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Why Blogs?
I was mulling over with Lisa the idea that blogs, and decentralized mouthpieces in general, have emerged as a solution to the Usenet Problem -- that there are too many people talking.
In essence, there are just too many people. Too many to listen to them all, too many to read, too many to have anything resembling discourse.
The solution is the blogosphere. By decenteralizing the flow of information, people are allowed to flow into clusters, of size based on how much people are comfortable reading, and how many people form a community. So rather than a few small pulpits, from which only the loudest can be heard and which only those with huge amounts of time on their hands can hear, there are many small ones. Some are very highly populated. Some are not. And some people have a far larger community than others -- either in terms of reading, being read, or both. But this way, the conversational flow can continue in the face of a continual flood of people -- and almost any other way, it doesn't.
In essence, there are just too many people. Too many to listen to them all, too many to read, too many to have anything resembling discourse.
The solution is the blogosphere. By decenteralizing the flow of information, people are allowed to flow into clusters, of size based on how much people are comfortable reading, and how many people form a community. So rather than a few small pulpits, from which only the loudest can be heard and which only those with huge amounts of time on their hands can hear, there are many small ones. Some are very highly populated. Some are not. And some people have a far larger community than others -- either in terms of reading, being read, or both. But this way, the conversational flow can continue in the face of a continual flood of people -- and almost any other way, it doesn't.