In case you haven't noticed, I am preoccupied with blogging. Not just with blogging itself but the nature of blogging. Is it the greatest breakthrough since Gutenberg's invention of movable type?

Speaking of movable type I actually learned to set type by hand, letter by letter, lead piece by lead piece, then tie the type block together with jute string and print my composition with a letterpress. No, I'm not 89 years old. But I've seen metal type replaced by photo type, first the analog then the digital variety, then seen the demise of the typesetting industry, the evolution of desktop publishing and then the birth of the internet. I began learning HTML in 1995 and have added a few internerdy skills since. So here I am and as I've blogged elsewhere, here I blog by the grace of God.

I've been writing for a living for a long time: letters to shareholders, advertising copy, how-to manuals, websites, etc. I even wrote about the Montreal Olympics for a German newspaper. There used to be proofreaders and editors. The joke about corporate annual reports is that they are read by more people before they are published than afterwards.

If you were writing for a publication instead of blogging on line would that make a difference to you? Would you find it necessary to ask a friend to read what you wrote? Would you worry about grammar and spelling? I don't care if we call it blogging; it's still writing. Blog is short for Weblog, right? It was meant to be a daily log via keyboard made visible as text on screens via new software that made you almost forget how dreadful the first WYSIWYG web tools were. So a Weblog was meant to be a computer generated diary.

What made blogging so ubiquitous, however, were not the new WYSIWIG tools like Typepad or Wordpress. It was the techno-entrepreneurs who saw the opportunity to exploit one of humanities basic flaws: narcissism. By that I don't mean the personality disorder but the tendency to think of myself better than of others. The difference between "The Gong Show" (anyone remember?) and American Idol is that making a fool of yourself has become much bigger business. Unknowns and well-knowns are allowed to do things in public that makes voyeurs out of spectators. Rubbernecking has come to prime time. And MySpace has become the hunting ground for perverts.

So, how's your blogging coming? Have you had the urge to express yourself daily to people you've never met before the advent of the Internet? If you had lived in London would you have stood on your soap box at Hyde Corner and passionately postulated every day about first-time-buyers being priced out of the market? Was the only reason you did not submit your many letters to the editor of the local rag because you knew you would remain unpublished?

In academia they say "publish or perish." Some real estate blogger postulated that blogging was necessary for professional survival. If consumers did not find you on the web blogging about mortgage fraud, mold, and condo resale certificates they would think you did not know anything about these subjects. Also, they could not get to know you and see your personality.

Well, I'm not so sure about that. I used to write. Now I blog. It makes no difference to me. I love to see my words all over the web. Digit, Reddit. Stumbleupon.  Please, please, read what I wrote! Now, why else would you be blogging? Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.

Ergo Blogo.