Okay, not really, but he’s leaving what most journalists would consider journalism.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dan. I haven’t met him yet, I generally don’t agree with him on Microsoft issues (though I can see his point) and I often have to hold my breath while reading what he writes. But that’s only because it’s not what I believe, but his writing is almost always enough to make me stop and think.

And now he’s taking it to the masses.

Can’t wait to see what he does.

This is just growing evidence of the power of what’s going on. I’m not generally into hype and so forth, but let’s just paint a picture of what’s happened in the last few weeks. My eBay auction got national press. I’m quitting my job as soon as I can (Feb 2) to start InsideBlogging fulltime (we’re about to sign our 5th client, in just our first week of business). Scoble and Shel Israel are writing a blogging book completely in the public eye. Dan Gillmor is leaving his cushy job to follow his dream.

And I know of 3 other bloggers doing similar things in the next 1-2 months.

Is this huge and world changing? Not yet. But then few things are at the beginning. Blogging is hitting the masses, no question. But blogging hasn’t really changed very much yet. It’s been informational. The ununited mass of bloggers have pulled off a few notable media moves (election stuff generally). But very little has actually changed anything.

And that’s about to change. 9 months ago it was big news to hear Bill Gates say “blogs are powerful”. Last week when Ballmer said it, everyone’s reaction in tech was “uh, yeah… and?”

Give this 1-2 years. See how the landscape looks. And look back on winter 2004 as a transformative period in blogging. It’ll either live or die based on what’s happening right now.