Just wanted to repost here my comment on fellow CNET Asia blogger Ryan McLaughlin’s latest blog post, Twitter is a tool, and so is Maureen Dowd.

Great post, Ryan.

Around 2004, when I pushed for the leading online news site in the Philippines to incorporate blogging, many people from mainstream media and the blogosphere alike were saying things like: “Why should journalists blog?” “Why would the biggest online newspaper in the Philippines want to go into blogging?”

Years before that, skeptics were asking, “Why should companies have their own website? Why are they commercializing the Internet?”

It’s the same cycle. Some people always feel threatened, particularly if they’ve always relied on a monopoly of information.

Tools are tools; it’s how you use them that matters. If you can’t compete in a world where technology empowers people, whether you’re a journalist, a blogger or ordinary citizen just tweeting whatever you want, then that’s your problem.

Don’t blame technology for your own shortcomings.

Cheers!