DISQUS

For better or for worse, after all of the 'confusion' about our reasons for occupying Iraq, it doesn't surprise me that more people do become suspicious about government activity in general today, both at home and abroad.

...now the Apollo moon landing; that's a different kettle of smelly fish ;-)

I agree, as much as I would like to climb aboard some exciting conspiracy ship and take a joy ride. Unless efforts to resolve the outages are made unusually difficult by some strange, internationally curious events/entities, then we should resist the urge to swim with the conspiracist fishes and admit that sometimes shit just happens.

@stone

According to your criteria for experience, you would vote for Bush if he was running again (after 8 years 'experience' of being el presidente). Experience, in and of itself is as meaningless as rhetorical promises. It's contextual. Now, if you prefer McCain's stance on important issues, that's another thing - but don't vote for him because he's been in the game longer.

Did you support Richardson while he was in contention because of his experience?

Perhaps a more relevant analogy for this political contest would be "The Game". Bill met Hillary at Yale Law School. Barack met Michelle at Harvard Law School. Perhaps one of the most touted games during the college football season (along with the Army/Navy contest,) 'The Game' pits two rival Ivy League schools, each with a grudge and fighting for bragging rights. Historically, Yale leads the series 65-51-8.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_%28Harvar...

In 2007, Harvard won 37-6.

Will Harvard's momentum carry through to the Democratic nomination? We'll have to wait and see.

P.S.

A Harvard man and a Yale man are at the urinal. They finish and zip up. The Harvard man proceeds to the sink to wash his hands, while the Yale man immediately makes for the exit. The Harvard man says, "At Harvard they teach us to wash our hands after we urinate." The Yale man replies, "At Yale they teach us not to piss on our hands."

By the way, the Ali vs. Frazier era was something to behold. The Thrilla in Manilla took place on the day after my 10th birthday.

I find it interesting that so many Democrats in California, New York, New Jersey and Boston are rallying for an ex Wal*Mart board chairperson and federal lobbyist bunk buddy. Apparently the Lib Dems aren't out in force at the voting booths. I echo previous comments about experience. Hillary doesn't have much more than Obama and I think that having too much political experience today is often thought of as a negative rather than positive (being an old cog in a broken wheel). Personally, I'd rather support an intelligent, innovative and enthusiastic start-up than a leader with years of experience in a tired and failing company.

I suppose that the most hyper-local subset is the individual. If individuals tag all of their participation online with a zip code, it would be easy to aggregate it all. Of course, then we'd have a lot of noise that would require filters for each reader (not a big deal). If there was a mechanism for anyone publishing information online to add a zip code to every photo, blog post, blog comment, article, review - then they could be aggregated quite easily by zip. To be most effective, individuals should be able to tag content published by other sources in the same way. For example, if I come across a restaurant review on tripadvisor for Bellingham, Washington (where I live), I should be able to tag it with a zip for Bellingham while I'm reading it (perhaps a right-click, Add Zip function). That way, active hyper-local participants could add content to the mix that others contribute - others who aren't aware about the need to tag content for aggregation.

In this sense, every post, photo, comment, review, notice would be published like an AP wire: (98225: Comment or 98225: Photo)

Interesting Fred - and I think I understand where you're hoping that all of this will head. Traditionally, local newspapers covered regions that span beyond individual neighborhoods or streets or apartment buildings. To cover these broad regions, they hired several beat reporters that would spend time calling people, visiting places and writing stuff about stories in that region.

What we need is more coverage in smaller regions by organic dwellers in those sub-regions. To do that, we'll need to shift the paradigm. Not easy. Rather than thinking of how many salaries we need to pay to get sufficient coverage for the East Village, we need to think about how we can encourage people from the East village to participate in publishing information about that space and smart ways of aggregating it all in meaningful ways - perhaps with unique results for each person searching (multiple criteria - i.e. food, east village, reviews)

methinks it involves video.

Could it be a lifecast a la justin.tv or for MTV along the lines of "The Kardashians" - "The Scobles"

Perhaps a "Reality Tech" video network?

Ah, the possibilities.

Good luck!

@81: I know what you mean Jerry. And I agree with you theoretically. Unfortunately, those overseeing both old and new media (there are editors in new media as well) are more interested in ratings today than they are about solid journalistic pursuits. I recommend that you rent "Out Foxed". It will give some insight into what media publishers will stoop to in order to create their stories and gain audience share. Perhaps it was always this way and has only now become transparent to us - but I think that the old adage, "Don't believe what you read" has been around so long for a reason.

********BREAKING NEWS**********

Media (and perhaps American media most of all) is biased and competitive. Again, sex sells and all...

"...and it didn’t hurt Facebook’s ability to do business..."

Well, except that the fact that you (as a high profile tech blogger) are telling the world that it's ok to disregard a business' TOS if they don't agree with them. Apparently, TOS are up for individual interpretation.

S

Jerry, I'm not sure how to take that because I don't know how seriously journalists are taken. Journalist credentials are handed out to a lot of people - some are even serious, objective reporters of news. Somehow, methinks that human beings are flawed, in both old and new media.

Interesting how the "Don't make news" chapter from journalism 101 is so easily recounted when someone else is in breach. Was it that long ago when you made news yourself for scraping your Facebook contacts in violation of their TOS? Or when you allowed your son to establish an account in Second Life in violation of theirs? Neither of which are big deals in and of themselves but made headlines in the blogosphere.

