Day: April 27, 2005

Dave Winer says

Rex Hammock3 Comments

Dave Winer says: “(Google) didn’t put anything into RSS before they started to take out.”

(Background for my non-RSS-geek friends: Dave authored RSS – which is,
strictly for purposes of this explanation, the DVD format of “simple
XML-based syndication.” Alternatively (and pointedly), Google chose to
eschew RSS and support Atom, which is for this explanation, the Sony
Laserdisc format. Google still doesn’t offer such basic RSS-savvy
features as “news alerts” via RSS. (Topix.net does.)
Anyway, Dave’s point is an observation that Google’s first corporate
embrace of RSS  is to hack a way for Google ads to run in RSS
feeds — a rather “crass” way to enter the party, says Dave.)

Why is small business purchasing technology?

Rex Hammock2 Comments

Why is small business buying
technology?
I rarely (okay, never) blog about esoteric tax policy or small business issues
here (I have other venues to write continuously on those topics), but
an article
in the NY Times today has me scratching my head over what is
omitted.

However, I guess it should come as no surprise that a Times story
about small businesses increasing their technology spending has
no mention of the Bush tax policy (increased limits to $100,000 of
excellerated year-one depreciation on capital investments) that has
encouraged
the specific type of technology purchases covered in the
article.

(Note: This issue is of interest to me because it makes abundant sense and,
well, my support for this rather esoteric slice of tax policy was the
topic of that
discussion that led to my 15 minutes of fame.)

Direct Marketers discover RSS

Rex Hammock1 Comment

Direct Marketers discover RSS: And they think it’s a means to overcome the frustration of incessant e-mail bouncebacks
from ISPs. I totally agree. I think all e-mail marketers should stop
e-mailing me and, rather, merely offer an RSS feed of their spam. I
promise to subscribe, really. (Okay, I probably won’t. But, like Dave Winer said yesterday, I’ll likely subscribe to some of it.)

(via: Terry Heaton)

WWJarvisD?

Rex Hammock3 Comments

WWJarvisD? (also, lots of links related to Infinity’s KYOU ‘podcasting’ format announcement): I’m just imagining how it must be to be Jeff Jarvis right now.  The great Satan, Infinity (okay, I know it was the FCC who Jeff has the beef with), the conglomerate owned by Viacom that destroyed radio by making it boring and homogenous, is now doing  something stupefyingly creative: they are devoting a station’s format to programming created entirely by, OMG, podcasting citizens’ media types. (Update: See comments for Jeff’s take — he likes it, as I felt he would.)

Related links (updated):

What are the responses from bloggers?

Jay Rosen, brilliant as always: “It
has been pointed out that tipping point talk is cheap. But Infinity
Broadcasting actually tipped over today. It went from radio by
professional broadcasters to radio by open source podcasters….at one
station. Starting right away.”

Dave Slusher: “I’m underimpressed so far.”

Mark Ramsey (Radio Marketing Nexus):
“In any event it’s an apt answer to those who complain that Radio is
slow and boring and bland and vanilla and suffocated by corporate
greed.”

 

Technorati cosmos: KYOURADIO

Technorati Tags:

Flashback: The rexblog podcasting awareness timeline:*

September 28, 2004:

Doc Searls says the Google search term “podcasts” generates a mere 24 responses.

February 20, 2005:

(140 days and 1.7 million google results later), the New York Times does a podcasting feature.

April 27, 2005:

(211 days and 2.7 million google
results later), one of the world two largest radio conglomerates
announces it will format a major market radio station with 24-hour
programming from podcasters.

*Obviously, this is not the timeline
of podcasting technology and “notion” development — this is merely the
rexblog awareness tracker.

I create unconventional elements for a living

Rex Hammock

I do unconventional elements for a living: The NYT today has a story
about magazines selling event sponsorships and offering special
services and brand extensions and custom products as part of
advertising packages created for major clients.

There’s nothing
new in the examples — clever executions, perhaps, but nothing
conceptually unique — but the headline does have a new name for all of
these rather conventional ideas:  “Unconventional Elements.”

As someone who has been in the “unconventional elements” business for a couple of decades, I appreciate this new way I can describe my job.