Is Blogging dead?

http://www.copyblogger.com/blogging-is-dead/

Great discussion of blogging and the shift to social networks:

In truth, the real opportunities for building authority and buzz through social media have only just begun. You simply have to look and see where things are going instead of where they’ve been.

Value will always be key. And I think you’ll find that the migration of pure social chatter off of blogs and onto social networking applications is a good thing for the rest of us who are looking to build businesses powered in whole or in part by blogs.

Also: http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004018.html

Then suddenly, along comes stuff like Twitter and Facebook… et Voila! Suddenly, social networks start being successfully created without the “A-Listers” having to act like “Hubs” [or “Human Social Objects”, if you want to get REALLY technical]. Suddenly, the need for A-listers to arbitrate “Who the Cool Kids are” [and who they aren’t] is rapidly and thankfully diminished.

I totally applaud this development. Whatever your blogging strategy may be, I personally believe that on average, you’re far better off going off to somewhere like Facebook and building your own social network with like-minded folk, based on your own collective interests, your own collective passions and own collective sense of merit, than loitering around the Blogopshere, waiting for some rockstar like Scoble, Arrington, Cory etc to link to you… and hoping in vain that the latter will somehow transform your life. It won’t. Just ask my blog buddies, Kent Newsome or Seth Finkelstein, who always have a sharp and and insightful word to say on the matter.

The time of the A-List is dead. Thank Christ. Not a moment too soon.

Fascinating stuff. Material ripe for research and pondering. There is great value in blogs — especially for libraries and librarians — but I agree with these folks that the other social tools complete the picture of what a thriving LIS community can do online.