FIVE YEARS AGO, Doc Searls (at right) rolled into Dublin to address Linux World Ireland during the 2004 ICT Expo. Doc's arrival was a big event for me. Like many who read my blog, I have a copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Sitting down with Doc Searls, after following his blog for three years was like getting a personal copy of the Cluetrain Manifesto. Searls always has insightful perspectives--on topics as wide-ranging as ecosystems, marketing, computers and visual art. Searls can spin anectdotes better than most Irish bloggers. It was Searls who looked at the New Yorker cartoon's caption that said, "On the Internet, no one knows if you're a dog." In Searls' mind, it's also true that on the Internet no one likes it if you don't come across as a human being. I think the Irish blogging community was in its ascendency when Searls walked the floor of the RDS. Ten years since the publication of TCM, I don't think that's true anymore about blogging in Ireland. The deep thoughts have wilted away, replaced with short tweets, lists of links and fewer people really engaging in meaningful conversations across disparate social groups. Blogging has become less collegial and more college-like banter. Some would question whether that's a meaningful evolution.
Doc Searls -- "The entire text of the Cluetrain Manifesto"
Doc Searls now blogs at Harvard. He doesn't say the web is about conversation.
Micah Sifry -- "Cluetrain while standing on one foot"
Keith McArthur -- "Cluetrain Plus 10"
