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Wharton / Managing Technology Comments on Blogging
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Wharton / Managing Technology Comments on Blogging
1:00 AM EDT 5/31/09
Blogs, Everyone? Weblogs Are Here to Stay, but Where Are They Headed?

Recently, blogs have been credited with everything from CBS News anchorman Dan Rather's departure, to unauthorized previews of the latest Apple Computer products, to new transparency in presidential campaigns. The big question is whether blogs, short for weblogs, have the staying power to become more than just online diaries. Will bloggers upend the mainstream media? What legal protections should bloggers have? Is there a blogger business model? While no definitive answers exist just yet, experts at Wharton advise questioners to be patient. Blogging, they note, will be around for a long time.

Wharton legal studies professor Dan Hunter puts blogging right up there with the printing press when it comes to sharing ideas and disseminating information. "This is not a fad," says Hunter. "It's the rise of amateur content, which is replacing the centralized, controlled content done by professionals."

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1172
Re: Wharton / Managing Technology Comments on Blogging
1:42 PM EST 3/29/05 as a reply to Eric Ipsen.
This is one of my favorite topics. I like the analogy to the printing press because of the suggestion that this publishing media enables the democratic dissemination of knowledge in a parallel way.

Do blogs "have the staying power to become more than just online diaries"?
This assumption that a blog is, by definition, an "online diary" is wrong. That is just one variation of the medium. The key characteristics of a blog are that it is online, consists of brief posts, usu. with hyperlinks to more in-depth content, entered periodically (every day/week/month) in reverse chronological order, and marked with date and time stamps. Within that definition, many uses have emerged, one of the more controversial being the journalistic newsfeed approach, which is giving the mainstream media a poke in the side.

"It's the rise of amateur content, which is replacing the centralized, controlled content done by professionals."
If you take the [url http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=amateur&x=13&y=16 ]Merriam-Webster definition[/url] of amateur as "one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession," there is no inherent implication that these practitioners are any less accomplished at their task -- they just don't do it for money. Given the current consolidation of the mainstream media and the intrusion of the profit model into the editorial department, these "amateurs" are introducing topics and opinions into the community dialog that have been overlooked/dismissed by the "professionals."

The debate has gotten quite heated at times. See the thread on [url http://webjunction.org/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=16248#16248 ]I see Blog People[/url] for more.
Re: Wharton / Managing Technology Comments on Blogging
4:45 PM EST 3/29/05 as a reply to Betha Gutsche.
While in college in 1981 I heard the late Dr. Eugene Balof, University of North Alabama Communications Department Head, predict that the online journal would revolutionize public media...and therefore, the world.

I, too, am Blog People.
http://theloo.org
Re: Wharton / Managing Technology Comments on Blogging
9:04 PM EST 3/30/05 as a reply to Marianne Lenox.
Thanks for sharing! I like that: 'I am Blog People'. It makes more sense, especially when you're talking about collaborative blogging, which, as others have said, is sort of like what we do here. Maybe we should make a little "blog people" icon for our little WJ message board.
Re: Wharton / Managing Technology Comments on Blogging
12:58 PM EST 4/1/05 as a reply to Chrystie Hill.
<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&url=michael+gorman+bloggers"><img src='http://theloo.org/wp-content/blogpeople.gif' alt='I AM BLOG PEOPLE' /></a>

;)
Re: Wharton / Managing Technology Comments on Blogging
4:03 PM EDT 4/4/05 as a reply to Marianne Lenox.
lovely. i love it.

now that i see it - i wonder - should it just say "blog people" so that it speaks directly to the "blog person" img?

betha, what do you think about putting this in our Right Rail in the community center (which, btw, is currently being redesigned...)


Message was edited by: chrystiehill