Dave Winer edition.
What he said:
“[T]here’s no point, imho, in responding to people who disagree with things they say I believe but I don’t. If you can’t quote me correctly, don’t expect a response.”
What he meant:
There’s no point in trying to engage me in a discussion, because I will either ignore you if I think you are somehow beneath me or I will engage in self-exegesis to redefine my position.
Tags: blogging, citizen media
Back in the day, I played a lot of basketball. In fact I remember this one reverse move I put on my lifelong buddy Tommy (who, unlike me, played basketball in college) at some court in Ocean Drive circa 1980. He called it a “made miss,” but it was sweet. If I had a video of that shot, I’d move back to SC just to taunt him with it. The fact that he owned me on the court for the rest of my life would conveniently be omitted.
There is a hoops phrase called a self-check. It means that a player is so bad that you don’t need to guard him. He keeps himself in check by dribbling the ball off his knees or throwing up bricks against the bottom of the rim.
There are a lot of self-checks running around the blogosphere too. Unlike in basketball, however, there is no rim to block their pitiful attempt at a layup, and there is no referee to call traveling as they stumble into a face plant. It’s up to the collective refereeism of the blogosphere to call a foul.
One textbook example of a self-check in the blogosphere is Andrew Keen. Here’s a guy whose tired act is telling his readers until he is blue in the blood that they need journalistic lamas to help them understand the world around them. It’s not that blogs are different than traditional media. It’s not even that blogs are not as reliable as traditional media. It’s that our entire culture is about to be swept away by the horrifying egalitarianism represented by such evil forces as blogs, wikis, social networks and digital media.
The horror.
What makes Andrew an obvious self-check is not merely the fact that he is one of the people who, under his world view, should play the lama part. After all, he’s written a book– on paper. And he’s really smart- just read anything he’s written and he’ll tell you. The rest of us, well let’s just say that we are silly little dunces doing our little equality dance while the world crumbles before our folly.
It’s not merely the blatancy of his position talking and the sweet irony that is his blog that get lost in the flood of big words, dire proclamations and extreme statements.
It’s mainly the fact that he actually makes some good points along the way- points that are completely lost on his audience thanks to unbridled arrogance and condescension. Part of being smart is knowing how to communicate your message to people who don’t agree with you. To persuade, you must first connect.
Andrew makes no effort to connect. Which tells me that he is writing for himself and, perhaps, a few self-important eggheads who already share his views on how stupid everyone else is. When someone is talking solely for themselves or their devotees, there is neither the intent nor the desire to enlighten or persuade. There is only the desire to be heard.
That is a textbook definition of a self-check on any court in which communication is the goal.
Nick Carr and Dave Winer are arguing about something having to do with bloggers, Iraq and murdered journalists.
I think blogs are important ways to distribute certain kinds of information, but they are not even close to being a substitute for traditional media for certain news topics. People have a distrust of old, established media when it comes to political topics- do you really think people are going to embrace a bunch of online diaries by people they don’t know as a reliable substitute for the Washington Post and CNN? Of course not. It’s farcical to suggest they will.
I think the idea that blogs, as important to a few of us as they are, will replace traditional journalism is straight out of Monty Python.
“Go away or I shall blog about you a second time.”
I also think it’s ironic that Dave is taking the role as the champion of citizen media. One of the oft-cited benefits of citizen media is the interactive nature of blogging. Dave rarely engages people outside of his inner circle, which makes him more like the old media he is trying to replace than the new media he claims to embrace.
The other fact that seems to be overlooked here is that people who risk their lives going to Iraq to write news are generally getting paid for it. There is an assumption by some of the blogging evangelists that making a living is less important that spouting off about the latest Google acquisition. It is a whole lot harder to make a living blogging that some people want to admit.
Which means that most of us who blog don’t do it as a living. As Nick points out, it’s one thing to toss up a post or two about Iraq from the comfort of our living rooms, but it’s another ball of wax to risk your life in the name of a blog post. I wish more people read my blog too, but I’m not quite ready to risk my life to make it happen.
