The Informationist

The Education of a Baby Blogger

It occurs to me that as the proud owner of a new website and blog, I should spend a bit of time trying to understand this new phenomenon of blogging. I confess that I’ve fallen behind. Most of my work on Digital Phoenix took place before blogging was much of a phenomenon. I hate feeling behind the curve on an important information sector development, but keeping up to speed is a full-time job. So I’m going to spend the next month learning what’s going on.

My understanding took a great leap forward last week when I read Dan Gillmor‘s “ title="We the Media">We the Media. I found it very helpful. So helpful, in fact, that I wrote to Gillmor urging him to look at Digital Phoenix. If I understand the blog spirit correctly, there’s nothing wrong with reprinting my letter to him as an open letter; perhaps some of his readers will find it interesting:

I just finished—and enjoyed—We the Media. I wanted to drop you a line to call your attention to my own book, Digital Phoenix: Why the Information Economy Collapsed and How it Will Rise Again (MIT Press, 2005). Digital Phoenix doesn’t talk about blogs at all, and it mentions the media only tangentially. It does, however, develop an overarching theme within which We the Media fits.

I believe that we are living through an epochal transformation, as the industrial age gives way to the information age. As this transformation progresses, it will visit all aspects of society; most will undergo transformations themselves. These transformations will follow a predictable recurrent pattern. Consumers (or end users) will benefit immediately, as reduced information costs reduce transaction costs and drive prices downward. Clever producers will benefit next, as they devise new business models appropriate to the new information economics. Incumbent intermediaries will fight back, typically by attempting to use law, regulation, and legislation to lock us into a status quo that has served them well. Society will incur both costs and benefits as we develop the rules within which technology and incumbency battle.

Digital Phoenix explains the intellectual roots of these beliefs, and shows how they have already played themselves out in the software and music industries. Though the book appeared on the shelves only last month, I did the bulk of the writing in 2002—a time at which the transformation of our media industries was much less advanced than it is today. In We the Media, you tell the media story in a way fits perfectly with the themes that Digital Phoenix develops and predicts.

If you get a chance to take a look at my book, I hope that you will share your thoughts with me (as well as with your readers). Meanwhile, I can’t resist the opportunity by giving my book a bit of a plug, courtesy of your erstwhile regional competitors at the Chronicle. Read it here. Finally, my own blog is not quite ready for prime time, but if you’re interested in tracking such things, check out http://www.theinformationist.com (first relevant posting, “Why The Informationist?").

A CRA colleague also suggested that I try to interest Glenn Reynolds, of instapundit fame; I sent him a similar but shorter message.

Now comes something of a waiting game--and an inquiry. I’ve been looking for a way to generate some buzz for my book. When I saw Thomas Friedman launch The World is Flat“ title="The World is Flat">The World is Flat, I got to chat with him for a few minutes. I told him that I had been researching the issues that he “discovered” in 2004 for more than two decades. He asked for a copy of Digital Phoenix, and expressed an interest in learning more. I’m still waiting. The MSM seems unlikely to notice Digital Phoenix unless and until those “in the know” tell them to read it. Are bloggers those in the know?

Perhaps that’s one of the lessons I’ll learn as I bring myself up to speed.

Posted by Bruce Abramson from on 06/02 at 03:58 PM in The Not-Quite-Yet Information Economy