Dave Briggs

US based celebrity blog thing is now up and running, as reported by Dan Gillmor:

The Huffington Post has launched, and it’s part-Drudge (though from a different perspective), part blog of blogs. It’s obviously version 1.0, which means you should give it time to settle down.

The great Harry Shearer will “Eat the Press” — this could be fun.

Overall, the site seems to be aiming at the role of op-ed page of the Net. I’m watching with great interest, and reading some of it, too.

To give more of a flavour, here’s an excerpt from the announcement email:

The Huffington Post is serving up-to-the-minute breaking news and blog posts from hundreds of the most interesting figures in politics, entertainment, business, the arts, and the media.  In addition, Harry Shearer will be moderating a section on the media called “Eat the Press” — where, besides documenting and discussing the absurdities within our news cycle, he will regularly be posting raw satellite feed of our nation’s politicians and broadcasters in their most unguarded moments. 

Already, John Cusack, Ellen DeGeneres, Russell Simmons, Mike Nichols, David Mamet, Michael Isikoff, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brad Hall, David Corn, and Marshall Herkovitz have posted their unique takes on issues as diverse as gay marriage, the war in Iraq, and what “SpamAlot” and political leaders have in common.

The Huffington Post is also your source for breaking news.  Today, the Post offers an exclusive pre-publication look at the explosive new book, “Secrets of the Kingdom,” by best-selling author Gerald Posner, which reveals the unknown story of how Saudi Arabia’s oil fields are rigged to turn into a radioactive nuclear wasteland in the event of an invasion or internal revolution.

Doc Searles on blogs

What is a blog? The oft-cited Doc Searles shares his thoughts in a PowerPoint from the “Les Blogs” conference in Paris. Or, if you’d like the html version …

Try slide 17 for the nub of things:

• Blogs are journals
• They are not “sites”
• They are not “content”
• They are not “media”
• They are not here to “deliver an experience”
• They are not an “emergent synchronization mode”
• There’s no argument about “who’s a journalist.” We all are.

Searles’ basic argument is that blogs are individual writings — speech — that turn into conversations through the linking ability of the Web. Treat them like content, he says, and we run the risk of censorship.

This is why news media and blogs struggle to find compatibility. We in this business see such things as content. That’s fine. Call them online columns, which is what most really are when we produce them.