Pros -- stuck on the understandable but by now, one hopes, discredited idea that blogging aims to replace journalism as we know it -- often can't kick the habit of valuing blogging purely as a business proposition. Some quotes from Rosen's roundup illustrate this.

Here's Jim Kennedy, vice president and director of strategic planning for The Associated Press: "The real 'ecosystem' of news -- with reporters, editors, bloggers and wikipedians -- won't truly flourish until we figure out how to support it. Can we provide services to each other, form business partnerships, generate mutual traffic benefits?"

(But the ecosystem is flourishing now -- just have a look!)

Here's Alex Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard: "...I think that the brand and distribution power of the mainstream media will be even more important in an increasingly crowded blogosphere."

(Yes, if your aim is to corral eyeballs. But there are other standards.)

Here's Faye M. Anderson, , former national correspondent for PoliticallyBlack.com, former vice chairman of the Republican National Committee's New Majority Council: "Bloggers' credibility will be established by the market. If readers find us credible, they will come. If not, we'll be left with a community of fifteen people."

(Millions of blogs, each with a community of fifteen people? That adds up to a rather large sphere of communication.)

Ethan Zuckerman seemed to get what I'm talking about: "This conference reminded me that both camps [bloggers and Wikipedians] are firmly in the 'amateur' camp -- where 'amateur' doesn't mean 'unprofessional', but 'motivated by love, not by financial remuneration.'"

Blogs are superficially similar enough to newspapers, magazines and commercial Web sites that professional journalists can talk about them while hanging onto their old yardsticks and habits of thinking. To a lot of editors, a blogger just looks like a byline in search of a paycheck. But the Wikipedia's nameless, recompense-less multitudes can't be dismissed as easily.

That's why, I think, the Wikipedia seems to have blown so many pros' minds at the conference. Gee -- maybe this stuff really is, you know, new. And different. And worthy of, if not outright preening, then close attention.

"six apart (makers of movable type
bl0gging software and typepad bl0gging
service) are going to buy live journal"

Blogging for Profits- Triple Your Google
Adsense or Searchfeed Profits With This
Powerful New Blogging Tool From Blog
Burner

Gates Endorses Blogging; Blogging Now
Old-Hat

Bill Gates' employees were way ahead of the boss when it came to blogging, but it's good to see Gates' endorsement (BBC) nonetheless. If he gets it -- and he obviously does -- then a lot of other folks are sure to follow. I wonder how soon blogging will become a natural, integral part of the operating system. RSS would be a good start.

Philips returns to profit in first
quarter, sees full-year profit (AFP)

Toshiba's operating profit surges, net
profit falls on heavier tax

bl0gging the DNC convention bl0gging

Not-for-profit versus for-profit economy

Today's Boston Globe carries two contrasting front-page stories.  "As economy gains, outsourcing surges" talks about how American workers at for-profit companies must compete with 84 million Filipinos, many of whom are well-educated, speak good English, and are delighted to work for $300/month.  Things are looking more cheerful for U.S. workers in the not-for-profit sector.  A front-page story on Boston University's search for a new president revealed that the school decided to pay Dan Goldin $1.8 million in exchange for... not working at all.  Considering that Mr. Goldin had yet to start his job, that's a pretty good hourly rate.  You could hire a staff of 45 Filipino engineers for ten years with that $1.8 mil!

[Update:  the Globe runs a three-article series on "the white collar job migration".  Article 2 is "US workers see hard times" and includes a quote from a venture capitalist: "Right when you think about Employee 11, you should think about India.  My view is you should not start a company from scratch in the United States ever again.''  Article 3 is "US business students find opportunity is global" and talks about how MBAs are adapting.  A more interesting article appears in the same issue, November 4, "As work shifts, internship in India the new rite of passage" and starts with "An increasing number of US students are going to India to intern at top information technology services firms or to participate in tours that allow them to network with the country's corporate elite."  The American interns, most of whom are MBAs or MBA students, get paid about $350/month (compared to their old internships of $7000/month in the U.S.).]