Blogging as a content management platform may, in fact, be the future of news distribution, but it won’t be guys like Dave, or Nick, or me writing the content. It will be the same journalists who get paid for doing it now- they’ll simply be doing it in a different, more immediate way.
In a lawsuit that should be required reading for bloggers, a Florida jury has awarded $11.3M in damages to a woman who says she was defamed on an internet message board.
Legal scholars say this verdict could have an impact on bloggers. From the Washington Times article linked above:
“This case sends a signal that if you were going to write blog entries, that you need to, like any other journalist, be aware of what you write,” said Michael J. Songer, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and a partner at D.C. law firm Crowell & Moring LLP. “It could have a chilling effect when people have to sit down and worry about losing their house.”
There is at least some potential good news for bloggers. According to experts, there is a distinction between content written by a blogger and content posted by readers in comments.
Robert O’Neil, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, said in the article linked above that while newspapers are liable for all published content, bloggers and Web site operators are liable for only their own content and not that of those who post comments.
There are circumstances that mitigate against the implications of this case for bloggers, such as the fact that the defendant, who had been driven from her home by Hurricane Katrina, didn’t appear in court to defend herself. Nevertheless, this is a relevant factor to consider as the distinction between bloggers and traditional journalists continues to blur.
Nick Carr has a fantastic post today on the tension between bloggers and traditional print media. He discusses in great detail some of problems and perspectives that make it difficult for bloggers and traditional journalists to appreciate and trust each other.
Read his post, and think about what he is saying. Regardless of which side of the illusory fence you think you’re on, no one can deny the truth of this:
When it comes to conflicts of interest, or other questions of journalistic ethics, the proper attitude that we bloggers should take toward our counterparts in the traditional press is not arrogance but humility.
To do otherwise is to claim a position of superiority that is ludicrous on its face. Blogs have many advantages over traditional print media. Let’s not obfuscate them with illusions of grandeur.
If we, as bloggers, want to be taken seriously, then we have to act seriously. We cannot ignore the standards that “evolved over the years in order to temper the freedoms that could lead, and sometimes did lead, to the abuse of the public trust” just because we have the freedom to post whatever we want whenever we want.
As the traditional press moves online (I haven’t subscribed to a newspaper in years), it will bring those standards along. At that point, the issue becomes not hard copy verses on-screen, or even now verses tomorrow morning. It becomes reliable and self-governed verses unreliable and chaotic.
With freedom comes responsibility, and with progress come challenges.
Some way, somehow, bloggers need to develop a code of ethics that legitimizes blogging as a reliable, and conflict free, information medium.
Once that happens, the real-time and distributed nature of blogging will turn what is now perceived by many as a disadvantage into a tremendous advantage.
I hope this happens sooner rather than later.
Tags: blogging, blogs, citizen journalism
Stowe notes that Jason Calacanis didn’t ask him for his opinion on the ridiculous pay per post business and then gives his opinion anyway. Good for Stowe, as he has a long track record of (mostly) finding the right side of an argument.
Jason didn’t ask me either, but like Stowe, I’m always interested in adding my two cents, and here it is. All you need to know about this pay per post nonsense.
When someone is engaging you solely in the hopes of making money, then the entire basis for a meaningful exchange of information is nullified. No one trusts people who are trying to sell them something, and no one should. There is an irreconcilable conflict of motives.
When you walk into a store, you, in effect, are inviting the people who work there to try to sell you something.
But when your so-called friends try to leverage off of your friendship to sell you tupperware or Mary Kay or whatever, you have not invited that selling opportunity.
When you fire up your email and some dumbass somewhere has sent you spam, you have not invited that selling opportunity.
When a blogger you read posts about something for pay, you have not invited that selling opportunity. It’s even worse when the payment is not diclosed.
This pay per post business is the worst of both worlds. It’s using a preexisting relationship to make money off of you, without even telling you.
