On Nov. 15 I started a new job as Systems Administrator for Meet Minneapolis.  This is the official visitor and convention association for the City. As the systems administrator I work with about 75 end users.  There are also 10 server on site and about 30 servers off site. The office itself has a nice Cisco VoIP system and about 2 terabytes of data storage. It’s a mix of desktops including PC, Macs, and Thin Clients.

I have found that my job is something of a status quo for the types of positions I gravitate towards.  In this case it has to do with my passion for social media and how it can integrate into the business.  This isn’t my primary role but I can’t seem to help the fact that I see business processes and I see how social media can integrate into the process.

Like most companies this one has a mix of people from those who have limited computer skills to those who are technologically savvy.  However, most of the people don’t have social media savvy yet.  They have heard the term but don’t really understand it. This is what I find in most companies still.  This is also what allows me some inroads to describe the use of social media and how it can affect business processes.

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.

How long ago did you start blogging and why did you start?

I started blogging in 1994 as a way to share my interests with friends. My first blog was about movie reviews and was powered by the FirstClass publishing system. I wanted more people to understand my jokes and movie quotes, and the blog allowed me to make recommendations and engage my readers.

When did you first hear the word blog and what was your first impression of the idea behind it?
I first heard the word “blog” in 1999 or 2000. It’s really just another word to describe what people have already been doing online or in a paper diary for years. The term “blog” to me relates a certain data format or layout, possibly powered by a specialized tool.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

Blogging lowers the barrier to entry for individuals to express their opinions and passions to a large group of people. Modern bloggers don’t have to know anything about HTML or markup; they simply type their thoughts into a browser window and send it off to the world. We all have something to say, and everyone wants to have at least one more person listen to their point of view, so blogging is a great worldwide connector. My blog is read in Ireland and in Japan by people I cannot reach in my everyday life, even if I knew how to reach them! I am able to publish my thoughts and have people of similar interests join in the conversation and build upon my ideas.

What is the most important aspect of a person’s blog to you? What keeps you coming back?

I like to see original reporting from a unique point of view. I like to learn something new every day and enjoy reading blogs that introduce me to new ideas and ways of thinking. I do most of my reading in a feed aggregator, so full feeds are important. I appreciate blogs that are free of conflicts of interest and who do not skew their content for sponsors or employers.

In the coming years and decades it will be increasingly hard to get a person’s attention. How can we as blogger and journalist help the consumer with this aspect?

I think variety is a good thing. The increased availability of content across various subject areas will allow each reader to choose their favorite topics. Someone may not subscribe to a general sports blog, but they will subscribe to a blog on the business of soccer for example.

A challenge developers and business leaders need to rise to is the management of all of these choices of information to allow end-users to discover and interact with the content they care about. If we know someone watched the season finale of Survivor last night, we might be able to suggest timely and topical content such as blog posts about the episodes, or reactions from the latest person booted off the island. You could also encourage the creation of content by helping the user create a list of the top 5 things they would bring with them to a deserted island or what food they might crave the most.

Journalists will produce more in-depth stories and analysis using the resources at their disposal and their reputation in the industry. The reputation of a publication or a reporter will have increased attention as individuals look to the wisdom of the crowds to help establish trust. Personalization and social network filters built-in to tools will help more bloggers and publications reach audiences not possible with today’s ranking methods.

Where do you see blogging in 5 years?

I think blogging will spread to multiple methods of input within the next 5 years. You might type a blog post on your laptop or mobile phone, write a message from a tablet device, or submit audio and video posts from a phone or home recording station. The same tools we use to connect people over long distances such as video conferencing, gaming devices, computers, and cell phones, will become better equipped for easy content creation such as blogging.

Network bandwidth and ubiquity will continue to increase, allowing blogging from more locations. Using a wireless data network you could upload your latest photograph with an audio annotation right when inspiration hits.

We will also see more collaboration in blogs as some features of wikis work their way into blog posts.

Who do you think some of the most influential bloggers are and why?

I think the most influential bloggers are acting as connectors and helping others get started with new blogs or a new approach to business. Also important and influential are the bloggers building the tools that help other people create new things. There are so many things people are interested in learning about that influence really varies by topic.

Jeffrey Zeldman is an influential blogger among the design community. Joel Spolsky and Paul Graham influence small business leaders. Tim Bray, Dave Winer, and Adam Bosworth influence the technology bloggers.

Why is ‘Conversation King’?

Conversation is king because anyone can contribute in a meritocracy of information and opinion. Conversations allow you to admit you might not have all the answers and you are willing to listen to what another person has to say. People like to be heard, and the best ideas don’t necessarily already exist within the confines of your company or your own mind.

What would you tell a blogger who is trying to figure out the journalism world?

I recommend finding a niche market to cover better than anyone else. Become the online expert on the latest MP3 players, baby strollers, or whatever you feel you are in a position to cover well. Seek out new stories in those areas and find other bloggers and journalists covering similar stories so you can learn from their work.

How has blogging affected your life?

Blogging has allowed me to connect with a larger group of people than I ever thought was possible. Last month I was sitting in a San Francisco cafe when someone visiting from South Africa recognized me from my blog and we started talking about the topics of my latest entries. My blog has led to new jobs, new conversations, and new reasons to seek out new information and explore emerging technologies.

How can we educate the average user about blogging?

The first step is to help remove the intimidation involved with publishing online. I ask people questions about things I know they are passionate about and then encourage them to share their opinions and insights with the world through a blog. Once people realize they have something to say and they are eager to share it with the world the rest is easy.

Blogging for the average user may not involve a broad worldwide audience. My mother’s instant messaging buddy list contains only family and relatives spread across the world. She might start a blog to deliver the latest news from home to my brother serving in Iraq or my relatives in Ireland and be very happy with informing that audience.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to blog and what do you the pros/cons of blogging are?

