Working on my book, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about where the business blogging phenomenon will be one year from now… five years from now. One thing that’s occurred to me is that we won’t be using the word “blog.” For the many who aren’t immersed in the blogosphere, the word is nasty. And negative. And makes them wary of this whole blogging thing.
So how nice to hear Six Apart co-founder Mena Trott say the same thing in a CNN interview. My favorite bits from the Q & A:
“CNN: How much will the Internet change over the next 10 years?
TROTT:
I think that blogging is going more and more mainstream, and in 10
years I doubt it will be called “blogging.” It may not even look like
what we’re doing today. But the whole idea [of being] able to quickly
express what you want to say online is going to be still a big part of
what we do.”and further on…
“CNN: How do you think blogging will evolve? What’s next?
TROTT:
We need to get mainstream users blogging. They’re very put off, I
think, when we do focus groups. The words we hear are “egotistical,”
“too much free time,” “people in their bathrobes ranting.” But there’s
so much more about blogging.I don’t fit any of those personas —
well, maybe egotistical. I started my blog because I wanted to write
humorous stories about my life. And I think most people have the
ability to do that. And once they get over the fear that everyone’s
going to read it or it’s going to get you fired, … When people get
fired, it’s not because they keep a blog, it’s because they have no
judgment.That sort of thing puts people off. What we need to do
is get people informed and make it as easy to use as e-mail. I hope it
doesn’t take 10 years to get that way with blogging.That’s what
the Internet is to me. It has given me a voice that I had never
imagined. … There’s a power you can harness if you know how to use a
medium.”
On a prosaic note, I envision blogs being incorporated into company home pages. They’ll be considered a key feature of an interactive Web site. And of course we’ll be talking to the Web. So the home pages will talk to us and we’ll talk back to leave a comment… although I hate to think of writing going by the wayside.