Digital Soapbox
Last night I attended the IBD Network Sector Watch Digital Soapbox - Will Blogging Make a Difference? (just this title makes it one of my longer posts). Though the title was somewhat nebulous, the actual discussion had much to do with blogging and traditional media. It was enjoyable and there was some good commentary by panelists Dan Gillmor, Susan Mernit, Chris Nolan, and Scott Rafer. Chris Shipley was the host and kept the discussion lively.
My favorite stat was that there are 128 million people on-line and 3-4% of them read a blog every day. One of the panelists commented that this number was probably higher then the number of people who watch CNN or Fox News. Blogs are apparently having an impact and that impact is growing. Most on the panel felt the market for blogging software was somewhere between nascent and emerging - definitely past the "bootstrap" phase. I did manage to get a plug for UserLand with some help from another member of the audience.
I asked the panel if they thought blogs in whole were a more accurate reporting mechanism then traditional journalism. Three of the four panelists said "no," blogs were not accurate. This surprised me, and no, I didnít get to ask the obvious follow-up question.
As with these events, some of the most interesting conversation happened afterwards. I met Mena Trott (Six Apart) and had a brief conversation that I will have to follow up on. Also met Kevin Marks from Technorati, Scott Rafer from Feedster, and Dan Gillmor, whose writing I have always enjoyed. All in all, a great way to spend an evening.
4:49:28 PM 
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