Blog for yourself. If you get caught up in expected posting volume, subscriber counts, and why no one is leaving comments on your blog you will never get anywhere.

Your blog will be a part of your personal online identity. Consider integrating your blog with a personal domain name instead of a generic service to build a better brand.

Download a desktop feed aggregator to stay on top of the latest news from around the Web. Start tracking your favorite sites and add your opinion to the conversation by commenting on those stories.

How long ago did you start blogging and why did you start?

Ten years ago I began a mailing list, a zine I called Entropy Gradient Reversals. Through word of mouth, EGR eventually grew to have over 5,000 subscribers. I was working for IBM at the time I started writing that way — in a very different mode from the stuff I’d published in technical and trade and mainstream business publications. I’d published quite a bit of what I’d written, and I’d written a lot. But IBM told me I couldn’t publish anything without their permission, and I knew that, for the kind of stuff I wanted to write, such permission would never be forthcoming. I also knew they were pretty dumb about the web, and I figured they’d never find me there, so I took a chance. As it turned out, they did discover my parodies of IBM chairman-at-the-time Lou Gerstner, but I quit before they could fire me for that. I recounted much of this in The Cluetrain Manifesto — the book, not the website.

In 2000, after Cluetrain hit — and hit it did — Jack Schofield, a pal at the UK Guardian and a long-time EGR reader, asked me to do a column about blogs, which were pretty new at that time, and about which I frankly knew very little, except that I’d started one, and that I didn’t really get it myself. I felt constrained by the form, so different than the long screeds I’d been sending out to the EGR list for five years. I never did write the article for Jack, but I did do some research for it — talked to some bloggers who were pioneers in all that. One was Dave Winer, and that exchange, as you can imagine, had a lot to do with technology.

But the guy who impressed me most in the early blogging scene was my friend and co-author Doc Searls. I felt that Doc had really found his voice in the blog format. It fit him perfectly, and he was great at it. Still is. Me, I never did quite get the hang of it. I’ve blogged a ton, but I think I’ve mostly gone against the grain. My stuff is not all that popular, as such things are measured, and I understand why. I sympathize. I suppose my real calling in life is to annoy and confound as many people as I can in the short time allotted to me on this earth.

When did you first hear the word blog and what was your first impression of the idea behind it?

I recall running across something about weblogs by Cameron Barrett. It seemed he was talking about something new and exciting, but I couldn’t make head nor tails of it. To me, weblogs were those files that collect statistics about site visits and so forth. So I was like… huh? Only later did I begin to tune in to what a weblog was, as we understand that term today. I was from Missouri on the issue of what good they were. In a way I still am. But I love to blog, so I try to keep my doubts in check. Mostly by ignoring them.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

I think writing is disruptive. I think democracy is disruptive. I suppose I take those inalienable truths so much for granted that I didn’t go into blogging thinking primarily about it’s disruptive aspects, though those are certainly part of the territory, part of the inevitable result. What gets disrupted, as with any writing worthy of the name, is the collective illusion that we’re all “the same” or that life is a certain way. I once blogged a one-liner that simply said: “There is no way things are.”

Mass media made us appear to ourselves like mass people. We aren’t. Blogging initially began to change that impression. However, one of the ironies today is how much of the blogging scene seems to have attempted to replicate the old regime. I suppose this always happens: here comes the New Boss — just like the Old Boss. So I get down on my knees and pray…

What is the most important aspect of a person’s blog to you? What keeps you coming back?

Hard to say. I don’t follow all that many blogs, and those I do, well… it’s pretty intermittent. I think many of us feel a little guilty in that respect. I know I do. But there it is. My personal style has never been to cover trends, topical news, current events. So I’m often well behind the curve of “what’s happening” on the net. I’m a very late adopter. And most of the time — with notable exceptions — I’m just not all that interested in the technology. Or the news. Or what’s happening in the so-called popular culture. Most of the time, I’m not interested in much of anything you could really put your finger on. So to stay alive, I have to work really hard at becoming curious about other sorts of things. I guess what I blog about tends to be a little weird and offbeat. Like what I’ve been up to at Mystic Bourgeoisie.

All that said, I often do run across blogs that knock me out. Where someone is really writing from the heart. With high humor or great pathos or that something strangely human that reminds me of my own humanity. I’m left cold by anyone trying to sound like the New Boss.

In the coming years and decades it will be increasingly hard to get a person’s attention. How can we as blogger and journalist help the consumer with this aspect?

This is essentially a question left over from the days of mainstream mass media. Personally, I don’t believe in consumers any more than I believe in the Tooth Fairy. You may not agree, but I bet that got your attention. I’m certainly not interested in “helping” bloggers or journalists or consumers to do anything in particular. Like I would know what they should do? I think it’s wonderful that so many people are writing. I think they should explore how to keep doing that and how deep they can take it. Natural language is infinite, it’s said, so the possibilities are literally endless. Who knows what will get people’s attention? Chaucer didn’t know. Shakespeare knew a little better, as he had the Globe theater as a test-bed. But he would have been surprised, I bet, at how well his stuff has fared. Ditto-and-then-some for Van Gogh, who died in poverty. What could Van Gogh have done back then to help some clueless bastard fork out millions of dollars for one of his paintings at Sotheby’s? I think if he knew, he would have done it while it still made a difference.

Where do you see blogging in 5 years?

