Bookmark: A blog list for media guys

A blog list for media guys

: At the Aspen Institute conference, I was asked to provide a starter list of suggested blogs. Here's what I sent them. Now don't get all hurt and pissy and angry and bloggy if I left you off; it's just a sampling.

MEDIA:
* PaidContent.org covers the business of online content. By an aggressive one-man band, Rafat Ali, who is making a go of it with advertising. He also has a job
blog that is good for business intelligence.
* I Want Media by Patrick Phillips is an alternative to Romenesko.
* Corante has a number of very good blogs about the social impact of technology as well as media and the law. Among them, The Importance by attorney Ernie Miller, Copyfight by Donna Wentworth and others, Loose Democracy by David Weinberger (coauthor of The Cluetrain Manifesto), and Many to Many by Clay Shirky and others.
* Lost Remote is a good blog about TV by two TV producers, Cory Bergman and Steve Safran.
* CableNewser follows cable news like a hound dog and it is written by an 18-year-old college student.
* Ad Rants by Steve Hall is beloved by trendwatchers, as it finds what's new in advertising.
* NYU's Jay Rosen writes a very well-respected (if long) blog about journalism here.
* The Media Drop is a new blog by Tom Biro.
* The World Editors Forum started a blog here.
* San Francisco journalist Tim Porter blogs about newspapering.
* Om Malik of Business 2.0 writes about broadband.
* Those of you who got my blogcard: It was by adman, cartoonist, blogger Hugh MacLeod.
* NewsDesigner has nice insights on newspaper design and news judgment.
* Rex Hammock, a custom publisher, writes often about magazine launches.
* Unmediated is by a bunch of visionary video hackers who will reinvent TV.
* VH1's Best Week Ever show hashes over story ideas on its blog.
* Reason Magazine has a most effective blog.
* Dave Barry blogs.
* Mercury News tech columnist Dan Gillmor is a pioneer blogger and he has a new book on the topic.

POLITICS AND MORE:
* Instapundit by law professor Glenn Reynolds is the king of blogs, getting as many
as 4 million page views a month.
* Andrew Sullivan is popular and controversial and he has managed to switch from a print to an online career. As he said at the Online News Association,"This happens once in a lifetime: You don't stumble across a new medium every day." Amen.
* Atrios is an anonymous liberal blogger.
* Josh Marshall is a leader on the left.
* Yale's Jack Balkin covers politics from a legal perspective.
* Stanford's Lawrence Lessig beats the copyright drum until it's black and blue.
* The Bush blog.
* The Kerry blog.
* Kevin Drum moved from his personal blog to creating the Washington
Monthly blog.
* Robert Cox fought The Times -- and he won.
* Australian journalist Tim Blair will be covering the election on his blog.
* See also Daniel Drezner, Begging to Differ, Matthew Yglesias, Oliver Willis, Outside the Beltway, Roger L. Simon (the mystery novelist and screenwriter, not the columnist), Winds of Change.

GENERAL INTEREST
* Of course, you need to read Nick Denton's blogs: Gawker about New York media and gossip, Wonkette on D.C., Defamer on L.A., Gizmodo on gadgets. See also competitor Jason Calacanis' and author Peter Rojas' gadget blog Engadget.
* BoingBoing, a wildly popular group blog by Corey Doctorow, Xeni Jardin and others,
is rich turf for story ideas and trends.
* Command Post started during the war as a group blog pointing to the latest headlines from everywhere; it continues to perform a valuable and timely service of finding the lastest and best news; this is editing by the mob.
* Anil Dash of Movable Type (SixApart) provides a half-dozen or more quick links each day.
* Curbed is a New York real estate blog.

BUSINESS
* VC Fred Wilson has led a score of other VCs into blogging.
* I only wish Esther Dyson updated her blog more frequently.
* VC Joi Ito blogs as a lifestyle.
* BlogAds founder Henry Copeland keeps a blog here.

TECHNOLOGY AND MORE
* Howard Rheingold et al write about mobile culture at SmartMobs.
* Doc Searls (another coauthor of The Cluetrain Manifesto and one of the most respected figures in blogging) writes about much more than technology (including media and Howard Stern).
* Pioneer Dave Winer.
* Robert Scoble (taking a break now) blogs from inside Microsoft... along with 800 other employee bloggers.

