Wednesday, January 04, 2006

John Palfrey shares his moment of epiphany about OPML. This is good, because Harvard may not be an incredible source of RSS-expressible data, it is a huge source of OPML-expressible data.  

We had a great lunch with JP's students today. Two of them worked at the Crimson. In my 2006 predictions I suggested that a foundation formed by Yahoo, the New York Times and Harvard might lift OPML into orbit in the new year. The Crimson would be almost as good as the Times.  

Times-Picayune: Grateful krewe plans route cleanup. 

I see that the WEF is podcasting this year's Davos. I was looking for their RSS 2.0 feed with enclosures, but couldn't find it. Anyone have an idea where I might look? Hey if you guys want some help with the podcasting, my prices are reasonable. BTW, I think it's a very good idea. I hope they do it well. 

I just had this fantasy that Klaus Schwab would send me an email saying "Ve could really uze zum help mit ze podcast zis year, vuld you like to come to Dah-vosh?" Then I responded, "Sure, of course, it'd be great fun." Then he'd ask what I'd like it to say on my badge. In an instant I replied: Media Hacker. 

As you know I met with John Palfrey on Monday, we talked about a lot of things, among them what I do. (I'm interested in finding a job, that's why it came up.) I said at first that I'm a technologist, but John said there's more to me than that. Later of course I realized he was right. One of the new ideas I'm most passionate about is HyperCamp. I think it's much deeper than it may appear at first glance. Not much technology there, although there is some, that's why I would go by the title Media Hacker, because it seems to encompass the purpose of my interest in technology. Although I love to create software, I love the logic of computers, the main reason I do it is to create new forms of media.  

Speaking of new ideas for media, yesterday Kottke said he disagrees with 90 percent of what I say here. That fascinates me. How could we possibly see things so differently? How could I be so wrong, or how could he? But then maybe there's an interesting media product here. If I say something he disagrees with, maybe there should be a parallel Kottke-world where you can read how he thinks the other way? I find myself looking at today's Scripting News with new eyes. What ten percent does Kottke agree with?