The Geek Gurus

What's the Big Deal About Blogging?

Jan 25, 2006

Bloggers think they're hot shit.

Well, some of them actually are. But, no matter how famous or obscure, many bloggers seem to feel that they are cool simply because they are blogging.

They're a bit schizophrenic about it. On the one hand, bloggers proudly point to their own ever-growing numbers, and the growing influence of blogs, as proof that this phenonemon is important. They are also fond of pointing out that blogging is democratic: anybody can run a blog - for free! - and make their voice heard.

On the other hand, bloggers can be very incestuous and clicquish. Some blogs are recognized to be famous and influential, and their "A-List" authors do a lot of cozy mutual backscratching, meeting up at conferences and then blogging about each other and how wonderful they are.

"Blogebrity" (yes, there is a site) is another form of geek fame, and some (many?) of the famous geeks are now famous bloggers as well. The famous geeks are a cadre of people who did cool (or at least lucrative) things during the dot.com boom, and/or wrote books and articles about other people doing cool things. They became the geek experts, asked to speak at conferences, etc. These restless, creative spirits have now moved on to other projects, where their geek chic helps them garner still more attention and funding. As in every other sphere of life, the "in" crowd stays in, and life is harder for the outs. (I am tempted to wonder whether this crowd is extra-clicquish because most of them were outcast geeks in high school.)

Do you detect sour grapes? Yup, you're right. I have never been good at marketing myself, so, instead of parlaying my own valuable experience into speaking gigs and book deals, I stayed in the trenches and did the hard work (and got very little thanks for it, though the money was good at the time). Now I have the bitter amusement of watching others sell as newly-revealed wisdom ideas and methods that I worked out for myself long ago.

"Companies should be listening to what their customers are saying in blogs," says "Blogdaddy" Jeff Jarvis. <snort> I was listening and responding to customers in CompuServe forums in 1993. And I followed our customers through every new form of online communication as each came along (and some, like CompuServe, went). Blogs are just another way to share opinions online, not inherently more powerful than their predecessors and contemporaries.

As for the Cluetrain: hell, I laid track for that.