Blogging for president

Posted on September 7, 2006 by Steve Mays

I’m sorry, but radio and TV has completely fucked up the way we elect the leaders of our country. Think about it. We elect presidents and senators and governors and damned near everybody based on:

* :30 TV spots
* Debates that aren’t
* Speeches the candidate didn’t write
* Yard signs (that’s a small town thing but it’s universal. The guy with the most yard signs wins)

Do any of these reveal anything about the ideas or intelligence of the candidate. No way. You know what would? A blog. A blog written 100% by the candidate (not sure how you could keep the bastards from cheating and you know they’d try).

Make every candidate blog during the year leading up to the election. They can post as often as they like… about any topic they like.

This has the added benefit of requiring the American voter to get more involved than watching some mindless network television salted with attack ads.

“Wait a minute, smays. Leadership requires courage and values (like mine) and a bunch of other qualities that have nothing to do with how well you express your ideas in writing.”

Horse shit. If you can’t think… you can’t lead. At least not well. And I want to measure the quality of your ideas. Not the ideas of your campaign manager, or your PR firm… your ideas.

If you’re hung up on the writing thing… let’s throw a podcast into the mix. Every candidate produces a weekly, fifteen minute podcast. Any topic, any format. But the candidate must produce it him or herself (they go into a glass walled studio, put it together and upload it).

Imagine reading blogs written by George W. Bush; Bill Clinton (or Hillary Clinton); Al Gore; John Kerry; John McCain; Al Sharpton; Dick Cheney; Ralph Nader… you get the idea. Can you honestly say you wouldn’t have a better feel for who these people are and what they really believe? Of course they’d try to scam and bullshit you. But it would be so much harder to do.

I can fool you for 30 seconds at a time. Especially if you’ re not paying much attention. But if you’re reading what I say every day, for a year… you’re gonna learn some things about me. Good and bad.

And here’s the proof of this pot of pudding: Regular readers of smays.com have NO doubt that I would make a really bad (fill in the elective office).

Feedback: LeAnn says the tone of this post lacks “the same effervescent, entertaining qualities of your other posts. I am concerned someone pissed you way the “f” off on Thursday.” Nope, Thursday was a very nice day. But the post does read “angry,” doesn’t it. I should really stay away from politics.

I had to look up the definition of “effervescent” (vivacious; gay; lively; sparkling). I think I can sparkle but vivacious will be a stretch.

Mac desktop image

Posted on September 6, 2006 by Steve Mays

I am incapable of keeping a clean, orderly desktop on any of my Windows machines. Folders and files and shortcuts scattered from top to bottom. It is in no way the fault of the OS. It’s my sloppiness. I have discovered, however, that I can keep the MacBook desktop clean. Maybe it’s the dock or the way Finder works or, perhaps, it’s just the beautiful desktop images that ship with OSX. It would be a shame to cover them. I don’t know. But here’s the desktop as of 5 minutes ago.

Short Attention Gamer

Posted on September 6, 2006 by Steve Mays

Had lunch with Todd Fuller yesterday. Todd’s the communications guy for the Missouri State Teachers Association who –along with his partner, Gail McCray– does a weekly podcast for MSTA. I posted an interview with Todd and Gail last week.

I don’t know if it’s his first love but Todd’s a gamer and –along with his pal Matt– produces another podcast called Short Attention Gamer. According to their website:

“Short Attention Gamer is the podcast for those who love playing games but don’t always have the time to play them. Matt and Todd, both family men and gaming enthusiasts, take you through the newest games and consoles available and breakdown which of these reward those individuals who can play for only short periods of time. If you find some of your best gaming sessions are taking place in a locked bathroom with kids banging on the door on the other side, then this show is for you.”

Todd is a pretty modest guy but, reading betwen the lines, I got the impression SAG is a well-known and popular podcast. Exhibit A: A very clever annimation by one of their fans who took a segment from one of their podcasts and… just watch it. It’s short and funny. And if you’re into games, check out Short Attention Gamer.

Interview: Dan Arnall, Business Editor, ABC News

Posted on September 4, 2006 by Steve Mays

Dan Arnall In the mid-90’s (1996? 1995) I went searching for someone that could help our our company get online. Websites were a new thing and I didn’t have a clue where to start, so I called Mike McKean at the University of Missouri School of Journalism (not sure if he was a professor back then) and he said he had a student that was really sharp, had his own web page, and might be just what we were looking for.

I met with Dan who told me he and his best friend, Allen Hammock, had a company that could do just what we needed. I think the company was about 10 minutes old at that moment but we wound up hiring Dan and Allen (who became affectionately known as the Cyber Twins) to guide Learfield into the new digital age.

We got wet –like everybody else– when the Internet bubble burst and Dan and Allen moved on to pursue their careers. Dan, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, kicked around in Seattle and San Francisco for a bit and then went back to to get his masters degree at Columbia University.

