Are Blogs Dead?

Wednesday, May 11. 2005

Ed Batista had a great post the other day, stating that Blogs are Obsolete. His basic point is that a blog is just a web site that has certain qualities, so do we have to keep saying Blog? It's a great post, and I completely agree - you don't need a "blog" to make your web site "bloggish". Here's what he said:

Can we all agree that the term "blog" is now meaningless and should be retired? We have a perfectly good word we can use in its place: website. Just what does "blog" signify anymore that's different from most well-managed websites? Frequently updated content? Nope. An easy-to-use content management system that allows non-techies to publish online? Nope. An authentic, individual voice? Perhaps--but that's changing too.

However, when defining the qualities of what makes a blog a blog (or a website a 'bloggish' website), I think Ed misses a very important one, or perhaps just doesn't state it strongly enough.

Namely, to be bloggish, your site must connect to the network of conversations and people that are also being bloggish in a formally recognized way. Technically it should happen via RSS, trackback, and blogrolling - but it's not the technology that is important. What's important is that there is an unwritten, but agreed upon, standard for discoverability.

To illustrate the importance of this bloggish quality think about a moderated listserve with a web archive. Authentic voices? Check. Fresh content? Check. Permantently available archives? Yep. But there is no "listserve-o-sphere". Why? Because your listserve conversation is taking place without any context to make it discoverable by all of the other exciting conversations taking place in other similar listserves. Its the network effect of Blogs, I believe, that has really made them take off.

The informal standards of interlinking and syndication have essentially guarenteed that Blogs reach a tipping point because playing by the blogger rules, by definition, creates an infectious viral network that quite simply works.

Posted by Kurt Voelker in Communication, Collaboration at 10:18 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (3)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

Baby Got Back(-End)
(The Webbies should have categories for Best

Weblog: Ed Batista
Tracked: May 12, 01:27

Flogging Blogs
Sonny Cloward has a good roundup of the Great Blog Debate that's been going on:To me the web denotes a static, siloed, irrelevant world (wide web) of the 1990's.

Weblog: Ed Batista
Tracked: May 13, 03:51

Are Blogs Dead?
Are Blogs Dead?

Weblog: Are Blogs Dead?
Tracked: Jun 12, 22:54

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Kurt,

I'm in total agreement with the idea of discoverability (which has a lot of elements). I still think, however, that there are characteristics of blogging -- as an activity -- that are not necessarily happening when a site has a blog-like set of functions or features.

Specifically, it has to do with commenting on other sites, listening, and taking an active role in the community you describe.

It is not enough to publish a weblog -- or whatever you would like to call it. You have to participate to get the benefit of the network effect you describe.

#1 marnie webb (Homepage) on 2005-05-11 11:48

Yep. Agree agree - it's participation in the network that makes your conversations just that - conversations.

#2 Kurt (Homepage) on 2005-05-11 11:51

I want to zero in one of your points:

"What's important is that there is an unwritten, but agreed upon, standard for discoverability."

Have you written anything specifically about the practice(doing it and doing it well) of discoverablility in a nonprofit setting? Not the technical stuff, but the art of bloggish conversation and participating in the network effect.

#3 Beth Kanter (Homepage) on 2005-05-11 13:57

Can we agree that a Cape Cod is just a house and call it House? Its just a house with certain qualities after all.

Blogs means a specific kind of website, its different than a website that's a bulletin board for example, and it is different than a website that's a pretty brochure for a corporation.

The fact that the word has become the trendy, buzzword dujour that people want to associate with their own crappy website doesn't mean its lost meaning.

#4 Oscar Merida (Homepage) on 2005-05-11 17:14

The author does not allow comments to this entry

Quicksearch

About

Influence covers innovations in communication, Internet technology and strategy to generate influence on important public policy issues. Chris Wolz manages this blog with the help of his colleagues at Forum One Communications, a web strategy/technology firm in the Washington DC area.