When our Services Become More

I’m still reading a lot about the Technorati stuff like the links here to Sifry’s weblog entry. As I blogged earlier, we tend to all want blogging to matter and we expect those that support the community to provide sets of services and products that matter. But perhaps we have all gone to a place that will be dangerous territory and when we compare companies that do hardware and companies that provide services, we are missing some basic relationship thing. There is a decidedly sociological bent to all this. The community is growing up, evolving, becoming more complex and as I blogged before the institutions that support the community will now be rquired to grow, become more complex, and perhaps assume the role of more classic service providers. Perhaps we are no longer a loose knit group of dialogue editors and now we are moving to a new drummer. The theory says that institutions arise to meet needs. When the needs become more complex; the institutions are asked to evolve to meet those needs. Its fair to say that the alleys and gutters are full of failed institutions that could not manage their growth to more complexity.

But lets step back here a moment and make sure that is what we are asking for. Do we all want to evolve this thing to some new complexity level? The heads of the blogging comet may have clues; but we are the trains. We have the coal, the flame, the desire. Look at what you blog for. Do you need more complex institutions. Is it time for our services to be comparable with those of a Dell or HP? Do we need that level of static client relationships? Or do we want fluid institutions that take a chance, tell us things we don’t want to know, and then let us make the choice. With Dell you get a laptop. You can call and complain but you are inside their SLA. Consider for a moment what you are really asking for when you ask.

As I blogged earlier, I live so far back on the tail of the blogging comet that I just do my own shit now. My community and world revolves around simply enjoying writing and communication these days. If you are serious and you see how the community is moving forward and there is this new place and its more complex, then perhaps the things you used to enjoy are not there any more. Its become more. At a merely philosophical level by becoming more, it becomes different. Do we suffer innovation as things become more static?

Just a question to consider…