07.10.06
The future of blogging (as seen in 2005)
In April 2005, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania produced an article looking at blogging and looking towards the future of the medium.
“Will bloggers upend the mainstream media? What legal protections should bloggers have? Is there a blogger business model? While no definitive answers exist just yet, experts at Wharton advise questioners to be patient. Blogging, they note, will be around for a long time.
Wharton legal studies professor Dan Hunter puts blogging right up there with the printing press when it comes to sharing ideas and disseminating information. ‘This is not a fad,” Hunter says. ‘It’s the rise of amateur content, which is replacing the centralized, controlled content done by professionals.’”
The article closes with a quote from an information technology consulting guru that takes a pessimistic view towards blogging’s growth.
“While most agree that blogging will continue to be popular, its next steps are uncertain. Demopoulos suggests that blogging overexposure is on the horizon. ‘Right now, blogging is trendy,’ he says. ‘I see that lasting a few years, but it will slow down.’”
Media members and insitutions are always wondering when the blogger boom will be over. What’s the answer? Is it already over? Or has it just begun?