Clay Shirky is one of those people that think deeply about the implications the net has on our lives. Earlier this month he released his latest thoughts, “Weblogs and the mass amateurization of publishing,” in which he makes the point that weblogs “make publishing a worthless activity.” I don’t believe that any more than I believe the advent of mass-produced and mass-marketed books made publishing worthless. It’s a hyperbolic statement, probably intended to engage the reader. And it does that quite well.
Shirky makes some interesting and important points in his essay, but I think he’s off-base on some of his conclusions, including generating direct and indirect revenues from writing on the web.
I’ll have more to say about this in the future, but it’s going to take some thought. I wanted to mention it here so it doesn’t slip off my radar.
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