Quote of the Day: Ideas Grow on Blogs

Social networks, like real life, are driven by influencers—not necessarily those with the most friends or followers, but those whose thoughts, ideas and opinions have the biggest impact. Mr. Collegio notes that for political action committees "to seed opinion makers, Twitter is the ultimate platform. Ideas grow into stories on blogs and eventually in the mainstream media." Not the other way around.

That’s from author and former hedge fund manager Andy Kessler in an Op Ed column at the Wall Street Journal. The flow of ideas seem to be reversing; from the mainstream media to the public and now from the public--through social media networks as blogs--to the mainstream.

Paul Krugman’s Positive Take on the Blogsphere

I have been saying that the information or digital age has been changing the way information flows or has been democratizing knowledge.

Writes Paul Krugman (Hat tip Bob Wenzel) [bold emphasis mine]

What the blogs have done, in a way, is open up that process. Twenty years ago it was possible and even normal to get research into circulation and have everyone talking about it without having gone through the refereeing process – but you had to be part of a certain circle, and basically had to have graduated from a prestigious department, to be part of that game. Now you can break in from anywhere; although there’s still at any given time a sort of magic circle that’s hard to get into, it’s less formal and less defined by where you sit or where you went to school.

Since there’s some kind of conservation principle here, the fact that it’s easier for people with less formal credentials to get heard means that people who have those credentials are less guaranteed of respectful treatment. So yes, we’ve seen some famous names run into firestorms of criticism — *justified* criticism – even as some “nobodies” become players. That’s a good thing! Famous economists have been saying foolish things forever; now they get called on it.

And this process has showed what things are really like. If some famous economists seem to be showing themselves intellectually naked, it’s not really a change in their wardrobe, it’s the fact that it’s easier than it used to be for little boys to get a word in.

As you can see, I think this is all positive. The econoblogosphere makes it a lot harder for economists to shout down other people by pulling rank — although some of them still try — but that’s a good thing.

Mr. Krugman doesn’t say it directly, but the econoblogsphere has been functioning as self-regulating free market of economic opinions or ideas and this is a development to cheer about.

Information Age: How Blogs Transforms Attitudes

From a paper written by David McKenzie and Berk Özler of the World Bank

There is a proliferation of economics blogs, with increasing numbers of economists attracting large numbers of readers, yet little is known about the impact of this new medium. Using a variety of experimental and non-experimental techniques, this study quantifies some of their effects.

First, links from blogs cause a striking increase in the number of abstract views and downloads of economics papers.

Second, blogging raises the profile of the blogger (and his or her institution) and boosts their reputation above economists with similar publication records.

Finally, a blog can transform attitudes about some of the topics it covers

(hat tip Mark Perry)

My take:

Blogs offer alternative channels to access to information and knowledge.

Blogs provide unofficial channels of education.

Blogs challenges the vertical flow of information which mainstream institutions have been based upon.

Blogs democratizes self-expression and the conveyance of information and knowledge.

Blogs are where ideas mate and procreate.

Blogs have signified as instruments of free markets in the realm of idea markets.

Asians are World’s Top Blog Readers

That’s according to Comscore.com

Global analysis of the Blog category revealed that Japan led all markets in blog engagement, with the average visitor in Japan spending more than an hour (62.6 minutes) visiting blogs in June. South Korea ranked second with an average of 49.6 minutes on blog sites, followed by Poland at 47.7 minutes.

Japan was also among the top markets for Blog category penetration with 80.5 percent of its online population visiting blogs in June. Taiwan ranked highest globally with 85.5 percent of its online population visiting blogs, followed by Brazil (85.2 percent reach), South Korea (84.9 percent reach) and Turkey (81.9 percent reach).

There could be many interpretations from the above survey.

For one it shows of the deepening extent of web based information acquisition most possibly at the expense of traditional media.

Another, the breadth of readership has been globalized and has not been limited to developed economies.

Next, more and more people are learning to appreciate blogs as one of the principal web based sources of information.

From a marketing point of view, the above represents as high growth markets which any enterprising bloggers could capitalize on.

Lastly, the above dynamics can be seen as increasing manifestations of the democratization of information and knowledge, or of the intensification of the information or knowledge revolution.

As the great Friedrich von Hayek once wrote,

The economic problem of society is thus not merely a problem of how to allocate "given" resources—if "given" is taken to mean given to a single mind which deliberately solves the problem set by these "data." It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only these individuals know. Or, to put it briefly, it is a problem of the utilization of knowledge which is not given to anyone in its totality.

The knowledge revolution should serve as catalysts to the development of transformational ideas that could promote innovation via the ‘Bourgeois revaluation’ or heightened appreciation of the benefits of free market or laissez faire capitalism.

