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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Like it, Don't Love it, But Blog About it, January 19, 2005
I received my copy of Hugh Hewitt's new book, Blog. It's a book that's having a significant impact in the blogsphere, particularly among Evangelical bloggers. What's the fuss?
I'm afraid I don't have a great answer to that question. I liked the book -- I really wanted to like it -- but I didn't love it.
Here's what I liked: Hewitt does a good job of demonstrating how the blogsphere has grown to rival, and in some celebrated recent examples such as "Rathergate," to supplant or at least upstage, traditional print and broadcast media. And, he makes some cogent, although not revolutionary, observations about how business organizations should utilize blogs and bloggers. He also refers to some useful blogs that newbies in the blogsphere will want to visit, although at times he seems mostly to be shilling for his blogging friends and promoting his own site.
Here's what I didn't like. The book reads like it was cranked out over a few long weekends. If you're looking for serious analysis of blogging as a social or political phenomenon, this isn't it. There are many breathless sections about how the blogsphere has "shattered" the "MSM" (Main Stream Media), interrupted with long block quotes and padded with filler such as an "Appendix" comprised of Hewitt's "early writings on blogging" and a second "Appendix" comprised of e-mails from visitors to Hewitt's website. Any 220 page book with nearly 70 pages of appendices from old, disjointed writings suggests, to me, that the book's main themes perhaps aren't that well developed. It also lacks an index, which again suggests perhaps some haste in getting to press.
The book's brevity might be understandable if it were a monograph on one or two tightly argued points. It isn't. In fact, it's difficult to tease out the book's main focus. Is it primarily a call to arms for conservative bloggers, or more of a business blogger's how-to? Is this book in the tradition of Sean Hannity or Stephen Covey? It seems to want to be both, and as a result does strike oil with either.
In addition to problems of style and organization, I think the book includes several important substantive missteps. It seems to me that Hewitt suffers from myopia when he compares blogging to the information revolution that followed Guttenberg's invention of the printing press. Blogging isn't the revolution -- the Internet is the revolution. Blogging is just the latest tool made possible by the Internet. The sorts of discussions now happening in blogs once happened (and still do happen) on bulletin boards and chat rooms. Years ago they happened mostly on the Usenet and on proprietary boards such as The Well and Delphi.
I would agree that blogging has accelerated this trend by making this sort of informal information exchange easier. Yet it's important to place blogging in context. Blogging may persist, or it may go the way of the Usenet as new tools arise. The Internet, though, is here to stay. A truly strategic vision for communication will embrace this new tool while recognizing its possibly transitory nature. At the very least, Hewitt should explain why blogging is here to stay.
Hewitt also spends little time on the potential dangers of the blogsphere. He does recognize that jihadist groups have taken to the Internet and blogging, which he seems to employ as a call to arms for good people to occupy the space. Yet, he seems so enchanted by the blogsphere's potential to correct perceived bias in the traditional print and broadcast media that he never addresses the way network effects can magnify the impact of false information. A case in point, which Hewitt ignores, is the post-election blogswarm about vote fraud started by a blogger whose statistical analysis of the exit polls was inaccurate. Hewitt even briefly refers to the concept of memes, without acknowledging that memes are often bits of false information that replicate virulently over a network. (I'd give a cite to Hewitt's book where he references memes, but the lack of an index makes the job of searching too difficult).
Finally, Hewitt seems too sanguine about the commercialization of blogging. He goes so far as to suggest pricing models for blog banner ads. Call me a purist, but the last thing I want to see is the extensive commoditization of blogs. In fact, there's a real danger that the commercialization of blogs will signal the decline of the blogsphere. Public relations professionals have already recognized the importance of the blogsphere and are becoming adept at "seeding" stories in influential blogs, just as they seed stories through "leaks" to the traditional news media. A commercialized, coopted blogsphere will lose its authenticity. Surprisingly, Hewitt doesn't seem concerned about this. In my view, what we need in the blogsphere is writers who say what they think regardless of the consequences. Once you begin eating from the hands of sponsors, advertisers, and public relations flackers, you become the MSM.
So, if you're new to blogging or just curious about it and want to learn more, get Biz Stone's Blogging, which contains much more nuts and bolts information about blog culture and tools. If you're an active blogger, read Hewitt's book, but blog about how much more interesting a book it could have been if it had been a more thorough analysis of the blogsphere's place in the Internet and the culture at large.
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46 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tipping the Blogosphere, December 29, 2004
Why is it that some ideas or behaviors or products start epidemics and others don't? That's the question that Malcom Gladwell attempts to answer in "The Tipping Point", a fascinating examination of the phenomena of social epidemics. While examining the question Gladwell introduces three types of people -- Mavens, Connectors, and Salesmen -- who play a critical role in dictating trends.
Mavens are information brokers who have the knowledge and social skills to start epidemics; connectors are people who know lots of other people; and salesmen are people with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced by what we are hearing. While many of us play some of these roles, there are few truly influential mavens, connectors, or salesmen. An even few number of remarkable people are a combination of all three. Hugh Hewitt is one of those people.
