February 14, 2006 – 11:54 am
This morning at Boing Boing (perhaps the most popular blog on the net), Cory Doctorow published a brilliant essay on the backward mindset of traditional book publishers — which also succinctly expressed the core value of conversational media.
It’s a thoughtful analysis of the Google Book Search service and the boneheaded way that traditional publishers have been fighting it. Cory’s right: Instead of “letting slip their dogs of law� to nip incessantly at Google’s heels in the hope of securing a slice of Book Search ad revenue, book publishers should embrace the T-Bone steaks that Book Search could regularly toss them in the form of increased sales and expanded markets.
Further down in this essay, Cory explores one of the underlying reasons traditional book publishing is in trouble: the ascent of conversational media…
January 17, 2006 – 4:00 pm
On Jan. 4, David Davis, a speechwriter and corporate communications pro, published the results of a business blogging survey he commissioned. His researchers surveyed 750 business executives from the US, UK, South Africa, and Australia who publish company weblogs. Intriguingly, only 17% of these executives write their own blogs.
Hmmm, might a ghostwritten blog be a viable option, after all? I didn’t used to think so, but this survey has me wondering.
But first, a reality check…
January 11, 2006 – 6:03 pm
A Contentious reader whose company publishes an online newsletter asked me whether links in such a publication should be embedded in text or clustered at the end. Here’s my perspective…
November 3, 2005 – 1:05 pm
My dear friend and fellow blogger Koan Bremner has taught me yet another cool trick: If you want to publish a complex, evolving, multi-leveled document online, OPML is a good way to go.
What’s OPML? Outline Processor Markup Language is a file format for outlines. Specifically, it’s a way to use XML (extensible markup language) so that you’re not just typing in text, but actually describing how various chunks of text (or data, or links, etc.) relate to each other within a hierarchy.
The end result is an outline that looks rather like a book’s table of contents (TOC). However, imagine that the actual chapters of the book are embedded within the TOC. So if you want to go straight to, say, Chapter 6, you wouldn’t flip ahead to the page number listed in the TOC. Instead, you would just click on the “chapter 6″ line in the TOC, and the text of Chapter 6 would open right there within the TOC. Any subheads within that chapter would work the same way — just click on them, and they unfold. Once a heading or subhead (”topic”) is open, just click on it again to fold it back up.
EXAMPLE: Check out this resource Koan has published on “Transitioning from Windows to OS X “Tiger”” — a worthy topic if there ever was one.
Here’s why Koan’s document, and the OPML approach which underlies it, is so cool…
August 14, 2005 – 6:12 pm
A week or two ago I was interviewed by Amy Brozio-Andrews for Absolute Write an online newsletter for freelance writers. We had a lot of fun with this discussion.
She basically wanted to know how I go about running my admittedly varied and unusual business – finding projects, etc.
As always, I had a lot to say…
Back on July 26, I participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Boulder Writers Alliance on the topic of “Trends in Today’s Media.” I’ve had a couple of very hectic links, and I just realized this morning that I’d neglected to post the audio from that session. Sorry about the delay. What struck me about this session is how much professional writers and editors (especially independent ones) need to think creatively about their field and work opportunities…
Through Badgerbag today, I just learned of a brilliant and fun new tool called “Regender.” No matter how open-minded you think you are, this will change your perspective on the strong role that gender and sexism play in public discourse. I guarantee it. This tool was written by a guy named Ka-Ping Yee. Here’s what it does…
I’m excited to announce my first independently produced workshop: Very Basic Blogging. This 3-hour event will be held Wed. Aug. 24, 2005 at the Outlook Hotel in my lovely hometown of Boulder, CO. SEE EVENT UPDATE AND ONLINE REGISTRATION
I don’t expect that anyone reads every single article I post to this weblog — let alone plows through my voluminous archives. I also realize that I, more than anyone else, grasp the wealth, history, and diversity of CONTENTIOUS. I understand how what I’m writing today builds upon what I’ve written before, here and elsewhere. This is why I believe in weblog backlinks to relevant earlier articles…
Over the last few months I’ve become intrigued by the emerging field of citizen journalism (citJ, for short): news, features, analysis, and commentary produced and published by people – including some bloggers – who are not hired by news organizations. I’m drawn to this field because I’ve grown to realize that traditional versions of news, journalism, and journalists are no longer enough. The cult of officialdom has reached its limits. There is more than one way to gauge relevance and credibility. We need more kinds of news, from more kinds of sources, to adequately serve the information needs of our communities and the world. After spending months watching this field sprout, I’m finally ready to dive in and help it blossom. My longtime friend and colleague, A. Adam Glenn (who recently left his Senior Producer position at ABC News.com to broaden his media horizons) will be my teammate on this exploration. Fortuitously, Randy Dominga of the Christian Science Monitor featured my project in a June 20 article about citJ. So what exactly are Adam and I up to on this front?…
Category Archives: 
BlogoSquare