HP profit rises on server, PC sales;
Nextel's sales up; Wal-Mart profit up;
CEO bullish for 2004

Beyond Blogging

Elizabeth Lane Lawley: Beyond Blogging

An excellent look at the entire ecosystem of blogging as opposed to the rampant explorations of specific microcosms.  [Via The Shifted Librarian]

One thing that is missing from the discussion is referrer logs.

Blogging and the Law

EBIG’s December Blogging SIG will host a discussi on on Dec 7 about the legal ramifications of corporate blogging, led by Charles Smith, COO and chief counsel of Pheedo. The meeting is at the Concord University of Phoenix campus.

If you’re in the Bay Area and have the slightest interest in the intersection of blogs and business, you should come to this event. I’ll be there along with he rest of the Pheedo management team, so stop by and say hello.

Yet more on bl0gging - me on tv

Gone bl0gging

Why I Haven't Been Blogging Much

'Nuff said. Best. Game. Ever.

"bl0gging.la"

Blogging again

Blogging MMS

Blogging Art

I'm thrilled to finally be able to point to a blog by Ar t Rhyno, Library Systems Stuff!

"Does the world need another blog? I am sure several have appeared while I typed this. This is probably more of a thought experiment than anything else but it provides an opportunity to describe library systems work that I am involved in, and some open source projects that I participate in."

One to watch, made ever so much easier by the fact that there is an RSS feed!

On not bl0gging

Liz Goes Beyond Blogging

I haven't been blogging much because I just found a wireless hot spot (albeit for $8.95 a day), but now Liz Lawley is speaking and I'm happy to say that she is just as interesting in person as she is on her blog. Her topic now is "Beyond Blogging: Where Next with Blogs and Blogging."

Liz is on a campaign to stop using the word "blog" because she thinks it's an ugly word, so she's gone back to using the term "weblog." This, of course, contrasts with Terry Huwe's comment in the current issue of Computers in Libraries that anything called "blogging" has to be a little fun (sorry it's not available online). At this morning's keynote, the panel referred to F. Scott Fitzgerald's quote about being able to keep two contradictory thoughts at the same time, so now I feel like I've come full circle for the day.

"How many of you with you could Google your office? I can Google my brain (via her blog)."

"Bloggers are not a unified community, nor are blogs a unified commodity."

"The term "weblog" will become meaningless because the software can be used so differently and for different purposes. Just because something is called a "book" doesn't mean it's like every other book. We need to start thinking of this as a medium."

"Blogs aren't really on a topic anymore than people are. In the long term, categorization isn't going to get us what I want because you can't categorize blogs, but microcontent (like the Internet Topic Exchange) will."

Liz doesn't use an aggregator for reading blogs because she likes the visual interface of blogs. She likes the binding and feel of books, she likes the native view of blogs.

Liz showed All Consuming and noted that can buy the book or find who's been writing about it. It's too bad she couldn't say you could see if your library owns the book.

Liz is highlighting the community aspect of blogs, especially via comments. Personally, I think it's too bad that libraries don't understand this and always turn off comments. She's also bravely explaining trackback. I say "bravely" because it's already been a long day with four other programs about blogging (yay - a blogging track at a librarian conference!), so I know a lot of those folks are already on overload. I'm still glad she's mentioning it, though, and hey, she is discussing the risks.

Oooh - she said "wiki!" Oooh - and it's the Atom wiki! Daring, daring, brave Miss Liz! You'll be answering all dem questions about wikis now. :-)  "Ego can be a real barrier to collaborative development." Liz says, "Wikis scare librarians. A lot." Heh.

Ha - she just created a page on the Atom wiki called "GuidetoSite and she's building a page. "This is both terrifying and exhilerating to people who deal with information. I'm still not sure which side I come down on."

How do we generate content collectively at the same time? Liz started her blog last year after she read Dan Gillmor's site as he was posting them to his blog. He included notes and links that made her re-think her interpretation of the sessions.

The first question after Liz's presentation is about security and password-protecting blogs. I feel very confident in saying that this is the first question asked after every blog presentation at a library conference. We are sooooo paranoid. The second question is about building community, especially as noted in Liz's class. Now we're getting somewhere.

