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June 09, 2003
Weblogs: New Syndication Models Or Uncontrolled Platforms
David Shnaider, Former President ZDNet, Founder of Prodigy is moderating a panel called \"Weblogs: New Syndication Models Or Uncontrolled Platforms.\" The panelists are:
- Rafat Ali, Editor/Publisher, PaidContent.org
- Vin Crosbie, Managing Partner, Digital Deliverance
- Jeff Jarvis, President & Creative Director, Advance.net
- Elizabeth Spiers, Editor, Gawker.com
Jeff says that posting in a forum is like saying something in the bar last night. No one remembers what was said or who said it. Writing it in a weblog is like crapping in your neighbors yard. You've put you're name on it and no one will forget. Their advantages is speed, variety, voices, tools, and interactivity. Weblog tools are the cheapest fastest publishing tools with the widest potential distribution ever. Digital cameras are cheap.
Elizabeth, who writes Gawker.com tells some anecdotes about how the big media pays attention to her blog and others. Gawker is a little bit of a special case because its mostly about the media. Media is big-time narcissistic, so the fact that they read things about themselves is no surprise. My recent experiences bear this out. The media is reading blogs and quoting from them.
Rafat Ali blogs for a living at PaidContent.org. He also runs an email newsletter that is essentially the same content. He says they're complimentary. This is something I've often wondered about. He poses a question: how many of you have read a print publication on wireless? Not many hands go up. He asks: how many of you have read a blog on wireless? Many hands go up. Of course this conference is biased that way. He says:
Blog + database + research reports = big business
Blog + nothing = hobby
Vin makes the point that keeping a journal isn't a fad. People have been doing it for thousands of years. Blogs are online journals. Think of Lewis and Clark, Charles Darwin, and so on. If the net existed when they were writing, they'd be bloggers. Vin believes the media, despite their claims to the contrary now, will start to use blogs, once they understand blogs. He notes that smart media have already begun blogging.
03:46 PM | Recommend This | Print This
Blogs as Content Management
Matthew Berk, Senior Analyst, Jupiter Research is moderating a panel on "Blogs as/and Content Management". The panelists are:
- Mike Amundsen, President, EraServer.NET
- Timothy Appnel, Independent Writer
- Bill French, Co-Founder, MyST Technology Partners
- John Robb, President and COO, Userland Software
- William Stow, President, Tsunamin Corporation
- Adam Weinroth, Founder, Easyjournal LLC
John Robb says "weblogs are content management systems for the rest of us" in the same way that WordPerfect was desktop publishing for the rest of us. They are being used in a wide variety of applications in places where content management systems would have been used in the past.
Bill French asks "what are the real requirements?" Traditionally these have been things like capture, publishing, deployment, management, etc. which are not the real issue. The issue is the ability to increase awareness. That's what people want. The velocity that's required for blogs brings that out. The more you call something a blog, or blogging software, the less likely you are to use it for something else.
Mike calls blogs a pattern of thinking about things and says that content mark-up (like RSS) is important. Bloggers are marking up content with meta data in ways that HTML writers don't. He talks about aggregators and that they are creating new ways of gathering information that is independent from the browser. What about content management for email.
Tim tries to distinguish between the technology and the product. People don't care about the web site produced and its features, not the tool. If you've got data that's right for a chronological treatment, weblog software works well. If you've concerned with workflow and editorial control, a traditional CMS system is better. Tim thinks blogging tools will disappear as a category and most apps will be able to perform things we associate with blogs. Rob, not surprisingly, disagrees. Blogs are a specific category of things and an application that is recognizable and distinguishable from other applications. I think I'd agree with Rob.
Bill started talking about being agile as "a chameleon in a bowl of Skittles." John points out that this can't apply to the GUI---users can't learn to use those kinds of tools. . William (not Bill) responds that the repurposing of information is critical to what CMS systems are about and this is the chameleon part. Blogs can play in this world. Tim says Geocities didn't work because it lacks structure and this can't be repurposed. Weblogs tools have nailed the ability to move information around and re-use it.
Adam talks about the barriers to entry with CMS systems. Boy is that ever true. We tried to put a CMS system in place in Utah and I think its still not off the ground. Its difficult to get the use cases right, difficult to train people, and requires a lot of money (more than its worth, perhaps). About the same time, I started playing around with Radio because it was a personal CMS. We'd have been better off to just buy Manila for $1000 and get people used to the idea of content management. When you're in a big organization, there's a temptation to do things big, even if you ought to start small. That's a tough lesson to learn.
