Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Qoop-another web to print/DIY platform--launches
QOOP is now out of beta and announcing partnerships with flickr and buzznet.
Prez Phil Wessels says application plug-ins, developer SDK, sQOOP.com, and QOOPPrint.com are coming soon.
Susan sez:This site is cool.
Prez Phil Wessels says application plug-ins, developer SDK, sQOOP.com, and QOOPPrint.com are coming soon.
Susan sez:This site is cool.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
24 hours of $$ trouble
Ever have a day or two when everything goes wrong?
Welcome to my world.
(Warning: If you don't want to hear me whine, stop reading now).
First, I drop my cell phone and break it.
It will take 3 days to get a replacement and meanwhile the clamshell lid is hanging on by a cord, like a kid's baby tooth.
Next, I bring my car in for brake work and it's (gasp) $900.
They clean some dirt off the ignition coils for free, only it screws up the firing.
Now I have another car problem I have to fix, only I have to drive home to walk my dog so I have to wait to bring it back.
So today I end up on the highway today with the Service engine soon light on.
I call the mechanic and he says to not drive till I can come in, so I turn around and head home, praying I make it.
Those repairs will be another $300.
UGH.
Finally, I'm cleaning my teeth, and I dislodge the temporary crown--and my dentist is way on the other side of town and I hate going there.
Oh, and did I mention my $500 phone bill?
Is there anything else that can break, wear out, or get lost?
Geeze, I pray not.
Welcome to my world.
(Warning: If you don't want to hear me whine, stop reading now).
First, I drop my cell phone and break it.
It will take 3 days to get a replacement and meanwhile the clamshell lid is hanging on by a cord, like a kid's baby tooth.
Next, I bring my car in for brake work and it's (gasp) $900.
They clean some dirt off the ignition coils for free, only it screws up the firing.
Now I have another car problem I have to fix, only I have to drive home to walk my dog so I have to wait to bring it back.
So today I end up on the highway today with the Service engine soon light on.
I call the mechanic and he says to not drive till I can come in, so I turn around and head home, praying I make it.
Those repairs will be another $300.
UGH.
Finally, I'm cleaning my teeth, and I dislodge the temporary crown--and my dentist is way on the other side of town and I hate going there.
Oh, and did I mention my $500 phone bill?
Is there anything else that can break, wear out, or get lost?
Geeze, I pray not.
Bluejake launches Streetsy
NYer Jake Dobkin (Gothamist and Blue Jake) has just launched Streetsy , a Street Art photoblog, sponsored by the Wooster Collective. Programmed by Eliot Shepard (slower.net), Streetsy is powered by Flickr's API and features 2,500 street art photographs from New York, Santiago, Paris and Tokyo.
Also, check out Streetart, aother streetwise photo site.
Also, check out Streetart, aother streetwise photo site.
Katrina: News & authenticity & the Internet
All the Hurricane Katrina coverage is flashing me back to 9/11 when I lived in California but worked at AOL in Dulles, VA.
I was on AOL Campus soon after the planes hit, and while management sent everyone home, I stayed, volunteering to help out folks in the newsrooom who worked 24/7 for the next 4 days.
Cell phone lines were disrupted all over New York, and the message boards we set up to help folks communicate filled up at the rate of 300 posts per hour at peak. There was this sense we were providing a service no other media could fulfill, the same sense Doc Searls and Jeff Jarvis are writing about today (along with some other themes.)
And yet now it's the participants who are covering the devastation of their city without any outside help; the first-hand accounts and home-made video have a power the fly-by press is struggling to match.
The sharing and immediacy are profoundly moving as the 4th wall washes away once more.
Related: Hypergene points to CNN presentation/integration of citizen journalism stories and media on their online news pages.
Update: Andy Carvin writes : I've just set up a new open blog and mobcast on hurricane katrina,
so people affected by the storm can post blog entries via email and
podcasts from their phones. It's like what I did during Christo's Gates
project in Central Park, but a hell of a lot more urgent.
I was on AOL Campus soon after the planes hit, and while management sent everyone home, I stayed, volunteering to help out folks in the newsrooom who worked 24/7 for the next 4 days.
Cell phone lines were disrupted all over New York, and the message boards we set up to help folks communicate filled up at the rate of 300 posts per hour at peak. There was this sense we were providing a service no other media could fulfill, the same sense Doc Searls and Jeff Jarvis are writing about today (along with some other themes.)
And yet now it's the participants who are covering the devastation of their city without any outside help; the first-hand accounts and home-made video have a power the fly-by press is struggling to match.
The sharing and immediacy are profoundly moving as the 4th wall washes away once more.
Related: Hypergene points to CNN presentation/integration of citizen journalism stories and media on their online news pages.
Update: Andy Carvin writes : I've just set up a new open blog and mobcast on hurricane katrina,
so people affected by the storm can post blog entries via email and
podcasts from their phones. It's like what I did during Christo's Gates
project in Central Park, but a hell of a lot more urgent.
Quote of the Day: Trade journalist Paul Conley
"The tools of citizen journalism allow anyone to be a publisher at next-to-no cost. ...we will soon see a slew of standalone, online, B2B publications being run by recently retired journalists. Those folks who have been working in your newsroom for 10, 20 or 30 years will no longer have to surrender a lifetime of industry knowledge when they walk out your door. "
--Blogger and trade journalist Paul Conley
--Blogger and trade journalist Paul Conley
Dell PR: Rubel nails it
Maybe one of my favorite posts ever from the lovely Steve Rubel on Dell and the Jarvis thing and the BizWeek piece in the bloghouse.