Five years ago, blogging was just getting started. I doubt anyone grasped at that time how huge the phenomenon would become, though some of us certainly saw the potential early on. Blogging is a particular form, and that form has a lot to do with the state of the technology, which is constantly changing — and as we all know, changing with increasing speed. What I think lasts, and has lasted historically, is the human desire to communicate to other human beings, whether through writing or sound or images. Nineteenth century novelists would have had a very hard time imagining the possibilities of today’s cinema. As hard a time, perhaps — especially given the pace of change — as we have today imagining what form our communication will take in five years.

Whatever that form is (though there will always, as ever, be forms, plural), free and unencumbered access to the means of production will remain crucial. While the net is neither cost-free or totally free in the political sense, it has brought such visions closer into range. I hope we will fight to broaden those visions and more fully realize them. They are certainly endangered by both global communications conglomerates and increasingly fascistic governments.

Who do you think some of the most influential bloggers are and why?

Well, if you mean influence as it’s usually measured, then the clear answer is the Top 100 hit magnets on Technorati. No one could say, and I wouldn’t suggest, that they’re not having a lot of influence on whomever is hitting their blogs. They must, right? And the more people who hit those sites, the more people will hit those sites. In this sense, we’ve replicated the mass media model. Which is inevitable in some sense. I mean, there will always be a top-10, a top-100, in anything you can measure. It’s like fashion. Beige is the new black. Chartreuse is the new black. Whatever.

Then there’s the very different phenomenon of going to x-random site and reading something, hearing something, seeing something that changes your mind, touches your heart. It could be someone you’ve never heard of. It could be someone whose voice is just emerging. His or her real voice. Real in the sense that it cuts through all the posturing and bullshit and reminds you what you are, what we are. That kind of influence can’t be measured the same way. And it’s possible that, by measuring things that can be easily measured, we miss entirely the things that can’t be measured at all.

Why is ‘Conversation King’?

Is it? I never said that. I don’t think I ever said that. Way back in the mid-80s, Esther Dyson said that “content is king.” I don’t know if that was original with her, or if she was quoting some meme that was prevalent at the time — I suspect it was her coinage. At any rate, that was an early perception of the rising value of what people have to say to each other. Once upon a time, such “content” could be wholly defined by advertisers. The net has changed that locus of control. And yeah, that’s important. That’s huge. We can now express ourselves on the experience of being human instead of solely on the thin and none too interesting experience of being “consumers.”

It was Doc Searls, once again, who wrote “markets are conversations.” In the Cluetrain book, I wrote a whole segment on ancient markets where everyone was haggling and sharing news and gossip and telling stories and like that. I think Doc and I were on the same page in that respect. I also think, though, that there are those who would turn the equation around and assume that “conversations are markets.” I think that’s not so true. To put it a different way: inasmuch as conversations are markets, they’re less conversations.

On the other hand, maybe I’m wrong about that. If one can trace them, the semantic trade routes certainly tell us a lot about who we’ve come to believe we are.

What would you tell a blogger who is trying to figure out the journalism world?

I guess the first thing I’d suggest would be to stop worrying about it so much. The second suggestion might be to study up a bit on how journalism has evolved. Look into what Hunter Thompson really meant by “gonzo journalism” — a story unpacked in my book, Gonzo Marketing (which really isn’t so much about marketing). Look into “public journalism” — which I also wrote about in Gonzo — and what Dan Gillmor is doing in that vein on Bayosphere.

Finally, I’d suggest that the reason to look at journalism — in the many ways it’s been practiced, past and present — is to explore how to write. Good journalism is good writing. Bad journalism is bad writing. Of course, there’s always going to be debate about these values. George W. Bush appears to have a very different idea of good and bad writing than did, say, Hunter S. Thompson. But then, GWB is a fool, and HST wasn’t.

How has blogging affected your life?

The main way that blogging has touched my life is via the many wonderful and surprising people I’ve encountered through it. I encouraged quite a few folks to start blogging, but then for a while, I didn’t know they’d actually done that. Later, I’d hear from them — “you started me doing this” — and only then would I begin to learn who they were. It’s a kind of ass-backwards phenomenon, isn’t it? But it’s been a trip. In the good way. Some of these people — they know who they are — saved my life when the going got tough and I couldn’t just “turn pro.” I’ll always be grateful to them.

How can we educate the average user about blogging?

I don’t believe in average users any more than I believe in consumers. Averages, like popularity, is a numbers racket. But I’d tell anyone who isn’t blogging already and who’s the slightest bit intrigued by what it’s all about to just start doing it. The challenges of writing will present themselves immediately. And the challenges are great. Are you a fool? Are you naive? Are you saying too much? Too little? Are you bold enough to say THAT in public? Are you stupid enough? All sorts of gremlins sit on your shoulder whispering in your ear. Some are encouragements. Some are seductions. Some groundless fears. Some dangerous delusions. How a writer responds to these whisperings will determine what kind of writer he or she will become. It’s a very personal thing. My own approach is to listen carefully, then ignore all of it.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to blog and what do you think the pros/cons of blogging are?

Write. Then write more. Write till it scares the crap out of you. If it doesn’t, press on; it will. Write till you get brave enough to keep writing in spite of how scared you are. In spite of what anyone thinks, including yourself.

The upside is that you’ll find out who you are. The downside is, well… that you’ll find out who you are.

How long have you been Blogging?

Since October 1999. Wow, has it really been that long?

You have a unique perspective on journalism and blogging. Why do you think blogging is so disruptive to what is considered ‘mainstream media’?

Two overriding reasons:

Blogs are the Web as a writing tool, not just a reading one. When it’s easy to publish, lots of people will do so. Hence, blogs are among the new media formats that are challenging mass media’s near-monopoly on what goes onto the public agenda, nationally and in communities of geography and interest.

Blogs are also challenging the media institutions in a watchdog sense. Although a few of these watchdogs act more like rabid pit bulls and tend to discredit their own work more than the mass media they loathe so much, the new scrutiny of journalists’ work is having valuable effects. Notably, it’s forcing greater transparency on an industry that has been opaque, and in general that’s overdue.

