News and notes
Friday, June 30th, 2006The folks at Microsoft have released another update of the beta for IE7. I haven’t downloaded it yet (Call me a nut, but I’m confused as to why I have to delete my existing IE7 before installing the new one). Rich Ziade at Basement.org notes that this might be the thing that finally boosts RSS:
…the RSS functionality is “feature complete.” I’ve mentioned this before. This may finally be the application that thrusts RSS into mainstream use. While there are other more full-featured installable apps out there (FeedDemon being the best of the bunch), we can’t underestimate the power of not having to install anything for a huge portion of the user population. I’m still not entirely convinced that it’ll catch fire like it should. The “real need” isn’t that clearly visible just yet.
The W3C has finally issued its Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, which are the “official” basic guidelines for how to develop web applications for the huge mobile market. One must assume that this will spawn further development in the space, so we all need to be ready.
Lost remote references a Wall St. Journal report that Comcast’s purchase of The Platform is leading to the creation of a video portal that will enable its cable subscribers to route video from the PC to their TV sets. The Journal suggests that the story is Comcast upping the ante on competing with other cable companies, and I don’t doubt that. But of supreme importance to me is what this does, again, to local affiliates. While it’s an opportunity for stations to provide unbundled content (and one hopes it will have marketing attached), it pushes them further into the content-creator-only corner. Stations need themselves to get into the aggregator business, but I’ve said that a few times before.
Perception’s the thing
Friday, June 30th, 2006One comment on the House voting to condemn the media for running stories on the government’s monitoring of international bank transactions. The high priests of the press are busy defending themselves, as they should, and the central theme is they don’t think the New York Times is unpatriotic for running the story. The problem is it doesn’t matter what any journalist thinks today; the public is already convinced that the press can’t be trusted, and this fits right in the middle of that position. This is why all mainstream media have a much bigger problem than they care to admit and why the people formerly known as the audience are taking matters into their own hands.
Friday morning rant — the illogic of logic
Friday, June 30th, 2006I carry on here from time-to-time about the failures of modernism and its institutions. I originally named this blog “The Pomo Blog,” because I wanted to talk about media in the context of the dawning of the postmodern era, what I call “The Age of Participation.” I just think it’s helpful to understand that all these changes are being driven by people, and that our culture has entered a new age.
One of the big reasons I view things this way is that the failures of reason and logic are so obvious to me that I wonder how we put up with them as long as we have. Nowhere is the illogic of logic more evident than in our reliance upon rules to make culture work. Rules are not God, however, and therein lies the rub.
You see, the Biblical God is 100% just and 100% merciful at the same time, and this is ridiculous when examined with human logic. People are generally one or the other, and that’s the problem. People on the right generally tend toward justice, while people on the left see value in mercy. Our founding fathers seemed to understand this in giving us three branches of government, and as far back as history sees, the value of “judges” has been to distinguish — on a case-by-case basis — whether justice or mercy should apply.
I ask you the question that if rules and laws are supreme, why do we need judges?
Judges don’t “judge” anymore; they simply interpret (and make) laws, which is not their proper role in culture.
So I have a serious problem with rules, and it’s not because I think I’m special. I just think that a rule-bound culture belongs to the lawyers, that self-serving group of lawMAKERS that we seem to worship in the good ol’ US of A.
So with that background, here’s my Friday morning rant. My credit sucks. This is what can happen when you walk the road less traveled, as Allie and I did for the past three years. Fortunately, I now have the resources to “fix” my credit score, but it takes time (and a lot of work).
Well, guess what? You can’t rent a decent apartment anywhere without a good credit score. There are no exceptions, and the culprit is the Fair Housing Act. Rather than get on the bad side of self-righteous lawyers and the government, property management companies have tied their rental policies to credit scores, and there are NO exceptions. This is the law of unintended consequences at work for a fellow such as myself, because I can clearly afford a nice apartment. But nobody can rent one to me, because to do so would mean an exception to the rule, and that vulnerability could be exploited if they turned down somebody else and got sued.
One place I looked offered three-month leases. I offered to pay cash but was told, “We really don’t like to do that. The credit score is what matters.” I asked if she realized how stupid that was, but she replied she was sorry but those were the rules.
