I am constantly amazed by the number of experts who are available to discuss blogging, new media, social networking and that strange and untamable beast, the Internet. They are wheeled out across the mainstream media channels to provide some insight or a "POV" on where all this technology is leading "us". Yet it is unclear exactly who "us" and where the insight comes from. So from now on, I am on the lookout for social media/blogging experts — if you find one, please comment or email me and let me know so I can add them to my list.
The inaugural expert I would like to introduce you to is Australian and has written this piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, talking about the "Lost Art of Blogging". In the article, Graeme Philipson laments that out of the Top 25,000 blogs (9,000 of which are in English), only 75 blogs originate in Australia. Various reasons are provided for the poor showing including the following insight by Ross Dawson:
… one key reason is lack of bandwidth in Australia, and of its high cost
Now I know that Ross Dawson has a blog so that is at least a start — and from the look of his archive, he has been at it far longer than I. But to link low uptake of blogging to bandwidth seems ludicrous. Bloggers would or perhaps should know that blogging is a low bandwidth activity — unless you start to embed YouTube videos and so on. It certainly has not been an impediment to the very successful Mack Collier.
But the last word on blogging expertise rests with Graeme, who says:
I don’t blog. Can’t see the point, when I write this column and others. I also rarely read them – the letters page of this newspaper and the many emails I receive is for me more than enough exposure to the unfiltered opinion of the common man.
Enough said.
Update: David Koopmans follows up with this post … AND Chris Newlan explains that bloggers may be bad for the newspaper business!
“But the last word on blogging expertise rests with Graeme, who says:
I don’t blog. Can’t see the point, when I write this column and others. I also rarely read them – the letters page of this newspaper and the many emails I receive is for me more than enough exposure to the unfiltered opinion of the common man.
Enough said.”
Gavin it never ceases to amaze me how the ‘pundits’ that decry blogs the loudest, always tell on themselves and admit that they never read blogs, and most say that they think they are useless. So much for an ‘unbiased’ opinion.
Would it seem a little too chummy if I did the obvious and suggest that you add “Gavin Heaton” to your list of experts? I hear he blogs…
Janet
Graham’s website at http://philipson.info says it was last updated in 2005 – time for a fresh look and links to some of the excellent IT blogs around.
Love the design on his website too….Not!
Thanks for your thoughts….
To support my comments about blogging activity relating to bandwidth, see our recent Future of Media Report at:
http://www.rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2007/07/launching_the_f_1.html
The chart on the bottom of p7 shows a clear correlation across nations between bandwidth and time spent online. If there are more people online, who spend more time online, they are more likely to blog – and read blogs – than otherwise.
I should note that Graeme doesn’t pretend to be an expert on blogging – he’s a journalist writing a newspaper column. The analysis quoted is mine.
Ross, thanks for joining the conversation! While I clearly get the correlation between time spent online and potential to read/write blogs, this seems to miss an understanding of the targeted and highly segmented nature of blogs. Perhaps this is where there is a connection to Graeme’s concern about the “quality” of user generated content …
Blogging (and its potential as a disruptive technology/movement) is not about the mainstream or the mass, but the individual and the community. It is about influence and conversation.
I agree totally Gavin!
At the same time, participation varies across countries and contexts – it is worth thinking about why.
Some of my more detailed thoughts on the role of social media (which I think are highly aligned with yours) are in our Future of Media Strategic Framework (center of the report):
http://www.rossdawsonblog.com/Future_of_Media_Report2006.pdf
Interestingly Ross, if you take a look at Todd Andrlik’s top marketing blogs, there are about 8 from Australia in the top 350. That says much about the power and potential to innovate and the importance of influence on a global stage.