Blogging: A world stuck on itself?
David Hornik has a very interesting opinion piece on C|Net today that should come as almost no surprise to anyone who blogs. Even though I haven't been blogging long, I've already figured out that many blogs (and social networks) are about passion. People (myself included) are passionate about blogs and blogging and passionate people like to talk about their passion, a lot.
David seems to be slamming social networks and blogging for the first 3/4 of the article. I'm thinking as I read this is the next sentence going to be “and I think blogging is all over rated and will be kaput in a year…”, but no, it isn't. Here is the clincher, the point…
Yet over the last 12 months, we have all done about as much talking as we have building. It is time to call a moratorium on the “blah blah blah” and get down to the business of building great software. To paraphrase Kenny Rogers, there'll be time enough for talkin' when the buildings done.
What David is saying is…stop sitting on panels, stop all the promoting and start developing the next wave of applications and ideas built on blogging and social networks. That's powerful. That's right on the money.
I'm passionate about blogs, but more passionate about blogs as a publishing platform. I think webfeeds (RSS, Atom) will be the way for information to be gathered and disseminated. I still get newsletters, but I don't sign up for many anymore, but I might add 1-2 webfeeds a day (current count is 93). So, I'm all for it, let's stop talking and start doing!
We were particularly excited about the power of the new Web log platforms and the ease with which it allowed us to share our thoughts.
We also put our money where our collective mouth was by funding several start-ups involved in this technology. Despite genuine reason for excitement, however, this nascent industry finds itself stuck on, well, itself.