Apprehending Real Estate Weblogging 101: Gatekeepers without walls and a book without paper
Here’s an interesting question: Once the Little Green Footballs weblog had exposed the Killian Memo as a fake, why did Dan Rather continue to defend it? Why does he defend it to this day?
Rather’s flame-out was like something out of Sophocles, but we’re not asking what-did-he-know-and-when-did-he-know-it? The question is simply this: Once he did know he had been had, why did he rave on and on about how the memo had to be genuine — when it was obvious to the most casual observer that it could not be authentic?
Welcome to the world of transparency. Welcome to the world of verifiability. Welcome to the world of continuously earned authority.
Dan Rather had come from a world where his presumed authority could carry him past any obstacle. Nothing was known until some journalist reported it. Nothing could be independently checked. No Wikipedia. No Google. No Little Green Footballs.
Rather went to bed one night in his world and woke up the next morning in ours. A world where almost anyone can research almost anything. Where world-class experts are never more than an email away — and where many of them are busily answering every question you had never even thought to ask. A world where all of this once-priceless information is indexed and made searchable mere hours after it is drafted. A world where you or anyone can topple the next would-be Dan Rather, can show the truth that would once have been so easily hidden.
The Dan Rathers of the world had been the gatekeepers of our information, and, whether or not they were honest brokers of that information, in most cases we had to go through them. And then Dan Rather woke up in our world, steadfastly refusing to discover that he was a vigilant gatekeeper in a world without walls.
Instead of a few hundred journalists through whom all news is filtered, we have hundreds of thousands of voices, all speaking at once. Reporters like to sneer at webloggers, but the fact is that a great many people are doing primary reporting now, and many of those people are much better-qualified to speak to their specialties than are jack-of-all-trades journalism majors. Moreover, webloggers avidly vet the mainstream media — and each other. The inherent verifiability of the weblogged world serves as a check on both malicious and innocent error, and after-the-fact verification rapidly corrects any errors that do slip through. We are less skeptical than we might be — leaving us more at risk to demagogues, at least for now — but liars and apologists-for-liars are forced into early retirement with dispatch.
This is a book about real estate weblogging, but it seems absurd to write about weblogging in the form of a book. The Dan Rathers of the world will finally admit that the old media are obsolete on the day after the last paper-boy dies of old age. The internet is a linked world, and to write about an internet phenomenon without linking is absurd. And the internet is an infinitely revisable world, so to give up the power of instant, infinite revisions seems foolish. Unless you print it out at home, you can’t take this book with you to the beach. But what you can do is pursue all of the supporting links until your understanding of real estate weblogging approaches perfection — where perfection is understood to be a blindingly moving target.
The wonderful thing about a book in the form of a weblog is that you can help make it better, too. Just as Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs helped Dan Rather discover this strange new world — no matter how much he might rather didn’t — you can set me right when you find me in error — and I hope you find me in better temper. Where a paper book is static and dead, if you find that something is incorrect or unclear, you can assert yourself in a comment and the defects can be amended. In this respect a book-as-a-weblog is more like successive releases of software. But the software resides on my file server, not your hard disk, so upgrades can happen at any time, with the latest ‘rev’ always waiting here for you.
Even better, you can contribute to this book. Much of the text comes from posts I wrote during the first year of the existence of BloodhoundBlog, but, where my own talents are unequal to the task at hand, I have turned to other webloggers. You can join that company, if you like. If you have an article about some aspect of real estate weblogging that you think belongs in this book, send it to me. To insert new pages into a printed book, in the infinitesimal space between recto and verso, is impossible. But this book is built to welcome new ideas, new techniques, new attitudes and approaches. It is truly organic — born to live by growing.
None of us may topple a Goliath like Dan Rather, but each one of us has a power at our fingertips that our brothermen have never had before: A truly free press. No one can promise you an audience, and you will not gain or keep one without working very hard to deserve it. But the walls have all been torn down, and the gates are all wide open. If you have something to say, this book-without-paper will help you learn how to tell it to the world.
Greg Swann
June 21, 2007
June 21st, 2007 at 7:16 am
[...] an introductory article to the book: This is a book about real estate weblogging, but it seems absurd to write about weblogging in the [...]
June 21st, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Real estate agents of yesteryear learned that they were gatekeepers without walls when the internet brought open information on real estate listings, just as Dan Rather learned in journalism.
When someone contacts us to correct something in a blog we’ve posted, we know that someone is reading it, even if they do not comment. We should be grateful for the corrections.
If we could furnish every person in the world, including every child, with a computer and access to the internet, what the world could become is indeed boundless.
Congratulations on the birth of your new “child”.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:51 pm
I like what you have to say about the evolution of media. Dan Rather happens to be my favorite gate keeper. His book, The Greatest Generation, is terrific for bringing reality back into perspective. As blogging evolves I hope we remember pioneers of yester-year, apreciate the pioneers of today, and encourage those of tomorow. I look forward to reading more.
June 26th, 2007 at 10:40 am
[...] Greg Swann at RealEstateWeblogging101.com: Apprehending Real Estate Weblogging 101: Gatekeepers … [...]
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:04 am
Glad to see this is making a come back!