Computers today are simply another consumer product - and provide challenges accordingly.
I, and others like me, can remember not so long ago, when that was not at all true. Blogs, which are in part a computer product, are simply another part of that scenario.
Not so long ago, my personal web page, based on a web host called Angelfire, was just a collection of links to a few dozen web pages which I enjoyed reading, linked in a static community called The Line Around The World. I did all of that because it was kewl, and because other geeks like me were doing that.
Now, people like my mother (who actually could do this if she tried) are creating online scrapbooks and diaries, and publicising their daily family activities online. My web page (which is now a domain cluster) provides advice to thousands of bloggers, daily.
And all of the above illustrates the expanding blogosphere - and the problems, too.
Think of the blogosphere as the interior of a sphere, with an ever expanding radius.
Blogger / Google is at the center of an ever increasing sphere of action.
Blogger / Google is at the center of the sphere. I, and other Blog*Stars and similar helpers, am somewhere near the center. You are reading my drivel, so you are somewhere closer to the center than many bloggers.
Follow the radius outward. The farther out you get, the larger the surface area of the sphere becomes.
As Blogger markets their One Button Publishing personal web page production platform to an increasingly global audience, they get an increasingly larger number of new customers. And, they get an increasingly larger number of headaches from their newer customers - who have increasingly less technical acumen, yet the same desires as the more experienced bloggers.
Every blog owner has different desires for each different blog.
We see many desires expressed in the forums.
- and very little else.
The ever expanding universe of customers is a benefit - and a challenger.
This expanding radius is both a benefit and a challenge to Blogger / Google.
Blogger / Google - and we - have to deal with the challenges.
And Blogger / Google has to deal with both of the above challenges, and with the folks who don't realise the reality of the challenges - and who spend their time in Blogger Help Group, abusing Blogger for their lack of support, or failure to provide "essential" features, unrequested.
Or, the many consequences of their personal inability to maintain their own computers, properly.
All of this requires resource reallocation, and slows resolution of serious system problems, like the FTP Publishing wildfire of this week.
I, and others like me, can remember not so long ago, when that was not at all true. Blogs, which are in part a computer product, are simply another part of that scenario.
Not so long ago, my personal web page, based on a web host called Angelfire, was just a collection of links to a few dozen web pages which I enjoyed reading, linked in a static community called The Line Around The World. I did all of that because it was kewl, and because other geeks like me were doing that.
Now, people like my mother (who actually could do this if she tried) are creating online scrapbooks and diaries, and publicising their daily family activities online. My web page (which is now a domain cluster) provides advice to thousands of bloggers, daily.
And all of the above illustrates the expanding blogosphere - and the problems, too.
Think of the blogosphere as the interior of a sphere, with an ever expanding radius.
Blogger / Google is at the center of an ever increasing sphere of action.
Blogger / Google is at the center of the sphere. I, and other Blog*Stars and similar helpers, am somewhere near the center. You are reading my drivel, so you are somewhere closer to the center than many bloggers.
Follow the radius outward. The farther out you get, the larger the surface area of the sphere becomes.
As Blogger markets their One Button Publishing personal web page production platform to an increasingly global audience, they get an increasingly larger number of new customers. And, they get an increasingly larger number of headaches from their newer customers - who have increasingly less technical acumen, yet the same desires as the more experienced bloggers.
Every blog owner has different desires for each different blog.
We see many desires expressed in the forums.
- Shiny custom templates.
- Non Blog*Spot blog addresses.
- An ever expanding ability to dynamically create online communities with similar blogs.
- Blogs that look like regular web pages.
- and very little else.
The ever expanding universe of customers is a benefit - and a challenger.
This expanding radius is both a benefit and a challenge to Blogger / Google.
- It's a financial and influence benefit - Google doesn't provide Blogger One Button Publishing because they are philanthropists, they do it because they are capitalists. The farther from center you go, the more surface area (new customers) you get, with each radial move (new feature or redesign).
- It's a challenge too.
- The farther from the center you go, the harder it is to communicate with the folks at the center. The folks on the surface just won't speak the same language as Google - neither culturally, ethnically, nor technically.
- The farther from the center you go, the easier it is for the bad guys to misdirect the folks on the surface. We see this in the phishing attempts, and recently in blog hijackings, and attempted blog hackings.
Blogger / Google - and we - have to deal with the challenges.
And Blogger / Google has to deal with both of the above challenges, and with the folks who don't realise the reality of the challenges - and who spend their time in Blogger Help Group, abusing Blogger for their lack of support, or failure to provide "essential" features, unrequested.
Or, the many consequences of their personal inability to maintain their own computers, properly.
All of this requires resource reallocation, and slows resolution of serious system problems, like the FTP Publishing wildfire of this week.
Comments