About This Blog

Automating Invention is Robert Plotkin's blog on the impact of computer-automated inventing on the law (primarily patent law). The blog also explores the implications of computer-automated inventing for creativity, ethics, and high-tech industry.

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July 19, 2005

What's the use of blogging?

Why blog? Why read blogs? What social benefits do blogs provide?

FutureWire comments on K. Daniel Glover's suggestion that "[i]nstead of being part of the Fourth Estate, [bloggers] are part of something new. I call it Estate 4.5 -- a nod both to the profession whose excesses galvanized many bloggers and to the medium they use. Bloggers are like inspectors general, the independent watchdogs of government."

Blogs no doubt can serve this purpose. But they can also be useful for purposes that aren't as overtly political. The purpose of some blogs is to filter the web for links to relevant information, thereby saving their readers the hassle of searching for such information themselves. Others provide original content not found elsewhere, written by authors who might not be publishable through traditional channels.

In this blog, I attempt to provide links to relevant information and add my own commentary, with the hope that I add value by providing insights into automating invention that wouldn't otherwise be apparent from the linked source itself. This blog is also useful as a testing ground for my ideas, and a place to record my thoughts so that I can retrieve them later.

Why do you blog? Why do you read blogs? What social benefits do you think blogs provide?

Posted by Robert at 8:32 AM | Comments (0)
category: Blogging