Large swathes of the journalistic profession (though not, I am glad to say, either The Observer or the Guardian ) are still in denial about blogging. In that sense, they resemble music industry executives circa 1999, denying the significance of online file- sharing. But the claim that blogging is a threat to journalism - that inside every blogger is a 'journalist-wannabe' trying to escape - is just daft.

What's happening is a small but significant change in our media ecology. All journalists worth their salt have always known that out there are readers, listeners or viewers who know more about a story than they do. But until recently, there was no effective way for this erudition or scepticism to find public expression. Letters to the editor rarely attract public attention - or impinge on the consciousness of journalists.

Blogging changes all that. Ignorant, biased or lazy journalism is instantly exposed, dissected and flayed in a medium that has global reach.

Thirty percent of the online population said they had read a blog at least once. Among those who read blogs, 38% do so at least once per week. More than two in five of those aged 18 to 34 (41%) and those with a college-education (41%) have visited blogs at least once.

Geographically speaking, blogs are most popular in the western United States where 37% of residents reported visiting a blog.

The growth means a historic phenomenon is gaining momentum: Anyone with access to the Internet can read many first-hand accounts of life in a war zone within seconds after they're finished.

And the blogs are "full of real substance and depth," says Jon Peede, director of the National Endowment for the Arts' Operation Homecoming program, which helps troops and their families write about their wartime experiences. "They're raw, powerful reflections on the war."

They also could be among a troop's last words. At least one "soldier blogger," Army Spc. Francisco G. Martinez, has been killed in action.

"The downside of prohibiting it is worse than the downside of allowing it," Dr. Steinberg says. "A good parent-child relationship is based on trust, and trust is a reciprocal feeling. I think people do get especially worked up for some reason over the Internet. But snooping on what your child does on the Internet, to me in some ways, is no different from snooping through your child's dresser drawers or eavesdropping on your child's telephone conversation or reading your child's diary.

"Any of those things done without cause [for suspicion] are to me violations of what I think is the reasonable right that teenagers have, which is to have some aspect of their lives that their parents are not privy to," he says.

The influential bloggers should be defined here. These are people whom you've never heard of, but whom other influential A-list utopianist bloggers all know. I reckon there are about 500 of them. He (or she) influences other like-minded bloggers, creating a groupthink form of critical mass, just like atomic fission, as they bounce off each other with repetitive cross-links: trackback links, self-congratulatory links, confirmations, and praise-for-their-genius links. BOOM! You get a formidable explosion?an A-bomb of groupthink. You could get radiation sickness if you happen to be in the area. Except for Wired online and a few media bloggers, nobody is in the area, so nobody outside the groupthink community really cares about any of this. These explosions are generally self-contained and harmless to the environment.

The Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service, the nation's uniformed force of health professionals, has just been mobilized. The US Northern Command is in charge of the military response. Soldiers are setting up triage centres, anticipating overflowing emergency rooms and morgues. Images are coming in of tent cities being erected in New York's Central Park. Wards are being installed in schools and churches. Troops are on the streets. "There's going to be civil unrest," a general informed me on the phone this morning.

The data became clearer. On that particular day, the top five bloggers created an average of 30 entries, with each entry being under 150 words. This reminds me of something Phillip Greenspun, another A-list blogger, had said about why he liked blogs:

     It allows me to experiments with the three paragraph form

Considering the size of the average entry from this, it seems very clear that an entry should be brief.

However, going beyond that is the number of entries that come in on a day. Looking at this, the average Top 5 A-list blogger wrote an average of almost 30 entries. Think about it for a second or two. 30 entries! It's a huge number for a single day.

But because the price of entry is so low, you can never have ownership consolidation in weblogging. It will always be a distributed medium and therefore very difficult to control. If professional bloggers emerged who came to be unduly beholden to their advertisers and started not covering certain stories or spinning them for the sake of their sponsors, other non-professional bloggers would just step into the breach. If corporate media bought up a few big bloggers, they would still have to compete against literally millions of independents, and if any of the independents was providing what the audience wanted better, the traffic would shift to them. In the world of weblogging, any form of censorship actually creates opportunities for those immune to it.

These days, the hype about blogs is off the charts.

And you know what that usually means: Run for cover, because a bubble is going to burst and make a big mess.

Just about everybody is either celebrating blogs or worrying about blogs, which are essentially online journals.

A couple of weeks ago, BusinessWeek ran a cover story titled, "Blogs will change your business," in which the magazine likened blogs to the invention of the printing press.

