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The University of Florida will play Ohio State University for the NCAA Basketball championship less than three months after the University of Florida defeated Ohio State University to be NCAA Football champions. Statistically, the chances of that happening have to be up there with me winning the lottery — except I guess, at least, there’s some skill points that must be factored in the basketball/football odds. And what are the odds of Florida winning back-to-back championships in the era of the 62+ team tournament? And what are the odds of winning the football and basketball championship in the same calendar year? I’m sure Ohio State fans won’t be comforted to learn that the odds of coming in second for both team championships are off the charts, as well. (I’m not going to even attempt to do the math on all of this.) However, the real statistical question of the night has to be: What are the odds of two “football schools” playing for the basketball championship? What are the odds that Billy Donovan won’t take the University of Kentucky coaching job?
I’ll salute my wife’s family with a big “Go Gators.”
I’m enjoying my AppleTV right out of the box (although I had to delay hooking it up by a day due to not having the cables necessary to connect it). Apparently, I’m not having as much fun as I could if I were to (in some cases) void the warranty and start hacking on it. I’ll pass now and let the geeks have all the fun. However, I will say this: Even without the hacks and despite all that evil DRM stuff I usually unleash during discussions of iTunes/iPod, the AppleTV can blow one away. If you have a Mac mini hook to an HDTV, you may not be so impressed — but if you are a part of the rest of the 99.9% of the world, an AppleTV makes the light go off that your big-screen TV can display video from anywhere. Steve Rubel has an essay on the topic that I agree with. It’s one thing to see a video podcast on your video iPod or computer screen. When you see it stream just as seamlessly to an HDTV, a whole new set of possibilities start rushing into your mind.
Technorati Tags: appletv
My theme (unplanned) of the week was “Magazines launch, magazines die. It happens everyday.” I could link to magazine launch and death stories every day. If you saw my RSS feed, you’d believe me. Today, I’ve already linked to story about an extremely successful magazine launch, so now here’s a link to one about the closures of some print titles owned by iVilliage. Next week is another week. I plan to go back to letting others cover this launch, close beat.
I feel like like my RSS newsreader is being fed by something out of the Twilight Zone: It’s March, 2007, and Valleywag is blogging about the closures of the Red Herring and the Industry Standard. Make it stop, somebody.
Technorati Tags: magazines, web 1.0
 As I said the other day, the unfiltered spelling/grammar on this blog is no reflection of the spelling/grammar obsession you find among the editorial staff at Hammock Publishing. For example, this SI story about the spelling on the T-shirts that the NIT had printed up has them cringing — between chuckles.
 My friend, Ole Miss j-school dean, and magazine ubber-launchtracker, Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni (who now has a blog) has named his top magazine launches of 2006. And, well, another set of friends, the people who publish Relish Magazine, received Samir’s ““Launch of the Year.” (And here.) The magazine is published by Nashville*-based Publishing Group of America, and like their other titles (most notably, American Profile), it is distributed through a large network of newspapers in small towns all across the country. Congratulations, all around.
*Okay, technically, they’re in Franklin.
Don’t know how I missed this: It’s Kilt Day! (I think, however, on that website, everyday is national kilt day.) Coming up on April 6. National Tartan Day in the U.S. I’m happy to keep you all posted on such events. For the record, I do not own, nor have ever worn, a kilt.
A couple of days ago, Patrick McGovern, the legendary media entrepreneur who founded IDG, was interviewed by Mark Glaser (MediaShift/PBS.org). (I have some disclosures, below.)
In addition to exploring topics related to the role of print and online media and events in the universe of B-to-B media (a great read for any B2B media followers), the interview turned to a specific transaction in the history of IDG related to the magazine, the Industry Standard. In the interview, McGovern recalls his version of the rise and fall of the magazine, one of the pillars (poster childs?) of the dot.com boom and bust.
As another participant in the story, best-selling author and entrepreneur and Industry Standard founder and CEO and Wired co-founder (I could go on) John Battelle, is alluded to (actually, referred to specifically) in the interview, he used his high-profile blog to quickly get into the record his version of the same events.
Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist who, like me, blogs about everything, was an investor in Industry Standard, and so he also provided his point of view of the events, which is close to Battelle’s.
I point to all of these, not to highlight the “he-said, he-said, he-said” taking place, but to note the way “conversational media” works when the participants in the events all have a personal publishing platform — when everyone is a media company. Very few people may care to connect the dots on this issue today. All of the people involved are very successful and have managed very nicely to overcome any setbacks that may have occurred because of the failure of the Industry Standard. However, one day some student or biographer or researcher or descendent of someone doing a family history will have a better chance of getting to the truth(s) because lots of individuals are filing away their recollections.
Disclosures: I have never met Patrick McGovern, but from my distant vantage point, I consider him one of, perhaps the, most pivotal figures in the history of what we now call business-to-business media. Beyond that, his story is one of great entrepreneural success and generous philanthropy. He’s someone I admire, again, from a distant vantage point. I do, however, know the President of IDG Communications, Bob Carrigan. He claims to read this blog. We exchange emails occasionally. However, those emails are never about B2B media or IDG. They’re about bluegrass music. Come to think of it, a side benefit of blogging about everything is that I’ve become friends with people like Bob Carrigan.
Sidenotes from the it’s-a-small-world, this tech blogosphere, department: The Industry Standard was the stomping ground of a lot of people I point to — or read — a lot, including Mark Glaser and John Battelle, and Jimmy Guterman (who independently edited its Media Grok blog-before-they-were-called-blogs with Glazer) and Matt McAlister, my geek muse who, from a distance, I watch do stuff, but do not point to because I’d rather not promote his ideas until I knock them off first. (That was intended as an inside joke.) And believe me, that’s a very, very short list of a long list of Industry Standard connections to the tech blogosphere.
Technorati Tags: idg
Yesterday, I got a year older. (I get a day older everyday.)
After reading this story in the NY Times today, I’m looking forward to one day being old enough to really enjoy a Wii.
For the record, the resident video-gamer in our house has bought and sold every platform there is — except the Wii. A few months ago, he sold an XBox and games to purchase a Sony Playstation II in order to play Guitar Hero, on which he is now a zen master. As that game will be expanding to the Wii platform later this year, maybe he’ll go through another ruond of transactions and trades — rumor has it, he’s a good Wii bowler on a neighbor’s systwm. Perhaps I’ll also get some of the games we (I mean, Wii) geezers can play.
By the way, whenever I read an article like this, I always think of Steven Johnson and his book, “Everything Bad is Good for You.”
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Nick says it’s Really Simple Syndication, so that’s what I say.
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Quote: “The early results are mixed, suggesting that Google’s successful transition from online kingpin to credible player in traditional media is far from assured.”
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Dvorak doing his classic trolling for incoming links from Apple cultists.
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The $1.5 billion deal includes 60 publications and directors, 96 online properties, 47 shows and events.
 My colleague Hudge is coping with the pressures of an editorial deadline by forwarding me a list of 20,000 ‘Adam Pacman Jones’ anagrams. Also, for some reason, the creators of an R-Rated, not-safe-for-work, (I mean it) Pacman-related bit of video satire alerted me of its existence. I guess they hoped I would link to it. I would never link to such mature content, however.
Celebritytwitter.com is registering celebrity names on Twitter. “Followers” can get Twitter-delivered gossip updates about those celebrities. They are promoting the site by “friending” Twitter users. Hey, how could I not click through on an email that says “Nichole Kidman” has just made your her friend on Twitter? Twitter spam has arrived.
But note: Remember when you forgot to register your name’s URL? Who knows? Twitter may turn out to be Pet rocks, but it’s free to register, so what are you going to lose? Note to potential Twitter acquirer: Get ready for some lawsuits.
Technorati Tags: twitter
Media Bistro has an interview with Rafat Ali of PaidContent.org. Now, I finally know what he does.
Quote of the day: Hugh MacLeod, gapingvoid.com: “Buying space in someone else’s brain is far harder than buying space in someone else’s media.”
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