The New Media of blogging - Granite Grok

The New Media of blogging

I have been involved in the computer industry one way or another (student / professional) since high school, and I do believe that we are finally moving out of the Model T stage.  I’ve watched the state of hardware move from the sacred mainframe in closed off areas attended to by the high priests of the computer room to the more accessible versions of the minicomputer (now, long gone or now called "servers") to the PC revolution.  Even with the latter, it was still baby steps for a number of years.

And then, thanks to DARPA, the Internet.  Once again, we see the progression from R&D and academic labs to widespread acceptance among the first adopters, the Bubble burst, and now a more "restrained" (if ANYTHING about the ‘Net  could be called constrained) growth.

The point to be made, however, is that ordinary folks can now use this valuable tool and do things with that that either the capabilities were just too expensive for the common folk, or just didn’t exist period.  In this case, the power of ordinary citizens to harness the wide reach and the deep research capabilities to hold accountable those that govern or those that hold others accountable (i.e., journalists). Now, even the most  mundane and esoteric subject matter expert can be found and that expertise brought to bear.

We talked about this on our radio show ("Meet The New Press", WEMJ 1490 on Saturdays, 2-4pm EST with Doug and I AND Pat Hynes of AnkleBitingPundits) about how technology this has so leveled the playing ground.  Now anyone that can handle a keyboard can do all kinds of things.  With respect to the blogosphere, EVERYONE can be held accountable by anyone- and woe and scorn to those that do not recognize or understand the rules have changed.  It is one thing to make mistakes (which I do on a regular basis), but to not own up to them or insist that they are right – not so much on the bright side.

Well, I have a tendancy to do that.  While some bloggers tend to create brand new content, others do actual research, I guess I best fit the category of Fisker – see what others have written and comment on it.  I do the other things too, but I have the most fun fisking something.

As some may know, Doug and I belong to our Town’s Budget Committee, and there are some in Town that just don’t quite "get" the new reality – say something of dubious quality, and somebody somewhere is going to check it out, research it, and ensure that what you say is correct. And let the world know via blogging when they are wrong and they won’t stop digging and not dropping the shovel.   Deadly stuff to one’s credibility if one fires off pronouncements without doing fact checking (and we have seen so many examples of that over the last few years, like RatherGate, like the Hezbollah Faux Photography, et al).

And politicians and government officials, even at the local level, are such a self-proclaiming target!  Ah, the power of a blog!  We post local stuff over at GilfordGrok, where the local politicians are trying to do an end run around data they don’t like over a situation they created over the years.  So, if you are of such a mind, I offer yet another blogger’s attempt to hold those accountable as they go after someone presenting data they don’t like (me).  It will be an amusing ride……

 

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