Blog Wishlist Manifesto

We want to blog better. We want blog tools that help us, not get in our way.

In a few words, we want to: Create --> Connect --> Community --> Conserve

In a recent thread on the Bloggercon weblog, Dave Winer posed a question: "Question: What's next in writing tools for weblogs?". Well over a hundred responses came in. After printing out and reading through the 40+ pages of responses, a few major themes began to emerge. Bloggers wanted to create more easily, connect with others fluidly, create and manage communities around their weblog and throughout the blogosphere, and conserve their content. --Lisa Williams (via Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog)

When you look at what bloggers want, you see where the trends are. This is exactly what the blog platforms should be looking at. I doubt if Blogger will pay much attention (the "big" guys tend to be slow to accept trends), but Squarespace and many of the cutting-edge developers will definitely be looking at this type of input.

So, when bloggers fill in a wish list, and when Lisa Williams and some others go through all of this to condense things into a single, good post, you gotta love it. We should all thank her for the work.

Here's a parting quote from her post:

They are always reading, seeing, and hearing new things and want to share that with others. Bloggers want to discover what's good and show it some respect by linking to it. Even when a blogger disagrees with something they come across, by linking bloggers express a forthright willingness to criticise openly rather than whispering behind someone's back or having a concealed contempt. To a greater extent than the mass media, bloggers are willing to engage with people who don't share their views and are willing to have their minds changed by new information.