…Because I am suffering withdrawal symptoms. (Read more…)
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Monthly Archives: September 2004
All Rights Reserved (OR: Why Stealing My Content is Stupid)
September 14, 2004 – 2:53 pm
By vocation and inclination, I’m primarily a writer. As such, respect for copyright is virtually encoded in my DNA. No writer could make a living, or probably even make a name for herself, if she couldn’t exercise basic control over her work – and get the credit for it. This is why in my copyright notice for CONTENTIOUS I clearly specify that I have reserved all rights. My writing is my intellectual property. How it gets used is up to me… (NOTE: This is one half of a cross-blog series. For the “Some Rights Reserved” perspective, see my article for a link to the companion piece published by Travis Swicegood.)
North Korean Blast, WMD Echoes, and Missed News Opportunities
September 13, 2004 – 6:35 pm
Over the last few days I’ve been following the news coverage of the mysterious mushroom cloud that appeared Sept. 9 over North Korea. Was it a nuclear test? A forest fire? An industrial or military accident? A deliberate detonation of conventional explosives? When speculation and quick explanations are rampant, that’s exactly when journalists should push to gather hard evidence. In this case, evidence of a nuclear blast would come from scientists who monitor the globe for such events. Unfortunately, most of the world’s English-language news outlets seem to have overlooked this option. Instead, they published various official explanations of the blast and pretty much left it at that. What a shame – because even a cursory Google search can turn up useful, credible, relevant sources and sometimes even answers. In general, I think it’s pretty sad when news organizations look like they doesn’t know how to use Google…
Effective Writing for the Real World
September 13, 2004 – 2:23 pm
Good writing is largely a matter of motivation and editing. What motivates people to write well? What skills are needed to polish writing? Unless you’re writing purely for the joy of self-expression, it’s likely that you want your writing to have some sort of effect in the real world. In other words, you want your writing to be not merely “good,” but effective. Too often people get caught up in the mechanics of writing, and lose sight of the ultimate goal (desired effect). Similarly, writing experts and teachers often focus too heavily on issues such as style, grammar, outlining, and various levels of drafts – leaving desired effects to be handled as an afterthought. I’ve given this matter a great deal of thought. In my view, effective writing comprises three core characteristics…
Grammar and Punctuation for the Web: What\’s Proper?
September 13, 2004 – 2:13 pm
Most of us were educated to believe that there is one “correct” (and fairly formal) version of English grammar and punctuation, and any deviation from that is mere sloppiness. Not true! The whole point of grammar and punctuation is to enhance understanding – not to enforce rigid conformity. The way we understand information depends, in large measure, upon how we get that information. Therefore, the rules of grammar and punctuation must bend and evolve to accommodate various forms of communication – including the web…
Content Overlap: Topical Islands of Federated Interest
September 10, 2004 – 10:44 am
Another jewel from Michael Feldstein this morning: “Weblog Audience-Building and the Strength of Weak Ties”. He discusses how people tend to form two sorts of connections: strong ties (people who are close to you – family, close friends, etc.) and weak ties (friends of friends, acquaintences, etc.). In the blogging world, this is analogous to direct vs. indirect overlap between a blog’s content focus and its readers’ interests. The key to building a weblog audience, Feldstein asserts, is to blog not just about one topic, but about a few related ones…
Fear of Real Examples
September 9, 2004 – 6:15 pm
An Aug. 2 article in the blog e-editor correctly observed, “Wary blogging is not the best blogging.” Sadly, that article then goes on to explain why that blog intends to be more “circumspect.” (Read: they’re shying away from citing real-world examples of web content flaws. The implication is that they’ve annoyed some influential organizations.) I don’t know who e-editor offended and what the consequences were, but I understand and respect that decision. Still, it saddens me.
In the field of online content, I think we need MORE open discussion of specific sites’ content flaws, not less. Sure, no organization wants to be highlighted as a bad example of anything. However, open criticism and analysis is an integral and inescapable part of the net. Really – if you are not willing to bear any public criticism then don’t post anything online, ever.
Meme Tracking: Why and How
September 9, 2004 – 5:37 pm
Earlier I wrote about Nova Spivack’s meme propagation experiment – which is intriguing although I’m not quite sure what its results truly indicate. On Aug. 31, Michael Feldstein took this concept further, with an eye toward practicality – something I always appreciate. See his series Tracking Memes in the Wild (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) Well worth reading.
Special Grab Bag: Webfeeds, Webfeeds…
September 8, 2004 – 11:42 am
I was just looking over the contentious-to-do topic in my Furl archive, and noticed that several of the items there are about webfeeds in one way or another. So I decided to throw them together into a special grab bag. TOP OF THE LIST: RSS: Real advantage for marketing and PR, by Neville Hobson, Aug. 16. It seems I’m not the only person who’s talking about how businesses are really missing the boat with regard to webfeeds. This article addresses how businesses could be leveraging both weblogs and webfeeds to their advantage right now. On webfeeds, Hobson writes, “The new reality is that blogs and RSS present a phenomenal opportunity to any organization to embrace these new communication channels and engage quickly, directly and effectively with customers, investors, partners and other audiences. If you can’t start a blog yet, the one thing you should do is RSS-enable the corporate PR and marketing information on your website – and get your press releases out via webfeeds as well as by traditional means. (I’ve yet to find any large company who offers open RSS webfeeds of their press releases from their websites.)” Yeah. What he said. HERE’S THE REST OF THE LIST…
What\’s a \”Meme,\” Really?
September 7, 2004 – 10:29 am
Lately I’ve been reading a lot, and writing some, about memes. It’s an interesting concept, but I’m a bit discomforted by the way that many writers seem to accept memes as a fact, rather than as a useful analogy. This worries me. When analogies get taken too literally they tend to get pushed too far – at which point they fall apart. This can appear to discredit or devalue the usefulness of the entire analogy. I don’t want that to happen with the “meme” analogy – I think it’s too potentially useful to people who care about communication. Therefore, I want to consider for a minute the definition of “meme”…
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