Even the friend hawking tupperware has to eventually show his hand. It seems that the pay per post folks can hide their motives- thereby disguising commerce as journalism.
So ask yourself…
So what do you want the blogosphere to be, a place for the open exchange of ideas and information where no one is secretly trying to make money off of you, or an online free-for-all where anonymous people are paid to write bullshit they may or may not believe in exchange for a buck?
Mark Evans has announced that he is leaving his job at the National Post to jump into the blogosphere full time by becoming vice president of operations at b5media. Congratulations to Mark and I wish him well.
b5media, despite the irritating non-capitalization problem that someone a few years ago incorrectly decided was techy and cool, seems like a pretty solid network. I read and enjoy quite a few of its blogs.
I have never been involved in a blog network, but I’ve been a part of several other internet-related networks, and I suspect the challenges are largely the same.
On the one hand, a consolidated group of people can often accomplish more together than the individuals could do alone. Ad sales, sponsorships, cross-selling and recruiting new members are among the many benefits of such an association.
On the other hand, I suspect there are some common problems that have to be managed (I know nothing about b5media’s structure; these are just my thoughts based on some of the networks I have been involved with). One is the fact that the people at the top of the hierarchy generally make some of their money, directly or indirectly, off of the efforts of those below them. There’s nothing wrong with this- it’s the same sort of pyramid that applies at law firms, accounting firms and many other businesses. And like those businesses, I suspect blog networks will have trouble keeping their up and coming bloggers happy. When there is a pyramid of any sort and a limited supply of money to pass out, there is always an unhappy camper in the next tent. Someone always thinks they’re getting too little or the other guy is getting too much.
Another problem is the structure that comes with being a part of a network. Some networks have a lot of it, and some have only a little of it, but a blogger who has been his own boss with nothing but his whims to direct him may chafe at the structure of a network. Not all bloggers will find the addition of a little structure problematic, but some will. And others may find that what seemed like useful structure at the time starts later to feel a bit oppressive.
Don’t get me wrong- I’m not anti-blog network. I just think they will face a lot of challenges as they- and the blogosphere- mature. Some of the challenges are common with other businesses, and some will be specific to the young and evolving blogosphere- and the effort to monetize the same.
I think Mark is a great addition for b5media, and I’m looking forward to following his, and its, progress.
Tags: blogs, blog building, b5media
There were some interesting posts today about the return on investment of blogging. Like always, far too much of the focus (being, in this case, all of it) was placed on blogging as a way to separate readers from their money.
This never ending effort to treat blogging as some new age business plan continues to read to me like someone furiously trying to stuff a round peg into a square hole. But sometimes you take the conversation where and as you find it, so let’s take a look.
First, about blogging as an extension of a business (note the words “an extension of” between the words “as” and “a business”).
I’ve said many times that a blog is a natural extension of just about any business that otherwise spends time and money taking its message to current and/or potential customers. A blog is to a company’s marketing what a web page with mp3s is to a musician’s creative endeavors- a way to take your message directly to the ultimate consumer. By cutting out some of the middle, you create a more direct, less expensive, real time and somewhat interactive method of distribution of both your product and information about that product.
If you do it right, your blog becomes more than just a living marketing brochure- it becomes a portal for marketing, customer service and personalization. It becomes a public relations home run.
That’s good.
But what about the rate of return for blogs that aren’t about making money? Certainly, the best measure of that rate of return is the satisfaction you get from the blogging experience. But just because a blogger isn’t trying to separate his readers from some of their cash doen’t mean than merely sending a post out into the vast blogosphere is the be all end all of blogging.
Almost all bloggers are looking for something in return from their blogging. Let’s think about this some more.
In her article, Charlene Li talks about measuring the benefits of blogs by looking at certain factors like conversion rates, traffic, etc. She is trying to couch something very subjective in more objective terms, and I’m not sure she convinced me of anything common sense wouldn’t already dictate.
