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One of the fascinating characteristics of Canadians that I’ve observed (from the inside, since I’m Canadian) is the concern of what others (especially our American friends south of us) think of us. It happens with popular movie stars who happen to be Canadian, musicians, writers, etc. Mentions in the American media are carefully scrutinized… do they like us? Are they making fun of us? Michael Moore has a section of “Bowling for Columbine” that focusses on Canada (and the film was produced by Halifax-based Salter Street (see…I’m doing it now)). Many Canadians will remind each other of the Canadianness of the famous or of Canadian connections. (hey…did you know that some of “Catch Me If You Can” was shot in Montreal?) Now ’blogs are firmly moving into the popular consciousness and with the proliferation of stories, ’bloggers now are increasingly saying “hey! They’re talking about us!” and we proudly watch as the mainstream media pick up stories that we knew about days ago. I think that it’s a sign that the whole ’blogging world is maturing so now there is more focus on the ideas in a ’blog than the tools used to create it. So while I think that many ’bloggers have the Canadian characteristic of being overly concerned with what others think, the movement of ’blogs from niche to mainstream makes me wonder “what’s next?” If ’blogs now are what a homepage was a few years ago, what’s the next big cool thing for geeks? I’ll let you know if I figure it out.