Last summer I had the opportunity to ask Dr. Blaine McCormick, author of Ben Franklin: America’s Original Entrepreneur, what he thought Franklin would think of the internet, social networking software, and blogs. McCormick’s response was along the lines of, “Franklin probably wouldn’t pay much attention to them, blogs are not up to the right standard.”
I have to admit, I don’t really agree with McCormick’s assessment. I think that his response to my question comes partially from an ignorance on his part of what blogs and the other tools are and what they are capable of, and partially from confusing the sometimes dismal quality of blogs, etc and the potential of the tools themselves. (Remember, having good tools do not the master make.)
In the hands of Benjamin Franklin, a master of getting his message out in the media of the day, I can only imagine how the media tools of today could be used. (I’m sure it would be much more than a simple collection of links.)
no straight lines 
Brett, I agree completely with you that Ben Franklin probably would have loved blogs. I actually think that most of the Founding Fathers would have been into blogging, as it would have extended their abilities to have ongoing conversations about all of those things that they loved. I could see the Federalist Papers as a series of blog posts, certainly. And in Ben’s case, can’t you picture him with a blog chronicling his various experiments and interests? What is most interesting to consider is whether or not they would have used a wiki to write the Declaration of Independence. And if they did, would it have been better or worse? 🙂
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Benjamin Franklin had a remarkable impact in so many ways. A Benjamin Franklin article just received the ‘Top 100 Electricity Blogs’ Award http://bit.ly/z8Ckp
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