Okay … this is a blog about blogs and blogging. (Maybe a blog on frogs and flogging would get more trackbacks, but that’s another blog for another day.)
Douglas Rushkoff, writer, commentator, and all-around cultural clairvoyant, made some interesting comments in his smartly written blog about the Real Threat of Blogs.
"I believe that the most dangerous thing about blogs to the status quo is that so many of them exist for reasons other than to make money. A thriving community of people who are engaged for free, to me, have a certain authority that people doing things for money don't."
He goes on to write,
“… I believe the greatest power of the blog is not just its ability to distribute alternative information - a great power, indeed - but its power to demonstrate a mode of engagement that is not based on the profit principle.”
Be sure to read the 20+ comments from readers/bloggers as the arguments on blogs becoming a profit center (i.e. blogs with paid advertising) make for a great debate.
Since we are on the topic of blogs and blogging, I can relate to this far more than I care to admit ..
Thanks for the heads up. This is fantastic point and certainly more of a threat than "free speech."
Posted by: aleah sato | September 09, 2004 at 02:48 PM
Yes, individuals doing something without pay, no profit motive, no greediness as factor, are much harder to influence and control.
"Do what I say, or I pull the plug by shutting off your paycheck" cannot work with freelance, unpaid blogalists, blogmeisters, blogomorphs.
Blogomorphically speaking, we can speak freely, rather than expensively.
The idea that profits and sales must eternally escalate is psycho-capitalism.
Posted by: Steven Streight aka Vaspers the Grate | September 23, 2004 at 08:52 PM