I'm writing this post after a glorious early-morning swim at a cottage in Northern Ontario. It's a an appropriate setting for something I've thinking about for some time: why, how and where we blog. In a very short period of time, blogging has gone from being viewed as nothing more than online diaries to a world with legitmate businesses that generate good revenue and VC (Om Malik, Huffingtonpost.com, etc.) In the past few weeks, several  blog-vertising networks have emerged from firms such as Feedburner and Performancing, which suggests the blogosphere is maturing.
As for the blogging community, it's getting bigger but I'm not convinced it's getting better. There's what I would describe as a lot of piling on going on - people blogging for the sake of blogging rather doing it because they something to say. Don't get me wrong, not everyone has to write sermons like Nicholas Carr or produce insightful posts like Scott Karp but blogging should be adding to the conversation. I come across too many posts that are simply cut and paste jobs of other peoples' posts or press releases with no value-add. Where's the value in that?
Is this a rant? Maybe. Or perhaps it's just my take on how the blogging world is evolving. As much Technorati believes two new blogs are being created a second, I think many blogs are being abandoned as the novelty wears off. Truth be told, blogging is a labour of love. To do it well takes a lot of time and work, which probably explains why many blogs are left wanting. It's the search for quality that makes me so interested in tools that can separate the wheat from the chaff. I want something that brings me the well-written, thoughtful, insightful blogs - perhaps some kind of recommendation engine that uses my blogroll or RSS feeds as a guide. That's not a lot to ask is it?
  As for where and how we blog, it's fascinating to see people do it on their Blackberries while at the cottage (Mark Goldberg), in line at the airport (Doc Serles) or while driving (not such a good idea!) The concept of mobile blogging could emerge as the next hot thing within the blogosphere. I think it was Typepad introduced a new mobile tool earlier this week, and I was recently  approached by a Canadian company about to unveil a mobile blogging beta.
Sorry for the rambly post this morning but getting away gives you time to think - and write - about stuff that you don't usually have time to address.