Making Sense of the Blogging Phenomenon One Blogger At a Time
I have spent some time over the past two years researching blogging. And the longer I
immerse myself the more convinced I become that blogs are merely a
symptom of something much bigger happening on the web. No, let me restate that...happening TO the web.
Nobody's completely figured it out yet, but every day we are nearing
closer to an approximate understanding of what their impact will be.
The only thing we can conclude is that the question of
what a blog IS isn’t so important as the question of what a blog CAN BE.
None of the conventional definitions of a blog are altogether wrong,
but they are limited. And for anyone who has worked inside the
industry, they will agree that the public advent of blogging represents
so much more than just another
distribution channel in a marketers toolbox.
In fact, I would venture
to say, marketers at large are falling behind in their collective grasp
of the evolving internet. Their pockets may be well-lined, but they have impoverished models of the new world.
Today, blogs are a still a blank canvas. Their uses are by
no
means set in stone, nor have all their possible applications been
explored. I challenge people who think they really "get it" to stop
concurring about what blogs are and start discovering what blogs can be.
Over the next couple of months I will be rendering my observations as lucidly as I can.
Ty
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Reader Comments (3)
I'm having a hard time convincing my work colleagues that the blogging phenomenon is about to hit really hard. I can't quite put my finger on what is that is so big about it, but it definitely has momentum and that element of mystery that you've mentioned. Who knows what it will become, but it is definitely something.
The process of "blogging" alone has taught me more about the Internet, and about a new form of communication that seems to have power well beyond our current perceptions.
The internet is definately still a work-in-progress. CMS's are enabling humans to communicate and organize themselves in ways that they always have. Only now, you don't need a budget in order to participate--blogs are allowing everyone down to the most isolated invididuals to become co-creators in the ultimate vision of the web. I have referred to this before as the "mass enfranchisement of humankind."
We've all heard that "links subvert structures", but many people don't realize that the organic web isn't fully actualized yet. We are seeing that process unfold every single day.