So this blog is on for a month now, time for a little reflection. To wrap up my experience: damn, did I know.

The title was bluntly stolen from the excellent blog of Douglas Johnston, but I couldn’t resist, it’s just the best metaphor for this phenomenon called blogs, blogging, blogosphere, blogging ecosystem etc.

Lesson nr. 1: there are many great blogs out there

This should seem to be pretty obvious to most blog readers and bloggers, but it wasn’t for me. I was scanning a few blogs for a couple of years now, I was subscribed to about a dozen, but I didn’t spend much net-time reading blogs (nor surfing in general). After I started this blog I also started to pay more attention to whats happening around me and this is amazing. It’s hard not to see that there is something big on the roll here, but I never expected to discover so many so nicely written, hip, cute,… blogs in this blogwonderland – and I could bite myself in my behind for having been so ignorant ’till now.

Now there is a million monkeys typing (some recent numbers are given here) – expect to find info nuggets you won’t find anywhere else, thought snippets that have been unthinkable before. Digging in the crates really pays back.

Lesson nr. 2: one blog is nothing, all blogs together are circuit bending everything

So even if reading those exquisite blogs might be rewarding in itself, the surplus value is constructed within the network and interactions between all blogs. A piece of information dropped into this collective blogbody might or might not start to resonate, but if it does it spreads like a feedback looped bushfire. And it’s also ideas, thoughts, concepts,… that get amplified, discussed, fine tuned, and broadcasted.

Lesson nr. 3: bloggers are the next popstars

Blogging seems to take on a dynamic that has more in common with the music industry than the news industry. What gets traded is not news value but thought value. This is something most journalists just don’t get. Blogging is about taking a personal position, not making a facts representing preposition. Some bloggers already have some sort of popstar status and dedicated groupies as their following, and they usually really deserve it.

Lesson nr. 4: blogging is fun but also work

Duh. Serious bloggers know that, blog readers won’t care. Those interested in this topic will find a lot of information at Dave Pollards How to save the world blog (check this, this, and this entries for a start) – his blog is an overall must read.

Well, stay tuned.