FOREIGN
* Hossein Derakhshan (aka Hoder) single-handedly started the Iranian weblog revolution.
* Zeyad, a 25-year-old dentist in Baghdad, was the first of a rash of Iraqi bloggers who emerged after the war and after Salam Pax. He has led to a score more, including Iraq the Model (quoted frequently in U.S. press), Iraq at a Glance, and Alaa.

TOOLS
* Technorati tracks all the links among blogs, causing conversation (here are the links to my blog).
* Blogdex is similar.
* So blog already. Try TypePad or Blogger ... and send me the link!

: Also... Here are links to previous Aspen-related posts: My notes on the conference.... my presentation on transparency, technology and the newsroom.... fisking Alex Jones on opaque journalism.... ditto Randall Rothenberg... and see this on Seth Godin and exploding channels.

[BuzzMachine]

No, I'm not a media guy.

Reputation systems academic paper

The current issue of First Monday has a thorough academic article on reputation systems.

The sharing of observations and opinions builds up a picture in each person’s mind of the reputation’s subject, which we might call the "Invisible Eye" — the distributed formation of reputations, and consequent increased ability to distinguish better from worse. To the degree that you have access to and trust the experience of others, it is almost as if you yourself had been there watching that previous situation, thus increasing your base of experience from which to judge future reliability — and increasing pressure on the subject in question to behave responsibly. The analogy to Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand is not accidental; just as selfish local actions with market incentives can lead to collectively efficient behavior, locally maximizing actions with reputation incentives have the potential for similar guided emergent behavior that exceeds what might have been designed by a conscious planner.

The ultimate aim is to increase the level of collective wisdom through sharing our separate experience and expertise. This will enable a "division of experience" — instead of each of us personally suffering through scams, cheats, and mediocrity, we will be able to leverage each other’s experiences. Collectively, aided by astutely networked reputation systems, we stand the best chance of overcoming our dark side and bringing out the best in us.

Link (Thanks, Alex!) [Boing Boing]

Something to read. Reputation systems are very important for a lot of things, most especially ecommerce. But they seem to easily "gamed" to me.

Life With Alacrity: The Dunbar Number as a Limit to Group Sizes

Life With Alacrity: The Dunbar Number as a Limit to Group Sizes: "Lately I've been noticing the spread of a meme regarding 'Dunbar's Number' of 150 that I believe is misunderstanding of his ideas."

Homeland Security figuring out how to suspend election in case of terrorist attack

The upcoming issue of Newsweek reports that Homeland Security's Tom Ridge is looking into how he can call off the election in the event of a terrorist attack.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned last week that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network may attack within the United States to try to disrupt the election.

The magazine cited unnamed sources who told it that the Department of Homeland Security asked the Justice Department last week to review what legal steps would be needed to delay the election if an attack occurred on the day before or the day of the election.

Link (Thanks, Todd!) [Boing Boing]

OMG! All the jokes about George The Second are coming back to mind!

Every US presidential TV ad from 1952 to present

Arlen sez, "This site has (I think all) of the television ads from 1952 to the present. You can view them broken down by year, the type of commercial (BackFire, Biographical, Fear, Real-people). It is interesting that, while less slick, ads haven't changed all that much, and the rhetoric seems just as strong (at least to me). It is also quite amusing to see things such as Carter's ad accusing Reagan of being a Flip-Flopper on, of all things, nuclear proliferation." Link (Thanks, Arlen!) [Boing Boing]

The Harrow Technology Report: Cancer Killer!

http://www.theharrowgroup.com/...

I suspect that what may turn out to be the most significant benefits of nanotechnology will be in the medical fields. Speculation is rife about tiny robots that will be injected into the bloodstream to wander around performing specific tasks, such as "Rotor Rooting" clogged arteries, and perhaps even performing surgery while you go about your normal routine. But sometimes, especially at the beginning, "simpler" can be better, as demonstrated by what seem to be incredible results from Jennifer West, professor of bioengineering and chemical engineering, and her team -- they're using specially built gold nanospheres to kill cancer tumors, apparently with 100% success!

