Measuring authority and influence
: Fred Wilson adds to the conversation about conversations from Mayfield to Oren to me to Wilson. I had said, “This medium isn’t about impressions; it’s about relationships; it’s about conversations; it’s about influence; it’s about authority. We are starting to measure how many conversations a blog starts (or at least takes part in) with Technorati.” And Fred added:
I’ll go one step further. I think all media (not just the blog medium) is about relationships, conversations, influence, and authority. It’s just that the blog medium is the first that has organized itself to revolve around these concepts. But I believe that all media in a digital world will eventually work this way.
I don’t just want Technorati to tell me which blogs have the most authority. I want to know what media outlet (new, old, or whatever) has the most authority on a particular subject. Until newspapers, TV, radio, film, books, etc organize themselves to allow people to link to, discuss, comment on, and measure the way blogs do, we won’t get there. But it’s going to happen. Count on it.
Right. Transparency begets transparency, influence begets influence. It spreads.
