blogging – Page 2

Someone is leaving blogging. Now Sports…

Jason Calacanis writes: To be sure, I am going to miss blogging. I am going to miss the relationships with my fellow bloggers. I am going to miss the readers. I am going to miss the great friends that I have made over this time. I am going to miss all the good times that … Continue reading “Someone is leaving blogging. Now Sports…”

Jason Calacanis writes:

To be sure, I am going to miss blogging. I am going to miss the relationships with my fellow bloggers. I am going to miss the readers. I am going to miss the great friends that I have made over this time. I am going to miss all the good times that we have had together. But most of all, I am going to miss the comments.*

I unsubbed from most of Jason’s feeds because there was too much spam for his various properties.

Dave Winer said he’d stop blogging a while back and I’m in the same mood with this announcement.

Big deal. Just stop. There doesn’t need to be a song and dance about it, there doesn’t need to be a ‘retirement party’. As more and more of the A-list move to not blog or rely on soundbite feeds (like Friendfeed, ident.ca and whatever the flavour of the month is), we’re going to see less and less content from them. I’ve commented on this several times in relation to Robert Scoble’s blog – since he started jumping from service to service and seems to be more concerned with building his ‘followers’, there’s been a lot less content on his main blog. Is he retiring too or is this the natural order of things.

A few month ago, Jason and Robert were squabbling about who could get the most followers. It became cool to hoard followers like rare baseball cards and to plead for more, just a few more, to reach some arbitrarily determined level. Now, suddenly it’s not cool to have thousands of people trying to talk to you (or more relevantly, when twenty thousand people realise they’ve been ignored, it ain’t pretty).

What’s Jason doing? He’s moving to an email list and restricting the membership to 750. Man – something old is new again. If you really want to get back to your roots, get below the Dunbar Number in the number of people you interact with. Yup, knock it down to 150.

There’s a real opportunity for New Media Amateurs to gain some ground by providing the content that is missing. More and more, my feeds are becoming advertising or reviews as the old guard simply run out of steam. More and more established blogs are putting out less and less (as evidenced by the feeds I consume which used to get a backlog of a thousand posts if left for a week. These days it would take 3 weeks to get to that level.

Milestone…

This month has been productive for me in terms of blogging. I’ve never had reason to blog so much in a month and it’s quite inspiring that I still have half a dozen unfinished drafts which I can roll out over the next few days. I thought I might beat my previous monthly record but really, this has blown it out of the water. I am tempted to aim for 100 posts for the month of June but would I be putting together posts that were killer or filler? I’d never resort to the latter but I have posted over 100 posts when you take into account the other blogs that I write for.

I’d blame Twitter, BarCamp, OpenCoffee and Digital Circle for my increase in output. I’m a lot more inspired these days and can usually find myself with something to write. Saving drafts is the only way to actually keep a record of the things I want to write about even though, due to the ephemeral nature of things, they often expire in terms of relevancy before I get anywhere near them.

I also wonder how much I’d blog or tweet if I was being paid to do it. Hopefully more.

For now, this remains a labour of love – covering the subjects that I am passionate about: inspiring software, mobile content, location services, bedouin strategies, co-working facilities, Cocoa, enterpreneurship, social networking, internet everywhere and everything else that appears in my tag cloud.

Enough ruminating, I have content to write!

Really cool – MagCloud

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” — A.J. Liebling For any of us who have seriously thought about running a magazine, there is now MagCloud. Using print-on-demand (POD) technology, it allows you to create the magazine and then let them take care of printing and subscriptions. Any margin you … Continue reading “Really cool – MagCloud”

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

— A.J. Liebling

For any of us who have seriously thought about running a magazine, there is now MagCloud. Using print-on-demand (POD) technology, it allows you to create the magazine and then let them take care of printing and subscriptions. Any margin you add goes straight into your Paypal account.

I seriously considered this a few years ago using traditional magazine models for a technology.lifestyle magazine which was being set up by a local journalist. It didn’t go anywhere at the time (even though I offered to write for free) and then I started blogging (and to be honest, my ‘free’ writing output just seems to go up and up).

There’s something to be said for dead-tree editions. With POD, they’re much less likely to be out of date and there’s something nice about dead-tree. I even considered writing some of my short games for LateGaming in a magazine format because of the costs and size of book you have to justify for the standard hardback.

Even just as a promotional vehicle, it lends itself well as it may not be as cheap as a 2000-copy print run, but just being able to order five of them (albeit at an incrementally higher unit cost) has serious advantages to the small operator.

