To speak with a human voice

This is the quote from The Cluetrain Manifesto that Alice mentioned. Amazingly, this content was published in 1999 before blogs began. But isn't this an elegant way to describe the reason for business blogging?

"To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities. But first, they must belong to a community. Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end. If their cultures end before the community begins, they will have no market. Human communities are based on discourse - on human speech about human concerns. The community of discourse is the market. Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will die."

In fact, it seems to me that one of the wonderful unexpected consequences of the Internet and a webby world is that the human voice is on the ascendancy. Blogs, for one, have introduced vivid personalities to the web. I read many blogs regularly and I know only a very few of the authors personally. But, I feel as if I know the others. Their voices are personal, credible, and part of my community. I value their presence. And soon, as we build the "It's all good" blog we'll add links to our favorite blogs.