The Tipping Point

I could blog an expensive, underpowered rackmount server, the latest from a very smart man, my awe at Ella becoming an extremely facile reader, my pleasure at watching my son pitch, or an earthquake that I didn't feel.

But I won't. Instead, I'll make a brash observation: we have just reached the tipping point in the blogosphere. We have reached critical mass.

Last week Dave wrote his piece How To Start a Weblog (For Professional Journalists). Then I run across a blog like this one from a professional journalist:

I've been watching the whole blog thing with interest for quite some time and the thing that tipped me over the edge was Dave Winer's Weblog for Professional Journalalists. I only make part of my living as a writer but boy is it fun.

And now I find that even ESR has a weblog. Started last Friday with this post:

Welcome to Armed And Dangerous, an experiment in weblogging.

This is a test. This is only a test. If this had been an actual emergency, this post would be immediately followed by a pointer to some old-media channel that would tell you what to think.

I don't even need to mention all of the news stories in traditional media about the phenomenon. And blogs as features in traditional media websites.

The whole blog ride feels eerily like email about five years ago, when Metcalfe's law was taking effect and we were about to power up the good part of the hockey stick curve.

I think Dave is about to sell a lot of copies of Radio.