BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

December 17, 2003

Guardian weblog special
: The Guardian's Online section has created a new weblog special section and the best part about it is the illustrations by Hugh MacLeod. For the launch, they present the winners of the Guardian's weblog awards (odd lot) and a list of weblog luminaries (terribly predictable, except I'm glad they included Hoder) and the obligatory Rebecca Blood piece. download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (0)

Wi-fone
: Om Malik has an exclu: Vonage is going to offer a softphone, meaning that you you run some software on your PDA or laptop and wherever you have wired or wi-fi Internet access, you have your home phone (and number) anywhere in the world for $15 a month. No more usurious hotel phone bills. And you can act like you're home no matter where you are. download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (0)

So the problem is editors...
: Go read Tim Blair's take on the real problem with big media.download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (2)

Buzz
: Ad giant Euro RSCG releases its list of top 10 trends and blogging is one of them:

- Blogging: 2003 was the year in which weblogging -- a.k.a. blogging -- really took hold, with an estimated 3 million sites worldwide. In 2004, we'll see more buzz marketing via blogs, as marketers figure out ways to use this new medium for their own means.

It's actually a decent list. Other trends:

: Going Local: 2004 will be the year when neighbors entertain neighbors with a home-cooked (or at least reheated ... ) stew at the kitchen table, informality being the subtheme, genuine bonding being the real theme. We'll also put more emphasis on socializing in the neighborhood, at the very local restaurants, with extended tribes of families and friends. No age barriers, just the desire for comfort food with an urbane twist and real conversation versus the kissy-kissy greetings and superficiality of life before the New Normal.

Right. And don't forget media going local. The Internet went global first. Now it's drilling down to your town, your street, your house.

: Google Bombing and Further Politicization of the Internet: In 2004, we'll see greater politicization of the Internet as more people take advantage of its ability to apply concentrated "people power," whether by organizing volunteers for a political candidate, raising funds, or starting a boycott.

Witness Iran, Iraq, and Dean.

Hot Spots and E-Wear: The wireless revolution will expand further in 2004 thanks to the growth of "hot spots," or public spaces in which wireless Internet connections are available. Technology research company Gartner estimates that the 29,000 hot spots in North America today will leap to more than 50,000 by the end of 2004. We'll also see technology integrated into our wardrobes, with pockets designed to transport our portable gadgets. So-called "e-Wear" already on the market include the Levi's Dockers Mobile Pant.

Plus, of course, metrosexuals.
It's a good time, folks. We've forgotten that lately. But this is an exciting time. [via Blog Herald]download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (7)

Say it ain't so
: If Jakob Nielsen got rich serving up the blather he serves up, I'm going to be really pissed.download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (4)

Blogs help another nation
: John Robb points us to a blog that's a source of independent information on what's happening in Venezuela.download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (0)

Take away their nice pills
: I preferred it when Jason Calacanis and Nick Denton sneered, snarked, and sniped at each other. This lovefest is unbearable.download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (1)

The value of these things
: Former AOL-TW exec Bob Pittman just bought Daily Candy for a reported $3.5-4 million, with plans to turn it into a multimedia brand. Candy was a weblog before there were weblogs. There won't be a million of these one-man-band online-born brands but there could be a few worth a million.... download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (4)

Joe Lieberman is not in the coalition of the pissy, nonetheless...
: Colleague bloggers has a close encounter with Joe Lieberman. download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (1)

Blogs and freedom: the big story
: Matt Rosenberg writes a very good piece for the Seattle Times reporting on the weblog revolution in Iraq:

Something more powerful than terrorist attacks and resistance was under way there even before Saddam's dramatic capture. It is reflected partly by a growing cadre of passionate, pro-democracy Iraqis providing firsthand reporting, commentary and pointed media criticism on their own Internet "Web log" sites, or "blogs."
All told, there's an impressive network of U.S. bloggers rooting on their Iraqi colleagues, spreading their message, and even providing software and other technical assistance....
The importance of blogging to cultural and political liberalization (note the word, please) is evident elsewhere in the Persian Gulf. The BBC reported last week Iranian bloggers and their supporters have taken online their grievances with the government's Internet censorship, posting hundreds of comments on a site of the United Nations' digital summit.
Blogging from and about emerging democracies is more than Internet news from the front. The high-touch feel and inter-connectivity of blogs allow participants to confront and outflank old media in force, while building transnational political communities....
Now more than ever, the fresh voices of Iraqi bloggers will be an invaluable counterweight to traditional media coverage. In the weeks and months to come, turn to them for crucial, first-person insights on this unfolding, and uplifting, birth of a democracy.