Like your own news-making breaches of good journalism in the past, this too shall pass - and as you moved forward and continued to provide value to your readers, I'm sure that Gizmodo will continue to provide value to theirs.

My only take from all of this is a reminder that humor is subjective; and that when young geeks and corporate suits meet on the playground, it might well end in tears sometimes.

Unfortunately, it's exactly this sort of stuff that gathers crowds (and comments). The same stuff that drives the paparazzi to continue following Britney around. But, of course, you probably remember that other chapter from journalism 101 - Sex (and scandal) sells. Man bites dog and all...

As a result, Gizmodo's readership will probably increase as a result.

It's all subjective. Puritans think that anyone who drinks is doing something wrong. Who's moral compass should we run with? It's not that big a deal. A ban was the consequence. Fair enough. Sorted now. Get over it.

Remember the prank when you'd stop to give your buddy a ride and then pull off when he opened the door of the car? Then you'd stop again a bit further up to let him in, only to pull off again. The next time, you'd say, "ok, ok, c'mon, get in" only to pull off again. The more you did it the funnier it was.

Well, I remember one guy who thought that this prank (when done to him) was horrific and would hold a grudge against the prankster for weeks. Once, he fell out completely with one of his friends as a result.

The moral: Humor is subjective.

Some people take events like CES seriously. Others like to make fun of them. But jaysus, it's not like computer equipment was damaged or the event had to be canceled. There were some temporary 'glitches' caused by geek pranksters. Geeks are funny like that. Sometimes when you mix young geeks with stuffy shirts on the corporate playground, it will end in tears. C'est la vie.

Electronic mail will be sent, albeit across a growing number of platforms (to include mobile and smartphone devices) for many years to come.

Let us not forget that all of these young kids each have two older parents who will continue to use email as their primary means of communication.

Email is evolving along with other technologies.

Earlier reports showed that young people still use email for business or professional communication, though they are using IM and other microcontent formats for personal communication.

"Online, teens and Generation Ys behave differently than the old timers. They are more mobile, more social and more networked than the boomers ever will be. But they still email. According to Christopher Salazar, email for the younger generations is used primarily for business-related messages and professional relationships outside of their social circle. He and his posse offer their attention to different channels for everything else, to include SMS, social networks and instant messaging."

For more information, read:

Generation Y Email?
http://www.messagingtimes.com/blog/?p=1053

Hi Andy. Our GroupMail Software allows users to send their RSS feeds to their recipient lists in a click. You can also schedule messages to be delivered at any time in the future. Also, GroupMail allows you to automate your opt-in, opt-out and bounce management efforts. So essentially you could schedule a weekly email that pulls your RSS feeds (via nooked) to be sent automatically to your lists, and have bounced messages automatically deleted from your list based on criteria that you specify (i.e. after 3 soft bounces or 1 hard bounce, delete recipient from group). For more information about email and RSS integration, please read my blog post below:

Email and RSS Integration (remix)
http://www.messagingtimes.com/blog/?p=589

All the best

Tom

I don't know. For me, too many options and too many apps confined in one space. I don't like being stuck in a closet full of widgets. RSS and tags already bridges me to content that I want, links me to niche experts and relevant conversations.

But then, I'm not an early adapter; and perhaps I will 'get it' in a few years when the other 900 million people on the Internet do.

All the best

Tom

Funny, I thought that in this new world of work we wanted our employees to be buzz agents for our company - to talk at length about the wonderful things that we're doing, etc.

Perhaps akin to the recent Bloggersgate fiasco where bloggers' quotes appeared in a Microsoft ad - the use of a simple disclosure would suffice Corporate PR departments without killing the buzz of your workforce ("I should say that my comments in this interview do not necessarily represent the views of my company...")

Making your workforce scared to talk to anyone about your company jeopardizes the most important marketing tool that you have. Firing them for doing so certainly won't endear them, or anyone who they talk to afterwards, to your brand either.

And you can rest assured that a man fired for talking positively about his work will make it his work to talk negatively about his company thereafter. Talk about flipping the funnel the wrong way!

All the best

Tom

Funny, I thought that in this new world of work we wanted our employees to be buzz agents for our company, to talk at length about the wonderful things that we're doing, etc.

Perhaps akin to the recent Bloggersgate fiasco where bloggers' quotes appeared in a Microsoft ad - the use of a simple disclosure would suffice Corporate PR departments without killing the buzz of your workforce ("I should say that my comments in this interview do not necessarily represent the views of my company...")

Making your workforce scared to talk to anyone about your company jeopardizes the most important marketing tool that you have. Firing them for doing so certainly won't endear them, or anyone who they talk to afterwards, to your brand either.

And you can rest assured that a man fired for talking positively about his work will make it his work to talk negatively about his company thereafter. Talk about flipping the funnel the wrong way!

All the best

Tom

Ironic that Bezos presented at the Web 2.0 Expo, proclaiming that they are in line with the community vision. But, I suppose that there is another side to web 2.0. I posted about the Business of Web 2.0 today as a result of this and other recent news.

http://www.messagingtimes.com/blog/?p=812

About as damaging as Viacom removing all of its YouTube clips as far a reputation goes.

All the best

Tom

Nice, although predictable list. Perhaps more interesting would be "The Most Successful Web 2.0 Sites Positioning to Challenge the Top 10"

Also, Maris, the most successful blogs can be found on Technorati: http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/

All the best

Tom