The main thing I like about blogging is the power it gives ordinary citizens, non-journalists. User-friendly, self-publishing software is to modern-day reformers what the printing press was to Martin Luther and other religious reformers.

On a less dramatic note, a blogger named Brian Oberkirch started a blog during Hurricane Katrina called the Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog to chronicle events and inform readers about flooded neighborhoods in Slidell, Louisiana. Brian spoke about the blog at a recent blog conference, and Naked Conversations has the report.