Thankfully, it doesn't look like that is happening in the absolute sense of the definition: meaning we aren't seeing a repeat of the kind of crazy venture capital investment and public investing through IPOs in unproven startups that we saw in the late 1990s -- and that precipitated the stock market downturn in 2000.

That Cosmic Crash You Heard last Monday was the sound of a million egos collapsing when a new Pew/BuzzMetrics study failed to find inordinate agenda influence by bloggers in the 2004 presidential campaign.

In fact, eMarketer Inc. said recently that there is evidence that most U.S. Internet users don't know what a blog is. And that only 4 percent of major U.S. corporations have blogs available to the public for purposes such as corporate marketing, communications, or advertising.

The day InfoWorld's top news RSS feed received more requests than our home page, I started thinking a frightening thought: RSS is doing to the Web today what the Web has been doing to print for the last several years. We have disintermediated our Web site by offering our news in an easier to access format...again. Just as the Web ultimately created more opportunity rather than less, RSS will open up some new doors for the media business. What's behind those doors may even become more profound than what we're doing with traditional online media properties today. But the ghost in the closet is a bit scary, probably big, and definitely ugly on first glance.

Travel blog sites provide tools generally not available on generic sites. Some sites allow visitors to follow your itinerary as you write and upload pictures during a trip. Some sites also have a mapping feature that traces your route and let you upload video and audio files.

Blogs are so "the thing" that they made the cover of Business Week magazine with an ominous headline warning corporate execs they'd better start blogging or risk losing their businesses. Blogs are so "the thing" that Rockford Register Star readers send me links to their favorite blogs every day, usually with a similarly ominous warning that only by reading such-and-such blog will I ever see the light and follow the correct path to true enlightenment.

Podcasts aren't conveniently corralled together at a few iTunes-like stores, however?they're scattered across the Web at scores of far-flung sites. To keep up with the coolest ones, you'll need software such as iPodder (versions for PCs and Macs are available at ipodder.org), which displays lists of available programming, or "feeds," to give you instant access to thousands of podcasts.

The CEO of Bloglines (now a division of AskJeeves) says that his company will release a blog search engine this summer which will surpass the likes of Technorati, Feedster, and PubSub. "The challenge," he says, "is to create world-class blog search, which we don't think exists now."

In summary: Blogging is about conversation. Comments is a very good tool to strenghten conversation, but the fundamental tool is linking. Defining blogs from a "comments or no comments"-perspective is nothing but a way of making blogs a less profound change of communication than they are.

The idea, in brief, is that instead of being herded into walled gardens, such as eBay, the public will be able to use new structural and organizational tools to form into their own herds. People buying and selling, say, baseball cards, would simply find each other. EBay et al would no longer monopolize their users' data. Instead, they would have to build their business on providing services, such as payments and seller ratings.

Starting this summer, all paying NewsGator subscribers will get FeedDemon as part of their subscription packages at no additional charge. In addition, all FeedDemon and TopStyle customers will get a free 2-year NewsGator business subscription, which will include free updates of both NewsGator Outlook edition and FeedDemon.

Given RSS's increasing popularity among online publishers, bloggers and marketers, there's a lot of buzz on its potential to reach millions of interested consumers directly through opt-in feeds to consumers' RSS readers of choice.

However, "potential" is the key word.

RSS lacks hard numbers of almost any kind, making it impossible to base a business case for relying on it as a publishing or marketing tool... at this time.

And yet otherwise sensible marketers and publishers are talking about replacing email with RSS offerings (asking readers to choose format which they'd like to get info in) -- and hundreds of bloggers have chosen to *only* offer RSS feeds instead of an accompanying email alert.

Leading the IBM troops into the blogosphere will be IBM's chief strategist, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, who will begin writing a blog. He is credited with persuading IBM to become an early advocate for Linux, and to cultivate relationships with the open-source developer community. This resulted in a significant competitive advantage for IBM because it reduced software development costs, and it hurt Microsoft, it's largest competitor.

Mr Wladawsky-Berger will author a blog but Mr Finn says readers might find less on tech and more on baseball -- an interest that relates to his Cuban heritage.

IBM's blogging initiative includes the publication of interviews with staff who are already bloggers and are well recognized within their online communities, such as Catherine Helzerman. She says it has been good for her career. "Blogging has provided me with recognition within the company, and outside," says Ms Helzerman.

As times change, so do teenagers and the way they talk. Telephones are giving way to computers and popular chat rooms and blog sites.

Xanga.com is one of the more popular blogging Web sites, Kansas City television station KMBC reported.

"It's kind of like an online diary. If something makes you mad or happy, you can just go and let it out," high school senior Jessica Hacker said.

