Joel Daniel Harris weighs the pros and cons of online journaling in an article about Community in a Virtual Age at the Barclay Press Conversation Café. He makes a good case for the benefits of blogging and then throws a wet blanket on the benefits by pointing out the need for sharing physical presence in community.

In the Third Way Café Michelle Davis focuses on the “new media” dynamics of blogs and concludes Blog Anyone? with, “The hippies and activists of my parents’ generation only wish they could have had this much publishing power at their fingertips.”

I didn’t see blogging coming and I don’t know where it is going. But I believe it is bigger than a hobby or a fad. It (or the innovation that bests it) has a permanent spot in the world of communication.