As a best-selling author, national radio host, and popular blogger, Hewitt is a classic connector. And his willingness to help and encourage others, sparking in them a passion for blogging marks him as a true maven. Now, with the release of his extraordinary new book, Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation, he exhibits his persuasive skills as a salesman. Hewitt is a one-man epidemic, spreading the burgeoning trend of blogging.
While many of us might see 5 million blogs as a revolution already well on its way to maturity, Hewiit sees a vast, relatively untapped market. His book is squarely aimed at the large segment of the population who might use email and surf the Internet but still doesn't quite understand the importance of the "blog thing." Hewitt explains why blogs are significant, how they are changing the world around us, and - most importantly - how not to get left behind in this phase of the "information reformation."
With a style reminiscent of management guru Tom Peters, Blog hits the ground running. "I know you are busy," Hewitt writes in the opening words of the preface and spends the next 220 pages cutting to the chase. He doesn't waste time trying to explain what isn't necessary. Like a classic maven he convinces the reader to just trust him, he knows what he's talking about and is willing to freely share his valuable knowledge.
Blog is divided into three sections, each explaining an essential aspect of blogging. Part one lays out the case for "What Happened" by describing the "blog storms" that helped bring down such powerful figures as Trent Lott and Dan Rather. Even mainstream media types will have a hard time scoffing at the power of the blogosphere after the retelling of these seminal "opinion storms." And those of us who watched the events unfold in real time will be impressed by Hewitt's post-mortem examination. He clearly did his homework.
In explaining the twenty-first century "information reformation" Hewitt compares it to the sixteenth century's Protestant Reformation. While many others have compared blogging to the invention of the printing press, Hewitt delves into the history of the event and shows how a young monk named Luther used the new technology to transform Western culture. In doing so he revives an often overused metaphor and gives it new life, making a convincing case that 2005 really is "1449 and 1517, at the same moment."
While the first section of the book will be of special interest to bloggers, Parts II and III lay out the case for why leaders of business, church, government, and media should be paying attention to the new media. Even those of us who spend a considerable amount of time thinking about blogging will be impressed by the creative uses for the medium that Hewitt suggests. His recommendations, if adopted, would benefit both bloggers and the organizations that could use our unique skills to their advantage.
Throughout the book, Hewitt exhibits his typically generous "linking" and praise for blogs and bloggers. Instead of using the book solely as a vehicle for promoting his own "brand", he shows that blogging truly is an interconnected community. As he readily admits, no blog - no matter how much traffic it receives -- is as important as the blogosphere. The fact that Hewitt "gets" this and is able to use it to his advantage is one of the primary reasons he has become one of the foremost leaders of the new media.
When you order your copy of Blog from Amazon you'll want to get at least two copies -- one to keep and one to give away. No matter whether you are a connector, a maven, or just a wannabe, after reading Hewitt's book you'll become a salesman for blogging.
[...]
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78 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Guide to Using the Blogosphere, January 15, 2005
If the blogosphere had a press agent, it would be Hugh Hewitt. He has flogged the potential of the blogosphere for over a year on his website, and "Blog" attempts to bring the word to people who don't get their news from the Internet.
Like his previous work, "If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat," "Blog" is an eminently readable work you can devour in an afternoon. Hugh's writing style is conversational and transmits information quickly and clearly. This makes "Blog" a good read regardless of your position on blogs and blogging.
Hugh's thesis is simple: blogs are the next wave in the information revolution, as important to the dissemination of information as the printing press was to the Reformation. While Hugh touts a number of blogs (oddly enough missing yours truly, but I'm sure that was an oversight), his discussion isn't about any particular blog, but about how the technology of blogs is changing how information reaches the public. He cites four significant instances of the blogosphere influencing the public discourse: the removal of Trent Lott from his position as Senate Majority Leader, the fall of Jayson Blair and Howell Raines at the New York Times, the takedown of John Kerry by the Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth and Dan Rather's immolation following the 60 Minutes forged National Guard documents scandal. Each case illustrates how the blogosphere was able to keep stories percolating (and even breaking, in the latter two cases) until the national media had no choice to take what the blogosphere was giving them, and in each case the results were markedly different than what would have occurred prior to the rise of the blogosphere.
Naysayers will probably ding Hugh for what notes as blogger triumphalism, but I think such readers are missing the point. Hugh is not arguing that any one blogger or group of bloggers is able to have this effect, but that the blogosphere as a whole is distributing the flow of information in such a manner as to make it far more difficult for anyone to control that flow. That will make life far more difficult for people accustomed to keeping tight control over information, but it also represents a great opportunity for people willing to take advantage of this new medium's strengths. And this is what Hugh is trying to sell: those people and businesses that jump into the blogosphere now are going to gain a serious competitive advantage on those who continue to stick to older methods of communicating. While this process in likely to move in fits and starts over the next few years, it is coming nevertheless, and "Blog" offers some good advice to those people looking to get out ahead of the blogosphere rather than ending up in trouble due to a failure to understand this new technology.
The definitive work on the blogosphere is yet to be written, because it's still too early in the development of the system to chronicle it all. But Blog is a good start and a valuable resource for anyone looking to understand more about what the blogosphere is and how it can help or hurt your business.
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