smays.com

Too busy for bingo

While checking in at Keith Povall's Sturdy Soapbox, I spotted a mention and link to Millie Garfield, one of the Internet's oldest bloggers (82), according to something called The Ageless Project. Millie was featured in a piece on ABC, pecking away on her Mac, blogging, making videos and doing the online thing. She came across very sharp.

Millie has a second blog called "I Can't Open It" (dot com) which has a bunch of videos of products that are damn near impossible to open. Now, before you start any of that "you're just getting old" shit, just stop.

I bought a couple of ethernet cables this week and they came sealed in those clear, hard plastic shells. I went at these bastards with a carpet knife (the kind they use to topple sky scrapers) and it still took me 15 minutes to slice my way in. You might get in with a pair of tin snips or a cutting torch, but scissors? Fuhgetaboutit!

I plan to be right here, tapping away, when I'm eighty-two. Blog on, Millie!

Blogosphere as "giant wire service"

Clyde Bentley, a Missouri School of Journalism professor who researches user-generated news, speaking at the Future of Journalism conference at Harvard, June 20-21:

The debate over bloggers' influence "is over," he said. "Blogging is a numbers game. It's there and we'll just have to deal with it." Noting that 120,000 new blogs a day dwarf the country's 1,427 dailies, he said editors should treat the blogosphere like a giant wire service. Bentley said that while consumer demand for content decreases, their demand for content navigation increases. "There will always be a place for the journalist who can craft a story better than anyone else, but there will be a bigger place for the journalist who can help media consumers find the information they want."

Poynter: Centerpieces

Sports fan blogs (NPR Audio)

Interesting story on NPR this morning about a sports blog called The LoHud Yankees Blog. The blog seems to be a collaborative effort by Journal News beat writer Peter Abraham and a shit-load of fans. According to the NPR piece, a post can get as many as a thousand comments and readers will post to the blog form the stands, in the middle of a game.

I have a theory about blogs like this one. If the Yankees organization tried to create  such a successful blog, they couldn't. Wouldn't matter how much money they threw at it. There is some organic quality to really successful blogs like this one that is damned hard for big institutions to foster.

Smart companies will find and encourage and support efforts like this one. Is there a risk that someone will post something unflattering about the Yankees? Of course. But get a clue... they'll do that anyway.

Most of the pro leagues have some sort of dumb-ass policy regarding live-blogging of games by reporters so I'm a little curious how the Journal News is pulling this off. If Mr. Abraham or someone from the paper stumbles across this post, I'd love to know the answer. Could it be the Yankees are smart enough to know a really good thing when they see it?

300

Anybody who tells you they don't check their blog stats is lying. I look for the same reason you look in a wastebasket when you hear a noise coming from it.

I moved from Blogger to Typepad about 5 years ago and it has a little stats page. The metric I find most interesting is Average Page Views per Day. One hundred page views could be ten people looking at ten pages or one hundred people looking at one page. But I sort of figure most folks look at the home page for anything new and move on. Page Views = Unique Visitors.

For the last few years I've hovered around 299 PV per day. Always close to 300, but never quite there. Until today. No idea if this number will hold but it's something of a relief to --even for a few hours-- reach that number.

And now that I have, I'm going to try to think of you as those extremely gay, semi-animated Spartans in the movie "300."

"Scared to let our people blog"

Kevin O'Keefe points to an excellent post by Liz Strauss, an expert in corporate online communications.

Whether they say the words or not, many companies are afraid to let their employees blog. Liz wonders "is the blog the problem?"

"Look to the people. Isn’t the issue one of trust and control? The employer is concerned about what employees might write on the blog.

We let employees talk to customers daily — answering email, answering phone call, answering questions at exhibits, and answering letters at the office. We trust what they write on behalf of our company. We once worried in the same way about the telephone and email.

It comes down to hiring and training employees who make good decisions.

If we trust our ability to choose the right employees and to let them know the values that we hold for our company and our customers, the question of whether we should let them blog falls away as an issue.

A blog is a powerful, customer-facing tool. Like a computer, it’s as strong as the people we choose to use it."

Kevin was told recently of one senior lawyer who was told by the firm that they would not be permitted to blog. 'The firm does not allow its lawyers to blog.'

The lawyer responded with a question. 'Why am I working at a place that does not trust me to talk about what I do - about a niche in the law I am passionate about?'

"The Beltway-Blog Battle"

Writing in Time Magazine, James Poniewozek has an interesting take (The Beltway-Blog Battle) on the passing of Tim Russert.

"...the press lost its most authoritative mass-market journalist, just as it is losing its authority and its mass market."

The New Meida vs. Old Media argument got tiresome a long time ago, but Mr. Poniewozek offers a fresh take. A few paragraphs to wet your whistle:

"In their original division of labor, the old media broke news while the blogs dispensed opinion. But look at two of the biggest stories of the Democratic primary: Barack Obama's comments that working-class voters are "bitter" and Bill Clinton's rope-line rant that a reporter who profiled him was a "scumbag." Both were broken by a volunteer for the Huffington Post website, Mayhill Fowler.

