Frank Schaap: "Weblogs are hailed as a radical new form of publishing that possibly threatens more traditional forms of publishing. Apart from this repeating of rethoric, it seems to me that Salon now finds itself in the unique position to explore how weblogs and a more traditional publication can feed off eachother. And this has to do with integration."
This sounds like a blast from the past. My friends a long time ago registered flowers.com and in the early web pier group it seemed like a dirty nasty commercialization of the web. There is real and measurable value in weblogs the exchange of information, reputation, and accumulation of social capital made possible by weblog technologies and the people who choose to participate in this value creation process.
As a consultant I've pitched every major corporation web site redesign on the idea of using weblogs up front and in the open as a way to get the consumer to participate in their value creation process. I’m glad to see salon giving it an try. News business is about evaluation information sources, and identification of available information options. The web is a natural place to evolve the trade in information and its place in our life as the foundation of knowledge, understanding and reality.
Blogging is in the early stages, first five years of a fifteen-year build out, and will likely over time follow some of the same growing pains as the Internet in general did on its rise to assume its place in the news business similar to the way the Internet has in electronic commerce, which is also early in the build out. There are identifiable repeatable stages in this evolution but just as with the internet the companies didn't quite understand why people chose to participate they will be certain to miss some things and get others completely wrong because newcomers that maintain a stronger place in the formal network structures in the news industry don't have an accurate mental model of what it is the drives the value creation process in a gift economy.
1) When information becomes more easily available it becomes more beneficial to give it away more freely. This one goes to the fundamental change from the old economy to the new economy.
2) It has to be cheep and easy to participate with both time and money. This one goes to easy access to the market and ease of use of the software.
3) Individuals must be able to get credit for their creative contribution. This one goes to reputation management
11:31:22 AM 
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