Everyone in the Silicon Valley, whether they know it or not, is waiting for the “next big thing”. We’re sitting at our desks in our obscenely large, yet safe companies tapping our fingers on the desk waiting… waiting for something… waiting for that something new that, right now, is struggling to find it’s way out the minds of three random bright people and that is bent on, once again, revolutionizing the valley.

The truly brave ones are out there fighting for those expensive VC dollars right this very second. They’ve got what they believe is the “idea” and willing to weather a steady flood of “Hey, this isn’t the time for new ideas”.. or “Great idea, but will it sell to Enterprise customers?”… or “How are you going to make money?”… or “I don’t get it”.

The brave ones, as they always will, are going take their licks and keep on trying. The lucky brave ones will ultimately ignite a fire that is going to free the rest of us from the mundanity of the corporation where we’ll take the lessons from our last start-up beating and apply them to the new idea.

Jesus, I can’t wait.

I avidly watch the venture capital wire reading who is investing in what and that past year has been Dullsville. Sensible investment targeted at those who actually have money, big business. This is fine. Big business is the backbone of the economy… it provides a safe haven for the risk averse. A majority of the population works in this world and I wish them all the luck in the world. GO MEDIOCRITY! IT PAYS THE BILLS!

Six Apart’s press release from this morning was the first time in months, possibly years, that I felt something resembling a holy shit. Yes, I am biased towards the space as I’m an active participant. Yes, I am a Movablenthusiast. And, yes, it’s about time someone (other than Google) made an aggressive move in the weblog space.

What’s holy shit about this move is it’s blissful optimism. No matter how often weblogs are mentioned in the New York Times, most of the people on the planet Earth with a connection to the Net are still using AOL and have no idea what a weblog is. No one has an idea how big the market will be. All we know is that people generally like to talk and be heard. The small financial vote of confidence in the Trott Team says to me, “Hey, you’ve got idea with merit, you’ve got talent — take a stab at it. We’ll see how it goes.”

Clearly, the rules around start-ups have changed. Investors will take the lessons learned from the financial brutality of the past few years and apply them sensibly to the new breed of start-ups who will be asked to do much more with much less. From all outward appearances, this is exactly what Six Apart is already doing by designing, developing, and marketing a successful product with a two person team.

Whether they’ll make something is still to be seen, but they do have buzz on their side. Weblogging is on the cusp of… something… no one is quite sure what. The simple reason I know this is it’s passed the parent test. One night at dinner at the parent’s place, out of the blue, the Dad asks, “So, what’s a weblog and why do I care?”

Let me explain…