December 31, 2004, Dan Gillmor ended a ten year gig [1] writing about technology at the San Jose Mercury News and siliconvalley.com to focus on other efforts, including a blog called Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism - A conversation about the future of journalism "by the people, for the people" [2] There, he share fresh insight on a field he knows well, demonstrated in his 2004 book We the Media [3], and the insight on his blog ranges from developments in open source journalism to the underlying technologies. Why go from the mainstream media to a blog? Read on (and I agree with Dan - stop using PDF for your documents, it is a closed, ineffective publishing medium):
A Medium Coming Into Its Own
The graph, from a new study (summary) by the Pew Internet
& American Life Project, tells us something vital about the expanding
authority of blogs. While the number of new blogs is rising, readership is
growing even faster.
Note: I wish these studies were available in plain HTML, not
just PDF format. You can find the PDF here [4].
Links:
[1] http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/10548269.htm
[2] http://dangillmor.typepad.com/
[3] http://wethemedia.oreilly.com/
[4] http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_blogging_data.pdf
[5] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/realneo-topsoil-technology-optimization-platform-for-social-organization-innovation-and-learning/criticality-of-internet-in-bett
[6] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/TOPSOIL
[7] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/realneo-topsoil-technology-optimization-platform-for-social-organization-innovation-and-learning/ending-confusion-about-luddites