Orlowski kicks the beehive again

Andrew Orlowski kicks the beehive again.

I like what he's doing. I think blogs are great. I read a lot of them. But the people who puff them up as a new world order are hyping. It's a continuation of the libertarian/utopian dream of an independent internet. As Lawrence Lessig's work has shown, this is an illusion. The internet has great power to connect people, but it's what they do with those connections in the real world that is most interesting.

That's why groups like MoveOn, Meetup, and the Howard Dean campaign are worth more than any number of "social software" pundits. I'm tired of blogs about blogs. I don't fault the creators of these tools for being proud of what they've made. But are blogs going to lead us into the techno-utopia promised land? No. But it will help us use the democracy we already have better.

Oh. And it provides a way for teenaged girls (of all ages and genders) to share their daily events and thoughts with their friends. The digital archeologists of the future will grateful for that.