BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

March 20, 2005

Another popular movement for freedom

: Rebecca MacKinnon reports that Chinese students are protesting online censorship.

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Yahoo buys Flickr

: The news is on Flickr's blog. Discussion here, where honcho Caterina Fake explains:

So you're asking: why are you being acquired? Why Yahoo?

We thought about lots of ways to keep Flickr going, growing, and
getting better. We considered taking VC money, more angel
investment, bootstrapping it and selling.

When Yahoo first approached us eons ago, we were pretty
skeptical. But after meeting the people on the Yahoo team and
getting a picture of where they were going, we got religion.
Maybe that's too strong. We realized we were all eating at the
same church potluck.

The things that were important to us were: being open, building
innovative stuff and kicking ass. Were these people OUR people?
Yes. See the stuff Yahoo's announced recently (including, of
course,this)? They're evolving in really interesting ways --
and from our look inside, we know know that there's a lot more
coming.

Yahoo won't be the Yahoo you've come to take for granted.
Competition (with that other company with two O's in its name)
has done great things for Yahoo. Dude.

I wonder whether this could be the antibubble: rather than going for the next round of financing and the IPO, they sought haven in a big (still kinda new) company with benfits, adminstration, and cool hats. I think that bodes well for other smart start-ups: It's no longer just about an exit strategy. It's about a safety strategy. And that will work only if the acquiring company is smart enough to let the acquired company grow: Everything AOL bought disappeared. Everything the old Yahoo bought (see: Broadcast.com and the billions that allowed Mark Cuban to become an obnoxious rich man) disappeared. But when Google bought Blogger, it got better. Can happen. Let's hope.

: More from Jeremy Zowodny and Jeff Clavier.

: LATER: Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Barry Diller is buying fifth-rank search-engine ASK for $2 billion.

: On Flickr and Yaho, Dave Winr says it should have been the other way around.

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Skype goes every-which-way

: Skype just added Skype-In numbers: You get a phone number so anyone can call you on your PC. It costs 30 Euros a year. Skype already had Skype-Out, allowing you to call any phone. And, of course, Skype is free PC to PC.

I can't wait for Skype video.

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Help Jay Rosen

: If anybody out there is an Economist suscriber (do I hang in such a tony crowd), Jay Rosen needs to see the text from this story: The government's “news” broadcasts. Can you help him? (I let my subscription lapse, sadly.) His email is listed here.
Thanks. Mission accomplished.

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Critical mass

: Rick Bruner discovers that Blogspot blogs alone get more traffic than NYTimes.com (according to the iffy Alexa). Makes the About.com purchase make more sense, eh?

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Boys vs. Girls is so third grade

: Maureen Dowd can't get out of the playground.

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Annan's new U.N.?

: Kofi Annan's plan to reform the U.N. here. Good luck. I still think we'd be better off shifting some resource and authority to a concil of world democracies.

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Bloggers are journalists under FOIA

: Phil Yanov beat me to hearing this week's On The Media and heard this bit of good sense:

On The Media reported in an interview with GOP Senator John Cornyn that bloggers, just like mainstream journalists, would have fees waived under the new Faster FOIA (Freedom of Information Act.) The Senator says "It is not government's responsibility to try to decide who is and who is not [a qualified journalist.]" He continued "They, as citizen activists ... need to be able to get access to information as well."

: See also the Rocky Mountain News arguing that bloggers are journalists who deserve shield-law protection:

Count us among the growing legions who embrace the notion that Web bloggers deserve the same shield-law protections accorded to other journalists. But a California case has reminded us just how vulnerable Colorado journalists are whose work appears on the Internet.

We should be seeing news organizations across the country making exactly the same argument. We're waiting...[via Steve Rubel]

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Help the Afghan blogger

: The first Afghan blogger, Waheed, continues to post up a storm. The Australian coworker who convinced him to start the blog, Paul Edwards, inserts a post asking for help on behalf of Waheed:

Waheed really needs a laptop and a digital camera, but he's too shy to ask for it. Two people offered a digital camera, but they didn't provide an email contact. If you have either of these two items available, could you please send an email to Waheed. The items can be posted to a US address (which will be provided) which will get through to Waheed's US boss in the military. Also, PayPal has been added to the account, thanks to Tom Villars. It costs Waheed US$3/hour to access the internet...

