Blogs, the WWW and the Internet

Let us start out with the simple fact that the Internet has become a universal worldwide communicator and resource library in digital from. In his article, Is Google God?, Thomas L. Friedman writes that there are now already hundreds of millions of searches per day on Google alone, only 1/3 from the USA and 2/3 from the rest of the world in no fewer than 88 languages(!). The world community - thanks to the World Wide Web - is turning increasingly to the internet for fast, effective communication and for finger-tip accessible information - all kinds of information - public, business, personal, or private.

One of the newest sources for communication and information are "blogs", an internet-specific form of publication that started out as online personal diaries or weblogs, i.e. (we)blogs - which have since then evolved into a unique new aspect of cyberspace. As Howard Kurtz wrote in the Washington Post (April 29, 2003) about the intrusion of blogs into political elections: The pundits are blogging. The journalists are blogging. And now the candidates are blogging." According to the New York Times and Thom Weidlich: even "the corporate blog is catching on". As David Glenn observes in Scholars Who Blog: "the soapbox of the digital age" has even drawn "a crowd of academics" to it as well. The academic blogs are among the best of the best blogs and links to them can be found at Henry Farrell and at Rhetorica.

HISTORY and EVOLUTION of BLOGS

Nice histories of blog evolution are found at "Journal vs. Weblog" by Ryan Kawailani Ozawa and at Weblogs.com by Dave Winer of the Scripting News blog, the oldest running blog. As Steven Johnson writes at Salon.com, blogs have become mainstream in less than a decade, ever since Justin Hall at Justin's Links and Carolyn Burke started the apparently first documented hypertext online diaries - which led to the blog revolution. Since then, the number of blogs has increased to over half a million ... and is rising rapidly.

BEST OF THE BLOGS and WEB RESOURCES FOR BLOGS

An excellent collection of links for blogs is found at MSNBC Weblog Central
edited by Will Femia. It contains links to Best of Blogs, Weblog Resources, and Weblog Indexes.

To better understand blogs and their pundits, let us look at some popular blogs. According to The Best of the Blogosphere, two of the best and most highly rated blogs on the internet are - not coincidentally - both run by active, verbally brilliant and up-to-date law professors - Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law School at Volokh.com and Glenn Reynolds of the University of Tennessee Law School at Nr. 1 ranked InstaPundit.com. Prof. Eric Muller at UNC Law School has recently made waves at IsThatLegal? as a newcomer.

What makes blogs so popular?

Muller has stated that the blogs offer "immediacy". This may not be the exact right word in terms of dictionary definition since blogs are an intervening or mediating agent which immediacy lacks, but the general direction of Muller's statement is surely quite correct.

The most preferred blogs have their finger on the button of current events. They intelligently and near-to-immediately discuss actual happenings in a direct and vital manner that is often missing in most newspapers and other so-called serious media.

The traditional media often try to mask their blatantly subjective or sometimes sensationalistic hype-type reporting of news events, as if they were presenting "the absolute truth" to the public. The attraction of blogs to the reader is that blogs generally do not try to camouflage their allegiances - quite the contrary, they often flaunt them. Straightforward opinions thus often make blogs livelier and more thought-provoking than commercial journalism. Bloggers are the missing story-tellers of the modern age, and who does not like a good story? Harry Potter, we know you are out there.

The fact that blogs run by legal beagles rank so highly on the blog scene surely also reflects the current condition of our modern society politics as being increasingly dependent on the rule of law (or its absence!). As always when bandits try to destabilize established society, "law men" rise invariably to positions of special status in the community. Law and order become prime concerns of ordinary citizens everywhere.

Our interest in current events arises out of a deep sense that our own well-being and security are endangered by widespread lawlessness and terror, which demonstrably lead to chaos and misery in the world, rather than to order, prosperity or a better future. So, in some way, the best political blogs most certainly contribute indirectly to a sense of security that the "right" things will be done by those who control power. We experience through the blogs that we are glimpsing a part of the immediate world scene in the making through the eyes of insiders (or those close to them), who are involved in events which may affect our own future but over which we ourselves have little or no control. Through the blogs, we "participate" in these events.

Another reason for the popularity of blogs - Feedback

There are many popular blogs on the internet and there are thousands of reasons why a particular blog is popular, depending on the subject matter and opinions presented. We will get to these in future blogs, but let me close here with one reason to be involved in blogging - feedback. Bloggers often note that it is satisfying to interact with people from all over the world, people you would otherwise never have any contact with. Below is the first feedback to reach me regarding the PunditMania ® blog:

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From Veralynne Pepper and ACT, July 3, 2003

Wow! I didn't know just what I was looking for until I found it. No. I don't claim to be among the best or the brightest, but I'm smart enough to seek them and their ideas.

I publish A-Changin' Times (ACT, The Blog and ACT, The Zine) and I know I'll refer to your site often in seeking reprintable wisdom.

I'd love for you to visit http://www.achangintimes.com just for fun and I think you might enjoy http://wilsonsalmanac.blogspot.com, as well.

It's nice to know you--you're one of my "favorites."

Love, peace and clarity,

Veralynne Pepper

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I did look at both links in detail. In spite of the fact that the opinions represented there do not run along my own political thinking in many areas at all, I enjoyed the design of the sites and the excellent short quotations found on the ACT pages. These have enriched my life. We need not always agree with another. We can disagree and still benefit from our fellows - I think this is an important thing to understand about human interaction and the value of the blogs generally. Humans differ in their opinions - thank goodness for that. Blogs are a means to look inside other peoples heads, and this is a modern blessing. Keep cool and enjoy the ride of life. Give it your best shot - always.