April 25th, 2005

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Blogosphere
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Doc Searl’s Closing Keynote

Notes from Doc Searls–”What blogs are and what they are not” at Les Blogs ().

  • Starts by talking about the FCC, freedom of speech and the first amendment.
  • The media are a transport system. Speech happens in a space. Are bloggers speakers, press or media?
  • Every metaphor is a box of borrowed words.
  • Metaphorical speech is unconcious–for example, time is money or life as travel.
  • We have three metaphors for blogging–transport, building or writing (files and browsing, etc) which we regularly mix. Doc thinks that blogging is about writing (that’s its origins).
  • Don’t think in terms of content, consumers and audience. We have the dot-commers to blame for driving the concept of “content”.
  • Traditional media providers want to regulate content.
  • These providers aren’t thinking of us as providers.
  • Undeniably, blogs are journals. We are all journalists.
  • Blogs inform–they don’t deliver information.
  • Authority, in terms of trusting writers, is earned. The blogosphere is a meritocracy.
  • Blogs, like open source, is an example of the demand side supplying itself.
  • Steve Gillmor is super-keen on attention.xml.
  • In blogs, leaving is more important than staying–blogs don’t have to be sticky. Ideas, not sites, are sticky.
  • Blogging is about rolling snowballs downhill, not about pushing rocks uphill.
  • Blogging is about making and changing minds.
  • The Cluetrain has hardly left the station.

Comments: 2 Responses so far

Jeff
April 25th, 2005
6:15 pm

“The Cluetrain has hardly left the station.”

I bet that’s what all the kids are saying these days…

[Reply]

Bruce
April 25th, 2005
9:01 pm

Darren:

You might be interested in the perspective of an on-line journalist on bloggers:

http://www.roblimo.com/node/view/60#comment

Roblimo, in case you don’t know, is the senior editor at OSTG,which runs Slashdot, Newsforge, Sourceforge, Linux.com and the IT Manager’s Journal. He’s one of the pioneers of on-line journalism, and he brings a level of professionalism to it that he learned in places like The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

I’m probably heavily influenced by roblimo’s views, since he’s the man who buys most of my journalism. However, I think I’m more or less in agreement with him.

The dichotomy between bloggers and journalists isn’t as wide as many people seem to think. Some bloggers are simply amateur journalists. If they become skilled at research and writing, then they become professional journalists. In this respect (although not in the relation between the writer and the audience), the on-line medium doesn’t change very much.

[Reply]

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