Voices

Blogs are about having a voice – whether it be a political or civic voice (Wolf, 2004; Korblum, 2003) or a personal voice. We want to be heard in the political arena, in the news arena, and in the personal area. Why is voice important? Having a voice is about justice, validation, self-autonomy and identity. In a world where recently identity has been lost in the mass (Weinberger, 2002) – the Internet allows us to be ourselves again and to react and interact with the information in our world and the world itself.

I’m not sure that traditional forms of media will be eliminated, although I’m sure they will be tweaked. An interesting site – Global Voices – is trying to connect bloggers with the media. They want to change media into a two-way conversation. Interestingly enough they do not include U.S. blogs to avoid a tendency toward American-centric news coverage. Their goal is to give a voice to those who have not traditionally dominated any media – including the Internet. (Most blogs are American).

Global Voices appears to be the non-profit version of Alvey & Calacanis’ business model (MIT, 2005) – a clearing-house, as it were – or perhaps a community (even commune?) for bloggers. Which reminds me of a key question: if blogging becomes a “business model” or a “marketing tool” will it lose its value as a community connector and a place for individual voice? Will business be able to tolerate the riskiness and lack of predictability that blogs and Internet dialogue demonstrate? Will they consider the return worth the risk?