This is the kind of crap that’s produced by a culture where the law is supreme and judges don’t judge. This is justice gone to seed, and it’s killing our ability to work with each other. It’s also another evidence of an institutional system that doesn’t work, where everybody is protecting their own ass instead of doing business, because, well, the rules are supreme.
It caters to the haves and, in fact, sustains their position. Let’s face it; if you can afford to make the rules that everybody must live by, then why would you want anything changed? Ah, but the silent majority isn’t so silent anymore, and revolution is brewing.
Enough of my rant.
Redesign underway
Thursday, June 29th, 2006I’m busy working on putting my blog into the “style” of the Audience Research and Development website, so I won’t be doing any blogging.
That said, take a look at this site, which was mentioned by Steve in the comments to my previous entry. This is a local video blog and a good example thereof. You’d have to be in a coma not to see this kind of thing as a threat to legacy media companies. Good stuff, methinks.
Selling Against Ourselves
Wednesday, June 28th, 2006Here is the latest in the on-going series of essays, TV News in a Postmodern World. This paper examines the conundrum of companies whose business models are disrupted by innovation and are forced into the difficult position of selling against themselves in order to create a business within the innovation. This is precisely where we find mainstream media companies today, as new media technologies are threatening their very existence. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but business history is full of stories of those who successfully accomplished the mission — as well as those who didn’t.
I believe this is a key question facing all local television stations today, as we try and establish new business models with the internet. Will we have the courage to actually sell against ourselves?
I’m on another jet today for a quick trip to Florida and returning tonight. See you on the back side.
On a personal note…
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
In the decade of the 1990s, as I was going through deep personal change, I wrote three manuscripts that have never been published. These are spiritual fables set in a world of insects called “Palmer’s Meadow.” Everybody who’s read them, including Allie, was touched by them, and I’ve just never had the wherewithal to do anything about it.
Yesterday, I sent a check to a woman in Denver who’s going to help me format the manuscripts for printing. The printing company that has helped transform the publishing business is here in Nashville (Lightning Source), so I’m going to publish a bunch, put them on sale via the web, and see what happens.
The Butterfly Tree is the story of Conrad, the Monarch butterfly caterpillar who doesn’t want to become a butterfly. The lesson is one of trying to manage or control our lives when letting go is what’s required.
The Hoppers of Palmer’s Meadow involves two grasshopper brothers and the lust for power. I love this story and the lessons it provides, especially the danger of power for power’s sake and the true price of leadership.
Princess of the Pond is the most popular story. It tells the tale of a damselfly princess with deformed wings and the trap of self pity.
Stay tuned. It’ll be a fun exercise, if nothing else.
NBC and YouTube, strange bedfellows indeed
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006Okay, so I’m torn on this announcement that NBC is getting into bed with YouTube to promote its fall line-up. On the one hand, I feel the network has likely had an awakening about the foolishness of yanking the “Lazy Sunday” clip earlier this year, and that would be good news. On the other hand, however, there appears to be much more in it for NBC than YouTube users, so what’s to feel good about?
“The distinction between television and video is becoming murkier and murkier,” said John Miller, chief marketing officer for the NBC Universal Television Group. “Rather than putting our heads in the sand and saying this doesn’t exist, we’re trying to jump in and embrace it.” (Congratulations!)…Under the deal, YouTube will create a separate channel for NBC video, so that visitors can easily pull up the half-dozen or more items that NBC plans to offer at any given time. It will be similar to channels that other companies, filmmakers and everyday users create.
…NBC and YouTube officials acknowledged the possibility that fans will reject the clips if they appear simply as promotions, but YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said fans would likely embrace the video if it is compelling and not available anywhere else. (Does everyone see the problem?)
So this “deal” is a pretty creative and smart move by NBC, although one has to try very hard to see it as anything other than another attempt to control the interactive genie.
Oh, by the way, the deal also puts in writing that YouTube won’t use copyrighted NBC material without their permission — clips like “Lazy Sunday” — which introduced the network to the realities of word-of-mouth-marketing in the first place.
And so it goes…
Adding dollars to (video) podcasts
Tuesday, June 27th, 2006When did the word “podcast” begin to assume video? I don’t know, but here’s a pretty important article from OMMA Magazine that makes the assumption.
