Saturday, January 08, 2005

Today's Morning Coffee Notes podcast is an ode to art.  

Adam's latest DSC is a great departure from the tried-and-true format. He walks around South Beach narrating, meeting people, talking with them.  

A new Trade Secrets. If you've been listening to Madge Weinstein you should listen to this cast. 

Russell Beattie: "It's game over for a lot of Microsoft competitors." 

BTW, about people who almost everyone likes -- that doesn't mean they're better than people that everyone doesn't like, it may just mean that they work harder at being liked. That may be one of the reasons the meanies go after the people who everyone likes, because they'll fight the hardest to prove that the mean guy is wrong not to like the guy.  

Rogers Cadenhead helps Business 2.0 figure out how RSS came to be. 

Skype upgrades to 1.1, still no direct-to-MP3 feature? 

The list of participants for the Shorenstein conference. For a conference about blogging, not too many bloggers. Of course emails come saying they were nice enough to invite you why are you criticizing them. Some of this feedback comes from journalists. This suggests we should really enumerate not just the principles of credibility, but the practical side of it. I am not friends with the people I cover, and if I should happen to cover people who are friends, it's my responsibility to tell you I'm doing so, and it's also my responsibility to strive to have that not color my judgement (impossible of course). My criticism of people I don't like is validated by equivalent criticism of people I do like. In 2005, as we struggle to find the lines, as the people being covered become the ones doing the covering, it's important to not only have integrity, but to appear to have it. I may like Dan (almost everyone does) but that doesn't mean he is above criticism. Now, some people among us use intimidation to keep themselves from being criticized. Want to know who they are? Just look at who never gets criticized. At least you know that's not Dan, or Bill Gates. Maybe Steve Jobs? Hmmm. Think about others.  

Linux Devices: Archos ships Linux-based pocket media assistant. 

More movies from yesterday's Trade Secrets. 

The microphone we used for yesterday's Trade Secrets. 

Dan Gillmor takes Bill Gates to task for a "howler" about neo-communists who want musicians to give their creative work away. As usual, I'm suspect of criticism of Gates. Would Dan criticize Kapor, Omidyar or O'Reilly, the three capitalists who sign his paycheck? Further, isn't it obvious that Gates is trying to show he's even more enthusiastic about protecting Hollywood's intellectual profits than good-guy untouchable (mostly) Steve Jobs? How come no one gives Jobs a hard time for bending over for Hollywood (and don't forget, Uncle Steve is part of Hollywood). And finally doesn't Dan have a bit of a conflict because he's paid for his creativity, unlike most musicians? To be really believable, wouldn't Dan have to forgo his salary? My purpose here is to frame some questions for the Credibility conference, below. If we're going to examine the integrity of bloggers, let's take a look at the pros too. (Assuming Dan is still a pro.) 

Kenosis is a "fully-distributed peer-to-peer RPC system built on top of XML-RPC." Their first app is a decentralized BitTorrent. 

A new Harvard blogging conference 

Harvard is holding a conference on January 21 and 22 on blogging, journalism and credibility. The format of the conference is something we're not sure about, but it appears to largely be professionals talking about our credibility. Perhaps we should put on another conference for professionals explaining how respect works. We've been working on issues of integrity and credibility in the blogosphere for a long time, this is not a new subject for us and our readers. May we be given a chance to present what we've learned alongside our professional colleagues? Apparently not.

The conference is hosted by Shorenstein Center at the Kennedy School of Government. The director of the center, Alex Jones, wrote a scathing condemnation of the integrity of bloggers during the 2004 primary campaign. It seems appropriate for Jones to present that paper, and then listen to the people he condemned.

The Jones piece is gone from the LA Times site, but Jay Rosen has an extensive quote and comments.

I have mixed feelings about participating in this conference. I would much prefer that they have BloggerCon-style sessions, without presentations, a level playing field, the judgement of the planners not so crucial. It's possible I misunderstand their intent. However, if we're to have a series of presentations, let's get to the heart of the matter, and hear Jones defend his writing. I would be happy to stand up and offer an explanation of my experience with trust and independence of professional reporters, and how that experience formed the genesis of blogging. And I would welcome questions and comments from the pros, and from other bloggers.

After all this time, after all the disrespect, it's disheartening to have merely earned a place in the audience. It's time for the pros to acknowledge bloggers as equals, and it wouldn't hurt to have the courage to make your accusations to our faces or withdraw them. Perhaps that will turn out to be part of the definition of integrity, for all of us.