The view from Silicon Valley

One thousand years ago Menlo Park, California, where I'm now typing these words into a Macintosh, was inhabited by the Ohlone tribe. They had no Macs, but they did possess a culture that had endured for 9,000 years in the San Francisco Bay area.

There were many things the Ohlone didn't have: longevity, low infant mortality, steady nutrition and material wealth. They had it far tougher than today's computer-toting, SUV-driving inhabitants – me included. So, given that the Ohlone were by all accounts no slouches mentally, physically or spiritually, how is it that I, who probably qualify as slouch in all these categories, have all this wealth?

It has a lot to do with the sharing of information, with networks.

In the 16th century, the first wide-area network – a postal service – began in Europe. Galileo, Locke and Descartes knew each other's ideas. They were the first generation who did not labour in solitude. And,thanks to Gutenberg, they were also the first who could broadcast their ideas, in the form of books. The importance of this was profound. The best minds could help each other to refine ideas. That's a good thing. Think Renaissance, think Industrial Revolution. Think internet.

Now, in 2003, we are witnessing a remarkable publishing phenomenon. In 18 months, three million weblogs – blogs for short – have appeared on the World Wide Web. Weblogs are journals maintained, not for profit, by people who choose to write for public consumption.

A recent Washington Post article dismisses them as "entirely different from professional news organisations". I think the Post is on a par with the Ohlone here. Webloggers are, by definition, journalists: most write every day. The Post disagrees, citing the fact that newspapers "paid staffs that ferret out and vet information according to established principles of fairness, accuracy and truth".

But, if you're a blogger (and I am) you know that publishing an ill-considered thought or thoughtful query brings a huge, and immediate, response. Weblogs operate without the resources of a professional news-gathering organisation. They do, however, have thousands of peers who vet their stuff. The Post's standards are admirable: but their dozens of editors can't match that. No doubt the Ohlone thought the European invaders were a rabble who didn't know how to ferret out forest food according to established principles. But I'm here, not them.

cg@gulker.com

Chris Gulker's blog is at http://www.gulker.com/