Instapundit ’s Glenn Reynolds sent me a copy of his Modern book , An Army of Davidsa couple weeks back . Glenn now and again does invitee reviews for us here at Gizmodo , so it ’s the least we can do to get the give-and-take out about his book — it ’s obvious he ’s put a lot of research into it .
I ’m about midway through An Army of Davids so far — oh , it ’s about “ market and technology empower average people to outsmart Big Media , Big Government and other Goliaths ” by the way — and there ’s stack to chew on so far , despite a few topics being so well - trodden that I closely skipped entire chapters . ( Did you recognize about the baron of blogs ? )
I ’m beaming I did n’t skip the parts about blogging and citizen culture medium , though , in large part because Reynolds discusses a lot of blog in the political sphere of influence that I just do n’t have much familiarity with . And as much as we tech blogger like to toot our horns about break hot contraption news , there ’s no doubt that the work of people likeJ.D. Johannes — who is telling the history of a single platoon of Marines on a shoelace budget using cheap , modern technical school — is immeasurably more important than any pay iPod rumour .
There are in spades some ideas that I do n’t entirely grease one’s palms , like the one where Reynolds claim that large bookstores have created the societal spaces we hunger as a specie as public spaces become less and less uncouth . I ’m not quite certain why that does n’t pose right with me — perhaps because , originate up in a suburban area , hanging out in a Barnes & Noble was an option of last resort , and even then it did n’t obviate the need for non - corporate public spaces . perchance I ’m a filthy East Coast liberal , but I just ca n’t get with ‘ kid hanging out at malls ’ being a positive thing , even if I can accept shopping center may be serving a natural sociological function .
Anyway , this is a weak endorsement — I have n’t even finished the blame thing — but as someone who cause his living operating web log that sit literally on the intersection of corporate and citizen ’ media , An Army of Davids has already given me a great deal to recollect about . — Joel Johnson
An Army of Davids
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