Are Blogs the new town crier?
In the begining there was a town crier, the first advancement in communicaiton technology since smoke signals and drums. Of course, the town crier had a much shorter range than smoke or drums, but the rumor mill would carry their message to anyone within earshot. After bouncing from ear to ear, the message would frequently mutate, sometimes becoming unrecognizeable. Remind anyone of Chinese Whispers A.K.A. the "telephone game?"
Postal services revolutionized communication by being able to carry messages accross vast distances, thus shrinking "the globe." However, they could carry only hand written messages, therefore having limited bandwidth. It was not until the printing press that this changed by making it possible to faithfully reproduce information in higer volumes, and carry it over longer distances using the post. More bandwidth! Add to that the ability to mass produce "news papers" and now ideas could travel far and fast. Even more bandwidth!
Then along came the telegraph which after a brief spell was followed by the telephone and in relatively short order faxes, the Internet, email, and of course now SMS. Oh, now we're talking broadband bandwidth!
But then came the blog and everything changed.
With the printing press anyone could publish their ideas and distribute their opinions widely, but it remained challenging to develop a reputation as a recognized expert or gain popularity. Blogs combine the broadcast ability of the printing press, with the interpersonal nature of a town crier, making for near instant popularity and the semblance of expertise. Now anyone can write a blog and with some dedication be perceived as a maven.
But hold on a minute - didn't people "spread" the town crier's message via the "telephone game" - changing the information just a little bit each time its related anew?
Which brings me to my observation that blogs are the new town crier. Whether "commercial" or "oficial" in nature, the message is "cried" out for all those nearby to read. See, someone perceived as an expert posts information on their blog wich gets passed around to other blogs, and emailed around to lots of people, each time changing just a little bit. This original idea eventually ends up in the hands of other mavens, only slightly mutated, where the whole process stars once more.
Information is everywhere today yet knowledge is elusive and wisdom scarce. So, as you drink information directly from the virual fire hose consider if it contains original thought bottled from the source and ask yourself whether its "the real thing," or merely a replicant trying to be the town crier ;)
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