It's interesting to see how far blogging has come since the days of yore. During the weblog's formative years, many of the principal players were struggling to figure out exactly what their pages were going to be. Was a blog a personal journal? Something that could be authoritative? Or was it just a cyber-crossroads, shunting viewers with an interest in a particular subject in various directions through a huge network of hyperlinks?

The piece from Camworld, linked above, shows some vision toward what blogs could, and ultimately did, become:

Every industry in the world has a potential need for a quality weblog or two. It's safe to say that the Macintosh community has been inundated with Mac-centric news sites for several years now. So many, that I've lost count. But what about a weblog for the homemaker? Or the thousands of hot rod enhusiasts? Or the ham radio hobbyists? These are called niche market portals, and every one of them (and thousands of other niche markets) could be a potential source of quality information for someone.

Sure, there are still amateurish blogs, but no longer does the fact that anyone can start one of these things automatically close readers' minds to the possibility that a blog writer could be an authority on his subject matter.

Today, I religiously follow a blog by a Madison Avenue copywriter, a waiter, a nightclub bouncer, and an activist citizen of my town. Each, in his own way, is an expert in his field.

I think that's the asset that this form of written expression has become. More than giving voice to people with something to say, the massive network of blogs has become an information and experience resource on just about any subject, frequently more expert and in-depth than professional journalistic coverage of that subject would ever be.

And it's all a click away.

With great power comes great responsibility

This article in the San Fransisco Chronicle is an ominous demonstration of the growing power wielded by bloggers and internet forum participants.

It seems that many people want to play Food Critic, and diners-out are taking them seriously. On sites like yelp.com and in countless personal blogs, people are shredding the reputations of restaurants, and it's actually hurting business.

On one hand, that sounds completely awesome. We've all had an experience where we've been treated like crap by the staff/management/owner of a restaurant, and it's great to have the ability to voice that injustice in a way that actually has an impact.

But how much of that is fair? How much criticism is stupid nitpicking about the color of the tablecloth? How much is disingenuous, if not altogether dishonest?

The job of food writer is a plum assignment at any newspaper. For chrissake, you get paid to eat in fancy restaurants all the time! But food writers are, more often than not, trained journalists, with a journalist's code of ethics.

A professional food writer does not accept free meals. A professional food writer won't visit a restaurant within 30 days of opening, so the fledgling establishment can work out its glitches. Above all, a professional food writer does not form his or her opinion before getting to the restaurant. I'm not so sure we can say that about bloggers.

Hey bloggers, if you want to be food writers, act like professionals. It seems both customers and industry people are listening with outstretched ears. You have the power, now use it wisely.

Wherefore art thou Blogger?

It's amazing how much blogging has matured in a few short years. This article from Bradlands shows a blogger struggling to find his raison d'etre at a time when people were still trying to figure out what they, personally, could do with the Web.

Brad discusses blogging as something that gives him a sense of community and a license to explore the net. It sounds like he's afraid that his personal publishing will be perceived as mere vanity, as if he were a sixteen-year-old girl posting about her cats. He knows he wants to blog, but from our position eight years in the future he shows remarkably little vision as far as what his blog, indeed what blogging, could become.

Now in 2007, Brad's blog is a tool for keeping in touch with the world, and turning others on to potentialy interesting things. It isn't radically different from the style of stuff he was posting in 1999, but it's much more communicative in nature.

The White Paper

Now that we're used to the modern utility of the internet, it's easy to forget that the Internet was originally created as a medium of technical and intellectual exchange. Believe it or not, it still is.

The term 'white paper' in a business context is a technical document aimed at an audience of a specific vocation or specialty. In business, it's the document used to explain the workings or business trends of a product or product category.

Large corporations, such as Eastman Kodak, use white papers to communicate techincal, strategic, and market information to the appropriate people in partner or client firms without the taint of sales. The content of a white paper must be purely academic in order for the document, and the people creating it, to have any credibility.

Interestingly, the white paper serves as one of the strongest marketing tools in a company's arsenal. A good paper places the firm as an authority on its subject, cementing not only the competence of its technical staff but also its understanding of potential customer needs. It enables potential clients and suppliers to begin discussing solutions without the skewed interest of a sales department. When it's finally time for the sales guys to go in, the technical people on the prospect could already be sold on the product as the ideal solution to their needs.

This is common knowledge, so gigabytes of white papers get churned out each day. This huge repository of information is one of the most useful features of the Web, and one of its most frequently written types of content.