Yearly Archives: 2005

cc: world.

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Ian Kennedy was fortunate enough to be at the Bite blogging seminar in San Francisco this week pulled some golden nuggets from remarks by Doc Searls. I believe those that understand these ideas will thrive in the networked world, and those that do not…are fucked.

* On Blogging – email that I would write with “cc:world”
* On time it takes to blog – if you look at your email, the volume you put out in email probably exceeds what’s up on my blog.
* On marketing – it’s about conversations and not messages. Branding was a concept that P&G brought from the cattle industry. Branding is about putting out 8 boxes of soap and “singing about the difference.”
* On writing as content – John Perry Barlow once said that he never heard about content until the container business felt threatened. Once you start talking about “content” you’re already off base.
* On the Net – it’s a place, not a medium. The nodes of the net are not seperated by time or space, a blog post is immediate. You don’t send a message using “content.” You’re having a conversation in a place. You are “on the net,” you use real estate metaphors to describe the net.

As a parting thought, Doc described (paraphrasing) his life before blogging as one of, “pushing many big rocks a short way uphill” and his life now as a blogger as, “rolling many snowballs down a hill with the compelling ideas gaining mass as they roll downhill.”

Sin City

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I never read Frank Miller’s Sin City stories (comic books?) but I did enjoy the movie. Sin City is one of those digital-with-live-actors-not-really-animation movies that –for me– really worked. I was immediately struck by the power of the soundtrack, which showed off all the great voices: Powers Booth, Rutger Hauer, Mickey Rourke, Benicio Del Toro.

I didn’t see any punches pulled but wasn’t offended by the graphic violence. It was all in fun. I’m starting to resent paying $25 to see a movie (for two) but Jessica Alba’s cowgirl dance on the bar was just about worth it. Barb said I moaned aloud. [Sin City website]

“Drunk Bitch Friday”

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Lex & Terry’s regular Friday morning “Drunk Bitch Friday” feature (on University of Florida-owned WRUF-FM) leads the Gainesville school – concerned about student alcohol abuse – to at least temporarily drop the syndicated duo’s Friday show. The idea is to derive some entertainment from a women who’s driven – by a sober friend – to the studio for a live interview. Lex & Terry also drop in reminders about not driving drunk. They’ve recently started calling the feature “DBF”, by the way.

Pope fatigue

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A reporter friend (not from Iowa) wrote this satirical piece on the endless coverage of the Pope’s death and funeral:

(Decorah) Many Iowans gathered around their TV sets to watch the funeral of Pope John Paul the Second this morning. John Smith of Decorah says he had never met the Pope, but he felt a closer bond to him after reading about him in the newspaper over the past week. Smith says he will miss the Pontiff’s appearances on network newscasts every Good Friday and Easter Sunday, even though he could not understand the Latin spoken by the Pope, and Peter Jennings usually spoke over the audio anyway. Smith believes the Pope will be missed by many Iowans in his bowling league, who thought John Paul seemed to be a nice man, even though he probably was not a bowler himself. He says the early TV coverage of the Pope’s funeral provided a special moment while he was trying to get ready to work the early shift at a local poultry plant, where he says many of his Hispanic coworkers are Catholic, too.

Satellite Radio

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Two interesting nuggets from (still another) NTY story on satellite radio. 1) Total (XM + Sirius) subscribers will probably surpass eight million by the end of the year, “making satellite radio one fo the fastest-growing technologies ever – faster, for example than cellpones. 2) Steven Van Zandt (E Street Band and Sopranos) programs two music channels for Sirius.

Podcasting is bottom-up

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Rex Hammock knocks “the business of podcasting. Not the essence of podcasting” in a response to Darren Barefoot. I agree with Mr. Hammock about the content of podcasts:

The “killer-app” content will be that which has no professional alternative: A report from a Mom to her two children away in college; a recording of a Sunday School class for six people who couldn’t attend; an inspirationial chat from the regional sales manager to 15 sales people to listen to while driving between calls; an explanation of a new product by the lead engineer; a father’s play-by-play description of a Little League baseball game — all showing up automagically on the iPod or other MP3 player of the individuals who “subscribe” to it.

