Seth Godin has a great story on his blog. It’s about the new gap that starts to appear between modern(Internet, but not only) users. Kind of similar conceptually to the gap appeared in the 70’s between the nerds vs the rest of the world(gap that still exists today), but deeper with many orders of magnitude.
It is the gap between the people who use the net productively, to stay informed and to inform others, to learn, communicate and share opinions. They read and manage blogs, use RSS readers, try out the latest tools and trends on the net. For them, there is no “dead” or boring day. Even if busy like hell, they still find some time to check out the latest Slashdot or Boingboing posts, to read some news and share their opinions about.
The left behind are like the grannies of the past: unable to “get” what the fuss is all about; when they eventually “get” it, it is too late, the world has changed around them too much and there’s no way to catch up with it.
Well, five years ago, geeks pretty much kept to themselves. They’d be sitting in IRC chat, or arguing about Unix vs. Linux, but it didn’t spread very fast and it didn’t influence the rest of the world outside the tech community.
Today, though, the Net is far more robust and far more ubiquitous than it used to be. And it’s bloggers who are setting the agenda on everything from politics to culture. It’s bloggers that journalists and politicians look to as the first and the loudest.
As a result, your most-connected, most influential customers are part of the digerati. They can make or break your product, your service or even your religion’s new policies. Because the Net is now a broadcast (and a narrowcast) medium, the digerati can spread ideas.
The second thing to keep in mind is that the digerati are using the learning tools built into the Net to get smarter, faster. A new Net tool can propogate to millions in just a week or two. Unlike the old digital divide, this means that the divide between the digerati and the rest of the world is accelerating.
So.. in order to find out what you can do to step in the trend and not get left behind, I suggest you add Seth Godin’s blog’s RSS feed into your SharpReader, use Firefox and go bitch about it on you own blog. For more ideas, check out his post 
Pe vremea asta…
- 2007: Myspace cumpara Photobucket?
- 2007: Hai ca se poate
- 2006: Mi-am pus si eu Yahoo Mail 2
Daca esti nou pe aici, nu uita sa te abonezi la feedul meu RSS 
. Iti multumesc pentru vizita!
Software engineer; master in cercetare algoritmica la Ecole Polytechnique Paris; a lucrat in Paris in software bursier.
May 12th, 2005 at 8:51 pm
We’re still trying to convince ourselves that what we write in our blogs gets read by not only thousands, but millions, and that we will certainly change the world through blogging. The doctors would probably label it “manie de grandeur”, but is fancier to believe that the world turns around you and that you’re not only a geek who knows the difference between “+var” and “var+”. To put it in a simpler way, I’ve never read what shoes Scooble wears, but I know that Madonna used to be a big Puma fan (read it in a economic magazine).
May 12th, 2005 at 11:14 pm
You are probably right. Most of the “hip” bloggers are only here to fill the need of role models and “people to bitch about”.
They may be bright, they may write interesting stuff, they may be really worth a reading. But the reasons they are read by millions instead of a couple of interested thousands are the same reasons why Britney Spears or .. LaToya Jackson(?) used to be popular: advertising and fashion.
Nowadays, the trend is on blogging and bloggers. Tomorrow it will probably be on podcasters or videobloggers or pink-plastic shoes.
Still, Seth’s essay isn’t quite about fashion but about learning: in order not to be left behind, you have to(willingly or not) step into the wagon. Maybe it will get crowded or it will get stuck into the mud. But for the moment it is a cool wagon and one you can learn quite a lot from…
Enjoy the ride!