What has changed since you started blogging?

The numbers, for one thing. When I started it was the province of a few people, mainly technology folks. Now it’s wide and deep into just about any topic you can name. The tools are much better (though still not nearly good enough, in my view) and have made it much easier for non-technical people to bring their voices out to the Web.

Another big change is the public acceptance. Blogging is seen today as a useful and normal part of the media-sphere.

It’s important to remember that blogs are a proxy for the wider phenomenon, which is only now taking hold and has a lot of room to grow: the bottom-up (or, more accurately, edge-in) media in all kinds of forms that include audio, video, screencasts, animations and more.

Where do you see blogging and journalism in 5 years?

Blogs will continue to grow. We’re already seeing professional networks of blogs, and this is a certain growth area. Some, if not many, of these networks will be (are designed to be) acquired by mass media organizations.

Professional journalism will continue on several trends as well. Mass media organizations are adopting blogging and other bottom-up communications tools in a big way, and will keep doing this; it just makes sense.

The economic challenges to the mass media, meanwhile, will only get more difficult to handle. Blogs are less of a journalistic threat to mass media than some people claim. The biggest threat, by far, is the undermining of the business models of major media. Newspapers are losing advertising to online at an amazing rate, to companies that are solely focused on grabbing those revenues with no intention whatever of doing journalism. So-called “free TV” (ad-supported broadcast) is being undermined by the DVR; there’s a button on my remote that makes 30 seconds disappear, and I use it, uh, freely.

What blogs do you read on a daily basis?

Among the ones I check daily:

Steve Gillmor, Doc Searls, Chris Anderson, Slashdot, David Weinberger, Global Voices, Ed Cone, Glenn Reynolds, Dave Winer, JD Lasica, Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen, Joi Ito, Mark Tapscott, Mary Hodder, Hossein Derakhshan, Susan Mernit, Susan Crawford, Simon Waldman, Steve Rubel, Tim Porter, New West Network, Robert Scoble. Silicon Valley Watcher, Silicon Valley Beat, Macintouch, Engadget, Gizmodo, Gawker, Talking Points Memo, Atrios, Brad DeLong, Hugh Hewitt and others.

There are many, many others I check frequently.

We also get 5 newspapers every day at home, and subscribe to about a dozen magazines, and I read major media extensively on the Web. (I also read books…) It’s important to remember that this is an ecosystem, and blogs are only part of it.

Community involvement is key to the success of grassroots media how did you help to foster that community?

Well, other people have done a far better job of this than I have. I see all kinds of brilliant community formation on the Net. Look, for example, at what Craig Newmark and his team at craigslist have accomplished, in large part by treating the people using the site as members of a community and not just consumers or even customers.

For my own part, I hope I’m helping to persuade more journalists that journalism is a conversation, not a lecture, as I said in my book. Community doesn’t happen unless people talk with each other, not at each other.

What do you think might be lacking in grassroots media today and how do you think people can change that?

Oh, we’re so early in this phenomenon that I can think of few things that are not lacking.

We need better tools for creating media. Yes, the ones we have are getting easier to use, cheaper and more powerful all the time, but we have some distance to go.

We need much better tools for understanding and tracking conversations across sites. If this is a global conversation, it’s hard to follow at the moment.

We need an entirely new kind of reputation management, to help us find and highlight what we (collectively and individually) consider trustworthy. Then we need to fact-check things so we can verify that we were right (or wrong) to trust it.

We need vastly greater media literacy.

What is the most important aspect of a person’s blog to you?

Voice is essential. I need to hear a human being talking. The willingness — even eagerness — to engage in the conversation is also important. Prompt and fair corrections of mistakes also wins points.

Why is Conversation King in Media 2.0?

Because we learn more when we listen, and the first rule of a conversation is to listen.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to blog and what would you tell them the pro and cons of blogging are?

I’d say just do it. Most people aren’t natural writers, but everyone has his or her own natural voice. Start expressing it.

It’s also important to remember that this medium is not just about saying whatever is on our minds. The laws of defamation apply online, not just in the physical world, for example. The bottom line: Whatever you say, be honorable.

What has changed since you started to blog?

Wow, what a question. So much has changed that it’s nearly impossible to outline the evolution, but I think the biggest change is the reception to weblogs and blogging from the mainstream media. I still chuckle a bit whenever I hear “what the bloggers think” on CNN or in the NY Times, just because I realize how hilarious that sentence must be to the anchors and reporters. They probably went to school for journalism or writing, and then they see these outspoken bloggers with 100,000 people reading their thoughts everyday. The fame must really get to them, because blogging is basically anonymous. How well do you really know the people you read everyday? The most popular blogger in the world might have dropped out of high school for all you know, because it doesn’t matter, credentials don’t really matter much in the weblog world. As long as you have intelligent things to say, an opinion that others might share, and a knack of showing charisma online, you could start a weblog and might just take down some major news organization. You never know.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

Blogging is disruptive because it’s unregulated, and there’s no bona-fide reputation system. If ABC News starts telling lies in their broadcasts, they will get reprimanded by other major news organizations and their reputation will be gone. If a blogger starts saying things that are completely untrue, nothing will happen. In fact, it might even get them more traffic.

A blogger’s reputation is based on their readership and how many other people link back to them saying something positive. It’s a distributed reputation system that keeps the blog world in check, and because of this it’s extremely democratic and also extremely bothersome to the mainstream media. The MSM could broadcast something on Tuesday, and Wednesday morning 100 weblogs could have done their homework and figured out that what was said on Tuesday was false, providing evidence to this. This is what happened with Dan Rather at CBS — he slipped up for one second, and because weblog authors love to scrutinize the details, the situation blew up.

