Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

Two of my favorites in conversation: Hugh interviews Seth about Seth’s new book. A favorite bit:

9. With the advent of certain Web 2.0 media coming along in 2007- Facebook, etc, suddenly the “Blogging is Dead” meme keeps popping up all over the place. I think they’re kind of missing the point. You?

Who the hell knows what ‘blogging’ means? People say, “that’s not a blog because” it doesn’t have comments or because it has three authors or because it’s got video or who knows what… What’s a book? a blog? a speech? Who knows?

I think it’s entirely possible that the ego-driven, comment-driven water-cooler blog is being replaced by Facebook and Twitter. I don’t think, not for one second, that the inherently closed communities of social networks are a replacement for the idea-driven blog designed to be read by surfers, strangers and the masses.

I agree entirely with Seth. People want to be prescriptive or proscriptive about what blogs are “supposed” to be, as though blogs were primarily a social contract. No — blogs are primarily a technology, like the printing press. They are a means of distribution. And just like it would be silly to think that books are all going to operate the same way (novels, almanacs, cookbooks, coloring books, etc.), it’s silly to think that blogs must have comments or must operate this or that way.

The whole interview is worth reading if you care about what’s happening in the online-business world.