[Warning: small rant ahead.]
Via Corvida at SheGeeks, here comes another post related to the deluge of information that this age of connectivity has ushered in. This time, Steve Hodson of WinExtra ponders whether or not bloggers should be considered the digital equivalent of cable news anchors:
As this tsunami of information keeps rolling over us at an ever increasing amount these aggregators [i.e. FriendFeed, Google Reader, Twitter] have become almost indispensable for a lot of people but I wonder if at some point bloggers who use these new social media tools correctly will become the better aggregator – or better yet a personal news anchor for the people that read their blogs or follow them on the various social media outlets.
He later concludes:
Where bloggers can be the most useful to their readers and / or social aggregator followers is by learning how to use all the social tools available to us and basically act as a filter. After all this is our social network and it only exists because our readers / followers find value in what we bring to them whether it be through our blogs or on a social aggregator. We in effect become their news hub. We might be one of many but at some point they have developed a sense of trust in the news we send their way. We have in effect I believe become news anchors providing our readers with a way to manage their daily information flow.
While I appreciate the angle Steve is coming from, I very much disagree.
Continue reading ‘Bloggers: Responsible To Their Readers First, or To Themselves?’
Hey folks–I’ve been a bit out of the loop lately, and I’ll be traveling almost non-stop for the next few weeks. While Jarred will be taking one (a few?) for the team and blogging in my absence, I hope to chime in when I can from the road. Here are a few links, albeit a little abbreviated this week:
- The Bush-Cheney 2004 e-Campaign Director offers ideas for how the McCain campaign could have moved past traditional press-release blasts to create momentum around Obama’s “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?” comment. As I think is pretty clear by now, Jarred and I are Obama fans…and, for the record, I think we both ate waffles almost exclusively one summer. But regardless of your politics, this piece is really striking in the creativity available to campaigns online, IF they’re willing to push the envelope a tad and move away from their old habits (NO MORE PRESS RELEASES).
- I never thought I would subscribe to–much less link to–a Wal-Mart blog, but this post written by the company’s sustainability director is worth a look. He describes new packaging options (some as simple as milk in a bag instead of a carton) and weighs the merits of biodegradable plastics.
- Lifehacker offers ten tools to maximize your Amazon shopping experience. These range from discount finders and gift list managers to a site that tracks prices of a recent purchase in order to cash in on the “if you find a cheaper price in 30 days we’ll give you the difference” offer. Pretty impressive, though some of these things might take more time than the $3 you’ll save is worth.
“The sculpture consists of 100 cast iron figures which face out to sea, spread over a 3.2 km stretch of the beach. [...] As the tides ebb and flow, the figures are revealed and submerged by the sea.”
- This is a few weeks old but worth sharing: PaleoFuture points to a 1995 Newsweek article that basically…well…calls the “internet” a passing fad and a huge crock:
“[N]o online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.”
Well, that’s all for now. Keep checking back all week for new posts.
I have been thankful to finally have a full weekend at home, after much traveling both for fun and for work in recent weeks. I’ve mostly been sleeping and hanging around the apartment, but on Friday night I got a chance to do something I have been craving for a long, long time: I dragged my drums into our living room and played music with my roommate and three other friends.
I try to play by myself several nights a week (I have an electronic set in my apartment so I don’t wake the neighbors), drumming along with music from my iPod through headphones. My roommate and I have recorded a song or two together, but it’s been a while since we’ve both had time to get together and create. He and those friends have come over several times before to jam on their guitars, but it’s always seemed like too much of a hassle to pull out the drums.
Friday night, though, I decided I didn’t want to be frustrated like that anymore. Damn the risk of complaints from the neighbors! The result was a night of therapeutic, beautiful, glorious music-making.
And so, with that intro, I have a few questions for you to ponder and answer this week:
- Do you have a hobby or other activity that, because of work or other circumstances, you aren’t able to do as often as you like? What is it? What’s holding you back?
- Are there any hobbies or activities that you know you love, but whether because of time or location or something else, you’ve simply let them fade away completely? As opposed to question #1, these would be activities you haven’t done in years, as opposed to activities you do occasionally.
- If you had to give up your job and choose one of your hobbies or activities to pursue full-time, what would it be? How would go about growing your expertise in it? How would you monetize it?
I’ll ring in with my answers a little later, but I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments!
Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user || edmar ||.
Here’s a new challenge for you. Name the place, city, and country!
(Note: just a cool building, not in the news or change-related… that I know of…)
[Update: Jeff's got it.]
I’m intrigued by the concept of “theme browsers” like this eco-browser from Flock. According to Grist, “Flock allows you to be logged into all your social networks at once — Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, etc. — while at the same time collecting your fave green media and RSS feeds in one place.” Anyone want to try it out and write a review? -T
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