Home

Bio & Disclosures

Discussions


xFruits

2007 Events

Tuesday, December 9, 2003

Author:   Doc Searls  
Posted: 12/9/2003; 12:18:26 PM
Topic: Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Msg #: 4321 (top msg in thread)
Prev/Next: 4320/4322
Reads: 6560

Al Bore 
 Big Rick weighs in with the first Gore Endorsement Joke.
 Dave says BTW, the Gore endorsement means bupkis to me. I thought the guy was a weenie in 2000. Imagine losing to George Bush who's an even bigger weenie.
 I just feel sorry for Joe.
 
Funrolling 
 Bernie explains what's up with his freshly enhanced Blog 'o Fun, and also what that game thingie is doing over there on the left side.
 
Blind Bloggers Frisk the Elephant 
 Debbie Weil: Top 20 Definitions of Blogging. I get credit for #14, "Your email to everyone." I was also once overheard calling email "blogging for one."
 Debbie also points to The Dullest blog in the world. One sample post:
 I depressed the switch on the side of the kettle. The water began to heat up until it reached boiling point. The kettle then turned itself off, requiring me to take no further action.
 This is followed by 113 comments. Imagine Slashdot on 'ludes with no moderation. Funny shit.
 
Rewords of wisdom 
 Mike Sanders on The Wisdom of Blogging:
 There is a human need to be right and to be recognized as such. In the blogosphere you can always find someone who agrees with you - and you may in fact be very smart and often right, but the path of "I am right" never will lead to greater understanding and to increased wisdom.
 I know the Seven Habits are old by now, but I think the best of blogging exemplifies #5: Seek first to understand, then seek to be understood. Also 4 and 6, while we're at it.
 
The VidiDigiCam Chronicles, cont'd 
 Glenn Reynolds adds this helpful corollary to my advice about combo camcorders/digital cameras that ran over at Roland's blog the other day. He likes this Toshiba camera, which offers 10x of real zoom and 3 megapixels for just over $300. I'd like it too, but the kind of shooting I do requires one of those flip-out viewscreens. Not many digicams have those.
 
From the Dept. of Regurgitation... 
 Mango Lama sez:
 I was just reading Doc Searles' weblog which has an entry about the Howard Dean campaign for president. There are several references to how "Big Media" (of which I'm a small cog) just do not get the way Dean's campaign is "using" the Internet, specifically the weblog, to communicate and listen to supporters and voters. Permalink at Doc Searles
 I'm not too concerned or surprised by the "not getting it" criticism.
 But, it did spark a small -- an likely unoriginal (but I hope not) -- thought based on Steve Gillmor's eWeek article "John You Ignorant Slut" about a John Dvorak article -- slamming blogs -- jeez, this post has so many sub-references I'm starting to expect a Dennis Miller jokes. The phrase that sticks in from Dvorak is about blogs being co-opted by Big Media and "stern corporate editors."
 When the dust settles, I think it will be these "stern corportate editors" that separate the 'blog from Big Media. "Big Media" will become the fallback for reliability, as far as thatcan be established in any sort of journalism. Most blogs won't can't don't rise to the level of fact-checking and editorial standards of a good newspaper. Chew on that. 
 Okay. Just one small fact-check. It's Searls, not Searles. (Oh, and "corportate," whatever that is.)
 I suggest naming (perhaps as "ruminant") the kind of editing we do here after the compartmental digestive systems of livestock, which regurgitate what they eat, chew as cud and re-swallow.
 
Excellence in decadence 
 Choire Sicha, back from a trip: Miami Beach is chock full of hotel lobby bars, and there's nothing I love more than sipping decaf cappuccinos at 4 a.m. in a gorgeous hotel lobby with drunken dear friends.
 That's after this in Gawker:
 Okay, I have stayed far too long in Miami, so I'm hopping a plane back to Man-fucking-hattan today. I need to see a man without pec implants or a woman without two shades of lipliner and fast.
 
So? 
 An op-ed column in the Times busts Howard Dean and the Internet in one swell foop:
 At each moment, he appears outspoken, blunt and honest. But over time he is incoherent and contradictory.
 He is, in short, a man unrooted. This gives him an amazing freshness and an exhilarating freedom.
 Everybody talks about how the Internet has been key to his fund-raising and organization. Nobody talks about how it has shaped his persona. On the Internet, the long term doesn't matter, as long as you are blunt and forceful at that moment. On the Internet, a new persona is just a click away. On the Internet, everyone is loosely tethered, careless and free. Dean is the Internet man, a string of exhilarating moments and daring accusations.
 The only problem is that us rural folk distrust people who reinvent themselves. Many of us rural folk are nervous about putting the power of the presidency in the hands of a man who could be anyone.  
 Joshua Micah Marshall calls it "a weird column."
 Hmmm. I don't know. Hasn't Dean lived in a predominantly rural state for like twenty-five years? (According to census data, Vermont is the most rural state in the nation.) Every pol likes to suit his biography to the needs of the moment. But that fact would seem to give Dean's statement at least a measure of credibility, no?
 