According to a recent eMarketer study, the audience for podcasts will reach 25 million in 2008 and 50 million by 2010. With that growth will come ad dollars–some $300 million by 2010, estimates Mike Chapman, eMarketer’s editorial director. He believes most of that money will flow into network content, which today is offered for a small fee per episode.That’s also likely to happen because the audience for podcasts is an attractive one for advertisers: Early adopters are in the 18-to-34 demographic sweet spot. Advertising on podcasts also has the benefit of interactivity endemic to the broadband-based iTunes platform and could be priced on a per response model, à la Google’s AdSense, Chapman notes. With niche content, advertisers can target their messages more granularly.
Secondly, always remember when using the word “podcast” in the same sentence with “big media” that you’re looking at another form of one-to-many distribution, which is their bread-and-butter. That’s why they understand it so well and why they can play bully in the space.
What will the people formerly known as the audience think? Read Jay Rosen’s brilliant letter from the former audience to big media and you’ll come away with a pretty good idea.
PaidContent site gets big backing
Monday, June 26th, 2006
A BIG congratulations to Rafat Ali and his PaidContent news Website. He has received a large investment (although the WSJ says it’s under a million dollars) in his company from one of the early Apple and AOL investors, Alan Patricof.
To Patricof, it’s a smart move — Wall St. Journal: “To start a magazine today would cost a minimum of $15 million to $25 million, and you have to spend through three or four years of losses,” Mr. Patricof said. With blogs, “the economics are a lot better.” — but to Rafat, it means the chance to expand and grow what is arguably the best newsletter/blog on new media business available anywhere. Rafat is a major player in the world of online information, and he’s a damned fine journalist. He’s also one of the nicest, most accommodating people you’ll ever meet anywhere (there’s a lot of that going around this place called cyberspace).
This is yet another example of a successful start-up from a smart and passionate journalist that could have been done by an existing media company, if they hadn’t been so busy trashing the blog genre (and, by proxy, people like Rafat) and protecting their own pedestals when niches like this were available.
And while I’m on the subject, the new New York Times blog, Screens, is a nice addition to their offerings, but it’ll never come near the likes of Lost Remote, the father of the TV-internet connection genre. To The Times I would note that this would’ve been a lot more effective back in the days when you were busy pointing fingers and calling people names. Screens will never be Lost Remote, and for that, I’m thankful.
Who’s to blame for loss of newsroom experience?
Monday, June 26th, 2006Edward Wasserman says journalists are being shown the door, 10 or 15 years before they would, in the normal course of things, have finished their working lives. “Managing generational change is a delicate matter of achieving a balance of memory and energy, the seasoned and the fresh, certainty and skepticism,” he writes. “It’s a matter not of lowering costs, but of carefully calibrating a newsroom culture. And it’s a challenge that, I’m afraid, is being blown.”
My concern is the seasoned police reporter in his mid-50s, the streetwise city-page columnist or the business writer who has covered the town’s fat cats since before the savings-and-loan bust of the 1980s. Pruning news staffs has become a managerial routine, and shedding higher-earning — meaning, longer-serving — employees a mark of fiscal prudence. They’re getting six months’, maybe a year’s pay, and they’re gone. So are their Rolodexes, their intuition, the stories they did or meant to do and their deep familiarity with their communities.
And that’s definitely not for me.
Bloggercon IV, day two
Saturday, June 24th, 2006The opening session was Dave Winer at his best on the hidden languages of various institutional priesthoods and how technology is enabling us to understand, thus changing the nature of authority in the world. Dave’s primary focus was on technology companies and their language, but the discussion shifted to others when Bob Cox told of the language of bond traders, which is used to hide profit motives from customers. Dave said, “I don’t feel there are mysteries that we’re incapable of understanding.”
I’ve written about this subject before, and it’s the most important cultural issue at hand. The status quo LIVES on protected knowledge, and they will fight to the death efforts by “the bottom” to throw open the doors. As Dave noted, the Genie is out of the bottle everywhere, “and I think this — the technology world — ought to be the center of this.”
UPDATE: The session on how to make money was arguably the best of the whole conference. John Palfrey from Harvard’s Berkman Center led the discussion but — in true BloggerCon format — let the discussion run itself. Like the journalism session yesterday, there was so much good stuff here that I recommend listening to the mp3.