Go to it.

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News meets the people

: When I do those MSNBC what's-on-the-blogs gigs, I try to find new voices and new names because I think that's the point: This should be about finding the authentic voice of the people and in this medium, that means the voices of many people. (See a few of the links from Friday below.)

That is why I'm glad to see MSNBC and CNN quoting bloggers. That is my response to the quota counters. And that is my response, too, to Chris Nolan, who wonders why I bother to appear on big media when I am so triumphal about small media. One answer to her question is obvious: Ego -- raging, unquenchable ego.

But the other answer is that what fascinates me and encourages me about the future of news is seeing these media intersect: the reporting resources -- and, yes, megaphone voice -- of big media meets the many small but real voices of the people in blogs, and together I hope they can give us a better view of not only the news but also of news the public cares about.

But there are risks. In the short time available to get ready for a news segment, I find blogs commenting on the story du jour via Technorati and Pubsub and I try to find those that are articulate and seem to have some history and links.

On one of the segments Friday, they found and interviewed a blogger I hadn't seen who'd been writing about the Shiavo case and that seemed fine until, at the end of it, he said that people were saying on his blog that as Terri's feeding tube was taken out, she suddenly started talking and begging them to stop. Uh, well, that's hardly news and obviously not fact; it's downright nutty. But here it comes on a news show.

And that's the risk: You could argue that the reputations of both the news network and bloggers are now touched by this guy. But I think the risk is worthwhile. For I believe the public has the good sense to judge the voice of the occasional loopy blogger for what it is. It's no different, really, from going out for random man-on-the-street interviews, or picking up the phone on talk radio: Some people are worth listening to, others aren't. And if you quote blogs, you can quote that which makes sense; if you interview bloggers, you may hit the occasional one who doesn't make sense once he opens his mouth. That's life. It's worth the risk to hear new voices, new viewpoints.

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News meets entertainment

: Friday afternoon, I was interviewed via blogcast by MSNBC's Contessa Brewer and then, because of technical burps, I came into the studio and saw her just as she ended her shift. We said hello and I got a chance to tell her what a good job she is doing at the network's news anchor on its Imus broadcasts from Secaucus. It's not easy, I said. She has to deliver the news with a straight news face and also be part of the "fun" of Imus. She doesn't have the Robin Quivers option: She can't be one of the boys on Stern because she has to still be a news network anchor. Neither can she play the ramrod-straight newsperson, because then Imus et al would treat her like a stuck-up stick-in-the-mud. She has to balance the two and though I don't watch Imus much (being a Stern man) I have to say that I'm impressed at how she does balance it. So I said so.

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So much for ayatollah.blogspot.com

: Blogs are not Islamic. [via Nick Denton]

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Iraq: Two years on ... in a blog

: Some reflection on the two years since the war began from Democracy in Iraq (whose author had to take time off after his cousin was killed in the largest terrorist bombing):

It has been now two years since the United States, UK and other countries invaded our nation. It has been two years since Iraqis have had to live with daily violent attacks and rampant terrorism. It has been two years since our nation began being turned upside down. It has been two years since the road to democracy began.

It has been a very hard two years. So many people have died, so much has been destroyed, so many drops of tears and blood have been shed, so many have been robbed of loved ones, and so many words have been spoken about Iraq, it's future, and this war....

Two years is about 730 days. In those days what have I seen. My eyes have seen more than I had ever hoped, more blood, more death and more pain, then I ever imagined or hoped I would have seen.

In those days I have seen the worst of humanity, the animal that lives in all humanity, the ability of humanity to destroy at will others, and rob the life given to others by God almight himself.

So you ask me, Husayn, was it worth it. What have you gotten? What has Iraq acheived? These are questions I get a lot....

Now I answer you, I answer you on behalf of myself, and my countrymen. I dont care what your news tells you, what your television and newspapers say, this is how we feel. Despite all that has happened. Despite all the hurt, the pain, blood, sweat and tears. These two years have given us hope we never had....

Iraqis see the finish line, the finish line of freedom and democracy and a functioning nation. We can smell it, taste it, and like a sprinter, one who has broken his legs, but who has a heart full of passion, we will crawl there no matter what the cost. No matter what we must endure, we have realized what we can become, and that is the biggest result of the last two years....
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