So whether you want to launch your own magazine or whether you just want a single copy of “Northern Ireland Executive Business Professionals Journal” with a dynamic photo of yourself on the cover for the coffee table in order to impress visitors, MagCloud would seem to be a winner.

More cynical about Twitter than ever

“But there +is+ value in having a great group of people youâ€™re following. Follow @craignewmark and youâ€™ll see what Craig is seeing or thinking (heâ€™s the founder of Craigsâ€™ List). Follow @pierre and youâ€™ll see what heâ€™s thinking (heâ€™s the founder of eBay). Follow HRBlock and youâ€™ll see what the team at H&R Block is … Continue reading “More cynical about Twitter than ever”

“But there +is+ value in having a great group of people youâ€™re following. Follow @craignewmark and youâ€™ll see what Craig is seeing or thinking (heâ€™s the founder of Craigsâ€™ List). Follow @pierre and youâ€™ll see what heâ€™s thinking (heâ€™s the founder of eBay). Follow HRBlock and youâ€™ll see what the team at H&R Block is thinking about taxes and such. Follow @newmediajim and youâ€™ll see what Jim Long, who is a camera guy in the press pool at the White House, is thinking about.”

“People still arenâ€™t getting this. They didnâ€™t get how I was using Twitter and still donâ€™t. I follow the worldâ€™s best early adopters, business executives, and entrepreneurs. I really donâ€™t care if I have a single follower. If I defined myself by my followers Iâ€™d always feel inadequate. If I define myself by the people who I follow, well, I follow the smartest, richest, coolest, funniest people in the world. That makes me smarter, richer, cooler, and funnier.”

In the same voice, Robert claims to be following over TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE.

It’s bullshit.

Follow the people who are the movers and shakers. Follow Craig Newmark. Follow the people who are doing cool work. But before you get enveloped in your own hype, consider if it is possible to process the tweets of 20000 people and get any work done in a day. No, it’s just a number. It’s a self-serving hype machine.

See the difference between a spammer and a self-hype-machine?

I don’t.

For example.

Robert is following 20207 people and is followed by 19076 people.
Today I was ‘followed’ by half a dozen spambots which, you’ll note, added me and then dropped me. Reason being that you receive an update when someone follows you but not when they stop following you. So it’s a brief marketing ploy and one you’d have to check up on.

I’m cynical. Following 20 000 people dilutes the value of Twitter because your chance of seeing anything of value is greatly diminished. Unless, of course, you’re filtering the content of the thousands of nobodies and only really listening to the tens of A-listers.

And if you’re just listening to A-listers…

Why Twitter (or alike) should replace email

I get a lot of email. I also have quite a few people who talk to me via Instant Messenger. On top of that there are the blogs I read. And then there’s Twitter where you can have a conversation, albeit somewhat public for the most part (though private messages are supported). Twitter-like services are … Continue reading “Why Twitter (or alike) should replace email”

Twitter-like services are a contender for replacing email as they provide a method of controlling spam. That’s my main message here considering how much email spam I get all day. I spend a lot of time identifying messages as junk or taking the risk and deleting junk messages from my junk mail folder without a second glance.

I set my instant messenger to only show my presence to friends. And modern IM services allow you to send messages to offline people so they pick them up when they log on next time. Spam is controlled.

I pay attention to the blogs I read because the people there have something to say. With the exception of news.bbc.co.uk I don’t visit any other sites for news. I dump blogs which contain too many ads or which just talk about themselves all the time.

I say all of this after half a dozen spambots just followed me on Twitter. I glanced at their profile names and didn’t follow them. They’re not even in my field of vision.

Why else could it work better then email?

Updates by RSS (over http rather than smtp/pop/imap which would work through proxies better)
You follow who you choose rather than just attempting to filter out the crap they send you for free.
RSS has support for attachments. Isn’t this the only reason to really use email anyway?

Armchair CEO on FastCompany.tv

A while ago I ragged on Robert Scoble (almost silently because, let’s face it, who read my tripe?) because he was talking about marketing and startups and worked at Microsoft. See the oxymoron there? Working at arguably the most powerful corporation in the world (yeah, they know the backdoor codes for every copy of Windows) and giving advice about marketing and startups – one thing that Microsoft has legions of people working on and the other hasn’t been a feature of Microsoft since the seventies. I remember disagreeing with Robert (from the comfort of my chair) at the time with an indignant “What the hell does he know! but I have to accept that the guy is an expert at what he does. And defining the ‘what he does’ becomes important.

When Robert left Microsoft to go to a short gig at Podtech, he said that working for a startup was exciting. Fair enough, Robert, this still isn’t what most of us were doing from day to day. We were running our own startups.