There were a couple of themes that I thought were important. One, there was plenty of discussion about making money at the local level, which is, of course, one of my mantras. Lisa Williams of H2Otown.info noted the need for software that will allow the corner hardware store to easily create and post an ad.
Jay Rosen echoed my comments about mainstream media companies wanting a roadmap for revenue and called it “bizarre” when — after teaching media executives about what’s happening in the new media sphere — he is asked, “Where’s the revenue model?”
“You just told them that the world is changing, and their answer assumes that they think the world is stable, not changing.”
I think that the more bloggers focus on “making money,” the less likely they are to find their true place in what’s taking place around us. That’s not to say that making money shouldn’t be a goal, but being open and flexible is much more important. If this thing is really bubbling up from the bottom, as I believe, then we must have enough faith in the bottom to go where it takes us.
BloggerCon notes
Friday, June 23rd, 2006I hope to be adding to this post throughout the day. We’ll see.
Lots of audio feeds and session notes can be found at the BloggerCon Website.
BloggerCon IV is underway. We opened with a couple of songs, but the hit was doin’ the Hokey Pokey. As host Dave Winer noted afterwards, “Well, we’re all friends now.”
Doc Searls is the “technographer” for the event, which means his note-taking is visible for all to see. This would be intimidating for most, because it’s the equivalent of letting people watch you think. It takes a thick skin or someone who’s reached the status of self-actualization, and that’s Doc.
The discussion on tools (what do you use, etc.) drifted for a moment into the knowledge level of “the masses.” This is important for me, because I understand the problems broadcasters, for example, have in getting into this stuff, when most people don’t have a clue about the technologies or how to use them. This is an opportunity, I noted, for the people in the room, because there is, I sense, a growing demand for this kind of information. Chris Pirillo — one of the people would could actually communicate this stuff to non-geeks — disagreed with me by saying he doesn’t think “the media” gives a crap about knowing any of this stuff.
I’m not saying that the demand is loud and clear; I’m saying there are rumblings that one of the obligations mass media companies are going to have if they can bring themselves to walk the Media 2.0 line is to help everyday people understand and use the technologies. That, it seems to me, is a business opportunity for the folks attending events like BloggerCon.
UPDATE: Jay Rosen’s session on “Users know more than we do journalism” was both esoteric and practical, with Jay wanting more of the latter and often getting more of the former. There was so much good information in the session that it’s hard to fairly summarize it. I recommend you give a listen to the mp3.
Jay opened by saying, “We’re talking about defining “users know more than we do journalism (open source).” How do you tap that wellspring of knowledge to break news and do kick-ass reporting?”
Good question, and one that better minds than mine are grappling with these days. I think we’re in a period of great transition in our culture and that journalism is one of the core components.
Tom Maddox of Opinity noted that calling this “open-source journalism” is a bit like calling cars “horseless carriages.” This is a new thing and very different from advertiser-supported journalism. It’s like massive parallel processing. It needs a new name, and I think it would help get us away from the fruitless bickering between mainstream media and us.”
I think this is right on the money, because what this session was attempting to define or quantify is largely unidentifiable or unquantifiable, at least in modern terms. This session was really about defining postmodern news, and that’s extremely difficult when you use terms like “story,” as in “how do we all collaborate on a story?” I’m one of those people who thinks we need new terms and new structures that are both open and flexible.
It was either Doc or Dave who used the term “river” to describe it, always open, always flowing. That’s postmodern “news.”
UPDATE: Chris Pirillo’s session on “Users in charge” turned into a refreshing bitch session about software companies or applications that are really not user-friendly. I added my pet peeves: FAQs that are written for morons, companies that don’t give you a way to contact them, and information stored in such a way that it cannot be accessed with plain English.
Jory Des Jardins had a colorful phrase, “Why do I have to go through the whole friggin store schema, starting at the top, just to find a spoon?”
A lot of people bitched about iTunes, and that devolved into griping about liking or disliking the application. 75 percent of users like the service, but that wasn’t the case in this room. Somebody noted that if you don’t like it, there are other options. Well, yeah, but why not listen to the superusers just the same?
