Blog: Design
From a big bore to media whores
02 Jan 04 by DL Byron
Thinking about what I’m going to say on the Blogging for Business panel, I recalled a Register article published in August 2003 that covered the blog phenomenon and how it’s gone from blog-bores “blogging-about-blogging” to voices in mainstream media.
Last month, the NYTimes covered gawker and referred to it as a mainstream blog. Last week, USA Today front-paged blogs as free-wheeling journalism. Until now, blogs have been noticed by various media outlets and are usually criticized for being so self-referential - talking about other blogs, the technology, etc. The contrast between the two articles is interesting. Gawker’s self-referential posts and meta-conversions are related to a person and her world, not just blogging. And, of course, there’s the Dean blogosphere that’s motivating a whole generation and changing the way candidates campaign.
I’m consulting at a large corporation and they’re hosting several internal blogs, as well as encouraging their employees to evangelize on their own blogs. I’m suggesting we use blog software for simple content management. For my small business clients, I encourage them to use a blog like a company newsletter. Just update that newsletter you’ve published for years to a web page, add commenting, several voices, some pictures, and publish it.
filed under: Design | Link Cosmos