Nice.

"Get a clue, we're all bozos on this bus, and none of us gets out of this alive"

I wholeheartedly agree with Dave, but I wonder why he takes so much issue with my statement? My theory? Well, the long term bloggers established the ground, the voice, the infrastructure those of us 'newbies' enjoy (I've been blogging for only 1.5 years...at a rather unfortunate site previous to a year ago, so I didn't archive it). That's to be appreciated, of course. Things shift, though. Mediums change and grow and morph.

I would say that in the past 6 months, we have seen the blogosphere severely shift. Because the blogosphere is growing at such a rapid pace, we have a medium in which you can both find your voice and lose it. We find it because it's a very public forum to air our dirty laundry, frustrations and hopes and dreams. We lose it because there are just so many voices competing for an audience.

Dave, as a brick-layer of this blogosphere, I believe, is feeling jilted by his own ...erm... children (?). But the thing about change is that it is inevitable and you can rarely control it. And, really, Dave, I know you gave up alot for me to be able to sit here in a Starbucks in London and respond to you in this very public forum, but I believe your ship finally came in...am I right?

I don't think I ever claimed to know the only thing the blogosphere is about, nor am I arrogant enough to think I'm on some righeous path (egad, most of the time, the opposite!), but I do see blogging as a disruptive technology. And it does subvert traditional power structures.

And in my little world of utopic ideals, I see a shift there, too.

Okay...here is an example of what I hope for in the future: Airlines are constantly making me feel crappy. They make me feel like I should thank them for existing. They charge way too much. They herd me around like a schmuck. They are rude and dismissive when I have a concern. I'd like to see every one of us in the blogosphere write about these crappy experiences. Many are. And, dammit, maybe it won't do anything now, but the JetBlues of the world (which I understand 'get it', although I've never had the experience of a JetBlue flight) will benefit from it and get our service because I've read on several blogs I should avoid American Airlines. Or whatever. Stupid example, but you get my drift.

I never meant to dismiss you or anyone's contributions to the blogosphere. I'm talking about the powers that you set out to subvert, that people have joined in to subvert with you. Maybe I'm full of shit. Probably. Maybe the blogosphere will implode before anything really shifts. But I believe the implosion is more likely to happen when we spend too much of our time arguing about who gets credit for what.

Look at that poor guy who coined the term weblog. Egad! If anyone has a right to feel jilted, it's that guy.

technorati tags: davewiner, disruption, blogosphere, blogs