Steve says:
To my friends at Dell, here's some free advice that can help you turn this around. You are now passed the point of no return. Dell needs to act now. Here are just three of the steps you might want to take to re-build your credibility with bloggers ...more at Micropersuasion.
Steve says:
To my friends at Dell, here's some free advice that can help you turn this around. You are now passed the point of no return. Dell needs to act now. Here are just three of the steps you might want to take to re-build your credibility with bloggers ...more at Micropersuasion.
Craig Newmark: "Once you are financially comfortable, what?s the point of more money?"
Times Online (UK) covers Craigslist and Craig and says the site is worth more than $60MM and that it brings in $10MM+ a year.
Best graph is the quote from Craig: "Sometimes I wince about the amount of money I have walked away from. I guess it's many, many millions. I'm not being pious about this, but I do have an idea about what's important. Once you are financially comfortable, what's the point of more money?"
P.S. Craig's foundation is sponsoring a bootcamp for nonprofits in San Francisco on October 8th--if you are around, why not volunteer to help? I am.
Best graph is the quote from Craig: "Sometimes I wince about the amount of money I have walked away from. I guess it's many, many millions. I'm not being pious about this, but I do have an idea about what's important. Once you are financially comfortable, what's the point of more money?"
P.S. Craig's foundation is sponsoring a bootcamp for nonprofits in San Francisco on October 8th--if you are around, why not volunteer to help? I am.
Noted, misc.
Paul Graham: How to start a company--the right way.
NYTimes: Cooking Light has supper club meet ups based on published recipes.
TheColumbiaRecord.com: Knight Ridder paper launches new site, community publishing push (Via E&P).
Terry Teachout: Live from katerina--Arts blogger becomes storm media resource--and explains how it happened.
NYTimes: Cooking Light has supper club meet ups based on published recipes.
TheColumbiaRecord.com: Knight Ridder paper launches new site, community publishing push (Via E&P).
Terry Teachout: Live from katerina--Arts blogger becomes storm media resource--and explains how it happened.
Tom Coates: Tagging (digital) radio and Web 2.0
Tom Coates has a fascinating post on an "experimental internal-BBC-only project designed to allow users to bookmark, tag and rate songs they hear on the radio using their mobile phone." I heard Coates and company present at eTech on some nifty user-driven programs they ran on the radio station, and this is more like that.
Coates is dead on when he writes:
"The next push is the archive - decades of programming coming online, lost films recovered, libraries being digitised. But the scale of even this content is dwarfed by the third push into the world of the amateurised content-creator, where potentially billions of people are putting information and media out into the world as a matter of course.
The most substantial challenge to technology creators, media creators and distributors is - then - to find ways of making this enormous and every-growing repository navigable and sensible to real people."
and
"There's also one more major challenge. Current media distributors and large-scale media creators are going to find themselves suddenly operating in a market of peer creators, where hundreds of people can create and interact and respond to the media around them."
The money shot--tagging allows music to surface. --One last quote:
"he peer benefit is in music discovery and navigation. There's an incredible amount of new music being produced all the time. Our increased access to it means - in principle - that we should be able to find music that we felt more appropriately suited us, but the sheer volume makes it hard to explore. With a service like phonetags, an individual can start exploring music by axes of quality, or by keywords or by discovering people with similar tastes to themselves. And it gets updated in pretty much real-time."
Nice work, Tom.
Coates is dead on when he writes:
"The next push is the archive - decades of programming coming online, lost films recovered, libraries being digitised. But the scale of even this content is dwarfed by the third push into the world of the amateurised content-creator, where potentially billions of people are putting information and media out into the world as a matter of course.
The most substantial challenge to technology creators, media creators and distributors is - then - to find ways of making this enormous and every-growing repository navigable and sensible to real people."
and
"There's also one more major challenge. Current media distributors and large-scale media creators are going to find themselves suddenly operating in a market of peer creators, where hundreds of people can create and interact and respond to the media around them."
The money shot--tagging allows music to surface. --One last quote:
"he peer benefit is in music discovery and navigation. There's an incredible amount of new music being produced all the time. Our increased access to it means - in principle - that we should be able to find music that we felt more appropriately suited us, but the sheer volume makes it hard to explore. With a service like phonetags, an individual can start exploring music by axes of quality, or by keywords or by discovering people with similar tastes to themselves. And it gets updated in pretty much real-time."
Nice work, Tom.
Friday, August 26, 2005
Community Publishing: Bakotopia 2 goes into beta release
The new Bakotopia's just gone into beta release and developer Dan Pacheo has the scoop.
I've played with it a bit and love the identity/profile features.
Dan writes:
"This next version is even more about persona. It has several types of user profile ratings (including the ability to rate bands based on how many beers they're worth to you), profile guestbooks, and a liberal sprinkling of user profiles throughout the site. In addition, if you have a profile photo and you sign on, your profile pic shows up right on the home page, as well as right alongside anything you post and in sidebars."
How cool is that?
When it comes to community publishing, the Bakersfield folks continue to delight.
I've played with it a bit and love the identity/profile features.
