Blogging coming of age?

If there is any one word that is en vogue over the last few months, if not years, it is blogging. You can tell when a new technology is really starting to become mainstream when it start winning serious awards and also when your non techie friends start asking questions about it. I spotted this story today on BBC News about a Blogger from Iraq that has reached the long list for BBC Four's Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. As far as I am aware that is the first time a blog has been nominated for anything other than a blog award.