Where do you see blogging in 5 years?

It’s really difficult to say. Five years ago I didn’t know what a weblog was, so five years from now, I think it’s safe to say that the late majority and the laggards will now be familiar with blogs, while the early majority and the innovators will be utilizing them for bigger and better things. Right now, the knowledge of weblogs has only penetrated X percentage of the computer-using population, while in five years it will probably move to 1.5X. Of course, who really knows

What is the most important aspect of a persons blog?

Weblogs, to me, are an extension of the feedback loop layer of the communication model. A weblog is essentially a one-to-many communicative medium where one author speaks to many readers. The most important part of blogging to me is the two-way communication aspect, namely, comments and reader feedback. Without opening blog entries up for comments I think the author is doing the medium a disservice.

When you read a blog what gets you to add it to your RSS feed and what gets you to not visit the site again?

I think the criteria that gets me to add a site to my feedreader are pretty nebulous, but I can say that it’s extremely difficult to get me to amend Bloglines with a new subscription. I am currently subscribed to 61 sites, but that number fluctuates weekly because normally when I add a new site I delete an existing site that wasn’t cutting the mustard. Reading weblogs consumes time out of my day, so I only keep ones in Bloglines that are actually adding value to the time I spend instead of just wasting time.

What blogs are you reading currently?

Well I read a lot of the normal design blogs: Airbag, Authentic Boredom, Asterisk, Whitespace, Subtraction, Signal vs. Noise, etc., mostly because the content is good, but also because I’m friends with the authors. I like keeping up-to-date with what my colleagues and friends in the industry are up to, just because the design industry is almost like a family. Keeping tabs on the work others do, patting people on the back for completed projects, reading about their design processes, they’re all very good things to do in my opinion.

Other blogs I read are more web business and investment related: TechCrunch, GigaOm, Niall Kennedy, Ventrepreneur Partners, Web 2.0 Explorer, A Venture Forth, Read/Write Web, etc. It’s no surprise that many of these weblogs are part of our 9rules Network (www.9rules.com). We have a great selection of the best blogs on any topic, so if you’re looking to add any new feeds, check there first

Blogging has become a powerhouse in the last 2 years why do you think that happened?

For the past few years, the web industry has really been doing well. New companies chock full of young people are springing up and putting out amazing work and software, and it seems as though everything is fresh and revitalized now. The exposure that web standards and blogging have gotten the past two years has really made an impact with a new generation of technologists; younger and brighter people are starting to blog and get in the web game much earlier, they’re putting out great content on a more regular basis, they’re extremely driven, and all of this is just leading our industry in the direction that we need to go.

People my age (22) and younger don’t really remember the dotcom crash as tangibly as 25-28 year olds since they had a big stake in the game and we were still in high school or middle school. A lot of my friends and I feel as though it’s time for us to make our mark on the industry, so we’re going like gangbusters to blog, design, code, and just put out amazing work 24/7. People aren’t really talking about the older technologists anymore, it’s all about the younger class, the faster and smarter class.

How long did it take you to build your base?

I started blogging in June 2003, but in August of that same year an article I wrote was picked up by all the major design figures of that time—Doug Bowman, Jeffrey Zeldman, Dave Shea, Dan Cederholm—so that started my 15 minute clock ticking. I’m still known for that article, but also for some of the work in my portfolio that’s won awards, and also 9rules has played a big part in building recognition.

Community involvement in a blog is key to its success how did you get your community involved in your blog?

I don’t think there’s a magic recipe for getting people to comment. Basically if somebody comments, it means that they took a few moments out of their day because they felt strongly about what you said and want to add their own two cents. If you write an entry that everybody agrees with, or that doesn’t ruffle any feathers, you probably won’t get as many comments as if you wrote a scathing review of a product everybody loves. Just like consumers don’t call up the number on the back of their ketchup bottle to tell somebody they loved the ketchup, no, they only call that number if they’re ticked off or the ketchup tasted funny. The same holds true with weblog comments.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting out blogging?

I’d give the same advice to anyone who’s starting out with anything — read as much as you can possibly read about that topic, and then participate as much as you can possibly participate. When I was starting out with my weblog, I’d leave comments on 30-40 different weblogs each day just so they’d get accustomed to seeing my name and URL. Face time builds recognition, so there’s nothing better than leaving a comment on every single entry one of your heroes has written. That will get you recognized pretty quickly.

Also, don’t be afraid to email people with a link to a particular entry you just wrote. If you think your article is worth somebody’s time to read, then let them know and they’ll probably read it. If it’s good they might even link to you. If it’s great, they might add you to their Bloglines account. If it’s astounding, they might know somebody who can give you six figures of angel money for your startup. You never know how far one email can get you.

How long have you been blogging and why did you start blogging?

I’ve been blogging for about 5 years. I created the current incarnation of Bokardo.com, which has morphed into talking about designing for Web 2.0, in 2003.

Part of the reason why I started blogging is the same reason that a lot of people start writing: self-validation and peer-validation. One thing that I think we all want is to have our ideas validated, and getting them into words on a screen or page is the best way to do that.

The other part of the reason was practice. I’ve always had a really hard time in the writing classes that I’ve taken, as I’m easily distracted and refuse to write about stuff I’m not interested in. But I really wanted to learn how to write well and any good book on the subject will say that the best way to become a writer is to write each and every day. And blogging is a great way to get yourself writing because it creates artificial demand. We delude ourselves into thinking the world is out there just waiting for our next blog post, and so we write. But in reality if we dropped off the face of the earth we would simply lay at the bottom of the feed list, and only one or two people would notice.

What has changed since you started blogging?