This is not bl0gging

"I am bl0gging."

Low bl0gging day

MMS Blogging

NPR on bl0gging

Changes to bl0gging

bl0gging.la

blogging.la/archives/2005/04/star_wars_line.phtml
track this site | 5 links

Blogging bl0gging bl0gging...

Hugh just sent me another one... ;-)
Yossi was making fun of me for sitting here blogging blogging blogging...

Who says bl0gging is not useful?

My bl0gging space

Click on the image to see a bigger one

Why don't you post yours?

(Via SchizoBlog and Mea)

Update: The most cognitionally astute of you have already probably noticed that I've switched to using Bloglines as my RSS reader. Yeah, it's that good. I read my blogs from my home laptop, home desktop, work laptop, and work desktop, and Bloglines is the first one that works seamlessly across these systems. It has a pretty slick interface for a web app, which has been the main reason why I've so far stayed away from browser-based aggregators. It also allows you to publish your blog roll very easily - you can see my 66 subscriptions here, if you are of the voyeuristic type.

On friendship and bl0gging

This is a piece I've been working up to for quite some time, and it'll probably be an audio blog post at some time soon.

I have five really good friends in the world. When I realized that, saying that to one of them, she said that's pretty damned good and I agree. These are people who I trust with knowing anything and everything about me. People who could call me if they needed help. I would drop everything to be there for them, and vice versa. But none of these people have weblogs, and if they had them, I wouldn't point to them, because (key point) then I would lose the ability to be friends with them.

This came home to me talking with Len Apcar at the NY Times just before the DNC. In a wide-ranging discussion I said that I had given up on the idea of friendship in the blogosphere. Apcar said that now I understood something about how they approach news. You can't be friends with the people you cover. Or you can't cover people who are friends. Either way it's equally true.

Okay, enough preamble. Ed Cone is a person I admire, I think he could be a good friend, I'm sure he is to his friends, no doubt there, but key point, he and I are not friends. That means I can point to him (which I do) and write about his work (which I've not done recently) without fear of turning this weblog into nothing more than a way of scratching the itches of my friends.

Ninety-nine percent of the blogs you read are just that, friendship favor-trading. Not this one. I will tell you when I think someone is fucking up. They will think I am not being their friend, and they will be right. But when I say something is good, or someone is not fucking up, you can trust that I'm saying that because I believe it to be true.

For Some, the Blogging Never Stops: Please don't let me become like this. Interesting story about blogging addiction.

To celebrate four years of marriage, Richard Wiggins and his wife, Judy Matthews, recently spent a week in Key West, Fla. Early on the morning of their anniversary, Ms. Matthews heard her husband get up and go into the bathroom. He stayed there for a long time.

"I didn't hear any water running, so I wondered what was going on," Ms. Matthews said. When she knocked on the door, she found him seated with his laptop balanced on his knees, typing into his Web log, a collection of observations about the technical world, over a wireless link.

Blogging is a pastime for many, even a livelihood for a few. For some, it becomes an obsession. Such bloggers often feel compelled to write several times daily and feel anxious if they don't keep up.

Via MetaFilter.

Click here to comment on this entry

Blogging ecosystem

Bored with bl0gging

"the nature of bl0gging"

Grid Blogging

Is Your Library Blogging Yet?

10 Ways to Use Blogs for Managing Projects

“Blogs aren’t just for marketing - there are many areas of the business where they can help improve information flow, reduce clutter and avoid the dreaded ‘but I didn’t know about that’ situation. Here’s ten ways that we’ve used blogs for managing projects - both internally and with our clients.

1. Communication with Project Stakeholders
2. Replacing Paper
3. Building Issue Logs
4. Capturing Information Snippets
5. Publicising the Project Progress
6. Reducing Email Overload
7. Capturing Requirements
8. Circulating Screenshots
9. Keeping Team Members Up-to-date
10. Provide an Automatic Audit Trail” [Cutting Through]

Add the word “library” in front of “projects” in the title and you’ll have a great overview of ten ways in which blogging can help libraries.

Blogging Without Getting Burned

bl0gging gets you fired

Blogging for Fun and Profit