BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

April 25, 2004

Whereabouts
: Posting likely to be on-and-off. Could be on. Could be off.

For the record
: NY Times Public Editor Dan Okrent celebrates that the New York Times is no longer the paper of record. Right. Google is.

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Where to get first-hand news
: Reporters in Iraq can't give us first-hand news... but bloggers can.
The head of CNN laments that the violence in Iraq means that reporters are not getting out to find out what is going on firsthand and that means we're not getting good reporting from Iraq:

I think news consumers are being shortchanged to a degree, not just on television but in print, because journalists are not able to do their jobs effectively, and certainly the depth and breadth of reporting that you saw even a month ago was far more vast than what news consumers get today.

This makes Cori Dauber sputter:

We're being shortchanged to a degree? Well I suppose that we are. And I applaud him for making that clear and explaining the limitations on reporting clearly and explicitly so that we can evaluate what we're getting from Iraq knowing that.

All the more reason for us -- and for news organizations! -- to watch what the Iraqi bloggers are saying and to hope that more start publishing. It's not their job to cover all the news. But they give us the news they know from their perspectives. On many days, Zeyad's blogroll has news from the front.
See, for example, this report from Alaa.

: River also criticizes media coverage -- Western media coverage -- of Iraq.

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Hyper about hyperlocal
: Go to GoSkokie.com: "news for the people by the people." It's the fruit of the hyperlocal project at Northwestern. Very exciting to see something grow from concept to reality so quickly.

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Kerry's quagmire: Nothing for something
: G. Pascal Zachary says in the SF Chron that Iraq could be Kerry's quagmire instead of Bush's:

The conventional wisdom would have you think Iraq is turning into George Bush's quagmire, his Vietnam.
Well, as the war gets worse, Bush's popularity remains steady and even nudges up a bit, and at least his bedrock supporters seem prepared to stick with him no matter what happens in Iraq....
The perils for Kerry were revealed last week when Ralph Nader, who may have cost Al Gore the 2000 presidential election, described Kerry as "stuck in the Iraq quagmire the way Bush is." ...
Nader now has a rationale for his campaign. While the antiwar wing is small, it is large enough, if it goes for Nader, to tip the vote Bush's way in a few swing states. ...
To avoid this, Kerry needs to quickly assemble a thoughtful, practical and compelling plan that reframes the debate over Iraq's future.

I keep quoting Micah Sifry on this: You can't beat something with nothing.

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The Saudi civil war
: The Saudi blogger, Religious Policeman, says, the Saudi civil war has begun:

The first was when King AbdulAziz, back in the last century, unified Saudi Arabia (or stole it from the Hashemites, depending on your point of view. However the victors write the history).
The second is starting now. Am I being over-dramatic? Some may think so. However I do not believe that I am.
Saudi Arabia has always nurtured religious extremists thru its Wahabbi state religion, its educational system, and its introverted attitude to the outside world. The advent of oil provided the finance for these extremists to practice what they preached.
At first they operated abroad, in Afghanistan, in Chechnya, in the Yemen. And we Saudis regarded them as brave adventurers, the late 20th century equivalent of volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.
Then came 9/11. It had become more serious. But Westerners were the target. And, at all levels, we never really condemned it. Indeed, many cheered....
Now, all of a sudden, they are attacking Saudis. OK, Saudis from the ruling tribes, part of the security forces. But we all look the same. And suddenly we are the targets. The terrorists are not going to leave us alone, because we're not part of the government apparatus. And now we are faced with the sudden realization that we should have done something about this a long time ago.

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In the cause of freedom
: A blogger named Kerry Dupont has done something wonderful in the cause of freedom: She just sent laptops, scanners, cameras and more equipment of citizens' media to Iraqi bloggers, including Zeyad and Omar and Ays.
Kerry attempted to get computers donated but when the company found out that there wasn't a tax-deductible charity involved, they backed out. She went ahead and got the equipment and paid a whopping, and I do mean whopping, shipping bill and went through a great deal of work to pull this off.
And she has only just begun. Kerry is setting up a charity so she can do more of this. She looked at the Iraqi bloggers and all they were doing and at the soldiers (including family members) and all they were doing and she asked what many of us are asking:

What had I done? Yes, I was using my voice, but could I do more? So I started working on this idea. From this idea a larger one flowed. Free media. For Iraq first. For Iran, for China, for Cuba and North Korea. But I would start in Iraq, because of the voices of who I had come to regard as my Iraqi friends. Zeyad was having a difficult day one day and I told him what I truly felt, I said, Zeyad, my eyes are on yours, and they are full of tears, but I will not turn away. I was committed to doing something, however small, to help spread the voices of the Iraqis.
We started corresponding, and that is when I truly found what a gift the internet is. Zeyad and I exchanged e mails about my son's gerbils, and his ducks, about food, family, and life. Omar and his brothers, Ali, and Mohammed, I also became fast friends with. I am still overwhelmed by their desire and love of freedom that has come so strong in a land of uncertainty.

That's what it's all about, isn't it? People linking to each other, talking, understanding, helping, sharing. People changing their worlds, our world.
Your contribution can be tiny. It can be huge. But every one of you can help change the world now.

: Kerry suggests making contributions at Ays' and Omar's sites to help pay for the shipping.

: In her shipment, I sent along a package to Zeyad with copies of the Weekly Standard in which his photos and report appeared. He said his parents would be proud.

: Also forgot to point you all to a USA Today story on the Iraqi bloggers.

: And for me, this whole saga of Zeyad and the Iraqi bloggers links to the story of Hoder and the Iranian bloggers. Hoder just noted the year anniversary of the arrest of Iranian blogger Sina Motallebi (who was later released from prison and allowed to leave Iran under strong pressure from bloggers and thus media). This was the moment and story that brought me into the world of Iranian blogs, seeing that as a model for what could and should happen in Iraqi with weblogs, which led to Zeyad starting his blog, which led to more bloggers coming online, which led to Kerry being inspired to help them spread their word. It's a small world, this blogosphere. A wonderfully small world.

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We have seen the future and it is us
: Leonard Witt finds the essence of a good report from IBM on the future of media.

An increasing segment of consumers will be able to compile, program, edit, create and share content; as a result, they will gain more control and become more immersed in media experiences.
The future will see more open, reciprocal relationships and more ways to interact and customize at every point of the media value loop – among brands, creators, suppliers, distributors, delivery systems, customers and “experiencers” of media content.
Consumers will be able to compile, edit, produce, create and broadcast complex content and manipulate huge files from the comfort of their homes and personal budgets. The battle for human attention will remain pitched: innovations will continue to cascade rapidly to market. The glut of choices, channels, brands, traditional media and archival content must now compete with customers’ and consumers’ new enthusiasms for interactive media, on demand scheduling and publishing, and steadily increasing thirst for the rich, interactive experiences digital technologies make possible.
The horizontal axis shows trends in the experience of media consumption, moving from the traditional media-directed system to the open, immersive environment of the future. Media companies must interact with the “hot” new combinations of technology, devices and behaviors that will be unpredictably driven by open markets and a determined sense of user entitlement.

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