Author Archives: Steve Mays

Inauguration: Day One

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Not counting Saturday since that was just travel. But today was a full day. We rode the Metro from the northern part of the district where we’re staying down to the National Mall. Got there around 9 or 9:30 a.m. Not a lot people there yet except media types getting set up or already in place (MSNBC).

Couldn’t get the GPS on the iPhone working until George suggested I reboot. You don’t want to be at an event like this without a fully functioning iPhone.

Walked down to the Capitol (as close as we could get) and then all the way down Pennsylvania Ave to the end of the parade route, mostly to locate the office of the firm at which Barb works.

By then the crowds were flooding in to get seats for the opening ceremony and concert. If today is any indicator, tomorrow and Tuesday are gonna be scary. But I must say everyone seemed happy (joyuous?). Lots of little kids, even as cold as it was.

Tomorrow we head back down to pick up our tickets, at which time we’ll have some idea of where we’ll be for the Big Moment.

The historic nature of this event is starting to get to me and it’s hard not to feel a real bond with the millions that will be here. You won’t find many in this crowd who think O is “just another smooth talking pol.” We are all believers.

Pardon me, but I believe that’s my bag

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Uneventful trip to DC. The city is clearly gearing up fo The Moment. Big concert tomorrow –if we decided to endure a smaller crowd (150,000?). Then some kind of party tomorrow night for political bigwigs from Missouri. Barb’s going to try to pass me off as a client.

We’ll use tomorrow as a dry-run for Monday and Tuesday. See if we can do the buses and metro. Will try to post pix on the fly and post any video after we return to base camp.

Think before pressing send

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President-elect Barack Obama told CNN he thinks he may be able to “hang onto” his blackberry after all.

“I think we’re going to be able to hang onto one of these. Now, my working assumption, and this is not new, is that everything I write on e-mail could end up being on CNN. So I make sure that — to think before I press ‘send.’”

What if all of our leaders understood that everything they say an do “could end up being on CNN” and they had to think before pressing send?

I love that O wants to keep his Blackberry, even if he can only use it for personal communication. The man wants to stay connected.

Everybody is on Facebook

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“For a long while—from about the late ’80s to the late-middle ’90s, Wall Street to Jerry Maguire—carrying a mobile phone seemed like a haughty affectation. But as more people got phones, they became more useful for everyone—and then one day enough people had cell phones that everyone began to assume that you did, too. Your friends stopped prearranging where they would meet up on Saturday night because it was assumed that everyone would call from wherever they were to find out what was going on. From that moment on, it became an affectation not to carry a mobile phone; they’d grown so deeply entwined with modern life that the only reason to be without one was to make a statement by abstaining. Facebook is now at that same point—whether or not you intend it, you’re saying something by staying away.”

— Slate

Inauguration security tightest ever

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“People attending the ceremony and parade can expect to be searched by machines, security personnel or both. Precautions will range from the routine — magnetometers like those used at airports — to counter snipers trained to hit a target the size of a teacup saucer from 1,000 yards away as well as undercover officers, bomb sniffing dogs and air patrols. And Washington’s 5,265 surveillance cameras, spread around the city, are expected to be fed into a multi-agency command center. Including the Secret Service, 58 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are providing security.” – Associated Press

Wonkette joins Air America

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“Air America Media has hired Ana Marie Cox as its first Washington, D.C.-based national correspondent, travelling the country to profile people and stories illustrating life in America.  She will contribute text, video and audio content to airamerica.com, as well as to a weekly program to air on Air America’s radio network.  Cox will debut on Air America on Monday, January 19 to report from the nation’s capital for Air America’s Inauguration coverage.”

Packing extra Depends

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“TV news crews being dispatched out “in the field” to cover the Mall and other key gathering points are being told to pack for survival conditions, which includes likely toting along a five-gallon jug to use for bodily functions. Sadly, bathrooms may become the big issue as the big day unfolds. The city’s subway system is planning on locking all of its bathrooms for security reasons (they will post a total of 150 or so port-a-potties outside of the stations, concentrating them in the suburbs, outside of the city itself; Metro may also close some of its escalators to help with crowd control, leaving newly minted riders to walk up steep metal steps 100 to 200 feet high). The rest of the city plans to deploy up to 5,000 jiffy johns, which works out to something on the order of 10,000 people minimum per bathroom, optimistically assuming that not everyone will have to “go.” – The Daily Beast

“News is being deindustrialized. No factory needed.”

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I pulled the following from a recent post on Jeff Jarvis’ Buzz Machine:

“But there is no more one job description – journalist – in one industry – newspapers – with one business model – print advertising – to pay them.

I believe, as I said here, that many slices will make up a new pie: more focused news companies contributing journalism and curation and other value; successful specialist bloggers growing large businesses (Gawker Media, TechCrunch, Silicon Alley Insider); smaller bloggers that are big enough to make them worthwhile to make (BaristaNet); volunteer bloggers and contributors who add to the pie because they care and share; public-supported journalistic activity (Spot.us, ProPublica); crowd-created efforts, and on and on.

Note, though, the verb that started that long sentence: “believe.” I don’t know yet. None of us does until we try and learn and share best practices.

But I am confident that journalism as an activity will not disappear, that there will be a market demand for it, that there are many new ways to fulfill the task (and debate about how it is done). But – bottom line – journalism and journalists will not disappear unless they insist on defining themselves as an industry that operates in just one way . The key to survival is reinventing what we do.”

“You’re not clever enough to be cute. Just be honest.”

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Seth Godin explains (by the numbers) how to send a personal email. My three favorites from his list:

  • Just because you have someone’s email address doesn’t mean you have the right to email them.
  • Don’t mark your email urgent. Urgent to you is not urgent to me.
  • Be short. The purpose of an email is not to sell the person on anything other than writing back. If you don’t have a personal, interesting way to start a conversation, don’t write.

Do I have the balls to forward Seth’s list to those who violate these simple rules? No, probably not.