BLOGSPOT: Nicholas Carr's blog http://www.roughtype.com/

As we become accustomed to 2008, questions can justifiably be asked about the health of blogs as a publishing medium. Mainstream media outlets with their significant resources are embracing the medium. Many high-profile bloggers are neglecting their own publishing for the more immediate communications of "micro-blogging" platforms such as Twitter and Jaiku.

And sadly many of the bloggers that once offered a fresh perspective on technology and business increasingly seem to be going through the motions.

Author, journalist and professional speaker Nicholas Carr, after almost three years of blogging, is one of the voices that has remained fresh. It probably helps that Carr is a professional writer - he was formerly executive editor of the Harvard Business Review and writes regularly for the Financial Times, Strategy & Business and the Guardian.

Carr's profile should be even higher in the coming weeks thanks to the imminent publication of his latest book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google.

The book suggests that cheap utility computing will change society as profoundly as the industrial production of cheap electricity did.

These are the kinds of meaty issues that Carr likes to grapple with on his blog, rather than simply linking to the latest tech news or gossip with a bit of his own commentary. Some of the most-read posts on his blog last year covered the impact of Google's business model, the application of artificial intelligence for nefarious purposes, the amorality of web 2.0, and how Steve Jobs and Apple are out of step with the rest of the technology world.

You may not always agree with what Carr has to say, but you can always be sure he will stand head and shoulders above the "wisdom" of the crowd.