Take the case of English Cut, the weblog of Thomas Mahon, bespoke Saville Row tailor, London. As I write this, Mahon’s blog is a couple weeks old, and he already has a Technorati cosmos (collection of current inbound links) north of 200 (up from 100 yesterday), which is remarkable. Thomas Mahon is quickly becoming the most authoritative Seville Row tailor in the world. Not because he’s a terrific tailor (which he surely is), but because he also operates in the public marketplace we call the World Wide Web. There he converses with customers and fellow mavens about fabrics, drafting, cutting patterns, the trade, and (of course) his advantages over competitors. Thomas Mahon runs an open source business. Literally.

No surprisingly, he has already attracted all the business he can stand. Again, because of his blog. Not with it.