Traditional reporters were aghast at Fowler's methods--the Obama meeting was closed to press (she got in as a donor), and Fowler did not identify herself when speaking to Clinton. But mainstream media had no problem treating the scoops as big news; if she had overheard both quotes in the same way but told them to a newspaper instead of publishing them, that would have been considered a coup.

The case against Fowler, in other words, was about process and credentials, not content. If sources stop trusting us, reporters asked, how will we do our jobs? But however sneaky her methods, Fowler's stories prove that one reason sites like Huffington have an audience is the perception that Establishment journalism has gotten better at serving its powerful sources than its public. Fiascoes like the Iraq-WMD reporting gave many the impression that the old rules mainly protect consultant-cosseted public officials who need protection least."

[For more on the Mayhill Fowler story, here's a bit of audio with Arianna Huffington, speaking at Guardian News & Media's internal Future of Journalism event on 18th June 2008.]

Mr. Poniewozik poses this rather rude question regarding MSM: "...if 3 million people read Drudge and 65,000 read the New Republic, which is mainstream?"

Obama-McCain Twitter Debate

Personal Democracy Forum/techPresident: "Starting tonight, a designated representative of both of the major presidential campaigns are going to participate in a free-wheeling debate on technology and government, moderated by Time magazine blogger Ana Marie Cox and channeled via Twitter."

This is probably one of those ideas that sounds more interesting than they turn out to be. But I'll be following along, just because I have the hots for AMC.

This blog's reading level: Elementary School

I checked this a couple of years ago with the same results. The reading level of smays.com is elementary school, according to this website. The high end of the scale goes up college (maybe grad school?) and I think elementary school is the low end (do pre-schoolers read?).

I know it doesn't sound like it, but I think it might be a good thing to write at a level that third graders can follow. I assure you, I'm not trying to write down to anyone. The words you read are the ones in hear in my head. Hmm. See smays blog. Blog smays, blog.

"Downloads, podcasts and embed video"

That was part of a promo I heard on MSNBC tonight. First time I noticed the phrase, "embed video." Even the networks are figuring out it's a good thing to have your video embedded in millions of blogs and websites.

I'm sure there is still a lot of "...no, no! We want them to come to OUR website!" But the web IS the network now and your affiliates are are all those blogs.

Writing for how people read online

Interesting little post at Slate on how people read online (and how to write for them). Readers tend to be "selfish, lazy and ruthless."  When you arrive on a page, you don't actually deign to read it. You scan. If you don't see what you need, you're gone.

"This blogging stuff"

Springfield Mayor Tom Carlson got all Rottweiler'y on the local press recently and among his complaints, anonymous bloggers:

"On top of that, we have this Internet thing that's going on now, this blogging stuff. Used to be, if you wanted to say something, you had to put your name it ... now, there's this anonymous character assassination that's encouraged, in order to sell newspapers or other media outlets."

It's been a while since I heard/saw "this Internet thing." One of my favorite expressions. But His Honor and I do agree on the anonymous blogging issue. He has no way of knowing if the blogger who is ripping him a new one is his opponent. And we have know way of knowing if the blogger who supports his every action is his press secretary.

If bloggers aren't journalists...where's YOUR video?

Lightning started a fire at the Magellan Petroleum factory in Kansas City, MO and uber-blogger Chuck Zimmerman share this video shot form the downtown Marriott hotel.

Coppyblogger Twitter Writing Contest

Congratulations to Ron Gould, first place winner the Coppyblogger Twitter Writing Contest. His winning entry:

“Time travel works!” the note read. “However you can only travel to the past and one-way.” I recognized my own handwriting and felt a chill.

Second place honors went to Anthony Juliano:

"Tony was a snitch, so I wasn’t surprised when his torso turned up in the river. What did surprise me, though, was where they found his head."

Thelonius Monk took third place for:

"When Gibson hit that homerun in the fall of eighty-eight, my old man had never been so happy. He hugged me for the first time. I was eleven."

The challenge was to write a story in exactly 140 characters. I fear my humble submission was too... belittling? Too pissy? We'll never know.

"To my immediate left, a hipster dwarf leaned into his urinal, cleverly achieving a haunting reverb for his "big" finish to Unchained Melody."

New media can't get here soon enough

Proto-blogger Dave Winer thinks the real problem revealed by Scott McClellan's new tell-all book is that the press was complicit in beating the Iraq war drum:

"But corporate-owned media isn't interested in helping us make decisions as a country, they're only interested in ad revenue. That's why it's so important that we're creating new media that isn't so conflicted, and why the question of whether bloggers run ads or not is far from a trivial issue."

