One of the sad truths of this new medium is that it doesn't change human behavior. Power law distribution of attention was bound to occur at one time or another. What that means in regards to the blogosphere is that a very small number of us have the attention of the majority of participants, and the vast majority of us, have the attention of few. And this trend is self-reinforcing.
Way back in February 8, 2003 Clay Shirky wrote a piece called "Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality" in which he documented this phenomenon. Clay Shirky posited that as of that time, even if such a trend is concerning, it was still fair. But he worried about the future: "However, though the inequality is mostly fair now, the system is still young. Once a power law distribution exists, it can take on a certain amount of homeostasis, the tendency of a system to retain its form even against external pressures. Is the weblog world such a system? Are there people who are as talented or deserving as the current stars, but who are not getting anything like the traffic? Doubtless. Will this problem get worse in the future? Yes."
Reading recent posts in Technologies du Langage (via Seth Finkelstein) and the Ask Jeeves Blog gives some credence to his concerns.
Clay Shirky's piece was on my mind when I rebooted Philly Future early 2004 as an aggregator of local bloggers. I believe, and still believe, there is an opportunity to build tools that surface and connect the great many voices that should be - and deserve to be - heard. That the interesting bits of the web are in the "long tail" as he called it - the conversations taking place among those that are not yet known by the majority of us.
Sites like Philly Future are launching regularly, for a great example see Greensboro101. The infrastructure arising now (called "Web 2.0" by Tim O'Reilly) can help empower Philly Future and sites like it to do so much more. It is, as he calls it, the "architecture of participation".
There was a great conference in Greensboro this weekend called ConvergeSouth. One which I wish I could have attended. Philly's own Duncan Black, however, was there. He had this to say:
Greensboro, where I was over the weekend, is notable for its thriving blogging community. There are a lot of local bloggers who focus a great degree on local issues, and there's interaction with the local paper and candiates. Greensboro101 is the aggregator, and they're even trying (and succeeding) to sell ads to local businesses, something not all that appropriate for a "national" blog.The emergence and growth of "local blogging" is I think the vital next step for a variety of reasons which I'll get around to discussing eventually. First, I started to think about what local bloggers can contribute to local media, which led me to start thinking about what was lacking in my local media - what I wanted from the local newspapers that I'm not getting.
What I would like in my fantasy newspaper is a paper which tells the story of Philadelphia. As with any city or town, big or small, it's like an epic novel with a giant cast of characters. There are villains and heroes, the powerful and the weak, rising stars and has-beens. The characters aren't just people, they're also institutions and neighborhoods and buildings and streets and buses. Everyone and everything has a fascinating backstory, and new characters enter all the time. There's politics and crime and gossip and intrigue and tragedy. A great newspaper would be telling a great story, with a new eagerly awaited chapter every day. I want to read that story, and it's not being told comprehensively enough.
So consider this a plea: I hope you discuss it here Duncan. Local blogging isn't new. Philly Future started in December of 1999. It's what Philly Future was built for. It's what participants here have donated their time to building. By writing personally about Philadelphia both here and in their personal blogs. By weaving together a picture of what our region is saying so that others can participate in the conversation. By blogrolling each other to connect our region and share it with the web.
"Urbi et Orbi" - "for the city and the world" - is the slogan of Philly Future for a reason. But only thru all of us can we make it happen. I wish I personally had the resources of those that run Greensboro101 or Backfence - but I don't.
It's up to all of us if we want it to be.
