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 New BloggerCon speakers confirmed: Eric Folley, Democratic National Committee; James Taranto, Wall Street Journal; Len Apcar, New York Times; Jeff Jarvis, Advance Publications, Dan Gillmor, San Jose Mercury News. Folley is the director of Internet operations for the DNC, and is responsible for Kicking Ass, their weblog, reviewed below. Taranto edits the Opinion Journal best-of-the-web. Apcar is the editor in chief of NYTimes.Com. Jarvis manages the online presence of Advance Publications, which includes Condé Naste and several newspapers. Gillmor, who needs no introduction to readers of Scripting News, is a technology columnist, and was one of the first users of Manila in 1999. Taranto and Apcar will discuss the value of editing, a hot topic in the blogging world. Folley will particpate in the Day 1 presidential politics panel, and Jarvis will lead the Day 2 discussion about presidential politics along with Dan Gillmor, Ed Cone and several others we've invited who have not yet confirmed.  Jon Udell: "Folks who consume news by way of blogs are likelier to be exposed to primary sources than folks who rely on conventional news sources." Don Park: "If I get run over by a herd of pigs in my dream, I am going to buy some lottery tickets as my way of saying I got the damn message!" Megnut is at the MIT Emerging Technology conference. What a contrast between their website and the BloggerCon site. I like ours better, of course. Oy. I wanted to send a message of compliment to the bloggers at Democrat.Org and ask them if they wanted to be part of BloggerCon. So I used their web form. First problem, they ask for my mailing address. Uhhh. Why? Second, I get a confirming email that accuses me of being a Democrat and asks me to be part of some network of Democrats who want to elect Democrats to every office there is. I'm not a Democrat. There's some real serious cluelessness over there. On the other hand, the person who's doing their blog posts is a star. Jesse Berney? I love the fact that they took us behind the scenes into the spin room at last night's debate. That's what bloggers are supposed to do. Give us a sense of what it's like to be there. Observe and report. Skip all the bullshit that you get on network TV and NPR. BloggerCon will be webcast. Rogers Cadenhead reports on an analyst who apparently was fired for criticizing Microsoft. Andrew: "The BloggerCon infrastructure session is starting to come together." Wendy asks if BloggerCon badges should show the URL of your weblog or the name of your weblog? Description of the last session on Day 2. Remember, Day 2 is free. Spread the word. Lunch suggestions for Day 2 people. NY Times reports that Dell is going into consumer electronics, with a portable music player, online music service and flat panel TVs. Ever get a song into your head that just won't leave no matter how nicely you ask? Such a song: "He’s a one boy cuddly toy, my up, my down, my pride and joy."  Uncle update. The autopsy results are in. He died of a heart attack. A massive one. Killed his heart, then everything else died. I wonder if such a heart attack leaves you conscious. Do you know you won't come back? Is the pain excruciating. Then I read that rock star Robert Palmer, only 54, died yesterday of a heart attack. And on this day in 2002, a famous programmer, Bob Wallace, died suddenly. Two quotes come to mind. One from Woody Allen. "It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens." An argument for good drugs. Laughing so hard, I forgot the other quote. Sorry. Woody Allen: "How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?" I have to write a BloggerCon essay about the term "piracy." It'll go something like this. As long as the music industry labels all use of music on the Internet as piracy, and as long as pubs like the NY Times go along with this, the "problem" will never be solved. The music industry is insisting on a moral principle that they don't hold themselves to, that musicians should be paid for their work. They need to clean their house first, and that's going to mean disclaiming ownership of some of their supposed property, and deciding what they want to be paid for, and then asking for (and maybe receiving) help from the online community, in much the same way the US presidential candidates are. The music industry is going over our heads (by going to Washington), and under (by suing users), but the solution is here. First, give up trying to control the old music. We understand that there was no money in this anyway. Don't give up the copyrights, so if the music is used for commercial purposes, like in ad jingles or public radio pledge drives, you can charge your license fees. Then let the Internet have them to distribute and listen to for free, without fear of a lawsuit. Watch carefully to see what happens. We might not need to go to war anymore. Music is that powerful. Specifically exclude the new stuff, the stuff you're making money on, and provide proof that the artists are getting a share of the profits. Having done this, you may get some leaders on the Internet to agree to calling ripoffs of that stuff piracy. More in a bit, after some coffee. |
 
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