When it comes to national media, there really are not that many outlets that need to be manipulated. Four TV networks; maybe that many cable news channels; a handful of newspapers with national reach. If you can juke them, you've got a lot of the country juked.

The sooner their influence is diminished, the better. There will no longer be even the illusion of "national media" and people will have to work (a little) at being informed. Sure, the willfully clueless will still head for blogs and news sites that confirm their view. But the rest of us will stop trusting (if we haven't already) news organizations that are child's play for political spin-miesters.

Blogger's High

E-Media Tidbits points us to an article in the May 2008 Scientific American, by Jennifer Wapner (Blogging: It's Good for You): 

"Blogging may make us feel better because it acts as a substitute or placebo for real satisfaction. Or, according to one neuroscientist cited by Wapner, our limbic (primitive) brain may have an innate need to communicate -- akin to our drives for food or sex. Thus, as we blog, our bodies may release the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine."

Damn. I feel better already.

The Digital Cottage Industry

I've posted frequently about my friend Chuck, who --with his wife Cindy and a SWAT team of free-lance bloggers-- have built a thriving business providing blogging, podcasting and related services to a growing list of clients.

"Cindy and I have been going over calendars and we just realized that we have 23 events scheduled to blog in the next 3 months. Yeeow. Just the hotel reservations, credentialing, registering, airline reservations, etc. are a task. We’ve also got 5 website projects underway just to add to the fun."

Can you make money blogging? For most, the answer is "not likely." For the few, the proud, the Marines... yes. Booyah!

"We make money because we blog, not from our blog."

"We make money because we blog not from our blog. We earn because we learn from sharing our experiences with others, not because we let advertisers hitch a ride on our writing for a fee. No one pays attention to the ads, so it doesn't matter if you include them or not." Dave Winer quoting Doc Searls

The very essence of blogging.

New report calls podcasting growth "massive"

The guys at Podcasting News share highlights from a new report by Universal McCann that suggests new media is becoming mainstream media. Among the research highlights:

"Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and a collective rival to traditional media (184m bloggers world-wide, China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42m bloggers) – 73% have read a blog, 45% have started a blog."

Key social platforms mentioned in the report: Blogging; Micro Blogging; RSS; Widgets; Chat Rooms; Message Boards; Podcasts; Video Sharing; Photo Sharing.

If you're in media now and these terms are foreign to you, or seem silly and pointless, the Cluetrain doesn't stop here anymore.

The Heartwarming Story of a Boy and his Digital Camera

My blogging buddy Chuck spent a couple of days this week covering an ag event in D.C. I followed him on Twitter and his blog. Chuck and his wife Cindy make a nice living doing event blogging and podcasting. But they work their asses off. Here's some of Chuck's output this week:

• 370 digital photos, 215 of them loaded into 2 Flickr sets
• 15 audio interviews/press conference recordings
• 2 live video/audio streamed press conferences
• 1 YouTube video
• posting/udpating on 5 different blogs
• 1 recorded/edited podcast
• 2 client site media production training sessions
• 12 mobile service story updates

Like most bloggers, Chuck is happy to help newbies and will tell anyone how he makes his magic. But only the few, the brave, are willing to work this hard.

A blogging case study, close to home

I'm always on the lookout for good (or bad) blogging stories. I found one in our own back yard during the last few days. The story isn't complicated but I think our corporate blog tells it better than I can. Just read the original post and the comments. It's all there.

I'm really proud of how our company and our CEO has used the blog to explain a difficult decision, and allow interested parties to tell us how they feel about it. I've been thinking about how this would have been handled pre-blog.

We might or might not have put out a news release. This had to do with an unpleasant decision. If the public wanted to tell us how they felt about it, they could write a letter or send an email, to which we might or might not have responded.

Whatever communication took place, it would have been slow and not very public. With a well-established corporate blog, our CEO just put it out there. The reasons for the action we took... comments... and his response to some of those comments.

Not everybody is happy with the outcome but nobody can say we haven't been open about it. As an employee --and blogger-- I'm proud of how this was handled.

Full disclosure: My wife works for a law firm that represents one of the companies mentioned in the post and comments.

"If it's relevant, I'll read about it on Twitter"

Chris Pirillo was --and remains-- an early thought-leader for me. Blogging, RSS, video... Chris was always out there on the front edge. So, when he says Twitter has become one of his primary sources of information, I'm inclined to listen.

"Back in ‘the day’, we used to have to visit web pages to get our information. Those pages didn’t tell us when they updated, so we had to find out manually. Then, along came RSS. The idea was you could subscribe to something, and it would tell you when there was a new update. Now comes Twitter, with its flood of information that allows me to spot trends in general. Twitter has supplanted the information I used to receive in my news aggregator. I don’t follow many websites anymore, and don’t really ’subscribe’ to anything. For me, if something is going to be relevant, I’m going to read about it on Twitter. With Twitter, I’m able to follow people much easier. As disorganized as it is, it’s easier for me to learn about personalities. You can understand thoughts and feelings much easier than you could with a simple RSS feed."

