INSITEVIEW- - tom shugart's weblog

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Attention Matters, or Does It?

Enjoyed lunch with Maria Benet a couple of days ago. It was great to re-connect and share impressions of the state of the blogosphere and our relationhip to it. It seems that we're both experiencing some difficulty in generating the kind of momentum we had in the old days--although I have to say that she's doing a better job of it than I am.

I'm thinking of putting a book together, plus I have my wife's business to promote. Maria has her own projects and wish lists. Without the buzz and energy and cross-talk of the earlier period, it's hard to get very involved with this medium any more.

Or so it seems. Maybe I'm just kvetching and need to get off it. E.g., there's the comment from Jeneane last month, telling me not to worry about my recent absence from the blogosphere: "it's not like the old days. no one pays attention anyway anymore (HEE!) Well, cept frank. ;-)"

It doesn't seem to bother her one bit. She just keeps cranking it out, as always (you're a phenom, Jeneane!) Me, I'm not so sanguine about the new atmosphere.

OTOH, Frank, Tamar, and Winston had a little exchange about it around a month ago, and they all were pleasantly surprised to find that people actually were paying attention. So maybe I'm just being a closet misanthrope. I can hardly bitch about lack of notice if I'm only posting a couple of times a month.