Image via WikipediaWhen people spat on line it makes for interesting reading, mostly because the idea is to sway opinion via emotional arguments rather than to inform by fact. Each side presents their arguments eloquently, but there is a sharp problem with spin. Hence the Slate VS Buzz Machine spat is something for the books, not because it is a spat, but because we are seeing two opposing viewpoints play out on the internet, and both of them make emotional arguments.

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Few if any schools teach about blogging, there are some out there, and there are some schools, journalism schools, marketing programs, and other formal education that is catching onto the idea that blogs, wiki’s, forums, and other information tools can be handy to know how they work, and what the conventions should be. While it is tragic that people are being left behind, people have always been left behind where there is a major shift in how technology is used. It is not that the Christian Science Monitor went dark; it is that they cancelled their print media, not their site, and not their reporting standards.

What is good to see is that we are having words, while they might not be the best words, the fact is that it is impossible to put the Genie back in the bottle. Much like in the early industrial revolution we had luddites, and much as we had the equivalent when cars came out, and computers came out any truly new industry supplants the old industry. This is a time of change, a time of flux, and many of the older models fail to translate well into new models.

The luddites main argument in the 1800’s was that unskilled workers could replace skilled workers with the advent of mechanized looms. The new 2008 system is that a host of unskilled bloggers can often react faster than the skilled reporters that we have in place. The same rules apply here; the unskilled can generate more content (not necessarily quality content) than the thoughtful reporter. The rules have changed, everyone can opine in ways that were unheard of 20 years ago, and the unskilled are slowly replacing the skilled.

As unskilled replaces skilled, the end product is going to be of dubious quality, showing little love and little attention to detail. Blogging is a mechanistic process, must blog 10 times a day to make it to the top (Technorati), and a host of other rules, plans, and processes that have been developed over the last five years as blogging and new media explores and attempts everything in ways that old media cannot. Amateurs really don’t need money to start a blog, whereas with a major newspaper, going on line is a major expense. Amateurs can make new rules; try new business models, while the newspapers have to work in relationship to stock holders, board members, and their own workers. Amateurs don’t need to get “buy in” where bigger companies need to socialize ideas first; sometimes that socialization can take years.

Sometimes you have to wait until the business collapses to make a decision (IBM in the 1980’s springs to mind) to change. There are still skilled craftsperson’s who make wonderful fabric, there are still horse and buggy makers, and there will still be wonderfully talented reporters at the end of the shift in technologies.

The real issue is not so much the spat, but how new and old decide to get along with each other, how they share information and participate in the online culture. Yes, real people will be impacted, real people will lose their jobs, and real people will have a hard time being employed. This is no different than what we have seen in the last 200 years. Real people though do need to start picking up the tools, learn how to do blogging and social media. This is the way that the industry is going, fleet, agile, open, advertising based. While it is ok to mourn the past, the future is happening now, and if real people want to step up to the plate, they will find a welcoming and warm open community waiting for them in the blogosphere.

Tags: slate, buzz machine, Luddite, job loss, people, fire, fired, ibm, rules, business models, writer, journalist, money