July 31st 2006
An iPhone rumour
The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a post suggesting that the much anticipated and rumoured Apple iPhone just might be released in August. Yeah, not exactly news …
They do have a pretty cool looking image though!
Archive for July, 2006
July 31st 2006
A Vitruvian Man for a connected world?
Victoire sent me the link for this one. I think it is great!
Technorati Tags: vitruvian man
July 31st 2006
Fearlessness
I came across this quote on The Social Manifesto:
“Fearlessness is not absence of fear. Fearlessness is not letting fear stop us.” - Arianna Huffington
After this last month, this is a good quote for me!
Technorati Tags: fearlessness, arianna huffington
July 31st 2006
It’s a derivative world
Malcolm Gladwell has been criticised for his views about what he sees as the derivative nature of the blogosphere. One of his critics was Chris Anderson, Mr Long Tail himself. Anderson took umbrage at what he saw as Gladwell’s derision of bloggers:
I was on a panel sponsored by Slate magazine a few weeks ago on the future of print journalism, and I found myself the lone voice defending the continuing relevance of things like newspapers. At one point I said—half in jest—that without the New York Times, there would be nothing for bloggers to blog about.
For this, I have been now been rebuked by Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired and the author of the just released “The Long Tail.?? (I should say that Anderson rebuked me very graciously, and also that I think Chris is a smart guy and everyone should buy his book.) The gist of what I was saying, Anderson argues, was something like:
“Blogs, which are mostly written by amateurs, couldn’t possibly do what We Do. Instead, they mostly just comment on what we do, supplying low-value-add chatter about our stories that must not be confused with Proper Journalism or other Quality Content from us Professionals.”
He then goes on to produce some statistics, showing that only a small percentage of blogs actually link to major media outlets.
I think, first of all, that Chris is taking my comments a bit out of context here. I made that comment to another panel member—Ariana Huffington of Huffington Post fame—and we were explicitly talking about the kinds of political blogs that have proliferated in recent years. And when it comes to politics—and to some extent high culture and business and economics—it is quite right to argue that traditional print media like the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal continue to set the conversational agenda.
I have tremendous respect for Gladwell based simply on his two books, Blink and The Tipping Point. He sees value in derivative media sources and I think he has a good point:
We need derivative media sources to help us make sense of what we learn from primary sources. But you can’t have one without the other, and although it maybe possible for some bloggers to think of their thoughts as rising, fully formed, from the blogosphere, it just ain’t so.
Technorati Tags: chris anderson, malcolm gladwell, derivative myth
July 29th 2006
Interview with Chris Anderson
The blogosphere is abuzz with talk about Chris Anderson’s book, “The Long Tail“. I have mentioned this book already and now Six Apart has published a transcript of the interview with Anderson a short while ago. I missed the Skypecast and found the interview fascinating. I love the collaborative growth of the concept of the long tail into a book that Anderson describes in the interview:
Broadly, I posted half-baked ideas and my smart readers helped me bake them further. I shared data, analysis, theories, and examples and got a load of feedback, between comments, trackbacks and emails. The most interesting part for me was that people found resonances that I had never thought of. Readers who were interested in clothes explained why the “crafting” movement was the “long tail of fashion” and people who were into the drinks industry explained how microbrews were the “long tail of beer.” Collectively, they helped me make the book far better than it would have been otherwise.
Update:
I just noticed the interview is available for download on the Everything TypePad blog here.
