Every industry has its own cast of characters, its own trends, and its own internal debates about how businesses in the industry should conduct themselves. These industry-specific stories have a tendency to create a kind of political landscape internal to the industry. Liberal entrepreneurs who are familiar with a particular industry can start progressive industry blogs to articulate and distribute a progressive view of their industry.
Industry blogs are a wonderful way to discuss the trends and internal debates within an industry. Such blogs are already very popular within some industries, particularly the technology sector. There are also smaller blogospheres in sports coverage, fashion, and celebrity culture. I believe that there is tremendous potential for the establishment of new industry blogospheres in the industry of parenting products, educational products, and health care.
Industry debates are frequently apolitical in nature. For example, a latent debate within the web development industry (which is my industry) is whether a lightweight, rapidly-evolving framework like Ruby on Rails is preferable to a heavy-weight, more established framework like Struts or Spring for Java. Many developers have strong opinions one way or the other, and they should; the choice has a major impact on their work environment and the final product. But this debate is value-neutral; the choice depends strongly on a developer's knowledge of each framework, the kind of project being implemented, the budget for the project, and other constraints.
Other industry debates are obviously political in nature. A debate similar to the one I've just listed is the debate between open source frameworks (like Ruby on Rails) and proprietary frameworks (like ASP/.NET). As with the other debate, the choice of framework again depends on value-neutral constraints. However, this debate also includes political considerations, such as whether a developer trusts the company which developed a proprietary framework (Microsoft, in the case of ASP/.NET), or whether a developer is comfortable with allowing a company to dictate in non-democratic fashion the terms of the framework. There are obvious similarities between this debate and a number of political debates, like the degree to which political elites should be allowed to control the process of choosing a party's nominee in an election.
An industry blog has the opportunity to spread progressive values in the context of these industry debates. As debates evolve, the progressive industry blog has an opportunity to demonstrate what progressive values mean in the context of that industry. For moderates and apolitical individuals within the industry, such a blog might be an entry point into the wider progressive movement. Alternatively, it could simply be a good resource for following the trends and debates within the industry. Consequently, the progressive industry blog could be an excellent way to shape the direction and focus of the industry in a manner which is progressive.
Of course, such blogs do not need to toe an imaginary party line on industry debates. A political progressive might make choices which are not progressive in the context of an industry debate for a variety of reasons. For example, a hypothetical progressive web developer might have reason to prefer working with proprietary frameworks rather than open source frameworks.
Industry blogging can potentially be extremely lucrative for a liberal entrepreneur, when it is combined with an entrepreneurial venture. Industry blogging can be an excellent way to develop contacts and a community within an industry, and this kind of dynamic network can easily be leveraged into more clients and beneficial partnerships. At a very concrete level, industry blogging can be an excellent way to raise the profile of an entrepreneur's business in search engine results. (In fact, I hope to soon begin using Planting Liberally for exactly this kind of purpose; hopefully I'll have a chance to make that transition real in the near future.)
New Blog Friday fans, I'm sorry to give such a great idea such brief attention, but I've got a couple of important things today at work. Hopefully I will have a chance to give this subject more thought in the near future.
Comments
A little off-topic,
but for some reason this brought to mind a diary on DailyKos: [link http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/25/194521/090]. The diarist says we need a liberal bloggy USA Today equivalent. But I was thinking that we'd be better off starting small. Planting the seeds, if you will. And now I'm wondering if one entre into a less-clearly-partisan newsblog entity of the type mentioned if through industry-type blogs. That is, say, if a central service provided progressive news content--like McClatchy or the AP--without any foaming-at-the-mouth partisanship, which industry-bloggers could then use to sprinkle through industry-specific blogs. Giving them a wider scope and more depth, supporting the aggregator, and promoting progressive news, too.
But I'm not involved in any industry blogs, so don't know if general news is verboten.
yeah
that's another face of the same core idea: there are other ways to talk about progressive values than through the lens of politics. one of these days i'll get around to writing my piece on an idea for progressive cultural blogs, which discuss topics like celebrity news, sports, fashion, etc., through the lens of progressive values. that kind of stuff would be much more directly relevant to a progressive "USA Today", but it's essentially a re-hash of the idea of an industry blog.
by the way, not to be lost in all of this is that industry blogs are not just a good way to distribute progressive values. they are also a good way to change an industry, which is often just as important as changing government.