Starting off the Year right - links
OK I’m going to start and try and annotate many of the links I post on (or shall I say reBlog). I may not have time to sign-up and try out many of these services and apps - but I can at least try and elaborate on many of the insider tips, gossip, insights and scandal mongering - which I’ve grown accustomed to blogging.
First off - is Michael Arrington discourse on whether or not Google Blog even IS a blog and how Yahoo at least does a better job at it. Comments are important. I agree. But it’s a bitch keeping comments clean nowadays. God Bless Automattic and Akismet is all I can say. Michael is running a poll - Is a blog really a blog if there are no reader comments? I say YES - as many folks can’t deal with comments, so its an unfair gauge. But clearly some form of interaction and conversations is crucial to really being a blog. I’ve kept my on, but I also like getign emails or reblogs off of my posts, which I then interact with.
Second up - is a post by Kaliya Hamlin called ‘The Network of Me in 2007?‘. I really like Kaliya for her humble, powerful energy she instills in us all. Kaliya goes over the players and dreams we all have for interconnected people based networks. She even plugs Entity Based Social Networks and asks if Paul Trevithick will ever be able to explain the Higgins Trust framework. This is classic Kaliya politeness. Me - I get all uppity and pissed off about any attempt to solve the ‘trust’ and ‘reputation’ problem. That’s why I was complaining about Rapleaf the other day. I’m also getting tired of waiting for ‘attribute sharing’ working in OpenID2. We need it for PeoepleAggregator V 1.2 = NOW! But Kaliya just looking at the bright side and all the progress we’ve made last year. So here’s to 2007 and Kaliya’s optimism!
Thirdly - is a post from Rafat Ali on McClatchy buying a couple of ‘Citizen Journalism’ sites. It sure would be nice if MacClatchy would take this site technology and apply it to ALL their newspaper properties. I always felt that by only tightly integrating on-line interactive servicoes with offline brands and properties - could we truly have ‘Citizen Journalism’. That’s why I fall asleep during all these CJ sessions. No one seems to embrace this theory. They all think its all gonna happen on-line. Well hopefully the Howard Dean campaign’s failure taught us a lesson that without realistic, close to earth meatspace realities - Citizen Journalism and Activism will be hopelessllly be relegated to the ‘echo chamber’.
Fourthly - are these predictions from John Battelle. Though I don’t like to deal with or be involved with such stupid things are predictions or lists, I do find a couple of John’s premonitions interesting. The integrity and survivability of Independent Channels (or brands) such as YouTube or any of the other potential content acquisitions (that Battelle predicts) are sure to be destroyed by large corporate acquisitions. We’re watching the destruction of the YouTube brand - as we speak. There is no mainstream desire to view or read whacky Echo system, UGC, insider joke, political rantings and ravings - kind of content. But if 1,000 LonelyGirl15’s or theHill88 can be identified - then these brands will flourish. IMHO. The other thing Battelle talks about is the notion of a Blog 2.0. I call that a DLA. VOX is an example of that. Xanga and LiveJournal - as well. And PeopleAggregator.
