David Winer is hugging Tony Perkins. Also on the panel: Rebecca Lieb of internet.com and Jason Shellen of Blogger, who are not hugging. This is a panel where the Experts answer our questions.

“Do people blog just to say they’re blogging?” Surprisingly, Rebecca says yes. Jason replies that it takes staying power to blog for a long time.

“What is a blog?” Dave: It’s the style, not the technical features. It’s in the unedited voice of the individual. But even that rule can be broken, e.g., group blogs like BoingBoing. But there’s a long list of best practices.

Jason Shellen: It consists of posts. Harrumph.com.

Rebecca: “A business blog is an unofficial means of addressing a defined agenda.” An individual and honest voice. An open loop.

Tony: He quotes Dave Winer. Dave urges him to give all of AlwaysOn’s members their own blog. Tony says they do, but they’re disagreeing (again) over what a blog is.

Now we’re fighting again over Tony’s use/coopting of the word. The crowd is generally tired of the topic. I’m not, although this is no longer the right place to pursue it. For me, the issue is that we — the Blogosphere — have built something special, post by post, day by day. Tony is misappropriating our work for his own purposes. I have nothing against his purposes — I hope AlwaysOnline succeeds — but having him misuse and abuse the term “blog” makes it harder for us to explain what is special about the world we’ve built together. It harms the growth of blogging. IMO.

Tony wraps up by acknowledging that AlwaysOn isn’t a blog. “You can sense it.” But he wants to help us expand beyond our “cult.” Sure, but Tony should listen about what makes blogs blogs, IMO.

Dave is enlisting Tony in Dave’s project of giving a blog to everyone in New Hampshire in order to affect the 2004 presidential election.

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