"Independent bloggers can laugh all they want about the imperious posture of the mainstream media, but I and others at The Times have never been more in touch with readers? every robustly communicated whim than we are today."

--NYTimes media critic David Carr, writing on how his blog has led to ties and a sense of community with his consistent commentators and readers.

"We are living through the largest expansion of expressive capability in the history of the human race. And it wouldn?t be a revolution if there were no losers. The speed of conversation is a part of what is good about it, but then some of the reflectiveness, the ability for careful summation and expression, is lost. There is an obsessive, dollhouse pleasure in configuring and looking at it, a constant measure of social capital."

--NYU adjunct professor and social theorist Clay Shirky, quoted in Carr's article on how a blog "provides feedback through a firehose."