Dan writes:
"This next version is even more about persona. It has several types of user profile ratings (including the ability to rate bands based on how many beers they're worth to you), profile guestbooks, and a liberal sprinkling of user profiles throughout the site. In addition, if you have a profile photo and you sign on, your profile pic shows up right on the home page, as well as right alongside anything you post and in sidebars."
How cool is that?
When it comes to community publishing, the Bakersfield folks continue to delight.
51% of all US journos read blogs, 1% say they're credible
Editors' Weblog: "According to the latest Annual Euro RSCG Magnet and Columbia University Survey of the Media, 51% of journalists, combared to 11% of all US internet users (according to eWeek), are using weblogs regularly and 28% rely on them for their daily reporting. By contrast, only 1% of journalists believe in their credibility."
Susan sez: This says something to me about why main stream media is disconnected and screwed up. We know not all 5 million bloggers are trying to be accurate--we know they're not--so doesn't that make the journos behavior and belief rather conflicted?
Or maybe it just proves all these studies are ridiculous.
Susan sez: This says something to me about why main stream media is disconnected and screwed up. We know not all 5 million bloggers are trying to be accurate--we know they're not--so doesn't that make the journos behavior and belief rather conflicted?
Or maybe it just proves all these studies are ridiculous.
Noted: Citizen journalism and participatory media
Chris Waddle, Anniston Star, Choose one future for citizen journalism: "Bloggers can be as outrageous as they want to be and amass readers with similar viewpoints or jettison opponents without the economic consequences a newspaper endures....Why do they blog? Eighty percent say information they want is not available anywhere else."
Samantha Henig, Columbia Journalism Review: "Just because citizens have a new way of recording and transmitting that fodder hardly means that it's time to call them journalists." (Susan says: Huh, does anyone besides CJR still want to call bloggers journos? --Nah.)
Jim Moore's Journal: Reporting on systems evolving : "There is a new, global DIY do-it-yourself revolution happening. My new favorite magazine is Make, which is a wonderfully screwball journal of hacks...We are planting and cultivating a new open ecology of web superservices. Or perhaps we are joining together to build a Metaverse in Stephenson's sense. In any case, expanding participation is rule number one of our new world."
Samantha Henig, Columbia Journalism Review: "Just because citizens have a new way of recording and transmitting that fodder hardly means that it's time to call them journalists." (Susan says: Huh, does anyone besides CJR still want to call bloggers journos? --Nah.)
Jim Moore's Journal: Reporting on systems evolving : "There is a new, global DIY do-it-yourself revolution happening. My new favorite magazine is Make, which is a wonderfully screwball journal of hacks...We are planting and cultivating a new open ecology of web superservices. Or perhaps we are joining together to build a Metaverse in Stephenson's sense. In any case, expanding participation is rule number one of our new world."
My Romance: Cousin Billy does it again
My cousin Bill has been blogging and has a delicious story about a 6,000 mile trip to meet a woman happening over at Living the Romantic Comedy.
A snippet:
"...But I realize now that in addition to my bag, I'’ve brought a companion, who sniffs at the air like an eager dog, gazes rapturously at the bright sunlight beckoning from beyond the terminal doors. Like it or not, it's really the two of us that have come to Amsterdam: there's me, and My Romance. I'’m a little buzzed but yawning, while My Romance is on pins and needles, primed for surprise and passion. I'’m merely hoping Michelle shows up, after all. But My Romance is praying she's not too tall for me, that she might fit, you know, just right…"
More, Billy, more!
A snippet:
"...But I realize now that in addition to my bag, I'’ve brought a companion, who sniffs at the air like an eager dog, gazes rapturously at the bright sunlight beckoning from beyond the terminal doors. Like it or not, it's really the two of us that have come to Amsterdam: there's me, and My Romance. I'’m a little buzzed but yawning, while My Romance is on pins and needles, primed for surprise and passion. I'’m merely hoping Michelle shows up, after all. But My Romance is praying she's not too tall for me, that she might fit, you know, just right…"
More, Billy, more!
Thursday, August 25, 2005
AOL--Top news destination
Paid Content: "While the unique audience of AOL News is about 29% smaller than Yahoo News, AOL News is more than 2.4 times larger than Google News and almost 6.8 times larger than Topix.net." Story here.
Greg Jarboe says this moves AOL news into the top ranks--but AOL News has always been huge--now it's getting bigger.
Greg Jarboe says this moves AOL news into the top ranks--but AOL News has always been huge--now it's getting bigger.
WOW does it again
(Some) Upcoming events I plan to be at
A partial list of some cool stuff happening--
Sept 6th, Emeryville, CA, eBIG --Mary Hodder leads a discussion on measuring the blogosphere
Sept. 20, UC Berkeley, CA, MGM vs. Grokster: Denise Howell, Hank Barry Greg Beattie debate
Sept 24-25, SF, CA, Webzine --this is going to be fun
October 4-5 NY, NY, ,We Media: Behold the power of us, great conference!
October 17-18, NY., NY BlogOn--Chris Shipley and team make it happen again--I am moderating a panel--more tk.
Also thinking about Web2.0--my friend Richard MacManus is coming in from NZ, which will be great, but it means flying back fast from NYC.
Sept 6th, Emeryville, CA, eBIG --Mary Hodder leads a discussion on measuring the blogosphere
Sept. 20, UC Berkeley, CA, MGM vs. Grokster: Denise Howell, Hank Barry Greg Beattie debate
Sept 24-25, SF, CA, Webzine --this is going to be fun
October 4-5 NY, NY, ,We Media: Behold the power of us, great conference!
