A
MSNBC piece on weblogs.
Interestingly enough, it quotes Dave Winer as saying that if everyone had a
weblog, society would gain more consciousness and we'd enter a new golden age.
It doesn't seem likely to me; most people follow the path of least resistance
and any more consciousness and thought than is required to work, shop and
watch Seinfeld reruns is strictly for the thinking-fetishists (you know, the
geeky sorts who read books and talk about
ideas and such). It's not that
most people are stupid or unconscious, but that thinking requires effort and,
unless you're into that kind of thing, you'd want to keep it to a minimum.
Thus if Dave Winer gave every man, woman and child on this planet a weblog,
most of them would end up unmaintained, or containing only postings as incisive
and thoughtful as "last night's Friends episode was cool".
Or maybe I'm just a cynic.