I'm really surprised that Jakob Nielsen, in his newest Alertbox, Content Creation for Average People, doesn't mention Blogger or even weblogs, in his discussion of Average People getting content online. He makes many excellent points:
"Even when people don't have material that the world might find of interest, they often have content to share that is very important to a few people, such as their family and friends."
"Letting users create small bits and pieces of content makes the job less intimidating than having to create a whole site all at once."
"Although most may never be great, many will be able to produce good content that will appeal to small audiences."
And I like his solutions, especially to teach content creation, but his recommended approach is crazy. He hopes, "schools will soon begin teaching kids how to author hypertext ." Whoa, hold on Jakob, why? The problem, which he even admits, is that the content that's being created isn't very good ("The vast wasteland of Geocities confirms this"), so wouldn't it make more sense to spend time teaching writing skills? Why bog kids down with HTML? Does knowing HTML make one a better writer? I don't think so.
That's why tools like Blogger are so valuable. You can get your content online (and more of it, more often, easier, so you're writing more and improving every day) without needing to know HTML, without worrying about creating a whole page, a design, or a site. You just write, click a button, and your voice is online. It's as simple as that.