbacks to comments to online communities links it all together.
A blog is just a website of ideas, where comments can be posted, links sent, and passive readers choose to come read the material. They are a good source of niche information about products and people, taken with a grain of salt and for the most part unpaid.
The blogosphere is a network of interconnected sites and people – a series of communities of like-minded activists who are at times scrupulously fair-minded, and alternately libelous and dangerous mobs.
The big mistake most blog critics make is distilling blogs as a phenomenon down into individual websites. The revolution is the system. A worldwide amplifier of everyday conversations that through network laws filters relevant information to the top of the world consciousness. So the only question in my mind, will be who is the next Jason Kottke?
posted by franki durbin @ 5:01 AM PERMALINK
2 Comments:
Excellent post. A group of friends and I have argued that blogging is not a new phenomenon. At the end of the day, a blog is just a webpage where others can comment.
The difference is the blogosphere. Great article
It's 2006 and pundits are already forecasting the decline and death of the blogosphere, just as many assumed the Internet was a "fad". They cite the low percentage of surfers who read blogs, while missing the big picture - 9% of all Internet users is huge.
The blogosphere will continue to diversify as vlogging (videoblogging) and podcasting gather momentum. Some blogs will become hubs for online communities, others will continue to be individual soapboxes for opinions that might otherwise go unpublished. As you point out, individual voices will come and go, but that will not affect this medium, any more than the cancellation of your favorite TV program means the death of television as a medium. Nothing stands still, but change and growth in the blogosphere occurs at Internet speed.
One thing is certain: regular everyday people who nonetheless know stuff - music, politics, technology, business, law, recruiting, typography - will continue to make their voices heard through this medium. And other regular people looking for information will sort it all out in real time and help others find their way to the good stuff.
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