Category Archives: Quotable & Notes

Bruce Sterling: The Future of the Internet

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“The future of the Internet lies not with institutions but with individuals. Low-cost connections will proliferate, encouraging creativity, collaboration, and telecommuting. The Net itself will recede into the background. If you’re under 21, you likely don’t care much about any supposed difference between virtual and actual, online and off. That’s because the two realms are penetrating each other; Google Earth mingles with Google Maps, and daily life shows up on Flickr. Like the real world, the Net will be increasingly international and decreasingly reliant on English.

“The Internet crawled out of a dank atomic fallout shelter to become the Mardi Gras parade of my generation. It was not a bolt of destructive lightning; it was the sun breaking through the clouds.” — Science fiction writer and futurist Bruce Sterling in his final column for Wired

This idea resonates with me because I have very little faith or confidence in institutions… and a lot of confidence in (some) individuals. And the Net allows me to find and connect with individuals in ways institutions can not.

Scott Adams happy to be greedy capitalist

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“I’m happy that lots of people vote. The system would break down otherwise, and short of me being the dictator, I can’t think of a better system than imaginary democracy masking the naked ambitions of greedy capitalists. It sounds bad when you say it, but frankly I don’t have a better idea. I’m just happy I have a chance to be one of those greedy capitalists myself. Now go vote me some tax breaks.”

— Scott Adams

RSS: ‘Ready for Some Stories’

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Kevin O’Keefe (LexBlog) points to a really good explanation of RSS:

“RSS is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that?

Suppose you have 50 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each website and blog everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can ‘subscribe’ to a website or blog, and get ‘fed’ all the new headlines from all of these 50 sites and blogs in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours. What a time saver!

That one place where your RSS list is created is called an RSS Reader, and it gathers all the headlines from all the websites and blogs you have subscribed to.”

I’m told IE7 does a nice job with RSS but I suspect I’ll stick with Google Reader.

Why the asterisk is “The Most Obscene Letter”

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“Naked naughty words can destroy your brain and also society as a whole. However – and one would think this is obvious – It’s completely safe to THINK naughty words. And it’s safe to cause other people to think naughty words. But if you spell those naughty words without the asterisk loin cloth to protect your victims, you’re a danger to society. I know this to be true because I heard it from lots of people who have sh*t-for-brains.”

— Scott Adams explains why the asterisk is “The Most Obscene Letter”

When I write “WTF”… the little voice in your head says “What the fuck?” If I type “*ss hole,” you hear “ass hole.” But they’re just words. They can’t really hurt you. If you don’t believe me, read Adam’s post.

Bush uses “the Google.”

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“One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It’s very interesting to see — I’ve forgot the name of the program– but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It reminds me of where I wanna be sometimes.” 

— George W. Bush (2006)

The Cleopatra Effect

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Hugh Macleod explains why he doesn’t do corporate blog consulting.

gapingvoid.com

My take on this goes something like this: If you have what it takes to blog, you really don’t need much guidance or consultation. If you do not have what it takes, no amount of either will help.

Many years ago a wise and patient man named Hoyt Wooten gave me some guitar lessons. In answer to my question, “Think I’ll ever learn to play this thing?”, Hoyt answered: “Depends on how long you live.”

Scott Adams: Knowing when to quit

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“You usually have to try a bunch of things before luck has an opportunity to find you. So how do you know when to bail out of a losing idea? … I heard a useful rule about predicting success during my (failed) attempt at creating a hit Dilbert animated TV show: If everyone exposed to a product likes it, the product will not succeed. The reason that a product “everyone likes” will fail is because no one “loves” it. The only thing that predicts success is passion, even if only 10% of the consumers have it. … Great ideas catch on immediately, and passionately, at least with the early adopters.”

— Scott Adams

What new Arbitron rules mean for radio stations

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“When listening is defined as broader than “radio” alone, then you are no longer in the “radio business.” You’re in the business of audio entertainment and information, regardless of distribution channel. That little home-grown Internet radio station from Zimbabwe is now your competitor. When “Listening” is defined according to things that do not require a radio, you are no longer in the “radio business.” Get it?” — Mark Ramsey

NAB Radio Show: The Newspaper of the Future

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Scott Brandon’s latest dispatch from the NAB Radio Show (“How to Make Your Station Website the Newspaper of the Future”):

“We begin with internet problems. Not a good sign. Wish I had my camera. Feels like a college lecture hall. The session is led by Paul Coates from Branson. Roger Utnehmer (DoorCountyDailyNews.com) was scheduled to present but had to drop out due to illness.

Really, this thing was all about why to do it (revenue opportunities, audience movement) nothing much about how to do it. More “ain’t this neat” than anything else. Toward the end people started to push him for logistic info. At some point, Coates lost control and the herd took over. Lots of independent conversations and random questions being thrown out and answers coming from the gallery.

Some notes:

  • Traditional newspaper is continuing to decline. That means there is an opportunity to grab those non-traditional readers.
  • Radio can drive people to the web and make money. If newspaper drives you to web, they lose your traditional sub rev.
  • Your website has to supply news not history.
  • You already have news and sports departments.
  • You can charge premium price. Print buyers used to spending lots. Too low and it doesn’t seem worth it.
  • Sky is limit on content.
  • [More internet problems. Everyone in the crowd has advice.]
  • Fresh content is needed everyday and early in the morning. By 5:30 or 6:00.
  • His unique visitors have leveled out but his per-day visits have gone up. On average, each person visits 3 times a day. Guess what? They update the news 3 times a day.
  • “Show-me more” feature on Roger’s site allows sponsors to put up a video of their biz or offerings.
  • Hometowndailynews.com is working on adding a feature to their “area dining” section that will allow you to do on-line orders to your favorite restaurant.
  • Your site should have different name than station. Must be a full stand alone feel. Otherwise, people feel they are just spending more money/time on your station.
  • Did not hire new staff. Shuffle duties of existing staff.
  • Now we’re into legal stuff. Is it legal to link to google? Sigh.
  • Mistakes he made: 1) Have more patience; 2) Sell it to your staff first; 3) Crawl, walk, run”

Early in the game

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31.4% of Americans don’t have internet access; 88% of all users have never heard of RSS; 59% of American households have zero iPods in them; 30% of internet users in the US use a modem; Detroit (one million people) has six Starbucks.

Seth is reminding us “all the growth and opportunity and the fun is at the leading edge, at the place where change happens” and we’re living on a never-ending adoption curve. For those of us in media, who depend on advertising… I’d rather be early to the this dance than late.

Bonus Quote: Doing it for free

“…pioneers are almost never in it for the money. The smart ones figure out how to take a remarkable innovation and turn it into a living (or a bigger than big payout) but not the other way around. I think the reason is pretty obvious: when you try to make a profit from your innovation, you stop innovating too soon. You take the short payout because it’s too hard to stick around for the later one. ”