The more I hang around this thing we call the blogosphere, the more curious I become about it’s inner workings. I’m intrigued by the notion that people are so willing to spend their valuable time and energy to write so much incredible stuff and just “put it out there”, usually for no material gain. I’m intrigued that there is such a huge audience wanting to read all this stuff that others write, an audience who enthusiastically consumes content written by complete amateurs on some incredibly niche topics. I’m intrigued that so much of this content is not just pretty good… some of it is amazing, insightful, witty and important! I’m fascinated that so many regular people are finding their voice, and expressing themselves as titans of their very own media empires. I’m in awe of the networks and communities and conversations that just spring up out of nowhere, creating the most incredible streams of ideas that would have never surfaced without this environment to nurture them.
If you are also fascinated by this phenomenon we call the blogosphere, you might find it interesting to peruse this list of the worlds Fifty Most Influential Bloggers. It’s been put together by NxE – a “Blog about Blogging” as they describe it – and whether they are actually in a position to make any sort of authoritive statement about a top 50 list or not, I found it an interesting list to browse. As the NxE site says…
Why do you need to know who they are? Because if you want to see the shape of blogging future, the trends that show us where blogging is heading, then these are the people to watch and listen to. Their success stories hold for us a key to and an inspiration for our own success.
Certainly, these are people who are shaping the nature of new media. And when you see the people behind some of these huge blogs, read their stories, see how young they are, realise how influential they are, it really makes you think about the nature of the beast.
There probably still exists a line between journalism and blogging, but it gets blurrier all the time. Maybe that EPIC presentation was on the right track after all. Either way, it’s fascinating to watch the balance shift between traditional media and new media, between the mainstream press and the Long Tail of the blogosphere. The next few years will be really interesting, and there are still lots of people who are sleeping through the whole thing, who will wake up one day like Rumpelstiltskin and wonder where their comfortable world has vanished to.
Oh, and I never made the list. Maybe next year. 😉
Tags: blogging, web2.0, society
Movers and Shakers by Chris Betcher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.