Project Petaling Street Blog

Wow! Beppe Grillo's campaign is a striking example of the power of nano-publishing.

At last we've got an International Page. We’re published on the International Herald Tribune for the Clean Up Parliament campaign. Not one of the international publications that I contacted wanted to publish the list of names and in some cases they didn’t even want to discuss the matter.

via Beppe Grillo.

The real power is not in the hands of the blogger -- but its in the readers' and what many, many readers can do collectively. Beppe Grillo is a fine example of that theory in practice. Placing an ad in the IHT is no small potatoes, costing upwards of EURO$40k. But that cost is mitigated by the "thousands" of Beppe Grillo's readers who helped pay for it. 10,000 readers, $40 each, and there you have it -- an outcome that can potentially change the nation.

Power has always been about the ability to influence the action of others. With that definition, its easy to argue that blogs have real power now.

PPS has 5,000 daily readers, easily. Someday, if an issue worthy of our collective will presents itself, it would be interesting to put the test what WE are able to accomplish.