As published in pages 171 - 176 of Issue 2 of the June 25 Cancer Letters (an abstract is freely available while the full text requires a subscription), and summarized in a June 21, 2004 Rice University press release, the researchers created silica spheres 20-times smaller than a blood cell and then added a surface layer of gold. One characteristic of these spheres is that, depending on their size and the ratio of silica to gold, they can be "tuned" to respond to particular wavelengths of light. In this case they're sensitive to near-infrared light, which passes through normal tissue without hindrance and without causing damage.

Once injected into the veins of test mice that all had significant cancer tumors, the researchers waited six hours for the nanospheres to circulate through the body. Because of a characteristic of cancer tumors, that their internal blood vessels are poorly formed and tend to leak fluid into the surrounding tissue (the tumor), the gold nanospheres tended to collect within the tumors. Then, the researchers applied a near-infrared laser to the skin over the tumor areas. Although the healthy tissue was not affected, the nanospheres became quite hot as they absorbed the near-infrared light, raising the temperature in the tumor tissue by "around 50-degrees C". And the tumors were destroyed. (When the laser was applied to areas that did not have nanosphere-holding tumors below them, there was virtually no temperature change.)

Within ten days, the nanosphere-treated group of mice was cancer-free and continued to live a normal lifespan!

Gmail Agent API - Mail Notifier - Address Book Importer * Johnvey.com

Gmail Agent API - Mail Notifier - Address Book Importer * Johnvey.com

There are two distinct components here: an open source Gmail API written for the .NET framework, and a proof of concept Windows application built on top of that API that provides basic remote Gmail functions.

Bookmark: Afonic DVD Guides

Afonic DVD Guides

Welcome to Afonic DVD Guides, your only source for DVD related guides and info. We are here to help you with DVD copying, ripping, authoring and burning! In our site you can find many easy-to-follow guides that will lead you to many successful copies! Don't waste more time, just find the guide you came for from the menu above and start making your backups in seconds! When you need help do not hesitate to come and ask in the forum. Thank you for visiting our site!

bOING bOING: Help make a Wikipedia of Free Culture

Creative Commons is creating a "Wikipedia of Free Culture" with links and annotation for every bit of open-licensed material in the universe. You're invited to help. Link [Boing Boing]

WSJ.com weighs in on blogs and aggregators

WSJ & RSS

: The Wall Street Journal writes about RSS today and they made the story a free link.

[BuzzMachine]

I was also sent an expires-after-7-days email link by a friend so I'm happy to see this as a free (forever?) link.

James Patrick Kelly: Free Reads

http://www.jimkelly.net/...

Welcome to my little experiment in self-audio-publishing.

...

There are now seven stories available for your listening pleasure. "Monsters" was recorded on tape and transferred to my computer by me: it's definitely home brew. "The Ice Is Singing," "Fruitcake Theory" and "Unique Visitors" sound much better, since they were recorded at New Hampshire Public Radio for the Front Porch. "Bernardo's House," (currently a Hugo finalist) "The Pyramid of Amirah" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" are the newest additions, recorded at the Mind Mined Studio here in New Hampshire. As donations flood ... er ... trickle in, I hope to return to the studio to record "Think Like A Dinosaur" and "Rat" among others.

Been mixing these in to my listening queue on the minidisc player. Good stuff, pretty well done.

bOING bOING: Two essays on liberty, freedom, and patriotism

On this American holiday, two pieces that merit considered reading -- both via Dan Gillmor's blog. The first from Pete McCloskey in the SFChron: Patriotism (and shame) on the Fourth of July. "The word patriot is too precious to allow it to be used by the thundering rhetoric of politicians that patriotism requires not only supporting the troops but also supporting the foreign policy that puts them at risk."

The second, a Sunday column from Dan Gillmor in the SJMerc: "On Independence Day, 2004, how fares American liberty? Brilliantly, if you compare the United States with the tyrannies that still control the lives of countless people. Not badly, if liberty means the right to seek economic gain in a capitalist system -- especially if you're starting with the right connections and a privileged background. Not as well, when you look at growing pressures on longstanding freedoms."

