Blogging Is So 2004
I’ve been getting a wiki/blog server ready for the staff at my school. Imagine my surprise when Paul Boutin at Wired posted Twitter, Flicker, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004 suggesting that blogs are done. They’re so 2004.
Boutin suggests that it’s difficult for the individual writer to be noticed when the blogosphere is now full of “organized” or “professional” blogs like those found at The Huffington Post or Engadget. (He doesn’t mention Wired.)
What he suggests may be partially true but what he misses is that blogging is not just about being noticed by a lot of people. Blogs are about thinking and about creating what Ewan McIntosh calls small passionate communities.
Over the years I’ve written in many forms and in many places from newsletters, to emails, to my .Mac site, to listserves, and blogs. None of them generate much traffic but that’s okay. They all serve a purpose. They’re all about community.
At the moment one of my favorite places to write is a group blog that’s only for those of us that are setting up a new Leopard server. I use it to post what I’ve done and what I still need to do. On any given day my posts are read by no more than four people but that’s okay. I like to write it and I look forward to reading the comments members of my group leave. Writing the blog is helping us move forward and get the server ready.
Blogs are about a simple technology that meets a need and creates community. I don’t see that going away any time soon.
[...] Blogging — Rob @ 10:01 pm and Alan Levine on his CogDog blog comments on the Wired article I wrote about a few days ago. His post makes some good points and even includes a clip from Monty Python. [...]