Wednesday, November 19, 2003

It seems Lessig and Jay Rosen would have a lot to talk about. Both of them understood where I was coming from in my request for candidates to take a position on keeping the Internet free of control of the media companies. I didn't mean, as some thought, to keep it free of the reporters employed by the media companies, I'm not worried about that. I am worried about devices like The Broadcast Flag and other proposals (remember Berman-Coble) that would give the entertainment industry the power to shackle the computers, and invade the privacy of computer users (even remove data from our computers). Now it may be hopeless, as both Lessig and Rosen have observed, and so what? My job isn't to figure out which of the lesser of two evils to vote for. It's still so early in the process, now it's time to identify the important issues, and then ask any of the candidates if they want my vote. They may all say no, this time. But I'm demonstrating how the electoral process will work after we've flipped it around. If you're reasonably young and healthy I believe you will live to see the day. I just put the stakes in the ground so I can laugh then and say I Told You So.  

ScottR isn't sure BillG is telling the truth about Google. 

Every new piece of software I write begins with a document written by Bull Mancuso. 

Hey the government of Canada has RSS feeds. They're pretty good, not bad at all, but they call their feeds 0.91 but use features only available in 2.0. I'm hesitant to criticize, because after all it's the thought that counts. But my aggregator will ignore the cool 2.0 stuff because it takes the version seriously. Best thing to do is to just change the version number to 2.0 and accept a hearty thanks from your neighbors to the south. And thanks to Lawrence for the pointers (he's Canadian).  

Paolo: "Now: do we want to give all this power to a company?" 

intraVnews is a "state of the art news aggregator that turns Microsoft Outlook into a news reader." 

BloggerCon was like a fairy tale, a dream come true. I still review it in my mind every day, all the special moments, all the cool people who came. Charlie Nesson's convocation, the essential Harvard man, welcomed everyone with such love and enthusiasm. People don't know this about Harvard, but it can be a very very kind place, despite its reputation for great history and great achievement. I introduced some of my favorites -- Cluetrain author David Weinberger, my brother Peter Winer, Craig Cline from Seybold, the great designer Bryan Bell. I was so proud to welcome these people, esp my brother because our family has been through so much in the last year. Someone I didn't know before BloggerCon is Jay Rosen. His contribution is still bearing fruit. Every time I read a Rosen piece I'm cheering, yes yes, that's right, keep going. And there was a guy who came from Germany, who found out about the conference only two days before it happened, and he was consistently the jolliest fellow. He seemed truly delighted to learn about blogs, and to be at the Con. Well, today he sent a pointer to his new weblog, and it's as positive and cheerful as the man himself (whose name I don't know). 

An aside. BloggerCon was not a summit. It never occurred to any of us to call it a summit. Conference promoters who use the term are telling you the opposite; they're leaving some important people out, and they hope you won't notice. A perfect case in point is the upcoming summit for news and XML. Where are the publishers and tech companies who use RSS 0.91 and 2.0. This, by most estimates, is over 75 percent of the market. Make-believe summitry. "In the world as we wish it looked this is who would be at a summit." There have been technology summits where not a single delegate was an active programmer. The word has been abused to the point where it's meaningless. It's time, in the technology business, for people to start setting realisitc expectations. Nothing is going to instantly change the world. A summit that's exclusive is not a summit. Open minds, open meetings, that's the way to go. 

Jeremy Zawodny: Is Google The Next DNS? 

Three years ago today: "Authoring a directory is a lot like maintaining a weblog. On a weblog you post on a timely basis, but links fall off the bottom. On a directory you save the valuable non-time-based links. There's the fundamental difference between a weblog and a directory. A weblog has the current stuff, and a directory has the permanent stuff. Connecting the two structures is an interesting user interface problem, and a social one. I have to prime the pump, to get people interested in doing their own directories, I guess I have to create directory envy." 

NY Times: "Getting a job in the Valley is easy, if you're perfect." 

SJ Merc: "Tech insider Dave Winer, an inveterate blogger and fellow at Harvard Law School, said he was surprised that Polese stayed at Marimba as long as she did." 

Dan Gillmor reports that Good Morning Silicion Valley now has an RSS feed. 

Guardian: "Music blogs are free from the business plans and targeted readerships that determine the content of commercial publications." 

Gotta play with this some more: GoogleRace.Com. 

Jay Rosen: "Ed Cone explains exactly why Howard Dean's 'open style' of politics is a big deal--and a big story--whether he or not he wins. " 

NY Times: "The swirl of interviews, documentaries and specials building up to Nov. 22 are not really about the 40th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. They commemorate the 40th anniversary of television: the day a young, vigorous medium was swept into power and forever changed American culture and politics." 

It's a beautiful morning!