October 17-18, NY., NY BlogOn--Chris Shipley and team make it happen again--I am moderating a panel--more tk.
Also thinking about Web2.0--my friend Richard MacManus is coming in from NZ, which will be great, but it means flying back fast from NYC.
Eating at the beach
Saturday night, my friends Jill, Gab and I cooked up a feast. Here's what we made ourselves--
Grilled fresh corn with chili-lime butter
Chopped heirloom tomato salad with scallion and fresh mint
Barbequed soft shell crabs
Grilled bockwurst
We drank a nice South American red wine called Malbeck (?) and finished off the meal with chilled red flame grapes, home-made brownies, and Dreyer's mint chocolate chip ice creamWednesday, August 24, 2005
I'm baack
The beach was a pleasure, taking real vacation felt great, and now I am back and feeling renewed. Grrr.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Yep, life's a beach (for the moment)
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Gone fishin: Back August 25th
Yep ,I am taking a vacation.
Going to be at the beach for the next 3 days and blissfully offline.
Have a wonderful time--talk to you later.
Going to be at the beach for the next 3 days and blissfully offline.
Have a wonderful time--talk to you later.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Did you know? (NSFW)
Amazon sells sex toys!
Who knew?
(If I click around, this is going to have a stimulating effect on my recommendations list..hhmmnn)
(Via herdesires)
Who knew?
(If I click around, this is going to have a stimulating effect on my recommendations list..hhmmnn)
(Via herdesires)
Martin Geddes: How I read news
This post about how one blogger reads--and discovers--news --caught my attention:
"...My browsing pattern could be characterised as 'bimodal': graze mode and discover mode. You could think of this as 'I don't know what I want' and 'I know what I want' modes.
(snip)
I rarely start any such grazing journey at traditional big media news sites. I use the blogosphere as my filter. If it hasn't been linked to, it probably isn't that interesting.."
"...My browsing pattern could be characterised as 'bimodal': graze mode and discover mode. You could think of this as 'I don't know what I want' and 'I know what I want' modes.
(snip)
I rarely start any such grazing journey at traditional big media news sites. I use the blogosphere as my filter. If it hasn't been linked to, it probably isn't that interesting.."
Noted
Richard MacManus: A through round-up on how the web's evolving into a platform--and why it matters.
eMarketer: Online newspapers ad revenue rises--but still lags behind the portals.
Kottke switches: Bye bye Technorati, hello PubSub.
Chris Pirillo: Ten reasons why all top ten lists suck.
Blogbridge ships their new release--one key feature is building feeds via Flickr, del.icio.us, Findory, Feedster, etc.
eMarketer: Online newspapers ad revenue rises--but still lags behind the portals.
Kottke switches: Bye bye Technorati, hello PubSub.
Chris Pirillo: Ten reasons why all top ten lists suck.
Blogbridge ships their new release--one key feature is building feeds via Flickr, del.icio.us, Findory, Feedster, etc.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
ISO: Wordpress developer
5ive has a client who's looking to put up a Wordpress blog ASAP--and we're interested in hearing from Bay area and West coast developers who could help make this happen fairly quickly.
We'd like to hear from some experienced folks--the blog will need to synch/integrate with some existing systems.
If you are interested, please email me with info, previous work, rates, recommendations etc.
Be fault-tolerant and experienced, please.
We'd like to hear from some experienced folks--the blog will need to synch/integrate with some existing systems.
If you are interested, please email me with info, previous work, rates, recommendations etc.
Be fault-tolerant and experienced, please.
Flying to NY today
Flying to NY today..light posting till the insomnia kicks in tonight.
Best quote of the morning from Mary Hodder, who got an IM that said:
Bad time - @ wedding drunk
Best quote of the morning from Mary Hodder, who got an IM that said:
Bad time - @ wedding drunk
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Quote of the Day: We're moving from ad-driven to customer-supported media
"During the past five years...we have seen a gradual shift of time spent away from advertising-based to consumer-supported media, as well as a steady transfer of spending away from traditional to new media advertising. We expect the underlying trends driving this industry-wide transformation, such as consumer empowerment, accelerating audience fragmentation and the increasing need for stronger ROI measurements, to continue and drive accelerated growth in all four industry sectors as more sophisticated purchasing plans, which utilize a variety of conventional and alternative media outlets, become necessary."
--James P. Rutherfurd, Executive Vice President of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, 19th annual Communications Industry Forecast
--James P. Rutherfurd, Executive Vice President of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, 19th annual Communications Industry Forecast
Monday, August 15, 2005
Feedster 500: What linky love looks like
Feedster's launched a new monthly list of the top 500 blogs, based on "a ranking of the blogs with the most inbound links over time, " blogs with posts in the last seven days" and the removal of feed-driven aggregator sites.
No blogspot or live journal blogs. Waahh.
Some surprises--their top 5 range from Engadget to deviantART.com, to BoingBoing to Albino Blacksheep, DailyKos and Now Public.
The list is surprising-but should make for interesting reading. In light of all the current discussions about lists, it's amusing to get this new one--but refreshing that it seems to have a (slightly) different squew.
No blogspot or live journal blogs. Waahh.
Some surprises--their top 5 range from Engadget to deviantART.com, to BoingBoing to Albino Blacksheep, DailyKos and Now Public.