Many things. First, there are many more bloggers out there writing. Second, many of them are now in this to make money. Third, RSS has come into the picture. These things combine for some interesting results.

The positive outcome of these things is that we’re having many more, deeper conversations. That’s great, and we can increasingly find people with similar interests as us. For example, I can go online each and every day and find someone talking about very specific things, like how to model human attention in web applications, for example, which very few people were talking about 5 years ago. Specialization, and thus knowledge, is accelerating. Also, people are really making money now, whether it’s from new jobs they get as a result of their blog or advertising they put on it. I would like to think that at the end of the day the deluge of content is making us smarter. Just imagine how much more access to ideas we have than any age of mankind, ever. We need to appreciate that.

But there are certainly downsides. First, our attention is completely fractured. RSS gives us efficiency of attention on any one web site, driving the time we spend on that site closer to zero. But then it enables us to fracture it again by multiplying the smaller amount of time by many more sites than before. So we’re making increasing demands on our attention. Second, the drive for monetizing blogs has really hurt some of the content producers out there. You’ll see a lot of posts by bloggers who just want to get atop the attention heap again without really adding any value to an existing idea. It’s like waving to strangers.

Also, we see a lot of blogging “networks” spring up in the hope of monetization, and this concerns me a little. It concerns me because it will eventually take power away from individual bloggers and put it into the hands of the networks, who aren’t adding any value on their own except publicity. Over time, we will come to resent them just as we resent music labels, movie studios, and other networks that do the same thing in other industries. And if those networks are in it for advertising, then you can forget long, thoughtful posts on a subject. It’s not long before posts become short, shock value pieces created to serve up pageviews and Google Adsense Ads. I’ve known several bloggers who have gone that route, and now they’re writing junk and getting paid measly for it.

What is the most enjoyable aspect of your blogging efforts?

The most enjoyable aspect is when I can articulate something such that I cannot improve it. This happens rarely, but it’s certainly worth waiting for.

To you what is the most important aspect of a person’s blog?

The most important aspect of a person’s blog is the extent to which it represents a person’s true feelings on a subject. In other words, how honest it is. I’m tired of blogs written solely for marketing purposes or for hyping something. But that’s not to say that corporate blogs are necessarily bad. I’ve been impressed with the O’Reilly Radar blog as a blog that serves a marketing purpose but does so as a conversation, not as a one-way spiel.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

Blogging is disruptive because it gives everyone a voice on relatively equal footing. If you have a strong voice, you will eventually be heard. And when people are heard, disruptions occur naturally.

What blogs are on your daily reading list?

Well, I closely follow a group I’m involved in, the Web 2.0 Workgroup, as the members tend to write thoughtful, relevant posts on new issues in technology. I also read the Gillmor Gang folks, including Steve Gillmor, Doc Searls, and Jon Udell. Those guys are way out ahead of the curve, and always have something interesting to say. It’s like sitting in a barbershop of old men drinking beers. If you listen long enough you start to learn stuff without realizing it.

And then a whole raft of designers, including Molly Holzschlag, Eric Meyer, and Jeffrey Zeldman.

More and more, though, I’m finding newer voices in the field that don’t have the name of the above folks, but who I learn just as much from, if not more. People like Kathy Sierra and Thomas Vander Wal fit into this category.

Where do you see blogging in say 5 years?

I see blogging as the primary means of communication between companies and individuals. I see blogging as related more to a person’s Identity than it is now. I think that our blogs will be our life portfolio, not just an artistic or professional one. I see blogs becoming a store of our personal data, with which we perform transactions, be it with our financial information, our likes/dislikes, any other personal information. I see blogs as the start to personal web services, with HTML being the first, RSS being the second, and countless others thereafter.

Blogging will be even more powerful in 5 years than it is now. It’s still in its infancy.

What effect will blogging have on what people currently call “mainstream media’ in say 5 or 10 years?

The shakedown is happening now. In addition to creating a lot of new great writers, blogging will force the great writers out there, many of whom are being paid by newspapers and other MSM, to become bloggers and sit down in the muck with the rest of us. I have great contempt for those people who try to make a clear distinction between MSM writers and bloggers, talking about bloggers in their pajamas or the “cult of mediocrity”. The truth is, we’re all mediocre, and we all have something important to say if given the chance.

There is very little difference between bloggers and MSM writers. If you’ve got an audience, you’re the media.

Blogging has become a powerhouse in the last 2 years why do you think that happened?

Because once we are part of the conversation, we expect to continue to be part of it.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting out blogging?

Blogging is a relationship. It starts out like a first date, with both parties being nervous as hell. You’re worried about what you might say, even though the other person is willing to give you a listen. If you move to a second date, then good. But don’t get worried if it fizzles on the first. Your success will happen when you aren’t waiting for it, just like you find someone when you aren’t looking.

Don’t talk too much about yourself, don’t be too cocky, and try to ask good questions and learn about the person you’re talking with. Don’t rush to judgment of whether they’ll be there for you or not. You can’t tell until you’ve been out on a few dates. Much of what you say won’t get a response, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t listening.

It’s what you do when you’re sick, unshowered, and on the wrong side of the bed that makes your average. It’s the average that counts.

Ok easy first question, How long have you been blogging and what has changed sicne you started blogging?

I’ve been blogging for five years, started December 15, 2000. Quite a bit has changed. Back then only a few hundred people were blogging, that I could find. Microsoft didn’t have any bloggers (now we have thousands).

What impact do you see your blogging have on Microsoft’s practices?

Microsoft’s employees are easier to find now. You just use MSN Search or Google and search for, say, “OneNote blog” and you’ll find Chris Pratley, the guy who runs the OneNote team. Then you can ask him questions on his blog or see what he’s thinking about. This makes Microsoft more approachable. Also we have many bloggers who watch blog search engines for any mention of Microsoft. Write about Microsoft on your own blog and chances are we’ll see that within a few minutes so we’re able to listen to you in a new way.