His reasoning: Advertisers trust that the content will stay within certain bounds. "They'll be more comfortable there." Still, he acknowledges the risk that comments, even on mainstream sites, will criticize an advertiser. The other risk, of course, is that by settling for MSM blogs, advertisers will sacrifice the power and reach of the blogs that have proven themselves in the blog world.

Every week, it seems, another friend e-mails to announce that he, or he and his wife, or he and his wife and his baby, have launched a blog on which I can follow the intimate details of their lives, as if I were not already bored enough with the intimate details of my own.

What does concern me, though, is this altogether frightening question: If I am to remain a good friend to my blogging pals, am I required to read their blogs? Please, tell me the answer is no. Because if it's yes, I think this will be the end of a number of beautiful friendships. There's just no getting around it: Some of my friends' blogs are so mind-numbingly banal they have me wishing for the early days of the Web when the most exciting thing to do was search for a Blues Traveler screensaver.

Hey gang, I was just talking to Tim Russert and he asked me a question about something he read on my blog on my Web site, alroker.com. Funny thing, I've been doing this on my site for more than five years but, when Tim referred to it as a blog, I wasn't sure what he was talking about.

I've always called it a journal. After all, it's what it's been called for years in the analog world. We all kept journals, or, if you were a teenage girl, a diary. Someone decides to call 'em a Web log, shorten that to blog and it's suddenly hot. Truly, everything old is new again. So now, I'm doing a blog for our "Today" Web site and a journal on my alroker.com Web site. I am the king of blournals!

Winans International CEO Ken Winans says corporate bloggers are taking a big risk, because everyone from the Securities and Exchange Commission to "ambulance-chasing" lawyers are reading. It's a matter of time before one lands a company in court, Winans says.

The maverick CEOs - Mark Cuban, Bob Liodice, Alan Meckler and Bob Lutz - they all blog from the gut. They're naturals. Not every exec is a natural, but there's always someone in the rank in file who is. The moral of the story is, find someone who will blog from the gut whether they are at the top of the corporate food chain or the bottom.

What starts out as a hobby for some can end up permeating their lives and minds. Some of the diarists post repeatedly throughout the day, juggle several blogs and feel anxious if they don't write. Most dedicated bloggers say the endeavor has enriched their lives, but some worry about finding balance and keeping their obsession in check.

Among bloggers, addiction is a running joke. One even offered a checklist: "You are addicted to blogging if you answer 'yes' to at least three of the following questions," Joi Ito, a Japanese venture capitalist with Silicon Valley ties, wrote on his blog (joi.ito.com). "Do you think about everything in terms of whether it will make a good blog entry? Do you keep your computer in standby mode beside your bed and wake up at 2 a.m. to blog? Do you skip lunch and blog instead?"

The New York Times Company (NYT) said Monday it plans to introduce a redesigned Business Day section on Monday 16 May. It also plans to expand its coverage of new media and online web journals known as blogs as well as widen its coverage of consumer technology, the legal profession, Wall Street, venture capital and financial products.

Does anyone else find this funny?
Nothing like using a distribution platform involving paper to make sure folks know the important goings-on in the digital world. Why don't they just license a feed from Rafat Ali and be done with it?

Buczaczer expects a handful of blogs will develop an audience large enough to secure more substantial ad dollars this year. A wave of companies will also start blogs to create more immediate links to consumers in the near term, he said.

As many as 64 percent of marketers are interested in advertising on blogs, according to a Forrester Research study, though their investment would still be a fraction of the $14.7 billion expected to be spent on Internet ads this year.

Another 57 percent are looking to include marketing messages on RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds which allow a viewer to see instantly updating headlines from news, Web logs and other sites via a simple Internet browser.

At a time when media conferences like "Les Blogs" in Paris two weeks ago debate the potential of the form, and when BusinessWeek declares, as it did on its May 2 cover, that "Blogs Will Change Your Business," Mr. Denton is withering in his contempt. A blog, he says, is much better at tearing things down -- people, careers, brands -- than it is at building them up. As for the blog revolution, Mr. Denton put it this way: "Give me a break."

"The hype comes from unemployed or partially employed marketing professionals and people who never made it as journalists wanting to believe," he said. "They want to believe there's going to be this new revolution and their lives are going to be changed."

Warwick University is playing a pioneering role with its Warwick Blogs project, which is available to all students, teachers and staff. The idea behind it, says John Dale, head of IT services at Warwick, was "self-publishing for all". Students were allowed to create homepages on the university's network, he says, but few bothered because it was too difficult. In contrast, setting up a Warwick Blog is easy. The hope is that once students start blogging, says Dale, it could build a community, foster collaboration and perhaps help with the personal development planning that students and tutors have to work on.

