Deep into thinking through: (Curious quote in Jon Fine’s interview with Steve Newhouse regarding Conde Nast’s purchase of Wired News) “One of the things we haven’t done yet, but we are deep into thinking through, is the combination of giving the audience tools to create content and giving them the ability to network with each other.”

I’m like the last person in the world to be giving Steve Newhouse advice, however, what’s there to “think through”? Thinking about this stuff is a waste of time. (See previous post.)

Sidenote: There’s this blogger friend I have who must be scratching his head upon reading that quote since Mr. Newhouse used to employ this blogger friend of mine and, well, this friend’s middle name might as well be “give the audience tools to create content.”

Technorati Tags: blogging, magazines

Mark Cuban: The Internet is old news and boring…deal with it.

Quote:

“Its not the net, its the applications stupid! Falling costs to create, host and deliver digital bits enable entrepreneurs to be entrepreneurial. Kids can save enough money these days to buy a computer and create applications their friends can use and maybe even buy year round for less than they can buy a decent lawnmower to mow lawns with only in the summer. Its the brainpower that is changing our world. The internet is just a utility to deliver the digital bits they create.”

I agree and add this: Blogs, vlogs, podcasting, social networking, anything Web 2.0 or New Web or whatever. They are also old news and boring…deal with it. It’s brainpower. It’s great ideas. It’s great writing. It’s creating great music. It’s being funny, or serious, or threatening, or inspiring or educational. It’s about access to tools to create the highest quality work — equipment that just a few years ago cost tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, and today can be purchased on eBay for a few hundred dollars — or borrowed from a library. It’s not about blogging. That’s old news. Deal with it.

Technorati Tags: markcuban

What guest-blogger Fred Graver said: Jeff Jarvis has lent a guest-post on Buzzmachine to the executive producer of VH1 Best Week Ever for some professional advice to Amanda Congdon and Andrew Baron. Read it if you want to know what the the expression “cutting through the crap” means.

By the way, I agree with the observations that the return of Rocketboom today was a successful blend of acknowledging an embarrassing situation while signaling that when it comes to creating a goofy three-minute video for a website, life goes on. And, yes, I too am a sucker for an English accent.

Technorati Tags: rocketboom

A tale of two papers: The Nashville Scene’s food critic, Kay West, has not only discovered a great barbecue joint, she’s also discovered what a great writer and small business owner can do with a blog. According to the BBQ blogger, Dr. Funkenswine, Kay doesn’t read blogs — she told him his was the first she’d read. Frankly, I think that’s a good thing as bashing her column is one of the staples of a few Nashville bloggers. (I’d like to go on record as saying I’ve never bashed a column of hers because, like Kay with blogs, I’ve never read a restaurant review.) Anyway, Kay likes the official BBQ joint of the rexblog, so I’m giving her the thumbs up.

However, Liz Garrigan, the Scene’s editor (and someone I like, so, Liz, sorry about what’s to follow), still hasn’t quite grasped this whole blogging thing. First, Liz, pajama jokes are so 2003. And second, why must (if I deconstruct your column correctly) an apparent endorsement of how WKRN is courting bloggers be laced in such cliched condescension? It is ironic to me that an “alternative” newspaper would be standing on the sidelines while in its market, a network-affiliate TV station (for god-sakes!) reaches out to recruit alternative voices and perspectives so it can provide them access to its bandwidth and airwaves — and then determine the bottom line is this: “WKRN’s experiment—not just paying vloggers but its whole new approach to journalism may well flop. But if it pays off, we’ll suddenly see our city through many new eyes. And if nothing else, it beats Judge Judy.”

(In a civil way, how can I put this?) Your city is filled with creative artists and entrepreneurs who are taking up the tools of personal media to launch their careers, to find new audiences, to start and grow businesses. There are hundreds of blogs followed by WKRN’s Nashville is Talking and you seem to be ignoring that on them are insightful and serious (among others that are incoherent and ridiculous) discussions about architecture and education and literature and parenting and barbecue. That the Scene has two weblogs and some podcasts is not the point — that hundreds of your readers are daily sharing their experiences of living and working and laughing and being entertained and entertaining in your city is the point. Please, don’t fall into the trap of confusing blogging with anything that has something remotely to do with journalism school. It has more to do with having the skills to recognize great barbecue when you taste it — and the thrill of sharing the discovery with a few friends. That, and changing the world.

Technorati Tags: nashville, blogging

Rafat attempts a joke: “I am about to start a social network for everyone working at all the social networking startups, so that they can social network about social networking business. Get it?”

Sorry, Rafat. Guess you had to be there. On a positive note, Rafat and Staci [who should be resting while on the injured-reserve list] have spent the past 18 hours cranking out some impressive ‘you saw it there first’ scoops on PaidContent.org.

Technorati Tags: blogging, paidcontent.org

You have to start somewhere: Yesterday, Slate’s TV critic Troy Patterson wrote an actual, legitimate review of Rocketbook’s Amanda Congdon and Rocketboom for the Washinton Post (I would link to it but the Post’s site seems to have lost my password and I’m too lazy this a.m. to track it down). I thought he did a fairly accurate job.

Quote:

(Congdon) eased into a persona that owed its goofiness to Coen brothers’ comedies, its guy’s-girl aggressive zaniness to McCarthy, and everything else to Saturday Night Live. When Congdon wasn’t borrowing from Tina Fey’s “Weekend Update” act—even, for a time, wearing eyeglasses of a Fey-esque hipness rating—she was referencing Wayne’s World with her every cable-access-ready gesture. With practice, she got to be OK.

It’s hard making a serious point by using slap-stick or hard-edged humor as examples, but here goes. The more you try to perfect something before putting it out there, the more distance you are placing between where you are now and where you want to be. A wise man once said (okay, it was zefrank and he said it yestereday) “Someone who does something bad three times still has three times the experience of that other person who (hasn’t done something because it isn’t perfect and is) still dreaming of all the applause.” He calls these unattempted ideas “brain crack” that people get addicted to and then sings a song with the F-word in its title to illustrate his point. In other words, it’s not for everyone.

Zefrank’s show yesterday (even though he mis-dates it at the beginning), while it uses adult and graphic language to get the point across, is a worthwhile lesson to learn on ideas vs. execution.

(Thanks, Laura)

Technorati Tags: rocketboom, zefrank