I'm not quite there yet, in part because I don't "follow" as many people as Chris does. But I'm starting to see what he's talking about.  A few of the folks I follow on Twitter are very plugged in and I can count on a line or two with a link when something in their area of interest breaks.

Blogger sweatshop

Follow-up to the NYT story on bloggers.

When is it time to unplug?

From a Reuters story about a new grass-roots movement in which tech geeks, Internet addicts, BlackBerry thumbers and compulsive IMers are unplugging (if only for a day)

"I realized it was a problem when I would sit down to check my email and it was almost like I would wake up six hours later and find I was watching videos of puppies on YouTube.

"I'd try and think what I had been doing for the past two hours and I had no idea. I associate that kind of time loss with blackouts when you're drunk."

"I have dream blogged. I have surfed the Internet in my dreams sometimes. If I start hearing imaginary incoming message chimes on my computer when I am out in the back yard, it tells me I have spent too much time online."

I've posted before that I can't quite remember what I did before I started blogging. And it's even harder to recall what I did before the Internet captured my attention (and time). That's probably not a good sign. But what was I doing with my time before I got my first computer, sometime around '85 or '86?

Perhaps I'm just rationalizing, but I think the time I've spent online, blogging or reading blogs (and news), has been positive for me.

I'm less argumentative. Perhaps because I dump my views and opinions here and, somehow, feel less need to yak about them. I'm better informed about many more topics. I watch less television.

Some of my best friends are people I've met online.

But the greatest personal benefit has been the creative outlet. Bearing mind that "creative" is relative.

[Thanks, Chuck]

Popular Christian TV host comes out

From Out & About: "Local Nashvillian and host of The Remix, a popular Christian youth show, Azariah Southworth, announced today that he has come out.

“This has been a long time coming. I’m in a place where I’m at peace with my faith, friends, family and more importantly myself. I know this will end my career in Christian television, but I must now live my life openly and honestly with everyone. This is my reason for doing this,” Southworth says.

Southworth has been hosting and producing the popular Christian TV show, The Remix for a year and a half. It is in syndication and can be seen in more than 128 million homes worldwide. It averages more than 200,000 viewers weekly on one of three networks."

As I read this I recalled my recent exchanges with anonymous (ok, pseudonymous) political bloggers who justified blogging from behind the curtain with concerns for their jobs.

Props to Mr. Southworth. That takes courage.

Seth Godin: "Write like a blogger"

I quote Seth Godin so often I gave him his own tag. And sometimes he writes/thinks something so dead-on that I have to quote the entire post. Every word is gold:

"You can improve your writing (your business writing, your ad writing, your thank you notes and your essays) if you start thinking like a blogger:

1. Use headlines. I use them all the time now. Not just boring ones that announce your purpose (like the one on this post) but interesting or puzzling or engaging headlines. Headlines are perfect for engaging busy readers.
2. Realize that people have choices. With 80 million other blogs to choose from, I know you could leave at any moment (see, there goes someone now). So that makes blog writing shorter and faster and more exciting.
3. Drip, drip, drip. Bloggers don't have to say everything at once. We can add a new idea every day, piling on a thesis over time.
4. It's okay if you leave. Bloggers aren't afraid to include links or distractions in their writing, because we know you'll come back if what we had to say was interesting.
5. Interactivity is a great shortcut. Your readers care about someone's opinion even more than yours... their own. So reading your email or your comments or your trackbacks (your choice) makes it easy to stay relevant.
6. Gimmicks aren't as useful as insight. If you're going to blog successfully for months or years, sooner or later you need to actually say something. Same goes for your writing.
7. Don't be afraid of lists. People like lists.
8. Show up. Not writing is not a useful way of expressing your ideas. Waiting for perfect is a lousy strategy.
9. Say it. Don't hide, don't embellish.

What would happen if every single high school student had to have a blog? Or every employee in your company? Or every one of your customers?"

Pseudonymous (triple word score)

I've been corresponding with a few political bloggers who I chided for being anonymous. Because, they explained, their ideas are so controversial, so inflammatory, so powerful... they risk their jobs or worse if they sign their names. But --they insist- they aren't anonymous. They are "pseudonymous." I had to look it up in the dictionary:

pseudonymous - writing or written under a false name
anonymous - not identified by name, of unknown name

So, if I write something and don't sign any name to it, that's anonymous. And if I sign a false name, that's pseudonymous. Yes?

Is this a distinction without a difference? Or, if I sign my letters "The Shadow," readers won't know who I am but they'll know the letter was written by someone who calls himself "The Shadow." And if I don't sign the letter at all, the reader will have no way of knowing subsequent letters were written by the same person. Is that it?

I went to two of the smartest people I know for clarification. First, Bob Priddy, a long-time broadcast journalist and author:

"One hides behind a fake name. The other hides behind no name. Steve is a name. Anonymous is a word.
 
