Who Let The Blogs Out?, by Biz Stone, is a great introduction to the world of blogs and blogging. It starts off a little slow with a broad background into blogs and blog networks, it picks up with a lot of practical information about blogging. How to use HTML/CSS to style your blog, how to monetize your blog via Google Adsense and the Amazon Associates program, whether or not to turn on comments, Biz has a point of view on it all, and it is explained very plainly here. I’ve taken some of his advice, I’m joining the Google Adsense and Amazon Affiliates programs, and have informed my employer formally of my blog and its POV. Good practical advice.

He also delves into the social aspect of blogging, showing the wisdom of crowds and how it works together to point out the cracks in mainstream journalism - the blogosphere putting pressure on then-Senator Trent Lott for racist statements made at a birthday party for Strom Thurmond, largely unreported by traditional media, exposed by blogs, leading to his resignation from the Senate; also, how the nature of blogs and the connections between them make blogs “weak tie machines”, as mentioned in The Wisdom of CrowdsThe Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki (ordered it from Amazon, haven’t read it yet.

Biz finishes up by talking about Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big DifferenceThe Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, and the three types of people needed to make an impact: connectors (people with lots of friends), mavens (people with accumulated knowledge), and salesmen (people who can sell the idea). Blogs certainly allow for these three types of people to connect and become interwoven.

I like this book overall, it started slowly but really picked up. I liked reading what I’ve learned by osmosis :-), it was nice to see my assumptions validated, and to color in a bit more history of the world of weblogs.