02:43 PM | Recommend This | Print This
David Weinberg: Why Blogging Matters
Blogging has excited the Internet community, the technical community, the business community, and others in a way we haven't seen since the early days of the WWW. People who talk about "the bubble" clearly have missed the importance of the web. The Internet and the web are still here. What's driving this? The fact that the Internet is a place for conversation, not just a place to find things.
- Daily
- A few paragraphs
- Reverse chronological
- Linked in (little acts of selflessness)
- Voice
- Not technology
Blogs are full of voice. They are rhetoric, a social phenomenon, and something more.
On rhetoric. The is some importance to writing badly. More to the point, that you're reading a first draft because its published frequently. Readers thus tend to me forgiving. Forgiveness is not a bad characteristic to be knitting the world together with.
As a social phenomenon: blogs have a place. We are constructing a social self. This is fundamentally different than USENET or email. My blog is a proxy for myself. When you meet people that you've read for a time you feel like you already know them.
So what about authenticity? The M&M's view of our selves. There is an authentic inner core and a public outer shell. Words like "authentic," "honest," and "sincere" describe the correlation between these two selves. You weblog as a "self" has just one voice, so is it more like the inner core or the outer shell?
The web favors good writers and pushes for self-exposure. It also favors the unemployed! (Big laugh.) The recession has been the best thing for weblogs. There's some real truth in that (like all good humor).
Rather than talking about blogging and Journalism, Dave talks about blogging and truth. The claim is that objectivity seems the world as it is. This brings us multiple stories or views, expert sifting, and a community baseline. The weakness is that journalists are humans, so journalism can't be fully objective. Subjectivity's claim is that it shows us out world as it is. The strengths are that it acknowledges the observer and their context. This might capture more of the experience. The weakness is its scattershot, raw, and individualistic.
Blogs, for the first time, give us "multi-subjectivity." You get multiple reports and multiple sifters. The blogosphere contains multiple points of view from multiple cultures, contexts, etc. The Internet allows us to see all of this. Previously we could not read multiple points of view.
Some groups don't like this.
Businesses have grown up in a culture where knowledge can be controlled. They are a fort that carefully controls what knowledge comes in and goes out. Weblogs punch holes in the wall. Companies are no longer the sole source of information about their product.
Knowledge gatekeepers like journalists have gotten used to being the one true source. This began as a quest for trying to figure out what's worth listening to to a quest for certainty. Knowledge became so anorexic that it has no contact to humans. The real world is not about certainty. I missed some things here.
One way to get information when you're shopping for appliances is to look at the Kenmore site. The information is there, but a long way down and not very useful. Another way is go to google and type "kenmore maytag information." The second way leads to sites with real information about drying sheets and that the buzzer is too loud. Furthermore, it believable because its not marketing material. Its not being pitched.
Alienation. Dave uses this word to describe the modern experience where were have weird ideas about reality totally disconnected from real human experience. He claims that blogs are popular because they are about human experience---they are the antithesis of the alienated experience.
12:15 PM | Recommend This | Print This
Are Weblogs a Threat or Opportunity?
Kathleen Goodwin, CEO of iMakeNews and chair of this conference is moderating a panel on \"Are Weblogs a Threat or Opportunity?\" Panelists are:
- Rick E. Bruner, President, Executive Summary Consulting, Inc.
- Michael O'Connor Clarke, Senior Vice President, Weber Shandwick (Canada)
- Beth Goza, Community Lead, Windows Client Team, Microsoft Corporation
- Jeff Mooney, Director, Content Product Management and Educational Services, MediaMap
- Carin Warner, President, Warner Communications
Beth Goza, from Microsoft, says that the only marketing strategy that a company ought to have with regards to blogs is to have not strategy. By this she means that having employees have conversations about your products in their own voice isn't something you can plan and box in. Rick Bruner cautions that blogging doesn't have to be about ranting and big personality. Value can be created by layering in context and analyzing in a utilitarian style. Michael and Kathleen both disagree and say that personality is important. They say blogs need a compelling voice. Dan Bricklin (in the audience) says that expertise is also important. I think there's a continuum there. Some blogs are all expertise and not much personality. Other blogs are all personality and not much expertise. There's a balance there that we're not likely to agree on here.
Beth makes the point that blogs are the "anti-popup." Its pull, not push. You have to attract readership through value. Blogs are good for companies because they require the company (marketing and PR) to write compelling content rather than just shouter (via advertising dollars) than the others. Jeff brings up a related point: how do you measure success? Is it just readers? Is it hits? Is it sales? Carin says "you don't need to measure everything." I agree---you only need to measure those things you care about.
Someone in the audience makes the point that you get an ROI very quickly because the cost is low and it doesn't take much audience reach to justify it.