But let’s talk bout some of her factors, from a conversational blogger’s perspective:
Consumer self-education: From a conversational blogging perspective, this would translate to reader participation. Are your comments and trackback numbers increasing over time? If so, then you have attracted readers who want to engage in conversation about the topics at hand. If not, then even if you have a lot of traffic, you are not advancing your conversational goal.
Greater visibility in search results: While I get a ton of traffic via search results, I have no ads to click. So traffic for the sake of traffic only benefits my conversational purpose if that traffic expands the conversation onto other blogs. The only way to measure cross blog conversation is by measuring the links that are a part of cross-blog conversations. If you become visible via search engines, but no one engages you in conversation, then, once again, you have not advanced the conversational goal.
As an aside, I believe this is why some of the bloggers who look to profit from their blogs focus so much on traffic (and say links are of less importance), while so many conversational bloggers focus more on links (and the interaction which they, at least to some extent, measure).
Lower the cost of public relations: I believe this translates to lowering the geographical obstacles to conversation. One of my primary blogging goals is to find people who are interested in interests (tech, music, etc.) not generally shared by my real world friends. I largely measure my return on blogging by the number of people I “talk” to regularly about those topics.
If you are eliminating the geographical obstacles to conversation, you are getting a good return on your conversational blogging.
Reach an enthusiast community: While not as clean a translation, I would measure this by how sustainable your cross-blog conversations are. Are there are other bloggers who regularly reply to your posts? Do you do the same for them? Is that group growing at a satisfactory rate? The larger and more interesting that group becomes, the more likely it is to thrive over time.
Building a sustainable community is the second step to the process of eliminating the geographical obstacles to conversation I described above.
Address criticisms on other blogs/news stories:
Improve employee innovation and productivity:
Improved stock price:
I don’t see any real correlation with conversational blogging here.
But there are other areas in which conversational blogging can generate a return.
Tapping collective knowledge:
How many times have you turned to the blogosphere in search of hard to find information? I do it all the time.
Via blogging (and here is at least one good use for tags) you can tap the collective knowledge of a great many people. Even better, the blog posts create a record that can and will be found by others seeking the same information.
Want to see proof. Search Google for these song lyrics: “I wish I’d killed John Wayne.”
Be tutored by the world:
I am learning photography. By reading the right blogs, asking question via comments and surfing through the photo feeds of talented photographers, I have learned more faster than I could have by taking classes or by trial and error.
There are blogs about any topic that can provide similar learning materials.
Finding a relaxing place in a hectic world:
Life is so hectic, there really isn’t time to devote to finding user groups and other enthusiasts to share interests with. Conversational blogging allows you to find a group and interact with it in a turn-based manner, in your own way and at your own pace.
It’s a way to belong to something important, with a significantly reduced time commitment.
There are lots of other ways to measure the return on investment for conversational blogging.
The main point, at least for me, is that the benefits are not measured in dollar bills.
Sometime they are measured in something even more important.
Tags: blogging, blog building, conversation
Seth is a buddy of mine, but even he will have to admit this is funny.
Seth argues logically and genuinely that he shouldn’t be in Wikipedia. The Guardian and many bloggers pick up the story.
As a result, Seth becomes even more famous, thereby damaging his argument that he isn’t notable enough to be included.
Rogers wonderfully dubs this the Finkelstein Paradox.
It’s Sunday morning, so let me quote some applicable scripture:
Brian: I’m not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I am not the Messiah, do you understand? Honestly!
Girl: Only the true Messiah denies His divinity.
Brian: What? Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right! I am the Messiah!
Followers: He is! He is the Messiah!
Earl Moore has a list of reasons why some people don’t link. I can add some additional reasons why I think a couple of bloggers I used to read don’t link:
(a) I was picked on in high school and this is my revenge on the world;
(b) if I link to you, people will realize that you are right and I am wrong, and I like to feel right;
(c) for the first time in my life, I am at the top of the food chain in something and I like the feeling of ignoring people who wouldn’t give me the time of day in the real world; and
(d) I’m pretending that my new media blog is an old media newspaper, and old media newspapers don’t link to new media blogs.
Newsome.Org 