His article was headed with this interesting statement: "Blogs can harness collective power to change the world."

What do you really think about that statement? Is it just a nice assumption, or do you find the statement itself possessing empowerment?

Personally, I've always thought such reasoning is empowering. But empowerment is only useful if its in action. And as Matthew Gross pointed out on the UNICEF website, blogs are an excellent tool for bringing about social change. Or as he put it "a powerful force" for social change. Think about that for a sec.

Its good to see big broadcast media monopolies broken up by the blogosphere. Blogs are putting the power of self-publishing on the map of serious mass communication. And, "by removing the traditional filters that often keep the most powerful communications tools out of the hands of ordinary people", blogs level the playing field and usher in new avenues of journalistic sustainability. Specifically the potential of revenue generation. Sites like BoingBoing.net, Slashdot.org, and Kuro5hin.org are all (in their own way) generating some kind of revenue stream from their blog-styled publishing system. And of course there are many blogs with a sole proprietor utilizing their empowerment to enable sustainability. Such examples provide a respectable model to be continually developed and improved upon.

Many of us here at Zaadz have a fine opportunity to implement these models into our own efforts. And discussions on creating sustainable publishing models as individuals and as a group find fertile ground in the Ambassador Universe-City Pod, here at Zaadz.

Those of us of the entreprenuer persuastion are encouraged to come together for inspiring discussions on this subject. Plus, I see many of us benefiting from working to immediately utilize creative sustainbility here at Zaadz.com or elsewhere on the web.

Certainly Matthew Gross isn't alone appreciating the "powerful force" right at our finger tips, just sitting here waiting to be unleashed if not already. Zaadz, among other things, is a fertile ground which affords us the chance to evolve into many great things collectively (as well as individually). And when we consider the implications of our empowerment, it becomes clear that world changing ramifications are always just keystrokes away from being felt.

Concluding this entry, I'd like to share this quote of Matthew's article from the UNICEF website:

"Blogs, then, are a many-to-many medium. By linking to each other and beginning conversations, bloggers create community-a community that crosses geographic and national boundaries. In the blogosphere, you can start up a discussion with someone half a world away-and in doing so play a role in helping to further the bonds between people everywhere. And when bloggers decide to take action together-when the community they've formed agrees to use its collective power to change the world-the resulting change can be amazing. For what is stronger than people acting together in common purpose?"

Is Zaadz not in line with that reasoning? It definitely seems so to me.

How do feel about this? And what ideas or realizations come to mind when considering the nature of our empowerment?