Evelyn Rodriguez at Crossroads
Dispatches, a blog on innovation and marketing, recently asked Who (not what) is a blog for?
Perhaps I was influenced by the name of her blog, but it immediately
occurred to me that asking Who a blog is for is like asking Who a
railway station is for. To me, the blogosphere is like a railway
network, and each of us can set up and maintain our own station and
provide a one-way link to other blogs, other stations. Trackback
(railway track, get it?)
provides a rudimentary way of also connecting to other stations that
have connected to us, but for the most part, just like a real railway
station, we only sell outgoing tickets and maps to go elsewhere. The
'back' arrow gives us a way to get back to the previous station when we
inadvertently make a 'wrong connection'. The search engines are like
worm-holes in the system, allowing us to jump the track into hyperspace
and land somewhere else in the network far away from where we entered
it. Blogrings are like the colour codes that join all the stations on a
common route, or in a community.
As the owners of stations, we provide amenities to the passengers to
attract them, and make their stay worthwhile and memorable, but recall
that the average visitor to a blog stays ninety seconds, a little
longer than a subway train lingers at each station but a little shorter
than the milk train's stops. Our visitors arrive because of our
'advertising' elsewhere in the system, or more often they're just
passing through on their way to some unknown (to us) ultimate
destination, or on their way home (their home page, where they'll write
up the story of their journey). While they're visiting, they may stop
to refuel, pick up something to read, maybe snap a picture or two. They
may stop to talk with us about the news of the day, or about the
architecture of our station, or they may scribble hateful graffiti in
the restrooms and then flee, anonymous. Some will pass by regularly, on
their daily or weekly commute, but most will be here by accident,
impatient to get where they really want to go, and hurriedly depart,
never to return.
Sometimes the station-owner goes away, and closes the station for
awhile, or forever. Passengers are forced to reroute around the broken
link, and soon new links are made, new maps of how to navigate around
the abandoned section of track.
I know it's possible to stretch an analogy too far, but this one
intrigues me. The blogosphere and the railway system are both networks,
both global, both peopled mostly by transients on their way someplace
else. What can we learn from the analogy? How can we create blogs that
are like the greatest railway stations in the world, not just waypaths
but destinations, terminals, adventures
in their own right? What would the Schipol of blogs look like?
Enjoy your stay at How to Save the World,
part of the Green Line, with connections to the Innovation &
Entrepreneurship, Progressive Economics and Story Lines. Mind the Gap!
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