Eric Engberg, a former correspondent for CBS News came out of retirement last week just for a day in order to compare the blogosphere to a “school paper or a ‘Breaker, breaker 19′ gabfest on CB [radio].” He cites election night coverage by the blogosphere’s biggest names as proof of the medium’s lack of professionalism and goes on to say that blogging will become a passing and irrelevant fad like CB radio in the 70’s. (Make sure to also check out Noel Sheppard’s Op-Ed response)

I could write pages arguing Engberg’s position on bloggers’ coverage of the election, but instead I want to discuss his claim that blogging is a passing fad like CB radio. Because this really shows that Engberg does not understand how blogging both opens communication and dialogue (like CB radio did on a much smaller scale), but also inspires new innovation and distributed production. Anyone who reads blogs knows that election night and the day after was full of anger, animosity, bitching, moaning, bragging, and redemption. But following the deluge of emotion has been a deluge of ideas, innovation, and productivity.

Even what we’re doing here on this blog - debating the issues with HispanicPundit. I think our debate is very productive and I intend to make it more so. I know a lot of you look at this whole idea with a bunch of cynicism and disdain. I understand that reaching out to the other side is very “uncool.” That discussing intense issues with Martha Stewart-like politeness and rationality instead of cynical, satirical humor is lame and dry.

But I have yet to see a good guide to the most divisive issues which doesn’t just state the arguments of each side, but explains how each side got to those arguments and what the implications are. History and political science textbooks are so dry and boring because they purport to just state the facts, but they don’t show the lively arguments - the process - which is behind each idea.

So what I want to do is - after we are all done debating - make a wiki which will be like an online guide or online textbook to help readers and students understand not just the arguments we all made, but the process of how we came to those arguments and where disagreement still lingers.

The reason I want to make it a wiki is so that every person who participates in our debating of the issues had a say in how the summaries are displayed on the wiki. And if we disagree on how the information should be displayed, those conversations will also show up on the discussion page of each issue.

I’ve worked in public high schools before and I have a sister who is a sophomore in high school now. I know that if you plop down a history or government text book in front of them they’re just going to tune out. But if you allow them to be part of the process in a lively and respectful debate of issues which was started by two young people they can relate to and furthered by everyday bloggers around the country (and world?), I think they’ll really start to pay attention. And maybe even leave comments themselves. In the end I’m hoping these debates turn into a valuable resouce for students and everyone else.

So there’s our small contribution to the wave of innovation happening in the blogosphere since the election, just two weeks ago. David Anderson and Nick Lewis have done wonders with the Progressive Bloggers Alliance. Just like we’re reaching out to conservatives to discuss ideas, they’re reaching out to fellow progressives to strengthen the movement and discuss strategy. You can only discuss ideas for so long; once you have your mind made up, activism becomes the next logical step and everyone in PBA is starting to help make that happen.

Another important development is convincing those voices who deserve to be heard, but are wary of computers, that setting up a blog and blogging is just as easy as setting up an email account and emailing. There are several projects going on to evangelize blogging to a wider community. Liza from CultureKitchen (go check her out tonight if you’re in NYC) is setting up a networking site to encourage users to blog and exchange ideas.

Rebecca McKinnon moderated an excellent session on blogging for newbies which is available to download for free from IT Conversations. (my favorite quote from the session came in the form of a question from an audience member: “It seems like most bloggers are young, upper-middle class, White men of above average intelligence and I was just wondering why anyone would want to listen to them.”) Anyway, an idea that came out of the Newbies session was to begin a discussion not just about evangelizing blogs, but also “adapting blog tools and blogging techniques to the needs of people who want to go beyond online conversations to real-world action.¹”

That idea has turned into - just yesterday - BloggerCorps, a site where bloggers can outreach to Non-Profit Organizations in need of the technology.

On cue, the New York Times published an article yesterday about Alan Nelson’s blog alliance, Strengthen The Good. (hat tip: Jon Lebkowski)

Doug Kaye’s IT Conversations (and the whole concept of podcasting) is responsible for another boom in recent innovation. Rather than paying outrageous fees to attend conferences around the world, those conference presentations and sessions are brought to you via downloadable mp3 files which you can take with you, fast forward throught the irrelevant parts, and repeat the parts you might have missed.

I’ll try to write more about the potential of portable presentations and the need for ubiquitous support for a syndication standard which will deliver all sorts of content - text, audio, video, presentation - to every device whether it be your television, iPod, laptop, or cell phone.

Finally, Reza and I have talked about expanding his site Tomorrow’s Future to reach out to San Diego youth and get them blogging about what’s going on in their communities. If anyone knows about any resources (ie. money) for getting such a project moving, please leave a comment.

Peace y’all.