It's the difference between hiding behind a red curtain or hiding behind a blue curtain. I suppose those who use pen names do so because they don't want to be anonymous. It's much more rewarding to hear people discussing who Howard Beale is than it is to hear people discussing who anonymous is because anonymous can be anybody and Howard Beale is somebody. Nobody discusses anonymous. Everybody discusses Howard Beale and therefore the sniper feels some kind of importance. Both are gutless but one is gutless with an ego.

My friend Kay Henderson (also a journalist) wrote this:

"I have never heard or seen the word "pseudonymous" before. Interesting. My first thought was of George Eliot who wrote under the male pseudonym because writing, at the time, was a "male profession." My second thought was "Primary Colors" was written by "Anonymous" as you'll recall.

I may be behind the times here, though. Is "Alice Cooper" or "Marilyn Manson" a pseudonym? How about "Madonna" or "Cher" or "Diddy" or "Snoop Dog" or any number of professional athletes who adopt a stage name? Our culture has grown so used to people who adopt another name/character/stage name in public that perhaps it's not that much of a stretch to expect it to happen on-line.

Is political "speech" subject to different standards than are considered the norm for the rest of the culture?  I will agree with my colleague that the cloak of a pseudonym is too often used by bloggers. But who will be the blogger police? Perhaps it will take something akin to pulling back the curtain and having Dorothy expose The Wizard to change the on-line culture. Perhaps more sites will forbid "anonymous" posting  in the comments sections. I find the requirement of a name, however, laughable in most instances if you read the "names" which are used."   

I suspect we got such passionate response to this because the phantom bloggers would like to be out. No doubt all of their friends know of their secret identities ("That 'Howard Beale' guy? That's me. Seriously."). Questioning their ethics or courage stings. I'll try to stop.

Can blogging kill you?

Jeez, I hope not. But according to this article at NYTimes.com, some bloggers are working in what amounts to a "digital-era sweatshop" and it's affecting their health. A few well-known bloggers have recently died of heart attacks.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to blog for my supper. That would take a lot of the fun out of it.

Prophetic words from the original Howard Beale

Speaking of Howard Beale. I love the movie Network. I went back to a post in September of 2006 to review the prophetic words of Paddy Chayefsky:

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's no one anywhere that seems to know what to do with us. Now into it. We know the air is unfit to breathe, our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad. Worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don't go out anymore. We sit in a house as slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster, and TV, and my steel belted radials and I won't say anything."

Well I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crying in the streets. All I know is first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, "I'm a human being. God Dammit, my life has value."

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" I want you to get up right now. Get up. Go to your windows, open your windows, and stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Things have got to change my friends. You've got to get mad. You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open your window, stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Howard Beale would have been a hell of a blogger. And he would have signed his name.

I am (not) "Howard Beale"

There. It's out in the open. I feel better already. I am the political blogger who posts under the pseudonym "Howard Beale." Because I so passionately believe all the things I write, I can no longer hide behind a curtain of secrecy. I'm out, baby!

I'm still trying to figure out how to work my blogging software so I can start using my real name on my blog posts, so you'll still see "Howard Beale" for a while. But it's me, smays.com.

And I call on my fellow phantom bloggers to pull off their masks and take ownership of their words. Trust me,  you'll feel better.

UPDATE: Okay, joke's over. Even my closest friends didn't spot this as a hoax. That's scary. This ridiculous post (and photo) should be obvious as a spoof. Looks like the real "Howard Beale" is safe for now.

When it's too risky to sign your name

"I'm mad as hell and... anonymous!"

One of our reporters stepped on blogger toes earlier this week. Steve Walsh is a reporter for The Missourinet, a radio network headquartered in Jefferson City. He took over the network blog a few weeks back and has been doing a good job with it. The post in question attempted to make some "distinctions" between MSM bloggers and "political" bloggers.

"...while the MSM bloggers represent their media outlets and, therefore, must be truthful and accurate ... the vast majority of the political bloggers are unaccountable ... and sometimes fall short of telling "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

Ouch. That's a commonly held view by a lot of reporters. And a lot of folks --bloggers and the public alike-- would question the "must be truthful and accurate" part but that's not what this post is about.

One of the blogs Steve "called out" is Fired Up Missouri. The blog represents the Democratic view of things and the blogger goes by the pseudonym "Howard Beale." Howard Beale was the fictional news anchor in the film Network.

"Howard Beale" fired back and called Steve to task for a story he did some months ago. Your normal blogosphere kerfuffle.

Steve responded and made what I consider the check-mate move. He pointed out one key difference between MSM blogs like his and Fired Up Missouri. Steve signs his posts and the blogger at Fired Up Missouri does not.

This point trumps all others in my opinion. And adds heavy irony to the choice of the pseudonym "Howard Beale."

