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Monday, May 2, 2005
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 Monday, May 2, 2005
started 5/2/2005; 10:33:08 AM - last post 5/5/2005; 2:59:00 AM
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Doc Searls - Monday, May 2, 2005 
5/2/2005; 2:33:08 PM (reads: 5061, responses: 4)
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Dis content 
| | Getting some nice responses to my closing keynote at Les Blogs, a week ago today. Rex: |
| | And so, I decided once again. I'm not in the content business. If I wanted to be in the content business, I would have chosen shipping or pallet-building or selling Rubbermaid products as my career. |
| | I will henceforth state that what we are doing is journalism, and that Corante is a (non-traditional) publishing company. Our blogs are really journals, published in a real-time, internet basis: but journals, nonetheless. In this view, blogging has lowered the cost of entry to publishing, allowing small fry startups like Corante to compete effectively for share-of-mind in the post-everything world of today. |
| | I'm getting tired of people insisting that blogs are one thing but definitely cannot be another. Sure, I know exactly what Searls is talking about: the type of blog written by individuals (like, for example, this one). But that doesn't mean that General Motors is abusing the blogosphere by producting Fastlane, which targets the consumer audience of automotive enthusiasts. |
| | I'll keep on saying it: Blogs are lightweight content-management systems, and as such, are applicable to any task the use of such a system accommodates. Consequently, we'll continue to see blogs branch out along several evolutionary paths. Some will be terrific, others will cause mass shrugging, and still others will be wretched. |
| | So, to clarify. When I say here that there are three different metaphors for blogging (as well as the Web), I'm saying it's already understood in terms of those metaphors. Literally. When I say in the next slide that blogging is about writing, I add that there's nothing wrong with the other metaphors. But I also say that blogging has "a stake in this game. A side in this war." |
| | Call blogging "content" all you like. Just don't expect content to have the same protections as speech and the (literal) press. |
| | To unpack the distinctions, look at what the FCC says about decency here, and what its former chairman says here — and then consider the likelihood that many "conservative" (love that irony) lawmakers want to extend the FCC's jurisdiction to the Net (that other den of "indecency"). Condider the likelihood that mainstream publishers will try to marginalize blogs as instruments of "content delivery" rather than "journalism," so blogs don't enjoy the full protection of shield laws. |
| | Truth is, we can't help conceiving blogs in terms of many different metaphors. But only one of those metaphors gives blogging the best possible protection against those who will, inevitably, seek to restrict speech. It's not "content." |
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JTH - Re: Saturday, April 30, 2005
5/3/2005; 12:06:17 PM (reads: 627, responses: 1)
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Doc
Good points on freedom of speach
Wondering if this is one way to parse the issue
Intent
I'm now up and running something like 1/2 dozen blogs (some are proto-blogs, to be handed off later)
Some pure commercial (earthydelights.blogspot.com), some internal amongst a few users (blogblogbog.blogspot.com), one for spouting off (looneydunes.blogspot.com) one internal for very small group - unpublished, and one I just started for "anger managment" which I may or may not share.
We've also set up a few for small group "project management" - basically temporary
So?
Intent
The more commercial, the more public, the more caution I expect to exercise.
The one's that are essentailly private - with stated intent to not be broadly viewed, I'll be more willing to express stronger opinions.
Just my 2cents worth
Ciao
Chip
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JTH - Re: Saturday, April 30, 2005
5/3/2005; 1:26:15 PM (reads: 678, responses: 0)
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Follow up
Influenced by posting by Seth:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/05/i_bet_you_think.html
"What sort of ego do bloggers have? We spend the time and the energy and the money to post our opinions to the world, and we do it daily, or even hourly, often on topics on which we have no obvious authority...
Ego is the biggest reason that corporate blogging may be an oxymoron. Working for the man often means subsuming your ego to that of the organization, and blogging makes that difficult. It's one reason that there have been high profile firings of corporate bloggers at places like Google. It's hard to have two voices (the writer's and the shareholders') competing and often conflicting."
Reflecting on setting up multiple blogs, I may behave (or mis-behave) differently with different situations. I'll put on the suit and "business persona" for dealing with bankers, jeans and birkenstocks for a concert on the grass.
One blog fits all maybe doesn't work...
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Henry Joe Peterson - "content" vs. writing
5/3/2005; 4:03:16 PM (reads: 570, responses: 1)
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Doc,
I am SO glad you're making this distinction between content and writing. I've always found the term content downright insulting. Imagine this. Some suit comes to Mark Twain and says, "We have some snappy cover art and this clever two word title, "Huck Finn," and a bunch of blank pages. Now all we need is some content. Can you crank some out for us?"
Same goes for "assets." It's a tad less insulting, but not much. What do you need? Artwork? Photography? Design? Please don't reduce what talented people do for a living to just being commodities.
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Doc Searls - Re: "content" vs. writing
5/5/2005; 6:59:00 AM (reads: 679, responses: 0)
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Hey, HJ!
I agree, of course, with your agreement.
Let's also not forget "human capital." That's not a fine chef in the kitchen. No, that's an investment. A financial instrument that happens to live and breathe. Feh.
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