Why print is dead
I've spent way too much time today reading the website / blog of Dave Winer, the inventor of modern RSS and podcasting, and one of the earliest bloggers. His site has been operational as a blog since 1997, and his archives date back to 1994 — probably something you could classify as a blog despite the lack of the term in those early days of the web. And he's got many key moments in the web's evolution recorded. Watching the web evolve over the last fifteen years has been roughly equivalent to watching civilization progress from the Bronze Age to the early days of spaceflight.
Winer's site is one of those I stumble across now and again, but not one I regularly follow. That's not because it's not interesting. It is interesting... plenty of good stuff to be found there, a good bit of it related to blogging, media creation, and technology — but certainly not all of it.
One of the area bloggers recently referred to me as "new" to the scene. I chuckled at that characterization and was not offended by it in the slightest. Because in some sense, aren't we all somewhat "new" to the scene? Sure, there's a history to blogging, but it's not a very long one in terms of what it really is — another means of communication. Though it is a revolutionary one, as revolutionary as the printing press, maybe more since literally anyone can do it. The printing press emerged in 1454, about 550 years before blogs became popular enough that mainstream media sat up and paid attention.
Which brings me to the topic of social media experts. I have a bad habit of pointing out when the emperor is wearing no clothes, and even though that usually pisses off the emperor, I do it anyway. Whether or not this is one of those instances remains to be seen, I guess, but I have a funny feeling it might be.
Can somebody please define the phrase "social media expert" for me? Is it even possible to be an expert in a field which is less than a decade old? If so, what are some examples of credentials which could make it possible?
I submit that content is king — always has been, always will be. But people don't want stale content, which is why traditional print newspapers and magazines are struggling. Anything involving fusing carbon particles onto wood pulp will be instantly dated, even more so if it takes 24 hours, a week, a month to get it delivered to the information consuming public. It's not a matter of getting more advertising to make up for the revenue from lost subscribers. It's more a matter of changing the way your brain works.
Revenue is no longer the driving force here. Information is. People are going to naturally flock to where they can get it, and the delivery mechanisms are merely tools of the trade. Kids in high school know how to use them effectively, and so do moms, grandparents, and soccer coaches. But the reality is we're all "new" to the scene... so the best way to learn is to just jump in and play.
If you're paying an expert to show you how it all works, you seriously don't get it and are going to get slaughtered anyhow.
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