How To Split An Atom

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The blogosphere tends to look at itself from within a time vortex. It’s a world where this month’s “A-list” blogger de jour is perceived as having they staying power of legends like Dan Rather. Since so many people enter and exit the conversation each day, we have a hard time remembering that the ’sphere looked quite different only a few years back.

Fortunately, while we might forget, the web never does. So in honor of Fred Wilson’s fantastic post on the changing face of Techmeme, I wanted to reintroduce some great bloggers who once held center stage in the conversation but now have made way for the new “A-List”. To give credit where credit’s due, I sourced the latter portions of these descriptions from here. The blog hasn’t been updated in a while, but it’s still a great resource. That’s the entire point of this little adventure, isn’t it?

Dan Gillmor

For those who don’t know, Dan was one of the major chroniclers of the first bubble from beginning to burst. He also wrote We The Media about the power of independent journalism (see: blogging).

I am not really a journalist, I just play one on a Blog. This meme here, that meme there. Swarm Journalism!! Blogs are everything. Hey, I am writing a book on this, please help me. Blogs are everything yes. Blogs are everything yes yes. Repeat, Rinse, Repeat, Rinse and Dry. Journalism needs to get a clue, yo wake up, you old-fashioned Newspapermen, this is the future. I am leading the charge, I get it, how come you don’t? Buncha morons!! It’s cloudy and chilly in Helsinki, where I’ll be participating in a social software/blog workshop. It’s foggy and chilly in London, where I’ll be participating in a social software/blog workshop. I am in Europe phone calls are expensive, Net access is iffy. And there’s no ketchup to be found for miles!! And I am not really a political reporter or Blogger, but I hate those Republicans and all their drumbeat Warmongering Buddies! Oh they are EVIL! They all just play golf, inherit money and wage wars for Oil! SUVs are EVIL. Silicon Valley Leftist short-comment rant here, Silicon Valley Leftist short-comment rant there. Bill Moyers is God!

Howard Rheingold

Howard is the author of Smart Mobs as well as a couple of books on Virtual Reality and Cyberspace.

Smart Mobs. Smart Mobs. Could you Mobs who are Smart, buy my Smart Mobs book, please? Smart Mob thyself to the bookstore. Whole Earth, Whole Earth, The Well, remember me? I was the original Internet hippie. I was everything. Power to the People, yeah yeah. Hum that around the drum circle. The Virtual Community, Virtual Reality, Tools for Thought. Mondo 2000, Wired ’94, all the glory utopiaistic future. Social Revolution, yeah man, yeah yeah. Brainstorms Community, MUDs as Constructionist Learning Environments, far out man. Are we awake to the world we’re building, or are we, as an old Sufi saying goes, merely asleep in life’s waiting room?

Joi Ito

Joi is currently the Chariman of the Creative Commons board as well as Six Apart Japan. He is also an author and investor who has helped to fund more successful companies than you can shake a stick at including: Six Apart, Flickr and Technorati.

Blog about Blogging. More Blogging about Blogging, yet more Blogging about Blogging, still more Blogging about Blogging, would you believe more, Blogging about Blogging. Blogging about Wiki. Wiki’ing about Wiki. A new meme: OPM (Other Peoples Money). It’s amazing where you can go, and what you can do using OPM. Social software. Look at me, I am doing Lunch with these VIPs. Lunch. Lunch. I am Japans best citizen. Making the World Safe for Emerging New Democracy, that’s all me. Hussling Energy. I was here, before any of you. I am the Silicon Valley of Japan. I “survived” the Bubble, but I won’t tell you how. I am everything to the world, and I have money. I am a Venture Capitalist, I will talk up this tech, get everyone jazzed, but I am looking to get in on it or I already have, but everything I do is so open and transparent, you can trust me, repeat, you can trust me, I am just having a conversation.

Ray Ozzie

Ray worked on Lotus Notes and is Chief Software Architect over at Microsoft.

Social software. Social software. Incredibly powerful collaborative project management software. Social software. Groove me baby. Incredibly powerful collaborative project management, project management, chaotic collaborative project management. Thoughts about Blogging in companies. Blogging Guidelines. Blogging as collaborative project management. Ubiquitous computing, Networking, Web and RAD technologies. COM and C++, .NET and Scripting. Social software, yeah man. Force chaos into the system.

Clay Shirky

Clay teaches on the effect that Internet technologies has on society, right up my alley. He is a huge proponent of peer-to-peer and spends a lot of his time consulting on the subject.

P2P Part 2 (P2P P2). Permanent, NearFarWideCloseNet, ObjectsinMirrorAreCloserThanTheyAppearNet, Position paper here, position paper there. Buzzphrase here, Buzzphrase there. “Systems where supposed innovation vests to lose out interest of.” Not really a blogger, I am a positional papergger. Social software! A live conversation in the room, and an overlapping real-time text conversation. P2P 1337ness. Peer to Peer as Salvation. Oh but that was so, like, last year. New Memes to take its place. Take all Memes in one-big casserole soup bowl. Mix, add some spice, stir and serve. I plan Emerging Tech conferences, but you better think like me. My orthodoxy is the only way. LazyWeb. WebLazy. LazyWeb. The Fellowship of the 802.11g. I want speaking gigs!

Web 2.0 Roundup

This list could go on and on, but the point by now is pretty clear. As much as we are convinced that blogebrity can last forever, all of these great authors seem to prove that eventually the world moves on or at least its writers do. So in four more years who will take up the mantle when our current crop of A-Listers decide to find greener pastures. Or maybe, is the state of the ’sphere so much different now that this list is here to stay?

I tend to buy into the former, how about you?

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