Max Hammond, a chemistry PhD student, says that blogs are a useful social tool, but that the service's acceptable usage policy is draconian. "The blogs admin appears to suspend student blogs on some very shaky reasons."

You walk into a Chinese restaurant and your phone buzzes. It's a blog post from a friend with a simple message: Avoid the duck. This is one vision of future blogging from Qualcomm CEO-elect Paul Jacobs, who just stopped by our office. (He's the one on the left in the photo).

This new type of posting is linked to a certain location. It's called a Crunkie. The idea is that you can leave location-based posts in certain places for your friends. And they pop up when your friends appear.

We envision KYOURADIO as a station for the people. We think you have something to say and we want to hear it. You're out there creating, riffing, ranting and raving and Infinity is going to give voice to your vision. In fact, we want to share it with the world. KYOURADIO will no doubt evolve over time, but our intention is to make the experience as real as possible. Input from the world at large will provide lots of inspiration and plenty of constructive criticism.

In return for their services, Vespa bloggers will get an early look at Vespa products and services, passes to Vespa events as well as Vespa accessory merchandise and online/media exposure. Vespa is not paying for any of the bloggers to blog, nor is it trying to influence them on content. These are simply perks for blogging for Vespa.

Still, can snarky, independent bloggers be tamed? And if they were, would they remain as valuable? Part of the typical blog's appeal is that the person who operates it is free to be as wild and woolly as he or she might like.

So, if corporations want to get in on blogging, they have to tread warily. "You hire some bloggers to come in, and you give them a list of 10 talking points, and it becomes nothing more than a spin machine," says Todd Copilevitz, director of digital initiatives for Omnicom Group's TracyLocke. "Those are ultimately going to be derided as sellouts or as commercial."

I'm getting tired of people insisting that blogs are one thing but definitely cannot be another. Sure, I know exactly what Searls is talking about: the type of blog written by individuals (like, for example, this one). But that doesn?t mean that General Motors is abusing the blogosphere by producting Fastlane, which targets the consumer audience of automotive enthusiasts. I'll keep on saying it: Blogs are lightweight content-management systems, and as such, are applicable to any task the use of such a system accommodates. Consequently, we'll continue to see blogs branch out along several evolutionary paths. Some will be terrific, others will cause mass shrugging, and still others will be wretched. Those launched by organizations in order to help the company achieve business goals will require -- require --consideration of content targeted to audiences. That, of course, will not diminish the importance of the writing.

AP: Do you read blogs?
Hilton: What?s that?
AP: Um, they?re these things on the Internet where people write about news and stuff. Hilton: No, I don?t really read anything on the Internet except my AOL mail. I don?t like people who sit on computers all day long and write about people they don?t know anything about.
AP: Paris, you just described my job.

I predict that the result will pleasantly surprise the bean-counters. There'll be a huge increase in traffic at first, once people realize they can read their local history without paying a fee. Eventually, though not instantly, the revenues will greatly exceed what the paper had been earning under the old system. Meanwhile, the expenses to run it will drop.

And, perhaps most important, the newspaper will have boosted its long-term place in the community. It will be seen, more than ever, as the authoritative place to go for some kinds of news and information -- because it will have become an information bedrock in this too-transient culture.

Blogging is very much the province of the young. Fully 19% of online Americans ages 18-29 have created blogs, compared to 5% of those 50 and older. When it comes to blog reading, online men and women are equally as likely to have browsed the blogosphere. Again, those ages 18-29 are much more likely to have read blogs than their elders: 36% of online younger adults have read blogs compared to 18% of those who use the internet and are 50 and older.

With that, Marcy made a discovery thousands of parents around the country are making -- teenagers are among the most active Internet bloggers, and many are posting pictures, names, addresses, schools, even phone numbers, almost always without their parent's knowledge.

About half of all blogs are authored by teenagers, according to a 2003 study by Perseus Development Corp.; and according to comScore Media Metrix, a majority of the top 15 sites visited by teens 17 and under in January 2005 were either blogs or social networking sites.

Before becoming blogging guru to the academic elite, Winer founded and was chief executive of Millbrae, Calif.-based UserLand Software, which specializes in content-publishing tools and services. He wrote or contributed to a number of relevant specifications, including SOAP, XML-RPC, RSS and OPML. He is perhaps best known for launching Scripting News, one of the Internet's longest-running Web logs.