The Tribe Picks Its Leaders
Blogging (as defined in mainstream terms) is less than 5 years old.
Already there are millions of blogs. 50 million? 70 million? A lot, anyway.
This grand experiment in self-publishing could have allowed us to break all the conventional rules of human organization. We might have splintered into a million distinct microchannels. While you could argue that that “splinterization” is happening at some level, it’s all too easy to point to the echo-chamber effect: a whole lot of our content is being spawned in reaction to posts by A– and B-list bloggers.
Humanity needs leadership. When a million voices howl into the darkness, they inevitably seek community. When a community forms, it needs rules. It needs role models. Everyone can’t be equally important: we intuit as much, and, the responsibility to prove one’s equality on an ongoing basis is simply too great. We’re lazier than that.
It is easier to appoint or default to leaders, and then follow & fawn or react & rebel.
Kudos to our first crop of blogoleaders. Scoble, Arrington, Kawasaki, Rubel, Calacanis, Winer, et al. I’d link to them but a) they don’t need the linklove and, b) you can just visit Techmeme; they are well represented there.
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I for one don’t follow any of those you mentioned because they don’t generally talk about the things I’m interested in. I figure if they say anything I really need to know, one of the people I do follow –like you– will link to it… and that happens a lot less than you might think. I’m not saying this to knock them, but to make the point that there’s a lot going on out there that’s not tied to the “first crop of blogoleaders.”
I’ve got to second Karen’s point; longevity is very different from leadership.
The bloggers you mentioned have been around for a while. And people do read them. But maybe it is because their seniority has made it “conventional wisdom” that you read their blogs, and that wisdom gets passed to the new arrivals in the blogosphere.
Beyond that, your post kind of misses the effect of the Long Tail. Niche communities have their own leaders — even if they aren’t recognized by the masses.
This is from a self-admitted Z-lister, so take it as you will.
Hi Karen & Steve -
I am not necessarily suggesting that the “blogoleaders” I listed are the one-and-only leaders of the entire blogosphere, perhaps it’s more apt to suggest them as leaders of the sphere I inhabit, i.e., Marketing/Tech.
But Steve, you make my point for me when you say, “Niche communities have their own leaders — even if they aren’t recognized by the masses.” The point is that we DO look for leaders in any community, regardless of size.
The blogosphere is more egalitarian (and anarchic) but ultimately seems to fall in-line with most other human endeavors, i.e., a pecking order is created.
I agree with what you said in regard to there being leaders in the blogosphere that we learn from. There has to be role models or there wouldn’t be any standard to blogging. Would we really be able to define a blog if everyone just went and did what he or she wanted to?
As a Public Relations major at Kent State University, those “blogleaders” you mention are the ones we study and learn our best practices from. We are taught the importance of social media and Web 2.0 and are taught to learn from them. In the blogs we created for a class project, when we wanted to know what to do and how to blog, we are supposed to look and see what the “blogleaders” are doing.
I call these types the “web influencer’s” or “trendsetters” because they are the pioneers of web 2.0 and are always tuned in to the next big thing.
Todd,
I guess we are saying a bit of the same. Online group dynamics mirror real-world group dynamics. Organic appointment of leaders is inevitable.
My contention was mostly with your implied “conventional wisdom” that the first crop of blog leaders were the ones that deserve kudos. I think it is important to recognize leadership in any niche community, not just those that are vocal and visible “A-listers.”