Speed of the Web

It was half technology speech, half Broadway show as David Pogue appeared at the City Club of Cleveland. Pogue is the Personal Technology columnist for The New York Times and son of Cleveland powerhouse attorney Richard Pogue, who introduced him at the event.
Pogue's topic, "Blogging vs. Journalism: Is The Line Blurring?" is increasingly relevant as Web 2.0 platforms such as YouTube, Flickr and Facebook attract millions of contributors and, as Pogue estimated, 75 new blogs are being created every minute.

He split the blogosphere into two parts — personal and corporate/commercial — and then noted five differences between blogs and traditional journalism.

The first is speed. Bloggers can post news much faster than their journalist counterparts. Breaking news is often found first on blogs.
Second is feedback. As the first Times blogger, Pogue was surprised at the number of responses his posts gathered. When he wondered if a plane on a huge treadmill would ever take off, he was amazed at the volume and intensity of feedback. His first impression was, "People have too much time on their hands."

The third difference is that journalists have a second (and maybe third or more) set of eyes to edit, but most bloggers don't. Fourth, most blogs don't actually report: They reprocess, whereas journalists do original reporting. 

Finally, there is the difference in ethical guidelines between bloggers and traditional media. Pogue believes blogs are best at breaking a scandal but "dangerous when they are wrong." Speed to press versus due diligence will be an ongoing battle. Pogue encourages people to "get involved, speak the truth and counter lies" via feedback when they see an untrue blog attack.

Pogue, a former Broadway theater conductor, concluded by singing a few of his song parodies such as "The Girl I Met by E-mail" to the tune of "The Girl from Ipanema" and the "Sounds of Silence," about what happens when he calls for tech support.