The Blogosphere
The Blogosphere refers to the worldwide community of blogs. Blogs are a self-publishing technology that enable anyone to publish content to the world wide web. It is a fascinating phenomena because of the scope of its impact. It is, in itself, cause to be hopeful because it is empowering individuals through the creation of an entirely new social medium. It is creating new political space - eliminating the isolation that Hannah Arendt would call the precondition for totalitarianism. The recent election in the Ukraine, blogging crackdowns in China, Howard Dean's fund raising and many other examples demonstrate the importance of the blogosphere in our lives. There is a lot of power in this nascent technology that connects people and ideas.
Dan Gilmore, in his new book We The Media, delivers an important analysis of blogs and how they are shaping events today. But blogs are only completing the first step in what will be a staggering transformation of how people are connected to news, events, ideas through a rich dialogue and collaboration in every sphere of our daily lives.
To start, the blogosphere is a force mutiplier for civic audit of our institutions. Not only is the Fourth Estate challenged and daily critiqued by this new medium , it promises to vette policies and scrutinize our government and its officials with the combined talent of millions of citizens.
The self-organizing blogosphere draws on the creative power and deep technical expertise of a few million today. The primary enterprise of this talent is currently deconstructing the news and political events. Have no doubt that these same resources will be brought to bear to solve extraordinary challenges in the future.
My mobile phone can dispatch photos to my blog and I can call in audio to this blog. In another two years I will send video clips from my phone from anywhere in the world. Production costs to distribute my ideas globally are currently zero. Content syndication automatically distributes my contributions. These trends are powerful.
In an age when our erstwhile agrarian and tribal communities are reeling from the quick succession of the Industrial and Information Technology revolutions we find that our connectedness with others is not that of our pre-19th century forbears. In fact, we interact with our new technology and media within a social context that our primitive brains don't easily overcome. Even if you don't live among a million people then no doubt your entire pattern of living is influenced through the social structures, institutions, and products arising from a civilization that does. The blogosphere is a new medium to harness independent voices and communities that will increasingly shape these social structures, institutions and products of our ideas and labor. It gives voice and reach to the millions who have been silenced in the face of blocked parties, colossal government and the simulcasts of the corporate mainstream media.
The blogosphere is cause to be hopeful that we can increase our bearing, our community, our connectedness and ultimately our wealth, however you may conceive it, through the product of our minds.
Dan Gilmore, in his new book We The Media, delivers an important analysis of blogs and how they are shaping events today. But blogs are only completing the first step in what will be a staggering transformation of how people are connected to news, events, ideas through a rich dialogue and collaboration in every sphere of our daily lives.
To start, the blogosphere is a force mutiplier for civic audit of our institutions. Not only is the Fourth Estate challenged and daily critiqued by this new medium , it promises to vette policies and scrutinize our government and its officials with the combined talent of millions of citizens.
The self-organizing blogosphere draws on the creative power and deep technical expertise of a few million today. The primary enterprise of this talent is currently deconstructing the news and political events. Have no doubt that these same resources will be brought to bear to solve extraordinary challenges in the future.
My mobile phone can dispatch photos to my blog and I can call in audio to this blog. In another two years I will send video clips from my phone from anywhere in the world. Production costs to distribute my ideas globally are currently zero. Content syndication automatically distributes my contributions. These trends are powerful.
In an age when our erstwhile agrarian and tribal communities are reeling from the quick succession of the Industrial and Information Technology revolutions we find that our connectedness with others is not that of our pre-19th century forbears. In fact, we interact with our new technology and media within a social context that our primitive brains don't easily overcome. Even if you don't live among a million people then no doubt your entire pattern of living is influenced through the social structures, institutions, and products arising from a civilization that does. The blogosphere is a new medium to harness independent voices and communities that will increasingly shape these social structures, institutions and products of our ideas and labor. It gives voice and reach to the millions who have been silenced in the face of blocked parties, colossal government and the simulcasts of the corporate mainstream media.
The blogosphere is cause to be hopeful that we can increase our bearing, our community, our connectedness and ultimately our wealth, however you may conceive it, through the product of our minds.