We chatted for half and hour earlier this evening, talking about his duties at ABC; the changing world of journalism and media; living in Manhatten and Brushes with Near Greatness (John Lithgow and Tony Danza). (AUDIO: 30 min, 10 meg MP3)

Technical Note: After screwing the pooch on a couple of Skype interviews, I’m proud to report this sounds pretty good. I was a tad hot but I didn’t lose the interview.

It’s a guy thing

Posted on September 4, 2006 by Steve Mays

I came across this really amazing photo of urinals in a men’s room and remembered posting on this topic about a year ago. When I went searching for the earlier post I discovered my link now takes me to a page full of unusual urinals.

Perhaps one’s fascination with urnials increases with age and we spend more and more time gazing at bland men’s room walls.

Seth Godin: No more job interviews

Posted on September 4, 2006 by Steve Mays

I’ve long held that job interviews are a waste of time. They tell you nothing. And once someone is hired, you usually know within a week if you made the right decision. But then it’s too late. My man Seth Godin (I know, I know) suggests a better way:

“There are no one-on-one-sit-in-my-office-and-let’s-talk interviews. Boom, you just saved 7 hours per interview. Instead, spend those seven hours actually doing the work. Put the person on a team and have a brainstorming session, or design a widget or make some espressos together. If you want to hire a copywriter, do some copywriting. Send back some edits and see how they’re received.

If the person is really great, hire them. For a weekend. Pay them to spend another 20 hours pushing their way through something. Get them involved with the people they’ll actually be working with and find out how it goes. Not just the outcomes, but the process. Does their behavior and insight change the game for the better? If they want to be in sales, go on a sales call with them. Not a trial run, but a real one. If they want to be a rabbi, have them give a sermon or visit a hospital.”

I’ve been thinking about the various job openings we have at Learfield, wondering if this could work for us, and I can’t see why it wouldn’t. But more to the point, the traditional interview technique is worthless, so what have you got to lose?

Opie and Anthony on Letterman

Posted on September 3, 2006 by Steve Mays

I’ve been hearing about Opie & Anthony since they got infamous. But I’ve never heard their show. Got my first look at the lads as they chatted with Dave on Late Night (YouTube). I think they’re on XM so I’ll give ’em a listen, just to see what all the fuss is about. I wonder if the the segment will be seen by more people on YouTube than saw it on Letterman? Probably not. It was a pretty typical interview. Hardly viral.

Update (Next morning): I sampled O&A this morning on XM. They were taking calls from listeners (mostly teenage boys) while they (the callers) were going through their parents’ bedroom drawers. Lots of giggling. Hardly fair to judge the show on one brief sample but I didn’t hear anything fresh or original.

But in all fairness, their hands (lips?) are tied by the reality of needing to appeal to a mass audience. They can’t try anything really different that might only appeal to a few thousand listeners. They need hundreds of thousands. Right out of the gate. This is just not an environment for experimentation.

Apple’s Secret Ingredient is fearlessness

Posted on September 3, 2006 by Steve Mays

Scott Stevenson thinks Apple’s Secret Ingredient is fearlessness:

“Fearlessness allows you set aside all ideas of what people might think and focus on what feels right instinctively. Without that sort of conviction, there wouldn’t be Mac OS X, the iPod, or even the Mac. Google is one of the few other large companies that really gets this. They have different priorities and techniques, but they have the same spirit as Apple. People drive themselves crazy trying to figure out why Google does the various things it does. While there’s always basic idea of what Google should be, I think the answer is that there’s not always a precise, calculated reason for each step they take. It just seems right, so they take a chance.”

Learfield is not Apple but I think it’s a great company because the guy that started it was/is fearless.

Blogs: CB Radio with permalinks

Posted on September 3, 2006 by Steve Mays

Brian Noggle at KansasCity.com compares blogs to CB radio fad:

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it until I’m proven otherwise: Blogs are CB radio with permalinks. And we know how much CB changed the face of citizen media in the 1970s. It spawned a number of books, three “Smokey and the Bandit” movies and “Convoy.” Some of its slang lives on, but you don’t see many cars with the antennae on their roofs anymore, do you?”

Say what you will about the staying power or significance of blogs… that’s a pretty lame knock for a Big City Newspaper Guy. And I’m not sure how to reconcile his view with with his well-tended blog.

I dropped Brian a line and asked for clarification on what might serve as “proven otherwise” for him. I offered some possible bench-marks:

More than three movies about blogging
Blogs help sway a presidential election (I don’t think CB’s did that)
There are more profitable blogs than major daily newspapers

As far as I know, none of those things have happened. I’m not sure the second two would prove much. but four movies on blogging…whoa! Thanks to Mj Reports for the pointer.

Update: Received a nice email and comment from Brian in which he points out he has no connection to the Kansas City Star. I don’t think KansasCity.com made that clear and my apologies to Brian. And he makes some very solid points on the true impact –or lack thereof– of blogging.