January 2008
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The personal platform
It’s a huge stretch to think about society, and about business, from the perspective of the independently empowered individual. In business, and even in government, we are so accustomed to thinking about people as dependents, and to seeing their abilities in terms of what we as institutions allow, that it’s difficult to switch our perspective Continue reading
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Snow ‘nuf
The link behind that picture leads to a small set of shots I took with my new little inexpensive Canon pocket camera (with a name like a license plate, so I don’t remember it). Takes some getting used to, but I like it. One of the pleasant discoveries I’ve made since moving (at least temporarily) Continue reading
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On two story businesses
“Stories vs. Facts” was the first headline I thought up for the column that became Journalism in a world of open code and open self-education, in Linux Journal. It’s a thinky piece, but that’s what can happen when journalists hang out in a place like the Berkman Center, where we did a lot of thinking Continue reading
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Life Imitates Onion
Or, Times Imitates Onion. Or so I thought when I saw the headline, Slashdot Founder Questions Crowd’s Wisdom. It’s great PR for Idle.Slashdot.org. Times sez, The new site, which is currently in testing mode, is clearly aimed at taking some audience away from weird-news-of-the-day sites like Digg and Fark.com. Continue reading
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Modeling conferences
In asking Are Journalism Conferences Worth It? Lisa Williams offers Bloggercon, Gnomedex and Blogher as examples of success. (I agree.) Of course she could have said “Are _________ Conferences Worth It?” without singling out journalism. But since we’re there, lets. I start, as is my occasional custom, with Tony Pierce, whose blog bears the legend Continue reading
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When “bottom-up” means “pants down”
That headline just fell out of a conversation between Dr. Weinberger and myself as way of characterizing astroturf — fake grass-roots — campaigns. Continue reading
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Conversation convocation
I’ll be at There’s a New Conversation, in New York, on the evening afternoon of Feb 13. Subtitled, Cluetrain Manifesto – 10 years later. Numbers aren’t really ages, of course. While Cluetrain hit the webwaves in early ’99 and the book was written that summer (to come out in January of ’00, just in time Continue reading
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It, and who else?
Bill Clinton: ‘Screw It, I’m Running For President’. Bonus link. Continue reading
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And at zero, the pay can be better
Andrew Sullivan on book writing vs. blogging: I have to say that producing a book – I have four under my belt if you count my dissertation – is a draining, soul-sapping catharsis. Part of the strain is working for a long time and not knowing if any of it will be worth it. Continue reading
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And the linkwalls come tumbling down
Nice to learn via Virginia Postrel that The Atlantic‘s archives are now open and linkable, liberated from incarceration behind the paywalls that were fashionable at major magazines until too many of their writers also became bloggers (or already were), and the logic of openness began to prevail. (Or so my theory goes.) Note that the Continue reading
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Law enfarcement
From School Cop Investigated for Porn Link on Friend’s MySpace Profile — Updated: as the St. Peterburg Times puts it, “kids could navigate from Officer John’s page on the social networking site to ‘Amateur Match Free Sex’ in just three clicks.” You’re reading correctly. Gulf Middle School resource officer John Nohejl didn’t have Continue reading
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Public Media in a Zero-Distance World
Public Broadcasters Opt for CC is the encouraging title for an informative and linky post by Michelle Thorne at icommons.org. By subsuming all electronic media, and by placing every recording and playback device at zero functional distance from each other, the Net makes radio and TV transmitters obsolete the moment high-enough-bandwidth wireless connectivity becomes ubiquitous. Continue reading
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How Microsoft could kick some Google ass
It’s amazing to me that Microsoft doesn’t make live.com search any easier. Take the maps side of live.com. It beats the crap out of Google Maps in at least one hugely helpful area: “bird’s eye” views — from four different direcitons. But man, what a frustrating UI. Maybe it’s better for Windows/IE users, but if Continue reading
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Change the label, not the goods
Change is in the air at WUMB is a story ran ran in the Boston Globe yesterday, about trouble the U Mass Boston radio station is having with the label for most of its programming: folk. And perhaps the programming itself. It begins: Money changes everything, at least for WUMB-FM (91.9). Thanks in part Continue reading
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Faustian bargaining
Here’s a terrific post by Rex Hammock, explaining our common cause in a losing battle against the eggregious overuse of the word “content”. Continue reading
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Or pretty much anywhere but Chicago
There’s nothing like this in Santa Barbara. Continue reading
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A VRM approach to managing Twitter and Dopplr together
This morning I decided to start un-following every Twitterer whose majority of tweets are crumbtrails announcing what they are doing now, but whose crumbtrailings do not intersect mine. My twiver has grown too thick with crumbs, and something must be done. The question is, by whom? Is this a problem Twitter alone can solve? I Continue reading
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Feature request
Sometime yesterday I set my mobile phone to silent. Later I left it somewhere in my house. This morning I couldn’t find it, even by calling it with the cordless phone on our land line. My other mobile was meanwhile in the back of the car, being driven around by my wife. I had two Continue reading
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Man blogs
I like Remodeling for Geeks, subtitled code snippets for your house. Bonus snip. Continue reading