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About the author

A picture named daveTiny.jpgDave Winer, 56, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and editor of the Scripting News weblog. He 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 New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

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

"Dave was in a hurry. He had big ideas." -- Harvard.

"Dave Winer is one of the most important figures in the evolution of online media." -- Nieman Journalism Lab.

10 inventors of Internet technologies you may not have heard of. -- Royal Pingdom.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

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

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"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.

8/2/11: Who I Am.

Contact me

scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

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People are always asking about my bike.

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Here's a picture.

Calendar

April 2011
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Warning!

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FYI: You're soaking in it. :-)


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Dave Winer's weblog, started in April 1997, bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

NYT paywall on April 4 Permalink.

A picture named robot.gifRecall that the NY Times now has a paywall. That entitles you to 20 free articles a month. So it's four days into April and I'm hitting the wall.

I have a number of computers I read the Times on. It turns out that I used a bunch of different email addresses to log on to the NYT site at each of the computers. On one of them, my main desktop, I have a complementary account thanks to Lincoln. On the others, no free account. So one by one I'm hitting the 20-article limit. And learning some the quirks of the paywall.

For example...

They have a rule that says if you come from a social media site, the 20-article limit doesn't apply. That means that if I click on a link to a Krugman piece from my news aggregator, I get through. But, if I click on a link in Krugman's article to another NYT piece, I hit the wall.

Ironically, if I click on a link from the same Krugman piece to a story on the Washington Post site, it goes through. Not exactly what the Times wants, I assume. I wonder how Krugman will feel about linking on-site vs off-site.

Screen shot that illustrates.

Anyway, I'm going to leave some of my computers this way so I continue to experience the effects of the paywall.

Andy Warhol in Union Square Permalink.

Lunch today was on 18th St off Union Square.

Walking back to the square to catch the 6 train uptown, I spotted this shiny new statue on the corner of 17th and Broadway. It's Andy Warhol, with a Bloomingdale's shopping bag and Polaroid camera.

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Here's what Rob Pruitt, the artist, has to say about it.

Mysterious tools behind Engadget move? Permalink.

A picture named ships.gifIn the tech blogosphere this morning there's news that the Engadget team, that dribbled out of AOL over the last few weeks, has re-assembled at a sports blog called SB Nation. Once there, they will start a gadget blog that competes with Engadget.

In various accounts, including the blog post by Joshua Topolsky, the former editor of Engadget and the new editor at SB Nation, a sophisticated editorial system is mentioned as a reason for the move.

Topolsky says: "The people at SB Nation share my vision of what publishing looks like in the year 2011. They think that the technology used to create and distribute news on the web (and mobile) is as important as the people who are responsible for the content itself. And that's not just pillow talk -- SB Nation is actively evolving its tools and processes to meet the growing and changing needs of its vast editorial teams and their audience communities."

Hey -- it's not pillow talk! I like that...

In other words, lurking in the shadows is a content management and/or delivery system that beats the one at AOL, at least. Not too hard to imagine, considering those tools have barely advanced in the last few years. And remember, publishing tools are as much a part of the tech industry as search engines and social networks.

I, for one, would like to know more about these tools. :-)

An idea for Mayor Bloomberg Permalink.

I like the Mayor of New York. A lot of people say he's a bum, and of course this is NY so they're entitled. But I like him. He's his own man, he's smart and he thinks like a businessperson, because he is one.

Anyway, here's my idea for Hizoner the Mayor.

I'm going to a meeting uptown later today. It's a fifteen minute bike ride. A half-hour subway ride. The weather isn't good enough yet, but in a couple of weeks it will be. I'd like to ride my bike. And I know that the mayor wants me to too.

A picture named bikesmall.jpgSo how about offering a tax break to office buildings that provide on-site bike checkin and checkout. I'm not good enough at locking these things up when I get there to be willing to take the chance on losing my bike. But I would love to ride there if I knew in advance that they would hold my bike downstairs while I went to my meeting upstairs.

Maybe no tax break is needed, if there's a surplus of office space in NYC. It could be a differentiator. Locate your company here because you'll hire healthier employees.



© Copyright 1997-2011 Dave Winer. Last build: 12/12/2011; 1:32:45 PM. "It's even worse than it appears."

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