The Buzz About Weblogs

The Early History of Weblogs
Dave Winer, software guru and organizer of this fall's weblog conference at Harvard Law School, provides a brief early history of weblogs along with alternative definitions of "weblog" here (click on the link).

How Many Bloggers Are There?
One survey estimates more than 5,000,000 blogs will be created by the end of 2003 with an estimated 10,000,000 additional blogs to be created in 2004. Many will become inactive not long after creation, but the author describes the blogosphere (the universe of bloggers) as an iceberg drifting into colder waters. The most important point: blog writers are blog readers. Blog readership will mushroom.

What Has Been the Impact of Blogs on Politics?
The success of Howard Dean, especially as a fund-raiser, has been attributed in significant part to the unique structure of the former governor's campaign and weblogs. Campaign manager Joe Trippi says this about the sources of the campaign's strength:

Design the organization to be nimble from the start. A decentralized workforce can respond to local challenges more quickly if it doesn't have to wait for clearance from higher up the food chain. Be willing to let go of total control.

Find ways to let supporters -- or customers -- talk to each other. Make it easy to connect, then step out of the conversation.

Encourage ways for ideas to bubble up from the field. Understand that the more brainpower that is applied to a problem, the better the solution. Unleash the power of the people to be creative.

Recognize that it's not about the technology. True, you need a basic level of technical sophistication to make things work, but the technology should be in service to the idea, not the other way around.

Jim Moore, author, activist, blogger and Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School, sees great possibilities for the political future not only in the Dean campaign but in the "open source politics" that weblogging and meet-ups enable.

To view what has generated all this talk, the official Dean campaign weblog is here. The leading unofficial blog is DailyKos.

Weblogs and Traditional Journalism
Blogger and NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen analyzes the ten ways in which weblogs constitute a radical departure from traditional journalism. The comments are as interesting as the original post.

A growing number of publications and broadcast media include weblogs as part of their web presence. Here are a few examples:

The American Prospect

The Nation (see the column of blogs at the right)

Dallas Morning News: why they did it (nuisance but free reg req'd); the blog itself

MSNBC (scroll down to "weblog" category)

National Review

New Republic (infamously)

Posted by Allen at May 25, 2003 05:30 PM