Pandering is contagious
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NOT ONLY did President Bush and Sen. John Kerry drop the ball on the issue of health care in Wednesday night&#39;s presidential debate, but even moderator Bob Schieffer got it wrong when he said of health care, &quot;We&#39;re paying more.
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In the recent vigorous discussion about decentralizing Twitter, a frequently asked question was What's the diff betw that and IRC. Now I could be missing something, if so, I apologize in advance, but I think the answer is No. Something that's fascinating about Twitter is that everyone's experience is different. Some people subscribe to 100 people, others 5000, I've even seen people who follow 0 people. No one subscribes to exactly the same people you do. And just because you listen to someone doesn't mean they listen to you, and vice versa. There's a tremendous variety of different experiences. Yet each of us feels as if we're in a chatroom. That's the paradox of Twitter. It kind of feels like IRC while it is nothing like IRC. What Twitter is most like, imho, is an RSS aggregator. The people who work on Twitter call it a micro-blogging system, because to them, that's what it's like, even if the users don't see it that way. I understand what they're saying, as I think through the possible ways to decentralize it, invariably I'm led down paths I've already walked in implementing blogging software and RSS software.  But IRC is very symmetric -- if I listen to you, then you listen to me. And vice versa. There are ways to block someone in IRC, but it's an opt-out, where in Twitter listening to someone is by default off, and you have to opt-in. Very different experience. In IRC it would be considered a drastic measure to block someone. In Twitter, there's nothing offensive about not subscribing to someone.  Further, you rarely see trolls or flaming in Twitter, because it doesn't work, just as it doesn't work in blogging. Unless you flame someone in an interesting or funny way, you're not going to get many followers. So guys like Loren Feldman, who is funny, gets a lot of followers on Twitter. And the normal grouchy and anonymous trolls who dominate mail lists rarely gain followers on Twitter (or blogs). Twitter is fascinating, it's like the elephant and we're all blind men feeling our way around unaware that other people see it completely differently.
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There's no escaping advertising. Show even a modicum of success, and marketers start looking for a way in. Really Simple Syndication feeds are the latest target. By Daniel Terdiman.
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I see that Cory Doctorow has made another panicked grab at relevancy once again! His most recent InformationWeek article, How To Keep Hostile Jerks From Taking Over Your Online Community, is his latest exercise in self-deception where he tries convincing himself that he knows something about the hip, happenin' thang we call the Innanet.        That Cory has little useful knowledge of keeping hostile jerks from taking over online communities is proven most aptly and amusingly by the way he chose to keep hostile jerks from taking over his weblog BoingBoing: he destroyed its community by shutting off its comments system.
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Dan Farber: "It's not hard to imagine a contextual ad showing up every time you Twitter something. Twitter 'I am drinking beer with friends' and a Budweiser ad shows up. Now imagine the Twitter revolt." Oh yes there would be quite a revolt, a powerless one, unless there was an alternate service we could all switch to and then assuming we could get off our asses and actually switch. Yeah, we're good at screaming, but not too great at acting, here. I'm a bit of a Twit, myself, and I'd find it revolt-worthy if they tried to interrupt or punctuate discourse with product placements, but then Twitter's destiny is, imho, to be acquired by a phone company and sold as a feature that gives users a reason to use one brand of phone over another. Not as a way for advertisers to hitch their "messages" on our discourse. We've seen how well that has (not) worked with advertising on email. Not likely to work much better on Twits. Imagine if Nokia offered a cell phone with Twitter built-in, a checkbox for SMS users (default on?) -- "Do you want to send SMS messages to your buddy list?"  Don't you think the kids would go for that? (Maybe they can already do it, it's likely that I'm that cluelss.)
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News sites may be tempted by an advertising scheme that lets them profit from ads linked to selected words within an article. But publishers who value a separation of editorial and advertising content should steer clear. By Adam L. Penenberg.
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Call it the presidential candidates' striptease. White House hopefuls aren't willing to just declare they're running, but rather are flirting with the idea as long as possible. First, they show some leg with an exploratory committee, then plenty of skin with a pronouncement on a faux news program or a late-night show and finally they bare all with a ruffles-and-flourish formal announcement.
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âFoot-in-mouthâ senator has found a new strategy to stay on message.
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"Make love not spam" screensaver continues to stir up controversy.
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The World Wide Web is the perfect Petri dish for memes, infectious ideas or any other things that spread by imitation from person to person.
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Valleywag is mostly puff pieces. I guess they're writing about people who, for one reason or another, they don't want to offend. Typical of business press. Don't screw your sources or else they'll dry up. Don't speak ill of Steve Jobs or else no cover picture for you. So, it's reasonable to conclude -- if you read something unbelievably nice about someone in Valleywag, that person is a source. Thing is, they're reduced to attacking about five people. And the flow is miniscule. A pointer from VW is worth about 20 hits. In other words, hire a business reporter to do VW, and you get Infoworld, about 25 years too late.
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Debunking the falsehoods springing from this November's contest
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By MAY WONG    SAN JOSE, Calif.  -- Sometimes it pays to befriend an enemy...
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By Matthew Spina, The Buffalo News, N.Y.  May 28--Never mind the spam for the "chance of a lifetime" sweepstakes or  the package for lovers at a discount price. The volume of e-mail between  friends, family and working stiffs has become, well . . .
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There is another election this week. The issues are not war, taxes, morals or international credibility. They are microbes, diseases, data and international credibility.
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Blog: A San Francisco Craigslist posting offers to divert peoples' attention so others can cut in front of them in line.
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How would you feel about your ISP selling ads on your site and scarfing up your visitors' data without your permission? Network World's Scott Bradner suggests we nip the NebuAd concept in the bud, fast.