Amen and cue the trumpets.download Xmas=macromedia

: These are great stories.
If you're a big-media editor or producer, you should be rushing to do the story of Zeyad or the story of the Iranian webloggers (the escape of Iranian blogger Sina Motallebi is your peg). Matt's beating you to a great story, big guys.
If you want to report this yourselves, it's only an email away... download Xmas=macromedia

: Donald Sensing says there'll be a story in Knoxville Thursday (I haven't heard from the reporter).
Seattle... Knoxville.... Hey, New York and Washington, you're being left behind....download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (11)

Too much privacy
: Society's protection of privacy has gone too far; it has turned into privacy paranoia and it has now cost lives.
The nurse who admits killing 30 to 40 patients, Charles Cullen, could not be stopped because each hospital that hired him -- each hospital that unwittingly hired this killer, even after reference and background checks -- could not find out the problems and suspicions about him at earlier hospital jobs. The New York Times reports that nothing short of a conviction or revocation of license can be passed on. This man was being investigated for suspicious deaths, and that could not be shared.
The system allowed a killer to kill. If the system were different, if this information about this man could have been shared, it would have saved -- how many? -- 10, 20, 30, 40 lives.
The Star-Ledger also says he had a history of mental illness, suicide attempts, and treatment at a mental institution.
The system allowed a madman to hold my neighbors' lives in his hands.
Separately this morning, I heard a report on NPR (not yet online) complaining about a data base and Justice Department policy that now allows the names of illegal immigrants set for deportation to be entered into a national police data base. Many have been found this way; many of them felons. Opponents object that local police should not know this because of both privacy issues and because local police are not supposed to enforce federal immigration laws.
But if this had been in place before September 11, 2001, it would have popped out the illegal immigration status of some of the men who hijacked those jets; it would have messed up their plans; imagine if it had stopped them. It would have saved thousands of lives.
Of course, these are complex issues involving labor law, immigration, due process; it's about more than privacy. But privacy has a great deal to do with this.
Privacy has become a sacred cow in the U.S. and in the E.U. as well. Throwing up the word "privacy" is enough to mobile armies of activists, professors, lawyers, and legislators.
We have George Orwell to thank for much of this, our fear not of Big Brother but of the Big Data Base. It's mass paranoia.
It is also a way to hide from responsibility.
If a nurse is under investigation -- rightly or wrongly -- in suspicious deaths, his right to privacy is surely trumped by his employers' right, need, and duty to know. If an immigrant is still here illegally and is fleeing from the law, isn't it only sensible for law enforcement to know this?
I'll say something very contrarian: When JetBlue gave data to a company to analyze to try to find patterns that would lead to terrorists, I did not object. I'm not sure the plan made an iota of sense but if there was any chance that such analysis could lead to helping stop the next 9/11, if that's all it could be used for, then, hell, I'll help; let me tell you about myself!
Priorities, people. Privacy is an important right in a civilized society but it is not an absolute. download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (18)

New campaign coverage
: Jay Rosen sets journalists on the path of new ways to cover elections in a new world. download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (1)

Sina speaks again
: Freed Iranian blogger Sina Motallebi leaves a comment below, thanking bloggers everywhere for bringing attention to his case. download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (1)

New York Magazine: the local angle
: Bruce Wasserstein gets New York Magazine and vows to add more business coverage. That has to be good for our blog buddy, Elizabeth Spiers since she's a bizbrain.download Xmas=macromedia

LINK | Comments (0)