"I want you to get up out of your chairs... go over to your computers... and post an angry rant to your blog... anonymously." See? Doesn't work.

But as luck --and some good detective work-- I have discovered the identity of "Howard Beale" and will reveal it here at 5:00 p.m. this Friday. I think you'll be shocked.

Disclosure: The company I work for, Learfield, is the parent company of The Missourinet, the company Steve Walsh works for. I should also point out that I have come out here as supporting Barack Obama. I don't think of myself as a Democrat because if he wasn't running I wouldn't be voting for the Democratic candidate. But if I have a leaning, it's more toward the views expressed on Fired Up Missouri.

Ron Paul: Still a candidate, but no longer a "contender"

A reporter for one of our networks referred to Ron Paul the "former GOP presidential candidate"  in a story we ran on Saturday and posted on our website.

It didn't take long for Paul supporters to discover the error launch an obviously coordinated email blitz. Some were nicer than others.

This evening Bob Priddy --the news director-- posted a response on the network blog. I think he struck precisely the right tone. I'm sure we'll find out if Ron Paul supporters agree.

But, all in all, this is a good thing. Our story was technically wrong. Ron Paul is not a "former" candidate. And his supporters let us know about, quickly and in larger numbers. And our network corrected the mistake and responded.

Sharpen your writing skills with "Stopwatch Challenge"

Dan Rieck suggest we can sharpen our copywriting skills with what he calls the "Stopwatch Challenge." The exercise is basically writing a radio spot that can be spoken aloud in exactly 60 seconds.

Brings back fond memories of my radio days. For a dozen years, about half of my 10 hour days were spent on the air and the other half writing and producing radio commercials. Let's see... we'll call it 50 spots a week. 200 spots a  month. 2,400 spots a year. Let's round it down to 28,000 commercials.

We had to knock 'em out fast and get 'em on the air. And the client always gave you more stuff that you could fit in 30 or 60 seconds. So part of the challenge was boiling it down.

Sixty seconds is about 16 lines. But you have to spell out numbers (one-eight-hundred-five-five-five-sixty-four-hundred).

I've never considered myself a great writer. But writing radio spots was pretty good training for blogging. Or maybe any kind of writing. Fewer words always better than more words.

I often send emails with nothing but "see subject line" in the body. I try to put it all in the subject line. Try it on your next email.

And, yes, I know this post is longer than sixty seconds.

"They're not talking to you"

From Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations":

"Who would want to be a publisher with only a dozen readers? It's also easy to see why the audience for most user-generated content is so small, filled as it is with narrow, spelling-challenged observations about going to the mall and pick out clothes. And it's easy to deride this sort of thing as self-absorbed publishing -- why would anyone put such drivel out in public?

It's simple. They're not talking to you.

We misread these seemingly inane posts because we're so unused to seeing written material in public that isn't intended for us."

This is a fascinating book that takes an academic --but easy to read-- look at social networking and how it's changing society.

Blogs = Google Juice

In January I posted a video clip of a guy bouncing a nail on the head of a hammer. Actually, he was juggling the nail on the head of the hammer. Just watch the amazing video.

Yesterday I received notification of a comment on the post. It was from Scot Nery, the man in the video. The clip had been pulled from YouTube and he provided a permanent link to the video.

I assumed he found the post with a Google search but since it didn't include his name or any identifying data, I wondered what he searched for. When I tried "nail juggle" (without the quotation marks), my post was number one out of 213,000 results. If I'm clear on how Google works, those two words would give you every hit with either "nail" or "juggle."

Think about that. Those are two pretty common words. And a lot of the results pertained to Scot Nery doing the nail thing.

Just one more example of the sweet google juice generated by blogs.

SiteSucker: Great util for backing up your blog

I've posted more than 3,000 times since starting this blog in February, 2002. I don't recall writing anything profound but I'd sure hate to lose it all.

Typepad provides a way to back up your posts but you you only get the text, images and other files can only be backed up manually, one at at time.

George pointed me to a utility called Sitesucker (Mac only) and now I have almost 8,000 files --my entire blog-- safely backed up and burned to a DVD that will go in the safe deposit box on Monday.

This is an amazingly simple utility. Enter the url, hit go and it sucks down all your files. And it maintains the file/folder hierarchy.

Not sure how I could ever restore this blog is something happened, but at least I have all the files. That would be some comfort.

90 Day Jane (The Movie?)

"I am going to kill myself in 90 days. What else should i say? This blog is not a cry for help or even to get attention. It's simply a public record of my last 90 days in existence. I'm not depressed and nothing extremely horrible has lead me to this decision. But, does it really have to? I mean, as an atheist I feel life has no greater purpose. My generation has had no great depression, no great war and our biggest obstacle is beating Halo 3. So, if I feel like saying "game over", why can't I?"

I really hope this is a promotional gimmick for a movie (I think of life in terms of good movies and bad movies). Here's how I see this one unfolding.

