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Blogosphere Navel-Gazing

by Mark Evans on Wed 31 May 2006 07:47 AM EDT | Permanent Link

There's enough comment about Tim O'Reilly's decision to trademark "Web 2.0" (his response to the controversial issue is here) but the hailstorm of criticism it generated demonstrates how the blogosphere loves to chatter about itself among itself - something one could describe as cyber-navelgazing. The amount of time and energy devoted to whether O'Reilly has the right - or was right - in making a claim onWeb 2.0 (which he didn't invent) has been astounding but perhaps no one should be surprised by it. The blogosphere (and I'm a flag-waving member) loves nothing better to talk about what about people within the blogosphere are talking about to the point where it becomes a vicious circle. Is this a bad thing? No, because it demonstrates how enthusiastic and engaged people are about what's happening. But the O'Reilly firestorm does put the spotlight on one of the blogosphere's annoying habits that many of us who sit very close to the "fire" (or as my friend, Stuart MacDonald says, those us so close to trees we have bark marks), are often blissfully unaware about.

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Re: Blogosphere Navel-Gazing

by Tris Hussey on Wed 31 May 2006 12:14 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

You know Mark I think one of the bits of fallout has been the wake up call that maybe we lit the torches, sharpened the stakes, and rolled out the guillotine a little to fast and with too much fervor.

Re: Re: Blogosphere Navel-Gazing

by Mark Evans on Wed 31 May 2006 02:06 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

tris,
i'm afraid it's the nature of the beast. with tools that make it easy to communicate quickly and widely, the fury of the blogosphere can be ignited so fast. that's the downside of having an unfiltered medium - you get the good with the bad without anyone sitting in the middle to be the voice of objectivity or reason.

Re: Re: Re: Blogosphere Navel-Gazing

by Tris Hussey on Wed 31 May 2006 03:19 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

Mark, I agree it's the nature of the beats. I wonder, though, if incidents like this one help or hinder the growth of business blogging.

An open question I know, and I don't expect there to be any real change in the blogosphere. Sure one lesson drawn from this is that if youre not monitoring the blogosphere you can be raked over the coals, put on a spit and roasted to a crisp before you're even aware of it. The other lesson could be that no matter who you are, even the likes of Tim O'Reilly, you can't escape the wrath of bloggers.

In my mind, these are all things worth pondering.

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