A Tragedy of the Electronic Commons

Posted on July 24, 2004 in Blogging

Is it just me? Whenever I read a description of one or another conference about blogging, I see plenty of mention of various techies, journalists, pundits like the almost obligatory Howard Rheingold, and academics talking about cascading style sheets and trends with next to no clue about how blogging is being taken in by you and me. Little time is offered to the grunts of the blog world, the small press blogs which I celebrate in my weekly roundup.

It’s a bit like having a conference about literature filled with printers and refusing to invite Shakespeare or Keats or Milton because they don’t know how to set type or speak about pica standards. It’s true that William Blake was a printer, an engraver and a poet, but I can’t say I call any the supercillious panelists I read about his equal. Robert Browning — another who would not have been invited — could have risen masterfully to the occasion, I am certain.

I think I know what it is: the Internet comprises the largest folk revolution since broadsides and they are doing their damndest to keep the rabble out. The tragedy of the electronic commons — if we the common bloggers let it come to pass — will be that many people of talent were pre-empted from participation simply because they didn’t have the proper credentials to suit the organizers.