Here are some of my reactions to the vidcast:
- Lack of blog submission on the social news feed means that blogs may be overrated, or we don’t read blogs relevant to the class. Maybe a biased opinion on the amount of people reading blogs stems from the fact that people reporting these facts are avid net users. I personally only read my friends’ blogs. I am generally not interested in a random person’s thoughts and tend to read news sites.
- Editors on the net: The comments section on a blog have replaced editors. A person is kept honest either by being flamed or by the fact they will be corrected by everyone that sees their site in the comments section. People should take things on the net with a healthy dose of skepticism. They should do their own fact checking by reviewing other sources.
- Privacy is gone. People need to know Google has tracked every site they’ve been to in the past three years. Don’t believe me, check it out. Everyone is too trusting. How soon is it before people pay Google to see what someone else is doing on the net? It could be a form of background check for employers. Maybe if you visit certain sites you get flagged by homeland security as a terrorist threat. This already happens when you check out a combination of certain books at the library.
- I have to join Ad Age to read the articles, but I agree – Twitter is dumb and I can’t figure out a good use for it.
- Facebook=sellouts. We knew they would cave into searches for advertising purposes, it was just a matter of time. On the flipside of that, the site is estimated to be worth $10 billion now that they’ve opened up the network to all people on the internet.
- I have no interest in the Youtube debates. Good idea, executed poorly.
- Microsoft Office will be around for at least 10 more years without a dip in sales. Everyone is very slow to adapt to change and not everyone is willing to learn a new system. It will take a long time for IT staff to want to change file architectures and retrain staff.
Digital Claxon 
I don’t entirely disagree with you that the statistics about blog readership (especially via RSS) are probably bloated. Although I have 50+ blogs in my Google Reader as of this morning, so I am in your minority of “avid net users.” At least in my profession, its crucial to stay informed. Often times its the evangelists (read bloggers), not the Adobes and Microsofts that are doing the majority of the really applicable innovation.
Also, per your comments about comments. A bunch of web people have decided that comments in fact degrade the quality of the conversation on the web. Instead they suggest that people use their own blogs to voice their reactions the other people’s blog posts. This is starting to strip away the anonymity that allows people to act like complete idiots on the internet. Think about the last time you read a decent comment block on YouTube.
Its very interesting to watch the blogosphere evolve as more and more people become active in the conversation.
P.S. FIRST
Well Mike, I have to agree with you, there are a lot of dumb comments left on the web.
You’re right, maybe response blogs are the new editors. I hadn’t thought about it that way, and I think that is a valid point.
As long as other people checking your work, that is a type of editor policing your work for honesty. It makes for an more accurate internet, which was the point I was trying to make. I don’t think the Internet is completely lawless and inaccurate. I think people, in general, want to read the about truth reported as factually as possible and these response blogs keep it that way.