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The Zen principle of blogging and the A-List

A Zen Koan goes thus: Can you hear the sound of one hand clapping?
Another one: Can you hear the noise of a tree falling in a forest.

A group of excellent bloggers (here and here) are discussing Robert Scoble’s admission that a) there is an A-list, b)the power of A-list is waning and c)Social networks such as Facebook are the next destination for A-listers to construct their lyceums – the so called Facebook A-lists, frequented by like-minded people.

Some thoughts to put things in perspective:
1. Punditry doesn’t work on the converted.
2. What makes you think people in large numbers would like to log into Facebook to read you post?
It sure is a VC’s wet dream.
3. Do you seriously believe that O’Reilly, Techcrunch and Gigaom and others will thrive in a walled garden? They need the openness of a blog platform where their ambitions can flourish. Facebook for them is side show at best/

A-Lists or not, your blog is already your own Social network – it is upon you to go ahead and make it popular – commenting, social network seeding, digging, and so on. About that cliche of like-minded keeping in touch, install an IM app. or use Gtalk in conjunction with your blog.

This is the Zen principle of principle – we can’t be islands hoping for people to come over. Scoble is smart – he sneezed, others took notice and his name is in circulation again.

Would I have known about it if Scoble was sulking in his Facebook corner? That is a modern Zen koan for you.

Labels: blogging, controversey, facebook

posted by Pramit Singh @ 2:19 PM