Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Tim Johnson, the 59-year-old US Senator from South Dakota, may have suffered a stroke. If he can't serve, a replacement will be appointed by South Dakota's governor, a Republican. Johnson is a Democrat, whose 51-49 majority in the new Senate would turn into a 50-50 tie. 

NY Times: "Congdon -- a droll, blond Rosalind Russell for the digital generation -- has at last landed at ABCNews.com." 

Rosalind Russell starred with Cary Grant in His Girl Friday.  

Jeff Jarvis on a puzzling flare-up in comments in response to a recent Techcrunch post about the NY Times. I agree with Arrington that the Times isn't doing well in competition with the web, but I don't go as far as he does. When I think they're wrong I say it. But I also think the Times is important, in the same way that Techcrunch is important. Even if they're sloppy, self-serving, and nasty, the fact that something was said in the Times, at least for now, is itself important.  

News.com: "GPS devices might not help you get rescued if you're lost, but they can help you avoid getting stuck in the first place." 

I got an email from Dan Gediman, president of This I Believe, Inc, apologizing for the fund-raising email I received yesterday. Accepted, with these suggestions. 1. When I gave you my email address, I assumed it was only for communication regarding my article. Now I wonder how else you're going to use the information. 2. If you're going to continue sending email solicitations, it should be made clear, up front, that there is no connection between the solicitation and the submission. 3. Apply the golden rule, respect the integrity of your authors as you would insist on having your own integrity respected. 4. I don't think the editorial side should be sharing contact information with the publishing side. And while I do appreciate the apology (btw, I found it more than "bothersome"), this affair has lowered my opinion of your organization, the program, and of NPR.  

CrunchStorm 

I was talking with Scoble this afternoon about today's events in ArringtonLand.

I wondered out loud if Mike should have created a network of sites, or if it would have worked better if he had stayed the sole author of TechCrunch. Who knows what that path would have led to. He might have emulated Ben Rosen, the author of the Rosen Electronic Letter in the late 70s and early 80s, which was something like TechCrunch, though it ran less frequently and was printed on paper. Rosen got to know all the players in the nascent PC industry, and when he was reasonably sure how the industry would develop, he quit the newsletter (turning it over to Esther Dyson) and started two companies: Compaq and Lotus, and became even more influential in very short order (and hugely rich, btw).

It would be hard for Mike to do that, with all the management hassles that come with a growing network of publications. But, it might still be possible. He still has unique access to the product plans of the industry, and people would probably kill to have him involved in their companies.