How has blogging affected you personally?

It’s made me friends around the world. 120 people showed up in London Saturday night for a geek dinner with me. Plus, I’ve met geeks around the world.

What do you enjoy most about blogging?

Trying new things and sharing those. Oh, and the conversation with other people.

Where do you see blogging in say 5 years?

That’s tough to know, but I’d expect to see much better tools and many more services for bloggers. Plus, we’ll be able to put our stuff on top of maps (like a restaurant review).

Why is blogging so disruptive in your opinion?

Because of Google’s ascendancy.

Who do you think some of the most influential blogger are and why?

I don’t like that notion. Any blogger can start this morning, publish something, get discovered within their first 24 hours, and change the world. Or, at least, get published on the front page of the New York Times. But, I read 743 blogs right now, I can send you the OPML file if you’d like.

What is the most important aspect of a person’s blog to you?

Is it passionate and authoritative about what they are writing about.

What would you tell someone who is just starting to blog?

Read blogs first, if you care about fitting in. Otherwise just write about what you know and love.

How long ago did you start blogging and why did you start blogging?

I started blogging the day before BlogOn 2004. I had been tinkering with blogging platforms for a while, but never found the motivation to jump in. Then, seeing that I was about to speak at a premier blogging conference without having a blog myself, I deciced to go for it. As to why, I have been interested in Social Media, Social Networking, Communities for a while and it became clear to me that if I wanted to understand the medium, the tools and the impact of that conversation, I had to engage – which meant reading, commenting, tagging and publishing. And now that I see the positive impact of my blogging on my business, I am continuing… time permitting.

What make a person’s blog a good read in your mind?

Someone whose writing is engaging, sharp, “efficiently” expressing ideas (i.e not dabbling) and contributing something even when he/she only comments upon an already covered topic.

What is on your current blog reading list?

I have 250 feeds in my blogroll. My must reads these days are the Web 2.0 and Search related blogs: TechCrunch/CrunchNotes, Read/Write Web, GigaOm, John Battelle’s SearchBlog, and the ever expanding list of VC bloggers.

Why do you think Blogging is so disruptive?

Because of the power of the network: TechCrunch has grown to be the powerhouse in the Web 2.0 space in six months, just because a few of us linked to it at the beginning. And as long as your writing/content is interesting and of value to your audience, you will pick up new subscribers and you will build a personal brand.

How long did it take you to build your base? And how did you build your base?

I have seriously been blogging since early 2005 and this is when my readership and links have started growing. But it is really in the past 3/4 months that I have started to be referenced by high trafficked bloggers and journalists on a regular basis that things have taken off. For example, I was far from making the Feedster 500 in August, and I am 394 in the most recent one.

Where do you see blogging in say 5 or 10 years?

The concept of personal expression, and identity, through a blog or a set of blogs is going to further develop into personal shelf spaces – aggregating photos, videos, calendars, essays, wine cellar, etc. Busines-related content will also be published on these platforms, and will be syndicated, aggregated, repurposed and delivered to the relevant audience/format/device.

How do you think Blog Networks will affect blogging in general?

They provide both context and distribution, as well as a tight community amongst writers in some cases. For example, the Web 2.0 Workgroup is made up of 20 blogs related to the topic, written by individuals from different backgrounds and perspectives – which makes the aggregated content quite interesting. On the other side, you have blog networks that are created solely to federate advertising sales, loosely aggregating bloggers around large themes.

How do you think will blogging affect what people consider ‘Mainstream Media’ in the next 5 year?

We are already seeing the effect on the MSM ecosystem: journalists using blogging, podcasting, videoblogging as complementary channels for their content; readers engaging and commenting either directly or through tools like blog/feed search engines or conversational tracking tools like Memeorandum or TailRank. We’re also seeing mainstream media quoting and linking blogs as authoritative sources.

What has changed since you started blogging?

I sleep much less than I used to. I feel more informed because of all the smart people I read. And sometimes people come to me in unexpected places telling me that they read my blog.

Is there anything else you would like to share that I didn’t cover in this interview?

Read, Engage, Publish – is just what it takes.

You have been blogging for a long time in the whole scheme of things what has changed since you started to blog?

Three big differences. First, when I started there were few other bloggers. Now there are millions. Second, most blogs are now syndicated. In fact, I would say that blogs are now essentially defined by syndication. A blog without a feed isn’t really a blog. Third, blogs now have a lot of respect and attention from the mainstream media. In fact, they are becoming knit into the mainstream media in a variety of ways. In the long run I expect blogs, and blog authors, to serve as sources of, and editors for, a large percentage of mainstream news.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

What’s disruptive isn’t blogging itself, but the low threshold of publication and authority that the Net and the Web have provided individuals since the beginning. Blogging has equipped writers far better than html alone did in the beginning; but the disruptive trend toward personal authorship, and personal authority, predates blogging

One of the main points we made in The Cluetrain Manifesto, way back in 1999, was that the real revolution with the Net was not an increase in the power of supply, but an increase in the power of demand. Customers were no longer mere “consumers”, and not only graced with far more choice –the power to pick and choose among vendors’ products and services. Thanks to the Net, and to features such as blogging, the demand side now had the power also to *supply*. This is what’s so disruptive.

With blogging, the demand side began to supply its own journals, and its own journalism. Big-J Journalism was no longer the only legitimate kind. Now we have millions of Benjamin Franklins, each writing his or her own Poor Richard’s Almanac. (For my money the first blog was Franklin’s.) This is disruptive to many institutions. But it is also empowering in countless ways.

