Metablog

BlueHereNow isn't a forgotten Ram Dass Smurf; it's a nifty website covering the burgeoning world of mobile photoblogs, whose proprietors use cell phone cams to post pictures almost instantaneously to the Web. From the home page:

In 2004 half a billion cell phones will be sold. Nearly half of these phones will be camera phones and almost 30 million will be smartphones. By 2005 there will be over 100,000 WiFi Hotspots. This confluence of wireless technology means that we are about to witness a fundamental change in the way we create and get information. As more people are able to capture photos and send text, images and sounds through the air it is inevitable that all major cultural events will be captured by hundreds if not thousands of accidental bystanders.

The site's current links cover everything from the Aurora Borealis to the ashes of the California fires.

A couple of related Reason pieces: a short item I wrote after 9/11 about the rise of amateur news footage, and my interview with Smart Mobs author Howard Rheingold.