Jay Rosen told of his experience when he first used Firefox and discovered the “tabs” feature. He was so upset with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (still is) that he hasn’t gone back and he won’t. “It was a total loss of confidence for me,” he told the group, “so I told Microsoft to “forget it — it’s too late. You have totally violated my trust. Every time I use tabs, I think ‘those fucks,’ they could have done this and they didn’t.”
UPDATE: The session on emotional life was the best of the day, because we spent the time talking about real life and how it enters into blogging. In my case, of course, there have been many entries about the loss of my wife on April 25th. Others in the room had similar experiences, but the other side of the coin was also brought out.
“We all lead very public lives,” noted Chris Pirillo. He was always very open. People knew everything about his life, but when he went through a divorce, it was very difficult. He got lots of backlash, because readers had come to know her and couldn’t believe it. “It was tough,” added Chris, “because people don’t necessarily know you, even though they think they do.”
Ponzi, Chris’s fiancee, said she completely opened up about an unhappy vacation she took with Chris on her blog. She didn’t think about how ugly it got afterwards and decided it wasn’t really good to open up so much. “Since then,” she said, “I haven’t blogged that way.”
Martin McKeay keeps his personal life out of his blog; it’s all about business. He feels he can’t let his family get exposed to things like that and bring them out into the public.
Doc Searls told the group that 9/11 changed his blogging, “I started out blogging everything,” he said, but when 9/11 happened and I came out as a pacifist, I got hate mail.” People would stop in their cars in front of the house, he said, and when he and his wife would come out, they’d leave. “It freaked my wife out,” he said. So he changed his blogging style and doesn’t say anything personal. He added however, that he doesn’t think his blog is as good because of it.
Bob Cox of the Media Bloggers Association took the discussion in a different direction, reminding people that people are really beginning to get sued for things they say on their blogs. “It would be wise,” he said, “for people to incorporate their blogs, so that people don’t lose their house if they get sued.”
Jory Des Jardins said she tempers what she says, but being open has really opened lines of communication in her family. Other family members started blogging, and it has brought transparency to her family life.
Jay Rosen: “I never tell you anything about my personal life in my blog, but blogging is still a very emotional thing for me. Most of us blog for reasons of freedom, and that is a powerful and emotional thing. Secondly, my career as a press critic went pretty well before blogging, and I was reasonably satisfied, but in order to become a published writer, I had to give editors what they wanted, and it was very frustrating. They didn’t understand what I wanted to say about journalism, so a lot of anger built up in me. So my blog is filled with 15 years of pent up anger in dealing with editors. Part of the attraction is limitless creation. Finally, it was very dangerous in Nazi Germany to lose the ability to think politically. If you can’t see the undercurrents and understand the news, you could lose a lot, even your life, and that’s a very emotional reason to blog.”
Out of the mouths of babes
Friday, June 23rd, 2006
The world is truly a small place. Wednesday’s Rocketboom featured a short sound bite with 8-year old Alexa Kitchen, a comic book prodigy who’s been selling her work since she was 6-years old. As you can imagine, she’s a mature little thing, but she’s still only 8-years old, and there is SUCH great wisdom that comes from the mouths of babes. For when she was asked about the source of her ideas, she responded:
“I don’t really know. They just pop into my head from Pluto.”
It’s why I never assume that I can sit on my ideas, because somebody else is always touching the unbroken web, or, as Alexa puts it, “Pluto.”
So I did a little Googling on Alexa Kitchen and discovered that she is the daughter of one Denis Kitchen, counterculture artist and cartoonist extraordinaire and a dear friend of mine from my days in Milwaukee (1970s). Denis and I have reconnected, thanks to Rocketboom and a little clip featuring this budding star. He tells me the New York Times is stopping by next week for an interview. And so it begins.
Wake up, Les!
Thursday, June 22nd, 2006I can’t resist a comment on the remarkable statements by CBS boss Les Moonves in comparing CBS to Yahoo! John Higgins at BC Beat quotes Moonves:
There’s a perception, that we are old media……as soon as people buy that we’re as cool as Yahoo is, even though we’re called CBS, I think people will give us more credit on our stock.