The knowledge revolution and increased social connectivity should also deepen specialization (division of labor) and encourage more voluntary trade and commerce.

And importantly, attune greater number of people towards more decentralized path or way of social interactions, which alternatively means to wean away from the vertical flow (e.g. mass education, mass media) or structures (e.g. centralized bureaucracies, mass production) or lifestyles (e.g. 9-5 work schedules, mass cultures) derived from the industrial age template.

These material changes are hardly appreciated by the public but will persist as the world evolves.

UPDATE: My blog's readership departs from the comscore survey, where most of my readers come from Northern America, UK and the Philippines, as one would observe from the lower right column of this blog. My experience may be shared by many local bloggers too.

Nonetheless my comments above have been mostly premised on the comscore survey.

Blogs Versus Traditional Media: Divergent Weights of Issues Covered

Pew Research shows how topics diverged in terms of coverage by blogs against traditional media. Read the rest here.

What seems interesting is that since social networks have been actively competing with traditional media, the divergent weightings of topics could possibly reflect on the niches of audiences or of the interests of publishers. To which media the market evolves to could win more ad spending.

A Booming Blogging Industry!

Speaking of advances in the technology sector, guess what particular field in the said sector has been benefiting from today's downturn?

The answer is blogging.

In comparing relative additions of JOB numbers in the US, bloggers have scored the second in terms of adding employment.

According to Mark Penn in the Wall Street Journal (all bold highlights mine), ``In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers, firefighters or even bartenders.

``Paid bloggers fit just about every definition of a microtrend: Their ranks have grown dramatically over the years, blogging is an important social and cultural movement that people care passionately about, and the number of people doing it for at least some income is approaching 1% of American adults.

``The best studies we can find say we are a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work,and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income. That's almost 2 million Americans getting paid by the word, the post, or the click -- whether on their site or someone else's. And that's nearly half a million of whom it can be said, as Bob Dylan did of Hurricane Carter: "It's my work he'd say, I do it for pay."

``This could make us the most noisily opinionated nation on earth. The Information Age has spawned many new professions, but blogging could well be the one with the most profound effect on our culture. If journalists were the Fourth Estate, bloggers are becoming the Fifth Estate."

I've never realized that this hobby can have significant income generating potentials or can function as an alternative career.

More from Mr. Penn but with some of my comments interposed, ``Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated: three out of every four are college graduates. Most are white males reporting above-average incomes. One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall. [am definitely a long long way to go -comment mine] It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year [woah!]. Bloggers can get $75 to $200 for a good post, and some even serve as "spokesbloggers" -- paid by advertisers to blog about products."

Now, at least I have some numbers.

Other benefits of blogging again from Mr. Penn, ``As a job with zero commuting, blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around -- but it can also be quite profitable. For sites at the top, the returns can be substantial. At some point the value of the Huffington Post will no doubt pass the value of the Washington Post.

``The barriers to entry couldn't be lower. Most bloggers for hire pay $80 to get started, do it for about 35 months, and make a few hundred dollars. But a subgroup of these bloggers are the true professionals who work at corporations, serve as highly paid blogging consultants or write for sites with substantial traffic.

``Pros who work for companies are typically paid $45,000 to $90,000 a year for their blogging. [wow!-comment mine] One percent make over $200,000. [even more wow!!!] And they report long hours -- 50 to 60 hours a week [more in my experience].

``As bloggers have increased in numbers, the number of journalists has significantly declined [economics is about tradeoffs, so blogs are replacing the dinosaur newspapers, clearly Schumpeter's creative destruction in operation]. In Washington alone, there are now 79% fewer DC-based employees of major newspapers than there were just few years ago. At the same time, Washington is easily the most blogged-about city in America, if not the world.

``Almost no blogging is by subscription; rather, it owes it economic model to on-line advertising. [true-comment mine] Bloggers make money if their consumers click the ads on their sites [readers pls do]. Some sites even pay writers by the click, which is of course a system that promotes sensationalism, or doing whatever it takes to get noticed."

Lastly education directed at the industry underscores growth and is the icing in the cake as a fully blooming industry.

``It is hard to think of another job category that has grown so quickly and become such a force in society without having any tests, degrees, or regulation of virtually any kind. Courses on blogging are now cropping up, and we can't be far away from the Columbia School of Bloggerism. There is a lot of interest now in Twittering and Facebooking -- but those venues don't offer the career opportunities of blogging. Not since eBay opened its doors have so many been able to sit at their computer screens and make some money, or even make a whole living."

From now on, my calling card will highlight as my occupation "BLOGGER"!!!