Discussion the nature of blogs

As a journalist it’s easy to dismiss blogs by citing a single poorly written online diary/reloader as proof. But when you tap the collective power of thousands of blogs, you start to see all sort of interesting behaviour emerge. One example of this is “Google Bombing”, in which weblogs can work together to have a quick and dramatic impact on search engine results. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm)

Blogs are an adaptive open system, a collective, more than the sum of its parts. It works very much like the principles of open source. The central idea is discussion and quotes. Dan Gillmor at the San Jose Mercury News has been speculating on the relationship between weblogs and journalism. (http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/)

Four of his key principles are:

1. My readers know more than I do.

2. That is not a threat, but rather an opportunity.

3. We can use this together to create something between a seminar and a conversation, educating all of us.

4. Interactivity and communications technology—in the form of e-mail, blogs, discussion boards, websites and more—make it happen.

Like in the beginning of desktop publishing, everyone gets enthusiastic about the ease of use and try the technology. I find blogs to be more a discussion community, than a publishing tool.