Kathleen asks how you keep a blog timely. Beth answers that to be a blogger means to be part of a community. That keep its timely. This points out the danger of trying to plan and think about this too much. If you're just trying to game the system, you won't be part of the community and you'll be talking about things and people won't be listen. Dan Bricklin says that blogs are a conversation which is a way to summarize Beth's comments. Carin suggests that corporations should offer a forum for their customers to "blog" about their experiences. I'm not sure how you do this and really make it a blog rather than just a email forum. Maybe something like Slash would work. Are companies ready to have their customers tell them what they think? The real danger is that the people most likely to participate are those with an ax to grind. Some things are unique, however: Kathleen suggests that Symantec has users who are experts in viruses. Could those people be harnessed?
A big battle erupts over the word "pitch." Carin about takes Michael's head off over a comment he makes about people (bloggers) not wanting to be "pitched." The audience comes to Michael's defense saying that in general "pitch" sounds like something you don't want to have happen to you. Users don't want to be educated they want to learn. Blogging is specifically not pitching. If you're passionate about something, write it in a blog and use the pull method that Beth talked about earlier.
Beth is a star. She is honest, open, and really fresh. I enjoyed listening to her and found her comments to be both well though-out and witty. Bill Gates should give her a raise. :-)
09:28 AM | Recommend This | Print This
Dave Winer: What is Blogging?
Dave is keynoting. He started by recounting some of the history of weblogs and points to a reverse chronological series of posts he put together for Wired magazine in 1996 and an event that helped him understand the power of this format.
He brings up a favorite topic: how are bloggers different than journalists? Dave's conclusion: they're not necessarily different (i.e. journalism can be done on a blog). That means that there are some things bloggers ought to do including tell the truth and disclose biases and conflicts of interest. Of course, this is a controversial topic and while he won't get much of an argument at this conference, he would and has gotten some pushback from others.
He tells the story of a Harvard student under fire from the RIAA who was punished by the Dean by being suspended from the Internet for a year. Bloggers at Harvard began to write about it and respectfully disagree. Of course, this isn't all that unusual on a college campus. The administration is used to nipping and gripping from the faculty. Would the executives at IBM be as forgiving? Dave wonders---so do I.
Someone in the audience says: real journalists have editors behind them. I disagree with that. If you're the owner, publisher, editor, and only reporter of a small town newspaper is that not journalism? If that owner goes out and hires a reporter and takes on the sole role of editor did this act magically make the journalists? Is the word "journalism" reserved for only sophisticated organizations with lots of money? I don't think so. On the other hand, I don't particularly care if anyone thinks what I do is journalism or not. The label is unimportant.
In the context of a larger conversation Dave says: "When people write about technology, they're just manipulating symbols to tell you about themselves so they ought to just cut out the middleman and talk about people." That's an interesting perspective and one I wouldn't disagree with. All writers, no matter what their subject are telling you about themselves in certain ways. Of course, I don' t think that means that we ought to just all write about ourselves. Product reviews and technical analysis are still useful.
08:00 AM | Recommend This | Print This
Weblog Business Strategies: Michael Gartenberg
The introductory speaker is Michael Gartenberg, VP and Research Director for Jupiter Research.
Michael asks: "Why Weblogs?"
- Rapid communications
- Rapid feedback
- Getting the message across
- Extend the brand to new audiences
He asked the question of Jupiter management and the debate was furious because Jupiter isn't used to giving away content. Still, in a short time, they've had quantifiable results: clients have said they renewed because of Jupiter weblogs. Microsoft Monitor is an example of a research line with a companion weblog
There's a gap between perception and reality. Michael says this is the perception:
- Lack of Ethos
- Lack of Value
- Creates web noise (redirects Google)
- Ego driven publishing
He claims that the reality is different:
- First hand expertise You have a business forum in the speaker's own voice
- Traditional publishing is ego driven as well
- Opportunity for direct contact with audience
- Customer centric communication
- A "no-spin" zone
Michael, referring to the scene in the Graduate where Dustin Hoffman is told to go into plastics, asks are weblogs the new "plastics?"
- There's lots of hype, but that's OK.
- Easy way to get internal visibility
- Easy way to get external visibility
- Easy way to get fired
No one every got into trouble by keeping their mouth shut---weblogs are the antithesis to that maxim. With that, Michael offers up a few keys for corporate weblogs:
- Keep it modest at first
- Go internal before you go external
- Ask permission, not forgiveness Adding a disclaimer isn't enough.
- Who should blog? Everyone with something to say
- Blog early and blog often
- There are differences between corporate weblogs and personal weblogs
- In general, keep the cheesecake recipes offline.
Perhaps the most important thing that I heard in this talk: Love is a better master than duty.