And when you're done with those, may I suggest downloading the United States Constitution for your iPod, inserting earplugs, cranking up the volume, and taking a walk out there in the fresh summer air. [Boing Boing]

NotCon video and audio

The video is online from NotCon, the UK geek conference that I spoke at a couple weeks ago along with Danny O'Brien, Brewster Kahle, Matt Jones, Bill Thompson and others. Brewster's talk was fantastic. Link (Thanks, Tom!)

Update: Etienne sez, "a better link for the notcon boinboing entry would be http://ejhp.net/notcon/, which has links to all of the video *and* mp3/ogg encoded audio fd sessions, plus many more for which we only got audio." [Boing Boing]

More stuff for the listening queue

bOING bOING: "Lion Sleeps Tonight" creator's Zulu heirs sue Disney

Heirs of the Zulu composer who wrote the song "Mbube" -- aka "The Lion Sleeps Tonight, used in The Lion King -- have sued Disney in South Africa for royalties. link (Thanks, Denise Howell) [Boing Boing]

Poetic justice. I hope they (the heirs, not Disney) win big time.

Lockergnome: WavePad v1.03 [722K] Win98/2k/XP

http://go.lockergnome.com/452

WavePad is a sound editor that lets you create and edit audio recordings and files, with support for a number of file formats including wav, mp3, vox, gsm, Real Audio, au, aif, and more. It enables you to cut, copy, and paste parts of a recording and optionally apply effects like echo, amplification, and noise reduction. In addition, you can insert silence, fade in/out, auto-trim, and more. WavePad supports sample rates from 6000 to 96000Hz, stereo or mono, 8, 16, or 32 bits. The program also includes a simple CD ripper that allows you to load files directly from an audio CD. Other features include voice activated recording and text to speech support. A Master edition with additional features is available for purchase.

[Lockergnome Windows Fanatics]

Lockergnome: LegalTorrents

http://www.legaltorrents.com/

...

Using this site, you can get your greedy little hands on a nice array of legal content. Whether you're into music, books, or movies, you'll find it here. Get yourself equipped with a BitTorrent client, and then grab some of these files. RSS feeds are available for each category, and the stats displayed on the site are updated every five minutes. Well, what are you waiting for? Go download some files and spread the BitTorrent love! [Brandon]

[Lockergnome Windows Fanatics]

CDT: Federal Court Undermines Email Privacy

A federal appeals court in Boston has ruled that the wiretap laws do not apply to real-time interception of email. The decision potentially creates a loophole for law enforcement access to email, and exposes the inadequacy of current law against ISPs' use of their customers' email for their own business purposes and without notice or consent. July 1, 2004 [Center for Democracy and Technology]

Privacy?! You don't got no steeenkeeng privacy!

Donohue Endorses Outsourcing of Jobs

Donohue Endorses Outsourcing of Jobs

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Leader Thomas Donohue Promotes Outsourcing of Jobs to Boost Economy

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue is promoting overseas outsourcing of jobs as a way to boost the economy and even increase employment -- a stance that rankles jobless white-collar workers, particularly in the flagging technology industry. Donohue, speaking Wednesday night to the Commonwealth Club of California, said he believes exporting high-paid tech jobs to low-cost countries such as India, China and Russia saves companies money that they may use to create new jobs for Americans.

CEOs from Wall Street to Silicon Valley have embraced the theory, and the pace of offshoring has shocked statisticians and economists. In early June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics downwardly revised projections for white-collar job growth for 2002-2012, based on accelerated job migration. The agency reported that seven of the 10 occupations expected to gain the most ground are low-wage occupations that do not require a college degree.

Technology consulting firm Gartner Inc. estimates that 10 percent of computer services and software jobs will be moved overseas by the end of this year.

Why is it that those at the top of the pyramid scheme known as Corporate America think this good while those of at the bottom don't?

The most ludicrous statement is that the savings is used to create new jobs. The savings is used to raise the ever spiraling compensation of C-leve executives. It's just another facet of the Reagonomice / Trickle Down Economics / Voodoo Economics.