I saw that a recent survey about blogging had been developed and analyzed by Viegas, who is a PhD candidate working in the Sociable Media Group at the MIT Media Lab.

The bottom-line:

"Formerly viewed as a marginal activity restricted to the technically savvy, blogging is slowly becoming more of a mainstream phenomenon on the Internet. Thanks to much media hype and some high profile blog sites, these online journals have captured the public's imagination. As novice authors plunge into the thrilling world of blog publishing, they soon realize that publicly writing about one's life and interests is not as simple as it might seem at first. As they become prolific writers, more bloggers find themselves having to deal with issues of privacy and liability. [emphasis mine] Accounts of bloggers either hurting friends' feelings or losing jobs because of materials published on their sites are becoming more frequent."

Another indicator of the changes that social tools have -- new ways to hurt people, get sued, or lose your job.