Scratchings

Paul Boutin at Wired claims that blogging is like, so 2004, and that anyone who’s anyone (or at least Jason Calacanis) is now concentrating on shaping their multimedia online persona via Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube etc.

I don’t think Paul’s got the whole story. People don’t just blog to show off, essentially as a live CV or a way to validate their points of view. They write about what they know, and to share information - tons of readers rely on trusted blogs for news, views and more. And others of course just write about a topic they’re passionate about, just because they want to - not as a self-promotion.

Sure, blogs have changed plenty in the last few years, but they’re not dead. It’s just that people are perhaps not so interested in reading lengthy introspective noodlings of individuals - they want information they can trust. And Twitter et al are not (often) providing that - they’re good for the noodlings, now thankfully in a briefer form.

It’s also important to remember that things are different in the real world, outside of the tech/media crowd - Branwen Hide of the Research Information Network takes a completely reverse approach, asking ‘Has blogging become the new Facebook?’ - and is another voice in the growing support of blogging as a useful means of science communication.