hugh mcleod illustrating the blog phenomenon [i really do need to get laid!!!! anyone?]
It is becoming obvious that no one really understands weblogs. […] A weblog is something fundamentally new. Something no one can quite put their finger on, not yet. And those who try to define the phenomenon in terms of current institutions are completely missing the point. […] The weblog is at once a scrapbook, news filter, chapbook, newsletter, and community. […] This is not passive news consumption. Neither is it broadcasting. The average blogger has time to surf the web, but no resources to report stories. Some bloggers will follow a news story to the end, some may lose interest after a few days. Commentary will range from the fully-formed to the random blurt and can freely mix the public and the personal.
All this represents something new: participatory media. And it matters. Not because of its resemblance to familiar institutions, but because of its differences from them.
Weblogs are just too varied, too idiosyncratic, to fit into an existing box. Industry analysts might call this disruptive technology because weblogs have changed personal publishing so profoundly that the old rules no longer apply. We are at the beginning of a new age of online publishing – and I predict that this generation of online pamphleteers is just the first wave.
rebecca blood [what a name! woo! wanna have my baby?] @ guardian unlimited
and in times when even george w bush has a blog, who would argue her point …