The list is surprising-but should make for interesting reading. In light of all the current discussions about lists, it's amusing to get this new one--but refreshing that it seems to have a (slightly) different squew.
Maybe this is the moment that a new journalism can find its way
Jay Rosen's writing about how the passion's gone out of J-school for lots of the students--students who no longer want to be journalists. His post is amazing and powerful and eloquent, but I wonder of J-schools running out of gas is such a bad thing--
If the mantra is grow or die, and J-schools are dying, does that mean they are not growing?
Jay writes: "What I have lately been trying to say to my colleagues in J-school is clearer to me now, after the panel in San Antonio. Here is what I believe. The official religion has run out of gas. The tribes that are out there chasing Pulitzers and Duponts (plus market share, advertisers and ratings) do not know what to believe about themselves, their future, or their present value in the world."
Maybe this is the moment that a new journalism can find its way, one driven as much by search results and link laws as by craft.
Maybe craft is something more of us can learn to own.
Maybe we need to admit the world is pressing re-start and that's going to be okay.
Update: Thoughtful comments from Mark on Media.
If the mantra is grow or die, and J-schools are dying, does that mean they are not growing?
Jay writes: "What I have lately been trying to say to my colleagues in J-school is clearer to me now, after the panel in San Antonio. Here is what I believe. The official religion has run out of gas. The tribes that are out there chasing Pulitzers and Duponts (plus market share, advertisers and ratings) do not know what to believe about themselves, their future, or their present value in the world."
Maybe this is the moment that a new journalism can find its way, one driven as much by search results and link laws as by craft.
Maybe craft is something more of us can learn to own.
Maybe we need to admit the world is pressing re-start and that's going to be okay.
Update: Thoughtful comments from Mark on Media.
Michael Parekh: Smarter ways to sell paid content
Michael Parekh's got a tremendous post on how vendors of business intelligence, analytical reports, investment analyses, etc. might create a better user experience--and sell more product--by adopting some of the ways of Web 2.0. Specifically, Parekh suggests vendors:
Me like.
- Allow users to rate studies offered for sale if they've been paying customers.
- Allow comments on the various reports from all users.
- Sort all the reports at least by some of the variables mentioned above.
- Allow users to tag the reports.
Me like.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
AOL UK: Employee survey gives programming org an F
Journalism UK has a story about a leaked AOL UK memo on employee morale--not only are people leaving, but those in residence are dissatisfied. Furthermore, the news articles says that the results of the survey for the UK content team were "worse than any other department at AOL."
Some data points:
Some data points:
- 62 per cent of staff said they do not trust management.
- 40 per cent of staff in the content department said they would not recommend AOL as an employer.
- 33 per cent would recommend AOL's own services as an internet service provider. The results were worse than any other department at AOL.
- 1 in 5 staff said they believed pay matched performance.
- Less than 25% felt managers were helping staff to improve their performance.
- 40 per cent of staff in the content department said they would not recommend AOL as an employer.
Noted
Ben Hammersley: "Podcast", the word that I first coined, has just been entered into the OED.
Creative Commons: 53 million pages licensed.
Adaptive Path: Interview with Eric Costello on how flickr got to look so cool.
Amazon: Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl on her new book, Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise. (Via Megnut)
Richard MacManus: If you'd like to hire a smart, focused, analytical Web 2.0/RSS/Social Media dude for your blog network - send me an email.
Anil Dash: I left NY a year ago--and I've been blogging here for six years. Congrats.
Creative Commons: 53 million pages licensed.
Adaptive Path: Interview with Eric Costello on how flickr got to look so cool.
Amazon: Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl on her new book, Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise. (Via Megnut)
Richard MacManus: If you'd like to hire a smart, focused, analytical Web 2.0/RSS/Social Media dude for your blog network - send me an email.
Anil Dash: I left NY a year ago--and I've been blogging here for six years. Congrats.
Young Mahattanite: Portrait of Krucoff as a Young Curmudgeon
Enjoying the recent posts about women's magazines and the relative *objectivity* of the new ComScore blogging study at Andrew Krucoff's Young Manhattanite---every time I get a little too West Coast emerging tech kumbaya, this media/magazine snark stuff(uh, I mean pointed commentary) drags me right back to the (curmudgeonly) center.
(Krucoff is a busy guy: he's got Krucoff.com and blottered, as well as YM--and used to run theotherpage, a personal favorite.)
(Update: Smack me, I can't spell. Sorry...fixed now.)
(Krucoff is a busy guy: he's got Krucoff.com and blottered, as well as YM--and used to run theotherpage, a personal favorite.)
(Update: Smack me, I can't spell. Sorry...fixed now.)
Hot rumor: Technorati is about to be sold--not
A buzzing rumor that Technorati is about to be sold.
Is T for sale?
Isn't every start up--for the right price, that is.
Are they about to be bought?
A very interesting question--but given the pace of recent sales, it seems as likely as anything.
(Via Marc)
Update: Latest word-- this is an untrue rumor, not reliable.
Very cool tracking of how this rumor started over at DataMining.
Is T for sale?
Isn't every start up--for the right price, that is.
Are they about to be bought?
A very interesting question--but given the pace of recent sales, it seems as likely as anything.
(Via Marc)
Update: Latest word-- this is an untrue rumor, not reliable.
Very cool tracking of how this rumor started over at DataMining.
