10 Questions with Garrick Van Buren on Blogging
How long ago did you start blogging and why did you start?
Back in 2000, Darrel Austin and I started the climbingturtle blog to share interesting links and a personal comment on them. During that same time, I started an internal blog for the my employer – for the same purpose. Darrel and I took a couple year hiatus in ‘02. Then, I started the Work Better Weblog in January 2004 – and Darrel and I started co-blogging again at MNteractive.com that Spring – adding more authors along the way and pulling some of the old posts out of the Way-Back Machine. Autumn 2004 gave birth to the First Crack Podcast and shortly thereafter – my Garrick Van Buren.com
When did you first hear the word blog and what was your first impression of the idea behind it?
My first associations with the word ‘blog’ were kottke.org and blogger.com. I saw it as an easy way to publish publicly – in contrast to email which is private publishing. Weblogs as a personal journal or diary never resonated with me, I’ve always thought blogs as a public meeting place was much more interesting. The kind of place we all contribute to, build off one-another, and learn from each other. Too few exist in real life as it is – too many neighborhood parks are mostly empty. Too little public discourse is happening about our communities. It’s tough to get together simultaneously. Blogs make that easier – you’re in your pajamas on your schedule.
Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?
Speed to press is the 1st-level disruptor. There’s no publishing method faster, cheaper, and with a wider geographic reach. The added bonus is inexpensive editing – that’s the aspect newspapers, television, and radio can’t duplicate. The best blog posts are filled with updates, corrections, and piles of comments.
The 2nd-level disruptor is knowing what public conversations are happening about you. This changes the discourse, adds a layer of accountability. Blog search is just starting to show us what this disruption means.
What is the most important aspect of a person’s blog to you? What keeps you coming back?
The first answer is – ‘them’, the second answer is – ‘me’.
First the writing needs to have perspective and enthusiasm. Without that, just pack up the keyboard. Some writers need a specific person to write for – each post I write is to help me work through ideas. I consider each post the start of an idea, the first early signs of a conversation – a ‘What if’ , ‘What about’, ‘Hey, look at this’, or ‘Am I full of crap?’. The great thing about blog is you can change your mind, you can revise, and if you’re real lucky that’ll get you attention.
There are two factors to keep my attention – write about something I’m interested in and wrap an RSS feed around it. Even if the first is true, I don’t have time to remember URLs or manually scan bookmarks. Getting in my feedreader is extremely easy – and once you’re there – you gotta work at getting out.
Finding good bits of conversation in hundreds of RSS feeds is an entirely different problem. There are 500+ unread items in my feedreader as I write this. Most of them have timely and important things to say about topics I’m interested in – otherwise they wouldn’t be in my reader. Problem is, the reader I use it’s difficult to connect emerging memes. This is something Technorati and Memeorandum do with the entire universe of blogs and news. I’m still looking for the solutions that does this for the people I care about.
Where do you see blogging in 5 years?
Invisible. Like parks and house numbers – they exist everywhere, are persistent, and life wouldn be far less enjoyable without them. Blogs will be identifying sign posts and gathering places as they are today, but the word itself will be indistinguishable from ‘website’.
And people will be fired for not having a blog. As I’ve stated before – if I search for someone and a weblog doesn’t come up – I hesitate. It’s the easiest way to find out where someone’s head is.
Who do you think some of the most influential bloggers are and why?
The early Suck.com made hyperlinking a comedic artform. Early on I read more kottke.org and 37svn.com . I’m glad Kottke can go full-time and I think 37Signals’ work using blogging to build markets is impressive.
Lately, I look towards Doc Searls , Dave Winer , Hugh MacLeod, Dave Cecchi – their writing makes me stop and think about what they’re saying as much as why they’re saying it.
For blogging and new media in general to be able to succeed it is belived that the conversation between the producer and the consumer is more important why do you think this is?
The low-barrier of entry in blogging – and internet publishing as a whole – puts all publishers on equal footing and with their audiences. For too long, customers haven’t been directly involved in the creation of what they’re purchasing (with their time or money). Our world is now one of abundance – the only differentiator anyone has is their personality and their relationship with others. Success hinges on providing each customer with a valuable, unique relationship. This relationship is most visible in a conversation – online or in some other marketplace. Blogs provide an easy way for everyone to talk about their relationships – good, bad, otherwise.
What would you tell a blogger who is trying to figure out the journalism world? (For blogging to become an even bigger powerhouse in the citizen journalism world the bloggers have to learn from the success and mistakes of journalism)
If journalism means I call up people, attempt to understand an issue in a new way, and double-check what people tell me – then, the difference between journalism and blogging is whether or not I have shoes on. I think the mistakes of journalism are a result of their tools. To date – publishing and documenting tools were very expensive often needing advertising subsidizes to support them and even then were restricted in column inches or airtime. Bandwidth and digital tools are close enough to free that reporters/bloggers/journalists of any flavor can go very deep, publish whenever they have something to share, and correcting as new information arises.
The biggest constraint in blogging today is that everyone doesn’t have a blog. Dave Slusher ’s Uplifter meme is one very compelling way to solve that problem. He’s been talking about bloggers and podcasters getting together and helping I’m-interested-but-don’t-know-where-to-start people. Blogging has fit into my life in a specific way, there are a handful of different ways I put together a podcast. This is the way that works for me – it might not be the way that works for you. Talking with 10 different bloggers – much like you’re doing with this series – you’ll find a way that works for you.
How has blogging affected your life?
At the most basic level, it’s given me a place to put ideas for fermentation. Outside of that, it’s allowed me to share what I find interesting and useful with others – when I’m real lucky, they find it interesting as well.
How can we educate the average user about blogging?
Get them a blog – and a reason to share. This reason can be as simple as family photos (what’s Flickr if not a massive photo blog), favorite bookmarks, commentary on a subject important to their lives. There’s so much happening at a hyper-local level that isn’t being covered; kickball games, lunch conversations, city government issues.