Jane starts a blog to chronicle her final 90 days. Along the way she meets someone (or something happens) to change her mind. At least that's how my "Old Yeller can't die!" movie ends. I sort of hear a voice-over reading her blog posts, a la You've Got Mail.

The thing that makes me suspicious is the video of Jane shopping for her "suicide dress." We get a good look at Jane in her undies and she just looks too fine to kill herself. (Yes, I am naive and sexist)

Moral dilemma: Do I follow Jane's blog? Will I feel like a chump if/when this is revealed as a marketing scam? Will I be depressed if she does "it?" [via J-Walk]

PS: One last thought on this. Jane says she is an atheist. In the unlikely event this is legit... is it ironic that religious nuts kill half a dozen strangers before killing themselves...while an atheist goes alone?

UPDATE: Not a movie tease. An art project. The site has been taken down. [Thanks to John for letting us know]

Another missed anniversary

February 2, 2002. Six years and 3,200+ posts ago I started "writing some of this down." That first post was a quote from a novel by Carl Hiaasen (Basket Case) describing two types of journalists. Been some changes there in the last six years.

The question that comes to mind is what do I get out of blogging. Well, I find it... therapeutic, but I couldn't explain how.

More rewarding, however, has been helping others get started. Blog on!

Candidates hold first debate on Internet radio program

Wisconsin State Journal: "The two candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court will debate for the first time today -- but it won 't be face to face. The candidates will square off during a one-hour Internet radio debate hosted by a UW-Milwaukee student.

The debate is thought to be the first of its kind in a Wisconsin political race, said Kyle Duerstein, the journalism student who is hosting the program. Listeners will be able to hear the candidates debate and call in with questions. It will be the first forum featuring both candidates."

I'd love to know the back story on this. Was there no interest in such a debate by mainstream media? Did Mr. Duerstein just ask the candidates and they agreed? [Thanks, Jackie]

Update: WRN News Director Bob Hague talked with Mr. Duerstein about the debate.Download/Listen to interview (MP3)

Dave Winer podcasts "because I want to say something"

"There's a mini-debate going on about whether podcasting is a success or worth it, or whatever, I'm not sure exactly what the issue is, but it's framed this way --> if you can't get advertisers to hitch a ride on your podcast then podcasting is not worth much if anything.

My phone doesn't have a business model. Neither does my porch. I still like having a phone and a porch because they help me meet new people and communicate with people I know. Same with my blog and podcast.

I do a podcast from time to time because I want to say something. Whether I can run an ad on my podcast means nothing to me because I would never do it. ... I would never burden my podcasting with the task of supporting me. It's not why I podcast. ... Blogging and podcasting exist independent of a professional's ability to eek out a living using the tools of blogging and podcasting."

You can read Mr. Winer's full post here.

My colleague David is helping a number of clients with blogs and podcasts and none are ad supported. They exist solely to help tell the client's story. Blogs and podcasts are inexpensive, effective, easy and fun.

For my part, nothing ruins a good hobby like trying to make money with it.

Unhappy Camper

Our offices are just a couple of hundred feet from the headquarters of the Missouri Farm Bureau. As I headed out for lunch I noticed a motor home had pulled off the highway, just in front of FB building. I didn't have my camera (I know, I know) so I didn't get a shot but found this on the FarmBureauLies.com website.

This guy is not a happy camper. And I have no idea who is right in his dispute with Farm Bureau.

I'm just wondering how many people got back to their offices and did what I did... pulled up the website. And if you're Farm Bureau (or any big company), what --if anything-- is the proper response. I'm sure the lawyers would tell them they can't say anything about a matter that's being litigated.

As disgruntled customers take their grievances online, it would make sense for big companies (and small ones) to have a online strategy of their own (I looked for a FB blog but didn't find one). Seems to me companies have to find some way to engage with their customers in this space.

If the sign on the camper read "Learfield Sucks" and was parked in front of our building, what would we do? If Clyde Lear had his way, he'd probably go and talk to the guy. Maybe record an interview with the guy, let him tell his story. And then post all or part of that on the company blog.

Would the guy be any less pissed? Who knows. Would we look more responsive or concerned as a company? To some.

Twittering the Iowa Caucuses

A couple of weeks ago I wondered if we'd see any live blogging from the local precincts that make up the Iowa Caucuses. I figured someone must be trying to pull this together and found this post by Patrick Ruffini at Hugh Hewitt's Townhall.com:

"On Iowa Caucus night, I'd like to launch a little experiment in citizen journalism. Mobile technology allows anybody to communicate from anywhere, including from inside a caucus. Any caucus goer can become a citizen reporter, relaying key facts to the outside world instantaneously. I'd like to recruit an army of caucus insiders -- both Republicans and Democrats -- to report results instantly and share tidbits on what the campaigns are doing to sway last-minute undecideds."

