More about the death of blogging.
When JP talks about the bigger picture of blogging, he manages to interweave a discussion about the US presidential elections, the social history of colonial cities, the quality of discourse in the 1960s and The Cluetrain Manifesto.
But Euan just says:
“Over the seven plus years I have been blogging various people have declared the activity dead, defined it more ways than I can remember and made various pronouncements about how I should be doing it.
Me - I just ignore them all, keep doing something I love, in my own way, and am having as much fun with it as I ever did.”
But I think the point is that both of them are right.
Hi James,
ReplyDeleteI agree that both are probably true.
Years ago I was looking at setting up an Australian Millicent type business. One of the things that got me excited about the concept was newspaper journalists being freed from editorial oversight and making a living from a cent or two multiplied by thousands of subscribers around the world.
Glad I didn't pursue it, as the millicent idea fell flat on its face, blogs allowed Journalists to do just that and AdSense sort-of took care of the income side (Right vision, wrong vehicle).
It seems to me that the ones that say blogging is dead are coming from a fixed publishing paradigm which has finally acknowledged the popularity of the blogosphere, but unlike newspapers, the sphere has moved on and so they think it is dead because it is un-movable like the old media.
The fact is, socialmedia tools evolve over time. They are fluid and grow to fill author and consumer needs in new and novel ways. The hype cycle also plays its part and I agree we are at the end of the initial burst with blogging, but that just means people are focusing less on the technology and more on the end result.
In the end I blog to record my thoughts, to respond to claims in my area that I want to discuss, and to let my followers know about KM news that I think will interest them. It's fun and given my lack of a social life at the moment, it lets my friends and family know what I am up to.