BloggerCon bound
Thursday, June 22nd, 2006
I’m westbound today headed for San Francisco and BloggerCon IV. Many old friends will be there, and I’m looking forward to finally meeting Doc Searls. Jay Rosen has posted another entry about the session that interests me most and about which I hope to be blogging tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Wednesday web whimsy
Wednesday, June 21st, 2006I won the Japan lottery yesterday. I must have the luckiest e-mail address on the planet, because I appear to have won all the foreign country lotteries. Now, if I could just pick the damned Powerball…
My newest TV discovery: From the Fuse (cable) Network comes the campy “Pants Off, Dance Off,” the show where everyday people (not models) take their clothes off while their favorite music video plays in the background. Of course, they stop the strip just when it gets good, and refer people to their Website to watch the rest. It’s really a brilliant interactive play, because fans get to vote online. What’s fascinating about the program is the interview clips with the “performer” that pop in during their 3-minutes of fame. There ought to be a law against letting certain body types take their pants off on TV. Attention readers: they’re looking for “contestants” for season two…
Irony of the week, so far: The Wall Street Journal article on the effect of DRM on innovation was made available outside their pay wall. Hmm…
Doc Searls on traveling: “Last night’s crisis was losing the power adapter for my laptop, which finally showed up in the outside pocket of one of my bags, where I forgot putting it. You know how they say Alzheimer’s patients get to hide their own Easter eggs? Yeah.”
Enjoy the first day of summer.
Well, lookie here
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006A newspaper is advertising for a “video” sales manager. Who knew?
Actually the site is Hamptonroads.tv, but it’s run by the Virginian-Pilot, now Virginian-Pilot Media Company (how smart is that?). These guys must be paying attention.
(Thanks, Mel)
The smell in the air is self-serving media
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006Howard Kurtz has picked up a scent he doesn’t like. This isn’t so unusual, but this time I really agree with him. He’s fed up with the scare tactics that old media are conveniently using in an endless series of stories about the dangers of social media websites.
I’m getting a little tired of reading all these “exposes” of Facebook and MySpace.Hardly a week goes by without some newscast or newspaper discovering that it can be hazardous to the college or professional careers of young people to post pictures of themselves engaged in drinking, drugging, loving or other racy activity that might be frowned upon by some adult in a position of authority.
Okay, we get it. Hasn’t dumb judgment always been hazardous to your professional health?
It’s a legitimate story, but I detect a faint whiff of Old Media getting all exercised about the terrible dangers of New Media–why are all those kids wasting their time blabbing on these social sites?–rather than figuring out how to appeal to their young fans.
Nobody out here argues that there’s value to these stories, but enough is enough. Not only do they tilt the general public’s attitudes about such, but they also make it difficult for editors and reporters to see beyond them to the real values of social media.
That’s a shame.
Look at all the ways to use RSS
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006Steve Rubel has done my work for me (again). He’s out with a list of 35 ways you can use RSS, and I highly recommend all broadcasters take a look at how the technology is beginning to enable virtually any information source to connect directly with interested (the operative word) users.
Either get into the feed aggregation business or risk furthering the distance between you and the people formerly known as your audience.
A new form of entertainment
Monday, June 19th, 2006Daniel Davenport has been producing video content online since 1995 and currently works for the interactive marketing firm THINK Inc, in Atlanta. He also maintains the blog thinkd2c.blogspot.com, and this is one very creative fellow. Let me show you something that has pretty significant implications for the future.
This is a spoof. It’s not real. Go to this blog and scroll down to the entry titled “New Project (Start here!).” Navigate your way up through the various entries and be prepared to be fully entertained along the way.
What you’re likely not to notice — unless I point it out — are the numerous product placement ads mixed in with the ongoing story. This is not only clever but, I think, an acceptable form of advertising within an entertainment project. I’ve had this discussion with a major ad exec, and he wasn’t as bullish on the idea as I was. This creative effort by Daniel suggests that we are right and he was wrong.
More importantly, it was easy to do. “Its a pho-blog with fictional characters,” Daniel told me in an email. “It memejumps a current conspiracy theory running wild on the net. I shot it over 4 weekends and it cost about $500 in beer and pizza.” So once again, we have ideas bubbling up from the bottom that will capture the imagination of users and spawn countless others. Call me a nut, but I think this is a new form of entertainment.
Congrats to Daniel and his friends. BTW, I love the word “memejump,” and I’ll be looking for ways to use it in a sentence real soon.