Clues 
 It's been a long time since I checked Cluetrain's Amazon sales rank. It's #822 for the hardcover, which is, technically, out of print. The paperback, still in print, is #29,949.


There are responses to this message:




Copyright 2009 The Doc Searls Weblog

Membership : Join Now : Login

Create your own Manila site in minutes. Everyone's doing it!

Click to see the XML version of this web page.

Blogroll

 
Search archives

Santa Barbarians
Edhat
SB Independent
SB Newsroom
Kevin Barron
Blogabarbara
Craig Smith
SB*Free Press
Joe Andieu
Patrick Gregston
John Quiimby
Das Williams' dad
Katy Pearce
Taymar Pixley
Lisa Gates
Cookie Jill

Everybody else
Spot-on
RageBoy
MysticBourgeoisie
David Weinberger
Miscellaneous
Dave
Berkman
John Palfrey
IT Garage
Bret Fausett
Susan Crawford
Bruce Sterling
Steve Lewis/Bubkes
Hak Pak Sak
Brad Kava
Brad Templeton
Sheila Lennon
Don Marti
Steve Urquhart
Wes Felter
Brad DeLong
Tom Evslin
Brian Oberkirch
Dean Landsman
Hugh MacLeod
LAist
Jeremy Ruston
Geoff Jones
Vaspers the Grate
Sig Rinde
Chris Albritton
Ronni Bennett
Thomas Hawk
Kevin Bedell
Howard
Bryan
Deep Fun
BoingBoing
edhat
Terry Heaton
Jay Rosen
Kim Cameron
George Lakoff
Scott Rosenberg
Larry Lessig
Jim Thompson
Jeff Jarvis
David Isenberg
Stephen Johnson
Tim Oren
Geoff Moore
Rex Hammock
This is Broken
Max Sawicky
Stuart Hughes
Dave Pentecost
John Perry Barlow
Mary Hodder
Dan Gillmor
Steve Gillmor
Dean Landsman
John Stodder
Seth Finkelstein
Renee Blodgett
misbehaving.net
Ruby Sinreich
Ed Cone
Julie Leung
Ted Leung
Ken Coar
Flemming Funch
Mike Sanders
Marc Canter
Joi Ito
Ethan Zuckerman
Doug Kaye
Jon Lebkowski
Judith Meskill
Allen Searls
Esther Dyson
Christopher Lydon
Russell Beattie
Tim Bray
Brian Millar
Mark Pilgrim
Michael Hall
Backup Brain
Frankston, Reed
Britt Blaser
Brent Simmons
Loic Le Meur
Leslie Winer
Mike Taht
Eric Raymond
Volokh Conspiracy
Steven Levy
Lisa Rein
Skywave
Epeus' epigone
Glenn Reynolds
James Taranto
Frank Paynter
Ross Mayfield
Dana Blankenhorn
Ken Bereskin/Panther
Daily Wireless
Filchyboy
OxBlog
Bryan Field-Elliot
Rajesh Jain
Oliver Willis
Gary Turner
Michael O'Connor Clarke
Jennifer Balderama
Kevin Werbach
Amy Wohl
Phil Windley
Fulcrum
Real Joe
Greater Democracy
Mitch Ratcliffe /biz
Mitch Ratcliffe/soc
Wayne Robins
VivaCapitalism
Cut on the bias
Howard Greenstein
The Poor Man
Mickey Kaus
Dave Sifry
Buzz Bruggeman
Ben Hammersley
Matt Jones
Paul Andrews
John Robb
Schoolblog
Tom Shugart
Matt Welch
Blur Circle
Denise Howell
JY
BlackHoleBrain
Chris Pirillo
Marek
Tony Pierce
Chris Nolan's
Spot On

Wil Wheaton
Meg
Brian Linse
Dan Pink
Dawn Olsen
Craig
Yoz
The Head Lemur
Ev
Jeremy Zawodny
Susan Kitchens
K5
Anu Gupta
Jonathon
Fishrush
Dave Ely
Euan Semple
Eric Norlin
Paul Boutin
James Lileks
David Williams
Mary Wehmeier
Bruner Blog
Halley Suitt
Webword
Ann Salisbury
Om Malik
Moxie
J's Notes
Meesh
NUblog
TBTF
Cam
Seth Finkelstein
Tom Matrullo
Chip Hoagland
Deborah
Fortboise
J.D. Lasica
Photodude
Phil Wolff
Andre Durand
Eric Hansen
Mike McBride
Jeneane Sessum
Chris Nolan
Gonzo Engaged
Michael Mussington
UseTheSource
Wes
Adam
Sam Ruby
Miguel
Frank Field
Rebecca Blood
Joshua Allen
Cluetrain
JOHO
EGR
Searls site
Scoble
AKMA
Kottke
Tomalak's Realm
Tim O'Reilly
Mitch Kapor
Bill Quick
Dan Bricklin
Lou Josephs
Alan Reiter
N.Z. Bear
Todd Morman
Zeldman
Glenn
Joshua
Rex Hammock
Matthew Thomas
Brian Dear
Baylink
Burningbird