Purchase
Blog, September 2005
Hardcover
Books on technology trends often have a short shelf life, but Blog! focuses on the larger issues that make this such an exciting cultural moment while steering clear of details that will date quickly. Well worthwhile. - Booklist
CDS Books
September 2005
320 pages ISBN: 1593151411 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The sensational emergence of blogging as a popular means of
individual expression and public discourse has captured the
world’s attention. And it’s not hard to see why. Political
bloggers have used their online journals—or web logs
(blogs)—to bring down high and mighty politicians like
Trent Lott and force the resignation of such media bigwigs
as CBS anchor Dan Rather. Consumer bloggers, meanwhile,
have turned struggling enterprises with deserving products
into overnight successes—and at the same time, ruined firms
that ignored their justified complaints about defective
products.
Who are these amateur "pundits" and how have they used this
new communications medium called blogging to transform not
only their own lives but the larger society as well? What’s
going on inside this revolution of the voiceless against
the heedless? blog! how the newest media revolution is changing politics,
business, and culture takes you inside the minds and hearts
of the world’s most influential bloggers. People like
former Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi, who
pioneered the use of political blogs as grassroots
organizing tools and fund-raising vehicles—and in the
process changed political campaigning forever. Or Robert
Scoble, a Microsoft employee who, through his candid, fair-
minded blog postings, accomplished what hundreds of
millions of dollars in Microsoft image advertising could
not—the humanizing of a company once reviled as a
monopolistic bully. Or former child star Wil Wheaton (Stand
by Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation), who captivated
millions with his blog postings about the humiliations of a
struggling actor and eventually launched a new career for
himself as a respected author with two books to his credit.
From celebrity-activist Arianna Huffington to the Web
philosopher Clay Shirky, this book brings you many of the
world’s A-list bloggers in their own fresh and uncensored
voices. Any powerful new technology inevitably brings with it a
hurricane of hype and hyperbole. Some of the medium’s more
extreme evangelists claim that blogs will replace
traditional media, nullify the influence of the rich and
powerful over electoral politics, and—by putting the power
of the printing press in the hands of ordinary citizens—
enable a million new Shakespeares to emerge from the
heartland. Don’t bet on it, say authors David Kline and Dan Burstein.
They point out that while blogging will certainly transform
many areas of politics, business, and culture, it cannot
free us from the limits of human nature or the constraints
of social and economic reality. The authors thus give us
the first book that pierces the bubble of hype and
confusion surrounding this new medium with a real-world
analysis of the ways that blogging will and won’t change
our society and the rapidly expanding universe of the now
and future blogging phenomenon.
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