December 2017 – Doc Searls Weblog

December 17, 2017

Doing the after math

When I flew out of California on the 14th, this blog was still working. When I went here to post about the Thomas Fire on 15th, it wasn’t. (Somebody later told me Harvard was moving servers around, so maybe that was it.) But then the fire looked to be under control. It wasn’t. On the Continue reading

fire, Santa Barbara

“Santa Barbara”, fire, ThomasFire

December 14, 2017

The real problem is Decoy News (and decoy content of all kinds)—and the platforms can’t fix it

The term “fake news” was a casual phrase until it became clear to news media that a flood of it had been deployed during last year’s presidential election in the U.S. Starting in November 2016, fake news was the subject of strong and well-researched coverage by NPR (here and here), Buzzfeed, CBS (here and here), Continue reading

advertising, fire, Internet, Journalism, marketing, Nature, problems

adtech, decoy news, GDPR

December 13, 2017

An evacuated view on the #ThomasFire

Here’s the latest satellite fire detection data, restricted to just the last twelve hours of the Thomas Fire, mapped on Google Earth Pro:That’s labeled 1830 Mountain Standard Time (MST), or 5:30pm Pacific, about half an hour ago as I write this. And here are the evacuation areas: Our home is in the orange Voluntary Evacuation Continue reading

Broadcasting, data, Family, Geography, Life, Photography, problems, ThomasFire, Travel, tv, weather, wildfire

December 12, 2017

#ThomasFire Tuesday

Here is the extent of the Thomas Fire, via VIIRS readings going back a week: Here are the active margins of the fire alone. The distance from one end to the other is about 40 miles: We also see it’s eleven or twelve separate fires at this point. The ones happening in the back country Continue reading

Uncategorized

December 10, 2017

#ThomasFire live

[Update: 7:22am Monday December 11] Two views of ThomasFire developments. First, MODIS fire detections, plotted on Google Earth Pro, current at 7am Pacific time: Second, a screenshot of the NCWG (National Wildfire Coordinating Group) map of the area, 7:18am Pacific time: On the map itself, you can click on each of those squares and get Continue reading

Geography, infrastructure, problems, Santa Barbara, Travel

Thomas Fire, ThomasFire, wildfire

December 6, 2017

Bad and dead air

That was yesterday. Hard to tell from just looking at it, but that’s a 180° shot, panning from east to west across California’s South Coast, most of which is masked by smoke from the Thomas Fire. We weren’t in the smoke then, but we are now, so there’s not much to shoot. Just something more Continue reading

Broadcasting, california, Geography, Health, infrastructure, radio, Santa Barbara, Technology, weather

wildfire

December 1, 2017

Requiem for a great magazine

Linux Journal is folding. Carlie Fairchild, who has run the magazine almost since it started in 1994, posted Linux Journal Ceases Publication today on the website. So far all of the comments have been positive, which they should be. Throughout its life, Linux Journal has been about as valuable as a trade pub can be, Continue reading

adtech, advertising, Business, Customertech, Journalism, publishing

Linux, Linux Journal, publishing