Friday, August 12, 2005
China Media Watch, again
From Global Voices: Bokee.com, formerly known as Blogchina, is the largest Blog Service Provider in China, with 2 million blog accounts. However some Chinese bloggers have been very critical of what Bokee did and the word 'Boke', Chinese translation of 'Blog', which Bokee has been trying to promote, was a highly controversial term in Chinese Blogosphere. It's quite impossible to understand the culture of Chinese blogosphere without mentioning the argumentation concerned with Bokee. (More here.)
People's Daily Online: "China printed 98.6 million copies of daily newspapers a day in 2004, the largest circulation in the world, and newspapers has become one of China's fastest growing industries, according to a report issued by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP)."
In other words, last year, China's daily newspapers accounted for 14.5 percent of the world's total, which means China owns one in every seven dailies in the world. --The total sales value of China's daily newspapers last year amounted to 25.3 billion yuan (3.1 billion US dollars), accounting for 0.19 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
People's Daily Online: "China printed 98.6 million copies of daily newspapers a day in 2004, the largest circulation in the world, and newspapers has become one of China's fastest growing industries, according to a report issued by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP)."
In other words, last year, China's daily newspapers accounted for 14.5 percent of the world's total, which means China owns one in every seven dailies in the world. --The total sales value of China's daily newspapers last year amounted to 25.3 billion yuan (3.1 billion US dollars), accounting for 0.19 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Quote of the day: Nick Denton's readers are thin
No love lost between blog publishers Nick Denton and Jason Calcanis,who amuse the rest of us by stepping back from their quests for world domination to bitch-slap one another every so often. (It's entertaining.)
The latest from Lord Denton: "I know it galls Jason Calacanis that his sites are about as memorable as Burger King franchises, and that none register among the top blogs, except Pete Rojas's Engadget. But Jason Calacanis misses the big picture. The study finally provides evidence for what we've all hoped for: that blog readers are younger and richer than average, and, one hopes, thinner."
Quote of the Day: Donald Trump, blogger
"The glamour and grandeur of my buildings and my life are no mere trappings. Beauty and elegance, whether in a woman or a work of art, is not something superficial, not just something pretty to look at. It's a product of style, and it comes from deep inside."
--Donald Trump, blogger and man of style
--Donald Trump, blogger and man of style
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Howard Owens to move to VP, Bakersfield
Howard Owens, Director of New Media for the Ventura County Star / E.W. Scripps Co. just announced that he is leaving the Star to become vice president of interactive for the Bakersfield Californian.
Howard says: I'll have increased freedom to pursue innovation, especially in key areas of participatory journalism, deep content and new revenue ideas. As you know, Bakersfield is a leader in innovative new media, but most of those experiments have taken place outside of the core news business. I've been hired to concentrate on that core business and grow both audience and revenue."
Susan sez: I always thought Howard would move into a larger paper, in a larger market--instead, he's going smaller, probably because he appreciates the chance to have strong impact--and accountability.
BayCHI: Web 2.0 talk, and then some
Went to a BayCHI event last night with an interaction designer friend--Sifry, Butterfield, Paul Rademacher, HousingMaps andThomas Vander Wal, PersonalInfoCloud.com were talking about Web 2.0 and what that means in their word(s).
Audience was packed, many said they were bloggers, only a few of the usual suspects in the audience--and they got kudos for coming down the Peninsula.
More blog posts on the evening here.
P.S. A side note involving food nd burning the candle at both ends::
I was so tired, I left during the Q&A (mainly because I kept falling asleep, and ugh, snoring).
Somehow an hour later there were four emerging tech people at my house, for whom I poured red wine and served olives with rosemary, chevre, manchengo, and oregon blue, along with some herb bread, crackers and veggie spring rolls--followed by al dente linguini with garlic, herbs and oil.
A good time was had by all--till I had to get up at 6:15 this morning.
Audience was packed, many said they were bloggers, only a few of the usual suspects in the audience--and they got kudos for coming down the Peninsula.
More blog posts on the evening here.
P.S. A side note involving food nd burning the candle at both ends::
I was so tired, I left during the Q&A (mainly because I kept falling asleep, and ugh, snoring).
Somehow an hour later there were four emerging tech people at my house, for whom I poured red wine and served olives with rosemary, chevre, manchengo, and oregon blue, along with some herb bread, crackers and veggie spring rolls--followed by al dente linguini with garlic, herbs and oil.
A good time was had by all--till I had to get up at 6:15 this morning.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Quote of the day: 9/11 & the move to We Media
"September 11 marked an important date in the history of how people got information when a major news event happened, In the wake of the attacks, more people increasingly sought - and shared - information on the Internet. Do-it-yourself journalism became more popular on the Web, while Americans helped cope with the crisis by posting their own reactions - and reading those of others - on both mainstream and non-mainstream media sites.'Four years later, there are even more sources [of information] and even more familiarity with the variety of sources that exist, and in that four-year time period, there has been an explosion of media production tools in the hands of people.''
--Rich Gordon, director of the new media program at
Mary Hodder's Must Read Rules
Mary Hodder's one of those people whose thoughtful nature prompts her to ask probing questions, often in a very gentle voice.
In addition to the great work she's done recently creating Speaker's Wiki for potential speakers post BlogHer, Mary's put a ton of thought--and research time--into a series of posts that are all worth a read, even if it means printing them out and carrying them around.
The line-up:
- Link Love Lost or How Social Gestures within Topic Groups are More Interesting Than Link Counts: a research--and nuanced--account of how influence and networks can be measured along with page rank to check a blog's influence.
