Winer on Weblogs

Personal Web Publishing Communities. Four very key words. Let’s go through them one by one…

So says Dave. No argument here. Dave nails it.
Of course, there’s more to say about weblogs; that’s why they’re hard to reduce to a definition, even with the expansion Dave provides for each of the terms. Weblogs are a rich phenomenon.
For example: Weblog communities are different than communities formed around discussion boards or mailing lists. The nature of the conversational bonds is different. Even weblog time is different – the fact that blogs have a daily feel isn’t incidental to what they are and what they’re becoming.
And, they hit a middle ground in terms of their publicness. For some of us – me – that’s been an inhibitor, since in the 2×2 matrix (I’ve gotta stop writing Powerpoints) of publicness and formality, emails are in the lower left (small, intimate group and highly informal), zines are in the top right (large group, formal/reviewed/drafted writing) and blogs are in the upper left (potentially a lot of readers, but generally pretty informal because they’re so timely). Some of us, because of our own neuroses, find the upper left an uncomfortable place.
Well, another 8-10 drafts and I’ll be ready to post this message. No! Be a blogger! Do it now! Do it!

Categories: Uncategorized dw