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Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Stop defining blogs
I’m a big fan of Doc Searls. Not just the Cluetrain Manifesto, but his blog, his input on the late, lamented Gillmor Gang, his keynotes, his other writing. But based on a brief synopsis of his finishing keynote at Les Blogs, I’ve finally found a point where I can disagree with him. (Not that I’ve been looking, mind you.) On his own blog, Searls quotes Lloyd Davis, who reported on Searls talk “about why we shouldn’t talk about content, consumers, audiences - because blogs are “writing” and should be thought of as a form of speech (which can be free) rather than media (which needs to be managed).”
I’m getting tired of people insisting that blogs are one thing but definitely cannot be another. Sure, I know exactly what Searls is talking about: the type of blog written by individuals (like, for example, this one). But that doesn’t mean that General Motors is abusing the blogosphere by producting Fastlane, which targets the consumer audience of automotive enthusiasts. I’ll keep on saying it: Blogs are lightweight content-management systems, and as such, are applicable to any task the use of such a system accommodates. Consequently, we’ll continue to see blogs branch out along several evolutionary paths. Some will be terrific, others will cause mass shrugging, and still others will be wretched. Those launched by organizations in order to help the company achieve business goals will require—require—consideration of content targeted to audiences. That, of course, will not diminish the importance of the writing.
But no matter how much the purists try to constrain the inevitable use of blogs to new purposes that don’t fit their viewpoints, this evolution will continue unabated. Some of the uses to which blogs will be put may wind up being absolutely brilliant. Let’s not stifle the creativity that will lead to these developments by trying to corral the technology to a single use. There’s plenty of room for blogs that characterize Searls’ definition to flourish without restricting the development of alternative uses.