- A piece on keyword search and the blogosphere--specifically a Comparison of How Some Blog Aggregation and RSS Search Tools Work for Keyword Search with a KeyWord Search Comparison Chart.
- And the amazingly detailed and useful piece that is a "Comparison of How Some Blog Aggregation and RSS Search Tools Work," with a related PDF file of comparison of how Blog search works.
Sample Mary quote 1: "For many bloggers the relevant sphere of influence is not overall popularity, as those indexes express. It's influence and connection within a community. And the relevant measure of connection isn't the number of connections -- it's the depth and impact of those connections. This is about celebrating the niche, and measuring engagement over time."
Dig in and read the rest...Mary's got stuff to say, so if you are not reading her, you should give a look.
PS: As you can tell from her post titles,Mary's also got an appreciation of 18th century literature.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Quote of the day: The future of the American newspaper will be defined online
"News executives need to quickly mobilize around what are today their secondary platforms, at least measured in terms of where, currently, their largest revenue opportunities exist. In other words, even if the daily newspaper industry's advertising revenue dwarfs its Internet business, the future of the American newspaper will be defined online... the news industry should recognize the importance of what's going on in places like Bakersfield and work hand-in-hand with bloggers and other independent journalists and citizens to experiment with the formation of new alliances and the development of new products."
--Merrill Brown, Abandoning the News, Carnegie Foundation report, April 2005.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
We Media: Behold the Power of Us
Proud to be one of the speakers at October 5th's exciting NYC-based conference, WE MEDIA: Behold the power of us.
There's a compelling list of speakers and some great topics.
I'll be managing a session on Culture, Politics and Buzz with Wonkette, Farai Chideya, Founder, of PopandPolitics.com and Dominik von Jan, Director, NextNextBigThing.
As always, the Media Center is giving away some fellowships for the event.
There's a compelling list of speakers and some great topics.
I'll be managing a session on Culture, Politics and Buzz with Wonkette, Farai Chideya, Founder, of PopandPolitics.com and Dominik von Jan, Director, NextNextBigThing.
As always, the Media Center is giving away some fellowships for the event.
Internet media coverage: What should Matt be reading?
Matt MacAllister: "I wish somebody would launch a media brand that covered the Internet business for people in the Internet business. I've bet my career on this industry, and it would be really nice if there was a brand that stood independently in the middle of it, reported on it with intelligence and depth and integrity, and helped facilitate dialog amongst us all."
Hey--So, what could/should Matt be reading?
Hey--So, what could/should Matt be reading?
Renee B: The fashion of women bloggers
Fun post from Renee Blodgett who took style pix at BlogHer and posted a whole bunch here.
Quirky.
Update: Beth shot BlogHer shoes. More sweet style pix.
Quote of the Day: My blog has become my social network
"My blog has become my social network today. Through the magical connections I have made, I can 'select' to surround myself with people who stimulate me in so many ways, and fill my space, even if they live thousands of miles away. Earlier, my social interactions were more 'prescribed', governed by familial ties and restricted to a set of habitual relationships. Today I can connect with people all over the world, select my friends and community - and that is so utterly powerful. I truly feel that I don't just live in India, that I have family all over the world."
--Dina Mehta, Conversations with Dina
--Dina Mehta, Conversations with Dina
Staci Kramer: What to read right now
Staci Kramer's one busy journalist.
In addition to being exec editor at Paid Content, she writes for OJR and just started Trust and Verify, a new blog.
Read her story on BlogHer for OJR--and add her blog to your newsreader--I did.
In addition to being exec editor at Paid Content, she writes for OJR and just started Trust and Verify, a new blog.
Read her story on BlogHer for OJR--and add her blog to your newsreader--I did.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Attention Trust: What's the business?
Nick Bradbury and Dare Obasano have provocative posts about the potential business--and privacy--issues behind the newly announced AttentionTrust.org non-profit.
The short version would be that there's both a rich commercial potential for aggregating and selling off info on an individual's attention--isn't that much of your identity?--and an echo of Microsoft's Hailstorm, which--Dare quotes:
"HailStorm" is designed to place individuals at the center of their computing experience and take control over the technology in their lives and better protect the privacy of their personal information. "HailStorm" services will allow unprecedented collaboration and integration between the users' devices, their software and their personal data. With "HailStorm", users will have even greater and more specific control over what people, businesses and technologies have access to their personal information."
In other words, what's the frequency, Kenneth?
Will users' data be protected--or ultimately shared? Now that we're at the beginning of this exciting new organization it's critical to separate ou the non-commercial aspects from the business potential-and be scrupulous about both. (Lecture over.)
More from Kevin Burton, who has a neat new blog.
Related: Danah Boyd--Privacy is a privilege.
The short version would be that there's both a rich commercial potential for aggregating and selling off info on an individual's attention--isn't that much of your identity?--and an echo of Microsoft's Hailstorm, which--Dare quotes:
"HailStorm" is designed to place individuals at the center of their computing experience and take control over the technology in their lives and better protect the privacy of their personal information. "HailStorm" services will allow unprecedented collaboration and integration between the users' devices, their software and their personal data. With "HailStorm", users will have even greater and more specific control over what people, businesses and technologies have access to their personal information."
In other words, what's the frequency, Kenneth?
