I was just reading Ross Mayfield's post from Les Blogs in the French Senate. He wrote a short stream of consciousness-like blurb about what Richard Florida was saying about the Creative Class:
anti-establishment, critical thinkers, autonomous action, self-fulfillment, self-expression, sharing collective action, community, learning and openness to innovation. These technologies become adopted through word of mouth. Some cultures adopting faster. Gap between creative and non-creative class is bigger than between countries....Here's where I went with that. First, I've read The Rise of the Creative Class, and I wished I could see the full text or, better, a podcast of Florida's presentation. It occurred to me that blogging is a fantastic tool and community of the creative class. And I doubt if it got a mention at all in Rise of the Creative Class but it should have. I want to know what Richard Florida is thinking now about blogging.
From there I went to thinking that I want book authors to be blogging and not just blogging their book or blogging about everything else besides their book. I've heard Steven Berlin Johnson say on his blog that he can't blog about what he's writing. I question that.
These writers need to find a way to write about their ideas while they are being researched and in progress. The advantage to them would be building buzz, getting feedback, creating fans and creating community around their book ideas. Maybe they would find out earlier whether their book ideas had legs. I don't know, it might just be that I want to know what they think and have the ability to ask them questions.
In Richard Florida's case, I'll keep my RSS search going and yes I've ordered his new book, The Flight of the Creative Class. It may or may not address blogging but will fit nicely with my reading of late.
By the way, I'm liking The World is Flat and am on page 240. Here are a few Friedman's recommendations on how to thrive in a flattened world:
You have to constantly upgrade your skills. There will be plenty of good jobs out there in the flat world for people with the knowledge and ideas to seize them. I am not suggesting that this will be simple. It will not be. There will be a lot of other people out there also trying to get smarter. It was never good to be mediocre in your job but in a world of walls, mediocrity could still earn you a decent wage. In a flatter world, you really do not want to be mediocre.If you are really good at what you do and are not falling behind in the technology curve, there's consolation in that. One likeable thing about what Dan Pink had to say in A Whole New Mind is that we should spend more time on fun right brain stuff. OK. All that digital photography I do and when I fiddle with the look of my posts and blog it's right brain exercise. Having time for sleep may be a problem, but you can't have everything I guess.