Jeff Jarvis contemplates the $100m that VCs have sunk into social software companies. Is there really enough market territory out there to repay the capital being spent rushing to grab it? Yet, Jarvis remains bullish on the impact of blogs on journalism, both electronic and print. Is he missing something, dissing the investment opportunity while talking up the media impact? Maybe not.. 'Creative destruction' is the hallmark of the technology markets, but sometimes the old business model is destroyed while the new one is yet undefined. Or, the net benefit end up in the hands of the customers/readers/users, not companies and investors. This may be such a case, but there are enough fund managers willing to bet the other side to put $100m out on the street. Compared to the amount that was dropped on dot-com plays, and the size of some of the funds placing the social software bets, this is chump change.

Update: Jeff's addendum to the original post makes explicit his distinction between "people's media", e.g., blogs, and the more specific social software category, stating that the usefulness and value of the first is better established than the latter. I agree with both the categorization and value statement.
12:29:54 PM