Over the past few days I’ve been tracking some conversations about the potential shift in blogging which has led some people to coin the phrase Blogging 2.0.

Steven Hodson of Winextra links to a number of these conversations at his blog.  Without going into too many details, a number of bloggers think that blogging is starting to undergo a fundamental shift whereby more and more things are pulling people away from blogs towards other sites which carry the conversations about the blogs .  This activity could pose a big problem for probloggers who are dependent upon site visits and ad-clicks for revenue.

Steven also posted a great rant post which pointed out that there are much bigger problems in the world than trying to track what people are saying about you or keeping up with every hip conversation.

“Blogging 2.0″ Misses The Point has a great point that shouldn’t be lost in all of this chatter, however and it’s a point that I believe in.  Put simply, blogging, like other social media, has the potential to be a great equalizer and advocate of democracy.

Social media gives anyone a relatively cheap and powerful means to communicate to the entire world, as long as they have access to the Web.

Per the post:

What makes blogging and podcasting interesting is that you can do it. You can make the “long tail” longer.  And when you make the long tail longer, that means there’s more tail for everybody. (Or something like that!)

Definitely.

That’s where the real value is, in letting more people broadcast to the world and get feedback, because you never know where the next good idea will come from.

Other posts that you might enjoy reading:

• Take the conn dear reader – strut your stuff!
• The birth of a nation – I mean a blog
• Maybe Every Thought Aggregates
• How to deserve an audience – revisited
• The blogosphere is as real as the public in public opinion