Milken Institute's Global Conference 2008: Market Movers by Felix Salmon
I like the rules Portfolio.com's ΓΌber-blogger, Felix Salmon plays by. Basically, as Felix views it, among those who are pure bloggers, there are no rules. Anything goes.
"Blogging is not a craft which is honored by the good bloggers and sullied by the bad," Felix writes in a May 7th post responding to a proposal I floated. "It's a medium, a conversation, a babble. Its very variety is its strength."
Or, as I see it, its undoing.
On Felix's Internet, bloggers' only obligation is to themselves and possibly to their readers and/or sponsors. He is not alone in that view.
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| Portfolio.com Blogger Felix Salmon at Milken |
On our Econobloggers panel at the 2008 Milken Institute Global Conference, Paul Kedrosky was real clear in stating more than once that he doesn't care who reads his blog, whether they like it, whether they act on it, or anything about them. Reciting the bloggers anthem, Paul says he writes for an audience of one, himself.
Frankly, I think that is double bunk. If he is the only one he cares to please, why not keep a personal journal or a diary? Why bother to vomit your views on the world wide web?
I offered to Felix a proposal to set some standards for econobloggers and even help fund a non-profit group to encourage and recognize the best econobloggers. Felix thinks the idea sucks.
Okay.
His view is that I'd push to honor journalist-like bloggers: "the ones with disclosure and accountability, the ones without gossip and rumor and snark." Ah yes, the three virtues of the blogosphere -- gossip, rumor and snark. What was I thinking?
Look, there is room in the world for The Economist and for the National Enquirer. And, yes, once in awhile, the NE actually gets a scoop that turns out to be factual, although its batting average is far from major league.
Still, I think the public -- especially the investing public, will only have an appetite for the National Blogging Enquirer for so long. There is only so much gossip, rumor and snark that anyone can willingly consume without some solid intellectual nutrition to go along with it.
Economic thought and reporting has needed a livelier delivery for a long time. And the bloggers out there have enlivened the dialogue to great effect. Yet some of what I read, in fact much of what I read, is all snark and no substance.
If the blogospher is a medium, a conversation and a babble, over time it has to be a number of additional things: pertinent, informative, factual (sorry, Felix) and accountable (double sorry, Felix).
You can go to a dinner party and be amused by the slightly inebriated guest who speaks of his financial and sexual conquests. He is certainly more lively than the staid insurance salesman. But after a steady diet month in and month out of hearing about the lush's financial and sexual adventures, I think most people will grow wary. Especially when the boaster shows up night after night in shabby, worn clothes and no date.
There are far more examples in the old dead-tree world of journalism of financially successful credible news organizations than their are of gossip rags such as the National Enquirer. There is a reason for this. The marketplace votes with its wallet and its feet. Over time, serious, well-researched, accountable writing (dare I say 'journalism') has won out repeatedly over gossip, rumor and snark.
There is room in the world for a Matt Drudge. There is room for a National Enquirer and for a Paul Kedrosky. But those shoes are filled. In the inevitable shakeout that will come down the road, most bloggers will go back to keeping journals or shooting the breeze at their neighborhood watering hole. Only quality will survive. And my offer to help nurture those quality blogs and bloggers stands.
I hope Felix will reconsider my invitation to be a part of this movement, although I know that he won't.
this argument is totally correct, and explains the query Felix had. Put another way, currency changes are far more liquid than changes in trade of physical goods and should be expected to react more quickly to short term patterns.
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"If he is the only one he cares to please, why not keep a personal journal or a diary? Why bother to vomit your views on the world wide web?" I agree, if you don't care about others, why to have a Blog? Just keep it for yourself, don't publish on the Web!
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I totally agree. Why bother and waste time writing. Just keep it to yourself!
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