About eight months ago in this space, I was encouraged by Tony Targonski to write some predictions involving the future of blogging in 2007. In case you're not one of my three regulars, here was my original quote:

Various governments will get involved... and not in good ways.

Yes, we've had free reign for a long time. Generally, the "blogosphere" has policed itself and ridiculed the liars and frauds into nothing... unfortunately, we all know that when something is working, the government has to step in to break it:

Guaranteed: Watch for the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) to step in and look at the usage of blogs in political races and come up with rules to make our lives more difficult.

Guaranteed: Watch for the Courts and various Law Enforcement Organizations to step in and continue to fight out the definition of "journalist" and related issues.

I hate being wrong, but I have to admit that I was horribly wrong on this one.

Despite our government's regular trampling of the 1st Amendment, I have to give credit where credit is due. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) determined (ruled?) that bloggers are part of the media which means we are exempt from the atrocity that is Campaign Finance Reform and we aren't necessarily political advertising as long as we're volunteers. Once you are compensated for blogging, things are back into the no man's land, but this does protect many of us who barely earn coffee money from our advertising and don't take compensation for posting. Interesting line but it's a logical place to put it.

The other impact of this one is that by considering bloggers part of the media, this further strengthening the concept that bloggers are journalists and should be afforded the same protections and rights. Of course, the discussion on whether journalists should have additional rights and protections over the rest of the populace is a whole other story.

Hopefully, I'll be correct on some of my predictions...

Hattip: TechCrunch