Windows on the Web: New Maps of  Blogospheres

By Bruce Kratofil
NABE Webmaster

A glossy monthly magazine is an example of Old Media. Thus Portfolio, the new magazine from Condé Nast, is an example of New Old Media. Its website does have a number of interactive features, however, and one of them is a map of the Economic Blogosphere, or the Econoblogosphere. The page gives us a chance to take a tour of economic blogs, something we haven't done here for a while.

Econoblogosphere

The NABE Economic Blogs page uses a simple method of organization, alphabetical order. The Econoblogosphere does things differently, and sorts the blogs into similar groups, some of which are a little more useful than others. When you go to the page you will see a series of labeled clouds floating over a cityscape. Hover over a cloud and a series of blogs will appear.

The first grouping is called the Blogfathers, and includes Brad DeLong, Greg Mankiw (both have spoken at NABE meetings) and Mark Thoma, as bloggers “who set the agenda” from the Left and the Right.

Floating next to it is the MSM (Main Stream Media) cloud, which lists blogs from the New York Times, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal.  They do point to Wall Street, deal-maker type blogs from the New York Times and Journal, and skipping the more overtly economic  (Freakonomics and Real Time Economics) blogs hosted by the two papers.

One cloud with an interesting name, the GMU Mafia, includes the blogs either located at or related to the George Mason University Economics Department, including Marginal Revolution, the blog of Tyler Cowen, Alex Tabarrok, and others. Underneath that is The Wonks cloud, which includes blogs that feature “timely analysis at a level rarely found in the financial press.”  One of the blogs featured here is RGE Monitor, Noruiel Roubini's blog.

What's Missing?

The collection here is more heavily weighted to financial blogs than political economic blogs (but after all, the name of the magazine is Porftfolio.) There are some parts of the Econoblogosphere that are missing from their collection, including the blog where I was tipped to this feature, Megan McArdle's Asymmetrical Information. Lots of blogs on the NABE list are not here, and this one has lots of new ones, which will find their way to the NABE list.

And finally....

The secret is out. Throughout 2007, more and more readers discovered the blog by “Fake Steve Jobs,” a blog that many thought mirrored the real thoughts of the real Steve Jobs. There was much speculation over the writer (many people were hoping that the real Steve Jobs was the actual Fake Steve Jobs). Late this summer the speculation ended when it was revealed that Forbes Senior Editor Daniel Lyons was the author. The blog continues, and it is still funny, although something is missing with the truth being known.  If you stop by to read it, try some of the “Greatest Hits” posts you find in the right-hand column.