A Time to (start a) Blog

Three in the morning is as good a time as any to start blogging, I suppose. Right now I’m taking a break from what may very well be the first all-nighter I’ve ever pulled. I’m working on tying up a dozen loose ends with outside.in. We launch tomorrow morning, with a bang. We’re expecting to kick things off with a link from BoingBoing in the morning. Which means I am doing my best to anticipate all the preventable problems that might occur from a Direct Web Hit. I’m excited to see what the world, at least this country—the US,thinks of this tool.

The most exciting thing to me about the web in general is the democratic way that it enables almost anyone not just to have a voice, but to almost effortlessly harness the intelligence and ability of hundreds, thousands, even millions of other individuals. When you have access to that stream, if you’re paying attention you can discover things that weren’t possible to ever know before. I’ve often said that the web has given rise to numerous amateur, mousepad sociologists. Anyone can put a survey on their blog and within hours get response from hundreds of people all over the world.

I think outside.in is going to be a tool that will enable a whole other layer of information for today’s amateur sociologists to sift through. That, in addition to it being an incredible useful, interesting tool for anyone looking to find out more about the neighborhood around them.

In just about 8 hours now, we’ll start to find out.