KBOA Trivia Bowl

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KBOA (Modern Era) - 04

Some Canadian guys developed the concept for Trivial Pursuit in 1979 and released the board game two years later and the game’s popularity peaked in 1984. But we had been playing trivia on the air at KBOA for a number of years by then and it was about as much fun as anything I ever did on the air. While cleaning out a closet this afternoon, I found a tape of a show (first half-hour) we did in May of 1981.


[Download/listen]. Team members: John Robison, Jeff Wheeler and Tom Colvin. Good friends, then and now.

Profitable Demise

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An intriguing open to a thoughtful article by Jay Rosen (PressThink). The piece (Laying the newspaper gently down to die. And keeping the spirit of journalism alive.) looks at challenges facing the newspaper business and how it is (or is not) meeting those challenges. But I believe there’s something here for all traditional media. My big take-away was a concept called “harvesting market position.” A last-resort business model for companies undermined by substitute technology.

“An industry that won’t move until it is certain of days as good as its golden past is effecively dead, from a strategic point of view. Besides, there is an alternative if you don’t have the faith or will or courage needed to accept reality and deal. The alternative is to drive the property to a profitable demise.

Drive the property to a profitable demise. You won’t see that in the company mission statement. But my favorite quote from Professor Rosen’s article came from Craig Newmark (craigslist):

“I realize I’m no news guy, not an activist; just like everyone else, tired of news that I can’t trust. My favorite irony is that Jon Stewart produces fake news that’s honest; and the White House produces allegedly honest news that’s really fake.”

“Telemarketing Wiz”

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This is a true story although I have changed the names to protect the innocent and the clueless.

A couple of months ago, a friend (I’ll call him Ishmael) started a blog called “Telemarketing Wiz” and began posting all kinds of interesting stuff about telemarketing. He started hearing from others in the telemarketing business and people started linking to his blog. He got a little buzz going. Not a raging wildfire, but a little brush fire. Google “telemarketing” and his blog is #3 in the results.

One day recently, Ishmael has a meeting with someone at a publication called “Telemarketing.” (Remember, all of the names have been changed. This has nothing to do with telemarketing) The Telemarketing executive tells Ishmael they are not happy with him using the name “telemarketing” and they’d really like for him to stop. They even offered him a few worthless incentives.

Ishmael was shocked and said he’d think about it but wasn’t inclined to change the name of his blog. There were dozens of companies using the term “telemarketing”… why was the Big Publication concerned about him? Could it be that Big Publication was getting tired of hearing about Telemarketing Wiz?

Legal issues aside, this is a nice example of cluelessness on the part of MSM. I suggested to Ishmael that he change the name of his blog to “TelemarketingSucks.com,” but he’s more of a grown-up than I.

Would it have made more sense for Big Publisher to say, “We’ve noticed what you’re doing and think it’s pretty exciting. We’d like to hire you to blog for our publication.”

I’m sure that Telemarketing is a very good publication. Maybe the best. With lots of talented writers and editors and advertisers and big building with a nice lobby. A great place to read about telemarketing. But not the only place.

If Ishmael was writing a little paper newletter and mailing to a few hundred people, Big Publisher probably wouldn’t care what he called it. But the web is national. It’s global. Anybody can play. It’s no longer about who can come up with a few hundred thousand (million?)dollars to start a magazine. One guy, with a computer, and a head full of good ideas can get in the game. It’s a new day.

Air America Radio

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“In early 2004, a group of investors set out to launch a liberal radio network that would challenge the dominance of America’s airwaves by conservative talk radio. The creative, financial and logistical challenges were immense, but on March 31, Air America Radio became a reality. LEFT OF THE DIAL chronicles the trials and tribulations involved in starting up – and sustaining – a nationwide radio network during a highly charged election year.”

Left of the Dial is another fascinating documentary from HBO.