So, not long after, Robert moves to FastCompany.tv as the Managing Director and that’s his first real experience of a startup. He’s got an established brand (no matter what you may think of Fast Company), he’s got some funding, he’s got the A-list blogger hype machine and he pulls in some old pals to help him. He has advantages that most startups never have (yeah, start again by being a nobody, having a 300 sq ft office, 5 employees who have just been laid off from the last bit of work, Â£10 000 in your personal savings and no clients – you have enough money to pay salaries and taxes for one month and that’s your nest egg gone – now tell me it’s hard work).

So he gives it a go with all of this.

And it’s a disaster.

I’ve yet to finish a Scoble video because halfway through I just click off. Is this attention deficit on my part? I guess I can take the blame?

Tyme White writes about the recent stink with Fast Company, Loren Feldman and Shel Israel:

“The core problem, in my opinion, is that Fast Company picked the wrong people to accomplish their goals. These people are probably â€œgoodâ€ people (nice, kind, considerate, etc.) but they arenâ€™t placed in positions where their strengths would benefit the company. There isnâ€™t a system in place to overcome their weakened positions. It is my opinion if people were placed in positions they were more qualified to fill, these issues would not have happened in the first place and now that they have, they would be mitigated.”

What’s my take? I’m broadly in agreement with Tyme. Robert Scoble is an A-list blogger and he has enough interest from the net to make someone a shedload of money. But why put a ‘producer’ in a ‘manager’ position if not just for the kudos. The recent hubbub with Shel Israel just highlights how Robert isn’t a hiring manager (and Shel doesn’t have a thick enough skin yet to take the criticism that being a public figure buys you.). You want to be an internet sensation, you have to be able to take the hits too. Robert has, for the most part, weathered most hits but it seems inevitable to me that his idle boast of ignoring 17000 people on Twitter is going to bite him in the ass at some point in the future. You can’t manage a company and fulfill the ‘legend’ of Robert Scoble. Not just because there isn’t enough time but because only one person can fulfill that legend and he’s not a manager (yet).

Of course, I’m a classic armchair CEO pointing out the discrepancies in someone else’s work and I’m 100% sure that my own little companies bring in a small percentage of the revenue required to keep FastCompany.tv ticking over so there may be something I’m missing. I know my brand sucks.

Getting the media into my head.

I only listen to one podcast at the moment and working through their back catalogue takes some time (I’m currently at the end of 2006 to give you an idea). Each of their episodes is around 1 hour long and the journey to work takes about 25 minutes so I am grinding my way through … Continue reading “Getting the media into my head.”

I only listen to one podcast at the moment and working through their back catalogue takes some time (I’m currently at the end of 2006 to give you an idea). Each of their episodes is around 1 hour long and the journey to work takes about 25 minutes so I am grinding my way through them at around one episode per work day. It’ll take me the next two months just to get to 2008 on their list. Seems daunting.

I mostly listen while driving as it has the right amount of ‘automatic behaviours’ so that my mind can listen to what is being said. I find that when I’m in the office I can only really listen to music in the background and not podcasts otherwise I can’t take anything in. Perhaps this is the problem men have with multi-tasking hitting me after all – and I thought I was immune 🙂

I also can’t listen when I’m at home due to distractions, family wanting to talk to me and the desire to do something more constructive with my time – like write or pore over these programming books until something sticks in my head.

I’m not sure I have there bandwidth to take anything new on.

Do not go gentle into that good night

“Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” – Dylan Thomas I’m not talking about ‘death’ of course, but the notion that ‘going dark’ is desirable. I recall someone accusing me of being addicted to the Internet which, despite being true, is also utterly preposterous. I pointed … Continue reading “Do not go gentle into that good night”

“Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

– Dylan Thomas

I’m not talking about ‘death’ of course, but the notion that ‘going dark’ is desirable. I recall someone accusing me of being addicted to the Internet which, despite being true, is also utterly preposterous. I pointed out that this person is never found without a watch, and in fact, owns half a dozen of the accursed things which is as ridiculous as anything. (I would prefer a wall clock and watch that use nothing but ‘fuzzy time’ (like this one. It’s evidently just as possible to be addicted to knowing the time, another completely artificial construct.

Darryl has mentioned ‘go dark’ a couple of times to Gareth and Andy because they were on vacation (in Dublin and Prague). My other half has balked at my attempts to find good internet coverage while we go on a cruise (visiting 6 countries) in August because it shows my addiction. She will, on the other hand, be taking her MacBook Air with her (to download photos to) and will be disgusted if she can’t get her email.