We see demand-supplying-itself in other areas in addition to blogging. Such as software development. The free software and open source movements are examples of the same phenomenon.

Conventional economics has no frame of reference for demand-supplying-itself. Years will pass before we begin to understand the phenomenon fully.

Blogging is also disruptive because it violates the whole notion of mediation — of a “medium” serving as a conduit between producers and consumers. Blogs speak directly to readers. They don’t have “consumers”, or an “audience”. What’s more, many of those readers are also writers, are also producers. The *unmediated* nature of blogs is very strange for those whose minds remain framed by traditional media notions.

Whenever somebody calls blogs a “medium”, they prove they don’t get what blogs really are.

Where do you see blogging in 5 years?

It will be the standard, baseline, molecular-level form of journalism. There will still be large, mainstream publications and other media; but blogs will be far more the context than the exception. They will be inside, rather than outside.

What is the most important aspect of a personl blog?

You mean a personal blog?

Voice. Authenticity. Honesty. Blogs are speech. They are not just a form of entertainment, or worse, of “content”. They express the direct, usually unedited voices of human beings.

When you read a blog what gets you to add it to your RSS feed and what gets you to not visit the site again?

Well, I’ve generally stopped adding blogs to my RSS reader. As I said today my aggregator is mostly filled with searches for keywords and keyword combinations.

There are some blogs that I follow because I’m curious about what they are saying. Most of those are in my blogroll, which (I’ll admit) is far longer than it ought to be and has no small amount of rot in it.

What blogs are you reading currently?

Dave Winer, Andrew Sullivan, Jeff Jarvis, David Weinberger, Susan Crawford, Sheila Lennon, Bret Faucett, Mike Arrington, Bernie DeKoven, Kim Cameron, Drummond Reed, Allen Searls, Larry Lessig, John Palfrey (and the whole crew at the Berkman Center), Don Marti, Jim Thompson, Dave Rogers, Daniel Drezner, Matt Welch, Roger Simon, Tony Pierce, Moxie, Mary Hodder, Britt Blaser, Kaliya Hamlin, Johannes Ernst, Shelley Powers, Craig Burton, the BoingBoing crew, Chris Locke (RageBoy), Jay Rosen, Terry Heaton, Scott Rosenberg, Mike Sanders, Chris Lydon, Ted and Julie Leung, Ed Cone, Ruby Sinreich, Dan Gillmor, Steve Gillmor, Amy Wohl… and on down my blogroll, plus whoever links to me or writes about subjects that interest me.

Blogging has become a powerhouse in the last 2 years why do you think that happened?

It’s interesting and useful. Again, not just on the demand side. Thanks to blogging, anybody can supply their own journalism as well. Once one feels the power of that, the “powerhouse” sensation is remarkable.

How long did it take you to build your base?

I don’t have a base. I’ve never thought of my readers as anything other than readers. in fact, I don’t think of them in the possessive, either. David Weinberger correctly uses my blog as an example of a writer who gives readers many ways to leave, rather than to stay.

I write for readers who might be interested in the subjects I write about, not those who are interested in my self. I don’t mind when people take an interest in me, but that’s not why I write.

I once wrote “blogging is about making and changning minds”. Jay Rosen quoted that, ran with it and added tremendous value to it. So did his readers who also blogged about the idea. That gratifies me.

To me blogging is about rolling snowballs. Whether I start a snowball rolling, or add mass to one that rolls by, I have no sense that it’s ‘mine’ in either case. I do, however, have a sense, quite often, of what works and what doesn’t, what’s interesting and what isn’t.

Yet, knowing a subject is interesting to just a few people doesn’t stop me from writing about it. Blogging for me isn’t a popularity contest. I used to be in the Technorati Top 20. Now I’m down in the high 50s. Soon I’ll be off the list. It’s inevitable. There are too many new, good bloggers out there, moving up the list.

Being a ‘top blogger’ is like being a ‘top paramecium’. We’re all one-celled animals here. And I mean that in a positive way. Blogs are profoundly human, and personal. Humans are indivisible, and don’t add very well without losing their humanity. There is only one me. I am typical of few, if any, other people, much less other bloggers.

I can’t think of anything that demonstrates the sovereign nature of the self better than a blog.

By the way, this is the only way I can see statistics about how many people read my blog. The numbers have ranged from about 1000 to 4000 since the year 2000. I have no idea if the numbers are accurate or not. Some tell me they couldn’t be. The numbers don’t take feed subscriptions into account, but I have no idea how many of those there are, at all.

In any case, I don’t care. I have a pretty good sense of when I’m having an effect and when I’m not. The proof of that is in the searches, and in the aggregator. Not in statistics.

Community involvement in a blog is key to it’s success how did you get your community involved in your blog?

I don’t have a community.

There are people who read my blog, and occasionally blog stuff I say. But that doesn’t make them members of my “community”.

True, there *is* a social network of bloggers to which I belong. Several, in fact. But what makes them social is that they show up at the same conferences, events, dinners and so on. These for me are geographical: Bay Area bloggers, Boston Bloggers, New York bloggers, L.A. bloggers, London bloggers, Toronto bloggers, Paris bloggers, Copenhagen bloggers…

What advice would you give someone who is just starting out blogging?

Think of every post as an email that’s “cc:world“. Don’t worry about making mistakes. Be yourself. Write about what interests you. Link a lot and follow other links. Follow subjects through keyword search subscriptions in your aggregator. Drive ideas. Participate. Write with provisionally, rather than finality (leave that up to the big-time print journalists who are paid to pontificate). Start snowballs rolling, and add snow to ones rolling by. Be humble. Make mistakes, correct them and move on.

Oh, and use your own name. Don’t bury your identity.