Will users' data be protected--or ultimately shared? Now that we're at the beginning of this exciting new organization it's critical to separate ou the non-commercial aspects from the business potential-and be scrupulous about both. (Lecture over.)
More from Kevin Burton, who has a neat new blog.
Related: Danah Boyd--Privacy is a privilege.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Quote of the day: Will blogs burn out?
"An independent blogger's greatest asset, besides wit, energy, bravery, and doggedness, is sincerity. We read them to hear a credible independent voice -- not the shills of a corporation, lobbying group, a government agency, or a party. But now it seems that every auto company, PR firm, and politician is taking up blogging -- to sell us the same old pitches in a sleek new package. "
--David D. Perlmutter, E &P
--David D. Perlmutter, E &P
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Big Media: Piling onto the blogging bubble?
Enjoy Matt Welch's acerbic, accurate commentary on how big media forces are piling on the blogging bubble.
A snarky-- but shrewd-- snippet on pile-on Queen Adriana Huffington:
"Besides celebrity bandwagon jumpers, Huffington is bringing to the scrappy blogosphere three hallmarks of a bubble mentality: media hype, staffing bloat (including offices on both coasts), and actual investment capital. Her financial partner, fittingly, is Kenneth Lerer, a former executive vice president of the Internet boomÂ’s last great hurrah, the company formerly known as AOL Time Warner. (After Nasdaq collapsed within months of that merger, the companyÂ’s stock tanked, and now it is once again known as Time Warner. America Online has been demoted to a subset.)"
More side-splitting humor here.
(Via Steve Rubel)
A snarky-- but shrewd-- snippet on pile-on Queen Adriana Huffington:
"Besides celebrity bandwagon jumpers, Huffington is bringing to the scrappy blogosphere three hallmarks of a bubble mentality: media hype, staffing bloat (including offices on both coasts), and actual investment capital. Her financial partner, fittingly, is Kenneth Lerer, a former executive vice president of the Internet boomÂ’s last great hurrah, the company formerly known as AOL Time Warner. (After Nasdaq collapsed within months of that merger, the companyÂ’s stock tanked, and now it is once again known as Time Warner. America Online has been demoted to a subset.)"
More side-splitting humor here.
(Via Steve Rubel)
China Media Watch
Editor's Weblog: 'According to China Knowledge Press, the Hangzhou Daily Press Group now has over 10,000 subscribers to its mobile phone newspaper service launched in January."
Digitimes: China's mobile phone subscribers top 363 million.
The Register: "Chinese cyber-dissidentZhang Lin has been jailed for five years for posting essays and reports - including the lyrics of a punk song - on the net."
Update: Feedburner teams with Bokee, formerly BlogChina--this is big news!
Digitimes: China's mobile phone subscribers top 363 million.
The Register: "Chinese cyber-dissidentZhang Lin has been jailed for five years for posting essays and reports - including the lyrics of a punk song - on the net."
Update: Feedburner teams with Bokee, formerly BlogChina--this is big news!
The old dogs get the new gigs
As the Top 100 and Top 10 blog memes whiz by my head (thanks Steve and Jeff!), my own attention has been captured by another of the moment phenomenon: the ascendency of a number of seasoned web news hands (or hounds) into positions of portal power.
Yahoo News's acquisition of Neil Budde, ScottMoore, and Elizabeth Osder brings three experienced newshounds, working online since the mid/early 90s into key slots; WaPo's got AOL vet Jim Brady, NYTimes is relying on the venerable Jarvis, and so on. Experienced heads keep popping into key positions in a way that is interesting to watch--and for many, there's the glee of I'm back! and feeling suddenly hot.
Yahoo News's acquisition of Neil Budde, ScottMoore, and Elizabeth Osder brings three experienced newshounds, working online since the mid/early 90s into key slots; WaPo's got AOL vet Jim Brady, NYTimes is relying on the venerable Jarvis, and so on. Experienced heads keep popping into key positions in a way that is interesting to watch--and for many, there's the glee of I'm back! and feeling suddenly hot.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Ecommerce Watch: MSN Shopping relaunch
Searchviews interviews MSN Shopping's Chris Jolley.
Related notes on rollout of the new platform here.
Product highlights: RSS feeds, improved search.
Related notes on rollout of the new platform here.
Product highlights: RSS feeds, improved search.
Noted: Bloggers
Richard MacManus has a great post about blogging--and analytic--(younger) talent in Blogland--He's got a good set of names there--He mentions "Phil Pearson, Charlie Wood, Anastasia Goodstein, Lilia Efimova, Andy Baio, The TechCrunch Crew, Charles Coxhead, Tim Yang, Dina Mehta, Alex Barnett, Josh Porter, Tom Coates, Janet Tokerud, Lucas Gonze... " all with blogs well worth following.
Sage Osterfeld at BluntId's got alot to say--I'll be checking him out this week.
Jason Looney offers Jason Kottke and other A-listers snack cakes in exchange for links--is there a theme emerging?
Lisa Williams: California the Day After BlogHer. This little movie is so funny!
Update: Sifry's new State of the Blogosphere note from Technorati
Sage Osterfeld at BluntId's got alot to say--I'll be checking him out this week.
Jason Looney offers Jason Kottke and other A-listers snack cakes in exchange for links--is there a theme emerging?
Lisa Williams: California the Day After BlogHer. This little movie is so funny!
Update: Sifry's new State of the Blogosphere note from Technorati