Caucus bloggers can participate via Twitter, email or by texting.

Not sure how busy I'll be helping with RadioIowa.com, but I'll try to keep an eye on this experiment.

Related bonus link on the Iowa Caucuses "entrance poll."

Scott Adams: Why blogging is so popular

"I think the pleasure of completed work is what makes blogging so popular. You have to believe most bloggers have few if any actual readers. The writers are in it for other reasons. Blogging is like work, but without coworkers thwarting you at every turn. All you get is the pleasure of a completed task."

Once again, Mr. Adams is on the money.

Blogging as marketing tool

Good story in the NYT Small Business section on blogging as a marketing tool:

"...while blogs may be useful to many more small businesses, even blogging experts do not recommend it for the majority.

Guy Kawasaki, a serial entrepreneur, managing partner of Garage Technology Ventures and a prolific blogger, put it this way: “If you’re a clothing manufacturer or a restaurant, blogging is probably not as high on your list as making good food or good clothes.”

Blogging requires a large time commitment and some writing skills, which not every small business has on hand."

New blogging rules from the NCAA

"The NCAA this week announced a formal program limiting how often bloggers with media credentials can update their blog while attending championship college events.

The sports governing body set blogging limits for each sport. For example, those at football games can update their blogs three times per quarter and once at halftime. For basketball, bloggers can post five times per half, once at halftime and twice per overtime period.

The policy even sets rules for water polo (three per quarter, once at halftime), bowling (10 blog posts per session) and fencing (10 per session)."

It seems pretty clear that the NCAA wants to prohibit anything approaching real-time coverage of the event. Companies --like the one I work for-- pay millions for the exclusive broadcast rights to collegiate sporting events. A reporter (or a dozen reporters) up in the press box live blogging the game --in theory-- dilutes the value of the rights we purchased.

The phrase that caught my eye was "bloggers with media credentials." If I'm just a fan, can I blog at will? If your credentials are at stake, you probably wouldn't fight this. But if you're  a civilian, you could tell the NCAA to piss off. Does this mean the NCAA thinks only bloggers with some media connection can/will have a significant audience? [News.com via J-Walk Blog

Blogs in Plain English

I don't think I ever succeeded in explaining RSS but just about everyone gets it after watching this brief video by Common Craft. And now they've worked their magic again with this short video explaining blogs. [via Podcasting New]

Life before blogging

As I (try to) agonize about not blogging, I've struggled to recall what I did before I started keeping this journal. I really don't remember. I was farting around with computers and BBS's and CompuServe and such but that couldn't have filled the time. What was I doing?

I think I spent more time at work in those days. I was on the road a lot and that took up lots of time.

The flip side of the question, of course, is how would I fill the time if I stopped blogging? TV? While I don't actually watch many programs, I find I can achieve an alpha-state by surfing through all of the channels 8 or 9 times.

I still like to read and can grind away endless hours with a good book. Could I fill all the time? Perhaps. It's a rhetorical question since I don't really expect to stop blogging. But with any hobby, one can always lose interest.

No, the thought of smays.com dark and abandoned is too depressing. It would haunt me. I'll cobble together a bullshit post like this from time to time until my mojo returns.

"Steve cleans the blog cages"

We had VIP's visiting the office today. VIP'ish enough that The Big Guy gave the tour. When the group got to my door, the boss introduced me, which usually comes out something along the lines of, "Steve's our web guy." Today he went with, "Steve takes care of our blogs."

Why is this worth a mention? I'm not sure it is. And I should point out that I assist The Big Guy when he needs a little formatting help or wants to attach a file.

It caught my ear, is all I'm saying. And while helping with the corporate blog is a small part of my duties, it was... interesting to be introduced in that manner.

And someday "blogger" will be as quaint a job title as "radio announcer."

Blog Readability Test

Enter your url and The Blog Readability Test Page purports to determine "what level  of education is needed to read your blog." If you made it through junior high you should have no trouble with smays.com. I assume the less education the better, up to a point. Candidly, I always assumed my readers had about an 8th grade education. [Thanks, David]

More ads flowing to blogs?

The Society for New Communications Research is a think tank on new media. They recently asked a couple of hundred advertising agencies about their plans to advertise and market in "conversational media" (blogs and podcasts and such). Among the findings:

"In the next five years, a majority of advertising and marketing professionals expect to spend more money on so-called conversational media--or online media that encompasses things like blogs and podcasts--than on advertising through traditional media such as newspapers or magazines.

Today, a majority of these agencies said that they spend about 2.5 percent of their total budgets on conversational media, but by 2012, they plan to tip that percentage to more than they spend on traditional media."

From a post by Stefanie Olsen over at the C|Net Blog (Thanks to Kevin O'Keefe at LexBlog for the pointer.)

As one who has made his living from "radio spots" for 30+ years, this is hard to imagine. But five years isn't that long. I guess we'll see.