I think that for my ‘watch bearing friend’ and others who cannot leave the house without watches, reading materials, makeup, umbrellas, chewing gum, tobacco products and other serious but potentially more socially acceptable addictions, they should work on their own issues. Being internet connected 24×7 isn’t something I strive for. But it being present when I want or need it is.

That’s the difference between ‘always on’ and ‘always available’. I want internet to be ubiquitous because I don’t know if I need it ‘now’ or ‘later’ and unlike tobacco and makeup it’s not something I can just ‘buy’.

Anyone know the state of free WiFi in Stockholm? St Petersberg? Talinn?

22/100 If I Were an Advertiser Today

#21 was listed separately on Lategaming If I were an advertiser today, I’d be nervous. I’m talking from the point of view of being a producer or seller and that I have a product or service to advertise. There’s probably more choice in the methods of advertising now than there ever has been and to … Continue reading “22/100 If I Were an Advertiser Today”

#21 was listed separately on Lategaming

If I were an advertiser today, I’d be nervous.

I’m talking from the point of view of being a producer or seller and that I have a product or service to advertise. There’s probably more choice in the methods of advertising now than there ever has been and to my mind they are becoming increasingly less effective.

Dead Tree
I’ll tell you right now. Junk mail I receive goes in the recycler. I don’t look at adverts in magazines. I don’t look at billboards for product advice. I do look at billboards for event advice however, like a robot turning up at W5? My kids would love it. A Wedding Fayre? Her indoors will love it. A Tech conference? Yeah, sure, though my expectations will be low.

Zombie Hordes
Unsolicited commercial email, and much of the solicited commercial email just goes straight into the trash. Being spammed with ‘articles’ written by small-time CEOs doesn’t inspire either. If you’re emailing me something, make it content and make it something I want, not something I might be interested in. I’m not interested in offers of free laptops and phones, performance enhancing drugs or business opportunities where I get a commission on vast amounts of money being transferred from one place to another. Figure it out.

Jaded Eyeballs
Does anyone pay attention to commercials on TV? What about adverts on web pages? I don’t even process them these days. The only ads I watch on TV are Apple adverts because I’m a sucker for Apple. I don’t look at or click through on most adverts on web sites. Sponsors links are different however – so make your advertising targetted and relevant and make sure they’re relevant to the web site I’m on.

Conversational Media
Advertising via Blog seems to be just dishonest in some ways. Sure, I might rave about Rickshaw but that’s because I’m using it every day. It’s a product created by me and my friends (my input is solely advisory). But what about companies that give free product to bloggers? Or pay them? Or for journo-bloggers who get paid to write reviews? I think there’s a line to be drawn. If it were me I’d provide product to a group of bloggers and tell them to be honest. Because if you’re not in this to be honest in your business then why even bother. Mr Mulley has a recent post about fakeblogging which is being seized by PR houses who see it as a quick way to generate some buzz. Is this much different to the online viral campaigns being created by movie producers to support their releases (Cloverfield had one)?

Something new and exciting?
It’s not my job to think of new and exciting ways to advertise? Uh, yeah, it is. Ways that would appeal to me? The biggest issue of any business is awareness. The number of people who told Mac-Sys they were so happy to hear about a Mac Service Provider in Northern Ireland but they’d never heard of the company before. And the number who were referred from PC companies was startling as well.

You also have to consider the potential damage that unsubstantiated word of mouth can cause and you have to wonder why people have such negative things to say. That’s why it’s important for a business to engage with bloggers who have an opinion. Not so bloggers can get special treatment but so the company can show that the rumour is false and that the real performance of the company cannot be judged by mutterings from a couple of guys. I have no idea why Andy’s friends told him not to go to Mac-Sys but I would hope that Andy’s experience with us has shown him a little insight into how we work with every customer. As it happened, Apple and Mac-Sys worked together to provide a solution that was palatable to all. Not every situation will play out like that but engaging a company directly should always provide some sort of palatable result. Not everyone may be happy with the results but there’s been a miscommunication if people are badmouthing you – you’ve obviously not communicated the message correctly (or, in many cases, the individual is too angry to listen and in my experience the anger is usually at themselves but directed at others.)

If I were an advertiser I’d not waste money on TV or Radio. If I were hosting an event I’d put the event on billboards. I’d definitely start a blog and do detailed breakdowns of the products and services. I’d provide free samples to bloggers and ask, not bargain with, them to write honest reviews. Engage with bloggers, challenge their assumptions, respond to their blog posts and take on board their criticisms.

[Chris Brogan’s 100 topics]

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