Blogging was born in a recession. Good ideas always are.

ButtonALLBlog brings good stuff from their visit to the Consumer Electronics Show, but it isn't all shiny and doesn't need batteries: A brutally great Q&A between Keynoters Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuck. (ButtonALL has their bios linked.) A snip on recognizing opportunity cleverly disguised as a smash in the face, and on traditional companies missing the point, yet again:

The Economy

• Blogging was born in the last recession. Unemployed software engineers built platforms for themselves and friends to rant about the state of their “f*d company” world. They started blogging just for fun, but it unwittingly started the next revolution in media and direct to consumer communications. S
• Everything is cheap right now: labor, real estate, bandwidth. ROI is easy when the expenses are nominal. “Real Money” and “Real Good Sh*t” gets made in the next 2-3 years of this downturn. While the other bears are in their caves hibernating, you should be out foraging for food (sure, less food but a lot less competition). Anyone willing to work and hustle during this period will gain marketshare. V

Corporate America

• Blogging/Twitter is changing everything. Many companies just don’t get this “real-time feedback” world and are getting their “asses kicked” because of it. Best Buy executives were following Scoble around that day and seemed awe-stricken by his constant communication with his readership and friends. S, V
• Best Buy being surprised is “f’ing awesome.” While the slow moving corporations figure it out (”it’s phenomenal they don’t understand”), the nimble little blog can jump on opportunity….However, the gap is closing. “When I see FoxNews talking about Twitter, I get sad.” V

Given the previous posts about LandAmerica and Cisco, these points really caught my eye for obvious reasons. Go read the rest of the ButtonALL synopsis on Scoble's and Vaynerchuck's advice for virgin bloggers and on focusing and making some kind of return (coin, work, reputation, friends) out of this wacky series of tubes all the groovy kids are raving about.

As for the "good things are always born in a recession" part. Scarcity and fear freak out "the satisfied." The best and boldest and coolest inventors and innovators (and the investors behind them) are never satisfied. And scarcity makes new ideas necessary and suddenly feasible. Take a look here: sort of a how the depression catalyzed 20th century ideas and prosperity.