Yesterday, there was a gathering of personal content publishers (or bloggers, if you will) in central London. I began asking questions of those in attendance, fuelled by a genuine interest, on the subject of the future of weblogs. The following discussions were very interesting, and I am yet to fully clarify all my conclusions. Meanwhile, let me highlight some of the questions that were asked (if you want to play along, you can email me your thoughts):
Should old media embrace blogging? (following the article I highlighted yesterday of the same name)
Are weblogs too reliant on the format in which their content is presented?
Can weblogs (either individually or as a whole) be used as any kind of useful or reliable source of information?
While the classic date-identifying format of weblogs have made them popular with authors, is this the best way that the content could be presented/published/structured from the point of view of the reader?
Should those who contribute to the web take more responsibility over the medium as a whole, rather than just their corner?
Is it beneficial (to anyone except the author) to keep weblog archives online?
The point of all this is that I believe weblogs to be something of a fad. A surprisingly long-running fad, but a fad nonetheless. I also believe that the next fad (Spawn Of Blogger, or whatever) will (or, at least, should) tackle some of these questions.