Robin Good offered this to the Ryze discussion on corporate sponsored blogs. In my time as a blogger I have read many definitions of what blogging is. Robin’s is one of the best I’ve seen. There is something very right about his descriptions as he hits the principles rather than the technologies.
…But weblogs have not becomes famous because there is such a smart mini content management system behind them. Yes, this feature has been essential in allowing for the first time non-technical users, writers and vocational journalists to express themselves through the Web and with good results.
But the ‘essence’ of weblogging is the ability, through the use of such tools, to:
- speak in your own voice to your audience, without the formalities and distance typical of the corporate world
- open up a conversation with your audience. Allow comments and contributions to be posted. Reply to each one of them.
- interconnect and become aware of all other bloggers who working simultaneously with you at the same issues and topics. Spin off ideas from each other, refine, ruminate, clone and improve, synthesize, aggregate, filter. Isn’t this what the blogging community has been able to create?
It is a spiraling vortex of ever increasingly refined thoughts and ideas being passsed around while being refined and exchanged that made the bloggers universe so incredibly fascinating and powerful.
We are talking of new ways to communicate. No doubt there is still a lot to learn but what a start!