DISQUS

Duncan, Australia is a Common Law country so free speech is embedded under the principle that anything is lawful if it isn't prohibited by statute.

Britain has a European Human Rights Act which overturns that principle and, whatever anyone says, severely restricts free speech and other basic freedoms. It also acts as a charter for criminals and terrorists, not to mention so-called "human rights lawyers".

Australia should steer clear of this and rely on the Common Law.

The "collective wisdom" is available within our own minds -- Carl Jung's Collective Unconscious. But that's not the same as information. True wisdom rejects anything that's not relevant to us here and now. Without the wisdom filter, we would be overwhelmed by the vast amount of information out there. Many of us are.

This seems to be a trend. It's good to separate the grain from the chaff.

I agree with Mark Cuban about the wretchedly uncommercial name, "blogs". However, it's only cosmetic to change it unless you adopt more MSM techniques, like paying loads to get really big writers onboard and forging a brand outside the web.

Michael Arrington's dream -- it seems to me -- will only reach that halfway house between serious blogs and the press online. I don't see anyone getting the traction needed to take the blogosphere's content businesses into the big time.

Robert, you're right about getting "the right audience not a big one".

If this is what passes for REALLY BIG NEWS on Twitter, I'm glad I don't use it. Life's too short for criticizing the mechanics of an interview. If nothing much was said, move on, don't make World War III out of it. ;)

Invent titanium-enhanced rubber bands.

Use them to hold bundles of things together. Occam's Razor: the simplest solutions are the best.:-)

You've hit on the major problem with web-based work -- it needs constant attention and a team to watch over it in perpetuity.

Books require no attention, except a decent fire-safe environment. Your work would be much more likely to survive if you have it printed in book form and donate copies to a wide spread of major libraries : Congress, British Library etc.

I doubt Amazon, Google etc. will be around in 100 years, but there's a very strong chance the libraries will.

What keeps the great writers alive and in print, of course, is public demand. Without that, anyone's work is doomed. The best we can do is to give it a chance by putting it in a place of assured safety -- books in libraries.

Over here they don’t have really serious newspapers. That’s what the BBC is for

Erm ... The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, <strike>The Beano</strike> ... and Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

And these are Nationals, not city-based press like in the States. :)

David, you do have to bring a sense of humor along. :-)

@24

"Why aren't there any Google jokes?"

Try, THIS.

Robert, some of us just sell ads. They often come in the form of text ads, like classifieds or Adsense. That's not a crime. It shouldn't be penalized by a company claiming to "own" all the world's information. They should distinguish between the blackhats -- not difficult -- and the honest brokers of folk wanting to increase their sales of goods and services.

David, as you rightly imply, take away the VC money and there's little left for anyone in most blog networks to make massive money. The idea that it can be unionized and put on the same footing as other industries is crazy. There simply isn't enough money in original content creation to sustain it -- with some rare exceptions, of course.

As a network owner myself, I've learnt to cut costs and work on low margins. This gives me a decent income. But I work a lot harder than our writers, who just put in an hour a day. What's there to unionize?

The blogosphere is dumbing down to "Lord of the Flies" levels. Remember, when kids are given total freedom, they turn into savages.

We need an over-40s blogosphere. Andrew Keen was right.

Robert, the blogosphere has become a destroyer of creative energy. Once you give in to its demands, you will never again achieve anything in the real world.

Blogging is dead for people who really want to do something.

We call them aubergines in England, but that doesn't make them taste any better. Happy 42nd.

Robert, do it at the least as an experiment, then report back to us -- your loyal readers -- how it all went.

I'd avoid the likes of Federated Media, though, as they take 40pc of revenues. Take a little advice from an ad pro on pricing and throw out some feelers to that encyclopedic list of tech contacts you have.

I reckon once you've tried it, you'll never look back. Getting paid for something is not just about the money, it's about knowing the worth of what you're doing.

Well, I use Site5, as you know Duncan. In six months I've never had a serious problem. In fact, this week they're reducing the number of sites on each box by a half, which is quite a number. They've also brought in technical people to monitor the farm round the clock.

I know I'm going to need my own operation at some time, but I want to set my experiences alongside yours. Maybe they learned from your case. It happens. :-)

Hey, Duncan, it's "habit", not "habbit", unless you mean "hobbit", of course. :-)

Also, your blog is playing up in IE6. It does some very strange things. Photos are imposed over text, and the blog goes into negative at times. So, incidentally, does WVW, which is a nightmare at times. And Ensight just crashes my browser altogether.

I thought I'd let you know.

I've long since given up on Feedburner for that very reason, Duncan. I must admit though, I hadn't thought of that scenario conjured up by Dave. apocalyptic, or what?

He faced failure before, Duncan, when his free PDF Manifesto site was taken down. I think he tried to put it up again last year with some interns running the show. I haven't heard about it since.

As for Squidoo? Zzzzzzzzzzz.

This is a really good idea, Duncan, provided it's done professionally and they let in the smaller fry.

Of course, Text Link Ads do something similar on a very small scale, and that works very well.

I had a great week in Singapore when I decided to sail home from Perth instead of fly. It's great place and not owned by China, so reasonably free. Terrific shopping: hand-made suits for next to nothing. And the food is interesting.

What about SEOchat.com or nichebot.com? Best I can do.

Yeah, I know what you mean, Duncan. The workload can be horrendous for the successful sites.