Blogosphere not credible?
Stephen Baker of BusinessWeek explained the blogosphere to Steven Straight following Straight's comment on Heather Green's post warning that the blogosphere is losing credibility.
Stephen on the blogosphere's credibility:
If you take a walk around the block and come across a group of raving harebrains, do you worry that the credibility of the street is at risk? If you're like me, you figure you ran into the wrong crowd. Maybe next stroll you should try a different neighborhood. But the point is that it's the people you run into that have or lack credibility. The street, like the blogosphere, just happens to be where you find them.
And on Straight's allegation that the blogosphere is filling up with boring or stupid blogs:
The great thing about the blog world is that unlike libraries or book stores, it never fills up. There's room for everyone. And if even 1% of the blogs is worth reading, it's still a gold mine. (And you can bet that marketers and social scientists will squeeze some interpretive value out of those other 99%.)
The bologosphere is credible as all get out. Put something out there that's off base. People, seen by thousands, will jump all over you. More credible than the offline world.
The "losing credibility", "stupid blogs" thought is addressed in Chris Anderson's (editor of Wired magazine) book called "The Long Tail" that is about to be published.
I read an advance copy on the weekend. (See my comments at http://www.canton.elegal.ca/archives/2006/07/#a000788 )
Chris makes the point that of the huge amount of amateur content (whether that be music, videos, blogs or whatever), only certain parts will appeal to certain people. With rare exception they are not top 40 material.
The point however is that "post-filters" such as search engines, user recommendations, reviews, and other blogs help each of us find and separate what is useful to each of us.
As far as "losing" credibility goes, my observation is that blogs started out as a form of personal geek diary, for lack of a better term. Over time they have been adopted for strategic value, and have gained credibility. Again, the issue is how we use the available tools to find the useful ones
You guys are stupid mother fuckers.
Gee Steven, could we draw you out on how you feel?