Popcurrent.com

eekhout — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:59:52 -0700

With Digg, users rate articles to generate a user ranking, and those rankings determine whether the article rises to prominence or sinks to obscurity. Video Sift uses the same concept, only it's specific to video clips.

Popcurrent is another such site driven by user-ranking, only it's generalized to a wider variety of media -- music, video, podcasts, books, and pictures. Yet another way for people to maximize the power of their voices and votes.

Pew report on blogging

eekhout — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 09:38:59 -0700

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project comes a new study that presents a picture of bloggers -- who they are, what they blog about, why they blog:

A national phone survey of bloggers finds that most are focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers and that only a small proportion focus their coverage on politics, media, government, or technology. Blogs, the survey finds, are as individual as the people who keep them. However, most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression – documenting individual experiences, sharing practical knowledge, or just keeping in touch with friends and family.

If there's one overriding conclusion we can reach, it's that most bloggers don't see blogging as a way to market, sell, influence, or persuade -- at least not in ways not closely allied with their personal values. Rather, they're contributing to a new, grand, sprawling conversation about their lives, both personal and professional.

Blogging is predominantly an individual experience, not an institutional experience. Fortunately, good institutions are comprised of good individuals, and good blogging can proceed from that context.

PDF of Pew Report

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Popcurrent.com

Pew report on blogging