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Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.
 

Today's links Permanent link to this item in the archive.

24 hours of Flickr.

Todd Cochrane on good and bad re-syndication practices. This is bound to be controversial, even so it's good to ground this perennial discussion with specifics.

I don't believe in 'gotcha' Permanent link to this item in the archive.

A picture named berkeleyPath.jpgI don't believe in the mythological "gotcha" moment reporters like to dream about, for a couple of reasons.

1. I've never seen it happen, in years of being interviewed, and knowing people who are often interviewed. I've never seen a reporter ask a question and get an answer that revealed something unusual that was actually understood by the reporter, and made its way into print in a form a reader could use.

2. I've seen really interesting juicy stories out there, ready to be reported, on the record, attributable, with dozens of supposedly ambitious and relentless fact-diggers swarming all around, and instead of going for the gusto, they cling to the safe tried-and-true nauseatingly boring and insignificant overtold bedtime stories.

In other words, if you fancy yourself a Woodward or Bernstein, stop boasting and go out and do some work and take some risks. Until then I don't see why you need to talk to someone for 25 minutes for a 12-second soundbite. I don't see who that serves. I don't think very much listening is happening in that process. I think if the subject spent the 25 minutes blogging instead, the world would be a much better place for it.

So here's a question for the reporters who may be listening. Did you learn anything in the discussion about interviews, or did we just talk over each others' heads?

What's wrong with this picture? Permanent link to this item in the archive.

The NY Times announced their new public editor, the person who, more than any other person on the Times staff, represents the interests of the readers of the Times.

I'm sure he's a fine person, great reporter, watchdog of politicians. But -- what the Times needs more than anything is a reader to represent the readers. Someone to tell them, without a lifetime of training in the politics of newsrooms, what they're doing wrong.

More likely, they're getting someone who will tell them and us why the public is wrong.

As with everything else on this blog -- imho.

     

Last update: Saturday, May 05, 2007 at 7:23 PM Pacific.

Dave Winer, 52, pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

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On This Day In: 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997.

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Things to revisit:

1.Microsoft patent acid test.
2.What is a weblog?
3.Advertising R.I.P.
4.How to embrace & extend.
5.Bubble Burst 2.0.
6.This I Believe.
7.Most RSS readers are wrong.
8.Who is Phil Jones?
9.Send them away.
10.Negotiate with users.
11.Preserving ideas.
12.Empire of the Air.
13.NPR speech.
14.Russo & Hale.
15.Trouble at the Chronicle.
15.RSS 2.0.
16.Checkbox News.
17.Spreadsheet calls over the Internet.
18.Twitter as coral reef.
19.Mobs of the blogosphere.
20.Advice for Campaigns.

Teller: "To discover is not merely to encounter, but to comprehend and reveal, to apprehend something new and true and deliver it to the world."

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