Blogs and blogs
Michael Pollock
What is your success? Here is some food for thought. According to
Technorati:
· The blogosphere is now 70 million Weblogs wide.
· About 120,000 new blogs are created each day; 1.4 new blogs are
created every second.
· There are 1.5 million posts per day, with 17 posts made every
second.
According to Media Post journalists are starting to look to bloggers
for insight.
CNet's News.com just did a story on students at Virigina Tech blogging
about their tragic experience. A blogger posted a story of his
girlfriend getting shot and surviving the massacre. In no time at all
NPR, CBS Newsworld and MTV News tried to contact him after seeing his
LiveJournal page.
Journalists are going to sites like YouTube, Digg and Flickr to get up-
to-the-minute comments, photos and videos of what's happening. Ask
many and they'll tell you these environments have quickly become
primary news sources.
But beware: we now live in a world with blurred lines between fact and
fiction. Opinion versus fact also gets to be a grey area. For
instance, how would you find a particular restaurant? Most likely
you'd ask a friend or colleague. Many of them have already formed an
opinion because they "Just read about it... someplace... and heard it
was great." The lines are indeed blurred - who can remember where we
heard any particular story.
There is opportunity for us nonprofits in the blogosphere - but know
what you are getting into.