The Post Money Value

The Great Blog vs. Journalism Debate

In giving a talk today about blogging (which weird since I'm a hack, at best), I got asked a number of questions about things like where lines are drawn, etc, etc.  It was, of course, an area best left to the masters in this space (aka Jeff Jarvis, etc) but I took a shot at some answers.

One item was the notion of research.  The question from the student was how much responsibility does a blogger have with respect to 'facts' or being complete with whatever they were writing about.  This was math major, just so you know.

I said that I believe a blogger, in general, is starting/maintaining conversations so I'd expect, personally, no more or less than what I'd get in social setting.  Unless somebody specifically calls themselves out as an expect and is doing a blog dispensing advice, etc, my basic rule was good enough for me.

The helpful example I used was Cory Doctorow, commander in chief of Boing Boing.  (co-commander to be precise)

Today, Cory wrote about Fuji and this new high end camera which has a goofy EULA around it.

"Edie sez, "I'm in the market for a digital SLR, and found something rather disturbing. B&H Photo says that to purchase a Fujifilm IS-1 camera, you must fill out an end user license agreement. Even weirder is the EULA itself: It asks what 'legitimate business purpose' (their words, not mine) the camera will be put to."

The EULA is a bit weird, for sure.  And, there are a bunch of comments going all over the place; everything from 9/11 stuff to secret hacks on other cameras.

It turns out that this camera is special purpose camera for Military, Police and other uses. They, for whatever reason, have paperwork they want filled out before you buy the camera.

The camera and the silly EULA wasn't my point.  I made the observation that "News" or whatever non-blog stuff is called these days might have reported the same item but I'm pretty sure they would have given you context for the EULA. They would have mentioned the special use or quoted from the press release, etc.  Cory didn't do any of that and, in my opinion, shouldn't have to.  When I read stuff like this, it is no different then being with a group of friends with somebody saying "did you hear about" whatever. Then, like in the comment section, a discussion will happen and probably go off-topic.  Again, just like real conversations with your friends, etc.

People seemed to like that explanation and one person thought I should share this with my readers (yeah, you two over in the corner).  So, here you go.

University talks are always great and I appreciate the invite.

Careers vs. an Espresso Bar

Jenny is a wonderful young lady I've linked to before.  She is bright, articulate, a hard worker, and all around nice person.  That's the good news.

The bad news is she has this pesky habit of making big shots, suits, and general management very uncomfortable with her silly requests.

Lately wants feedback on when she is doing a bad job, wants goals to exceed only to have expectations set higher and, most ridiculous of all, this young whipper snapper wants to be (wait for it) pushed to go beyond her skills.  Lord, youth these days.

Her full post is here but rather then maximize the team, get people kicking butt in your start-up and listening to these types of silly ideas, just buy an espresso machine and hang out in your office.  It will all work out.  Really.

Slides? Slides? You don't need no stinkin

Meet Richard Forno over at Infowarrior.org.  He likes Power Point. Loves it, in fact.   Loves it so much that he wrote a PowerPoint Manifesto that probably should be required reading.  If you've seen this before, sorry, I'm just getting to 2002.

Excerpts:

• If I decide to do slides and provide them in advance (which is rare), I pledge to let you know and send them to you promptly. If I don't plan to use slides, you will be informed just as promptly - please be mature and don't beg for them.
• If I decide to use slides - either a full presentation or a few slides as visual aids - that does not mean you are entitled to a copy because of the fact I'm using them at your event.
• If you want to 'take notes' during my presentation, and I've not provided slides, relax - hotels cheerfully provide no-cost pads and pens at your seat for just such applications. Feel free to use them.
• If I am using Powerpoint and provided slides to the conference organizers, but they don't match what I'm talking from, it's because the stuff I sent to the conference organizers was sent in well in advance of the event, and the world may have changed in the interim. You don't want to hear old stuff, do you? So quit grumbling.

And:

Powerpoint is simply "business television" - doing to the business community what television did to the person; namely, creating a passive environment where viewers can shut their brains down and become mesmerized by images projected in a one-sided, non-interactive, and often inappropriate fashion. Powerpoint, like television, speaks TO an audience, not WITH an audience; and doesn't engage them in any interactive, memorable manner. As a communicator, I have a fundamental problem with that.

The full rant is here.  If you are looking to truly see a master in action, there is none better than Seth Godin. He is the only person alive that can go on a 45 minute tear with hundreds of slides in the presentation all of which make sense and are totally appropriate.  Total magic.

Live Chat is Chat Free Goodness

On the one hand, it might be easy to simply say these live chat systems suck.  This, of course, would bring out something short of a billion people with "it works for me/us/them" comments.  Okay, probably.

The folks at Apptix sell stuff like hosted Exchange and hosted Sharepoint.   They have toll free numbers, we'll call you support and the ever popular:

 

I have a hosted Sharepoint site with these folks and (to keep the story short) had an issue which required some technical support.  So, with a million things going on and not having the support number handy, I figured, one click and I'd get the number..

Yeah...

While this was up on the ol screen, I found the number, called, was put on hold, got a nice guy on the phone, a tweak here, a tweak there, talked about the Hockey Playoffs and solved PI out to 7,245 places.

It's still up there. (3 hours)

Somebody wake 'Michael' up and let em know not to panic, I'm good. Really. No rush.

(with apologies to The Consumerist, I know this stuff is your gig not mine but you inspired me.)

Undertone Raises $100 Million (sorrta)

File this under: what's the point.

Ad Network Undertone Networks raised some money. Congratulations are in order to all involved, well done. 

How much you ask?  To quote the press report:

"Terms of the Undertone deal aren't being disclosed, but JMI General Partner Brad Woloson said the investment was between $10 million and $100 million. Woloson is slated to join Undertone's board."

Why not between $3.46 and two billion, nine hundred sixty four million dollars and thirty two cents? 

Weird....

See You on Wednesday

The one thing that certainly gotten into overdrive thanks to the Internet is the April Fools Joke. Yowsa, unfunded.com, fake lawsuits, etc. People are working overtime...

Looking for Dinner Ideas?

Google can help you. Check your Spam folder:

Yep, a nice healthy salad.

The secret is the salsa.

Hint: Use brown rice for a nutty flavor.

And how much do you think Hormel is paying for this?  Exactly.  Ain't life grand.