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Frank Meeuwsen › Likes
How I Think About Blogging (2009) - http://www.micropersuasion.com/2009...
Frank Meeuwsen liked this
Why are blogs not dead? (2008) - http://www.slideshare.net/vaninad...
Frank Meeuwsen and Ton Zijp liked this
Blogs are dead, long live the blog (2009) - http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/the_gre...
Frank Meeuwsen and Ton Zijp liked this
Blogs declared dead... again (2008) - http://www.annehelmond.nl/2008...
Frank Meeuwsen and Ton Zijp liked this
FriendFeed and how to start with it (prt 1) (in Dutch) - my own article as an introduction to using FriendFeed - Lifehacking.nl - http://lifehacking.nl/web20...
Peter van Teeseling, Jeroen De Miranda, Samuel Driessen and 5 other people liked this
Voel me nog wat onwennig met Friendfeed maar je artikeltje werkt zeer verhelderend. Thanks.
- Peter de Kock
Dank je. :-) Voordeel van FF vind ik zelf dat je je sneller thuis gaat voelen dan op Twitter. Zogauw je je feeds hebt toegevoegd staat er nl al iets van je op de service, waardoor 't stapje richting comments geven (of 'likes') stukken kleiner wordt. Maar wellicht dat dit mijn persoonlijke beleving is; je komt er zelf snel genoeg achter. ;-)
- Ton Zijp
from email
Inmiddels staat 'tzelfde artikel ook op about:blank: http://www.aboutblank.nl/archive... (als hoofdredacteur daarvan moet ik natuurlijk ook een beetje reclame maken ;-)).
- Ton Zijp
Ton, leuk artikel!
- Jeroen De Miranda
"I predict a return to blogging as people discover the power of being able to finish a thought" http://www.scripting.com/stories...
Annarella G., david beckwith, Tac Anderson and 154 other people liked this
I had thought blogging has been growing steadily, globally. Admittedly I don't have a good chart/stats for it.
- Mark Essel
I really like this statement - but will people return to blogging as we've known it?
- Tony
Are you perhaps over estimating the allure of thinking?
- Todd Hoff
Micro-blogging is good for idealets and infotainment, but it really is turning the web into a mindless medium like TV. Of course, there will always be the equivalent of PBS trying valiantly to raise the bar somewhat. Blogs will always have the possibility of transmitting real knowledge.
- Paul W. Homer
The interesting thing for me is I think we have lost the definition of what a blog is. Everybody jumped up and down about what Steve Rubel did, but really I see his change as a shift of platform. If he posted that same content on wordpress, nobody would have said a word. Just because he did it on posterous and called it a lifestream, people took issue with it. So, what is our definition then?
- Robert
I think Steve still has a weblog, he's just submitting posts to it in a "different" way. Like Dave's link says a weblog is "... a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser." Pretty much sums it up, I think. Steve's post is going to generate attention, and debate, but in the end it's a weblog.
- Rob Fahrni
Robert, I know you're asking Dave a question, but I don't think the Posterious way goes against the definition. If I'm not mistaken Radio could post via e-mail, and I know Blogger supports this feature. Maybe I need to dig into Posterious a bit more but isn't that what it does?
- Rob Fahrni
Rob - That is my point. This in my mind is one of the major problems with looking for a "new name" for these social products. We see it as something different because it is called something different. Posterous, from what I can see so far, allows for the writer to interact with their "weblog" in a different way, just as you said...
- Robert
from email
Huh?
- Dave Winer
Dave - I think your "huh?" was towards me... We call Posterous a "life stream", I say it is a blog, that we have given a different name to. That is what I am saying.Rob - I agree with you 100%, and that is my point exactly. I keep reading these post about blogging being dead, or blogging being alive... but those that say they are not "blogging" are still "blogging" Maybe I am not making sense, but I hope I am...
- Robert
from email
Robert - Precisely! I think Posterious is trying to find a why to differentiate their product, so they've coined a new phrase. It's still a weblog, how the data arrives may be different, but it's just a weblog all the same. When I read Steve's story last night, from his new site, I thought I was going to find a link on it to something "new and innovative", then I realized I was AT the actualy site, his "life stream."
- Rob Fahrni
Robert - Right on!
- Rob Fahrni
Blogology is a still too young science, and definitio usually comes when plays are over. What I feel sad for is the lack of opportunity future literature and social behaviour experts will suffer not using post's content ( and graphics ) as sources for studying today's world zeitgeist. Borges prophecy is at work, few understands - too many doesn't even know what they're writing about: a...
more...
- valerio fiandra
from iPhone
Robert, the photo sharing site you've used recently is structurally a blog too. It differs from normal blog software mainly in that the chronology is by date of occurrence, not date of posting.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
It's funny that this sentence and a few lines from Anthony Trollope's autobiography should have crossed paths in my consciousness on the same day, since it's almost the same idea, thrown back two temporal orders of magnitude. Trollope tells of a correspondent, a vicar, who had enjoyed his clerical novels but was upset by Lady Glencors'a contemplation of adultery in the Pallisers series....
more...
- Amyloo
This is silly. Blogging isn't defined by the tool, it's defined by who's doing it. Read the piece I pointed to. I don't mean click on the link and hit the Back buttton, click the link and READ.
- Dave Winer
Agreed, Dave. Heck, we blogged back in the day via FTP uploads; that's what moved you towards developing "Edit This Page", in fact (IIRC).
- Ken Kennedy
This subject keeps coming back - blogging will never die.
- Jesse Stay
Before Web 1.0 we listened, conversed, collaborated and then we wrote. Writing was the synthesis of all the thinking that occurred in the first steps. In the new medium, the thinking process is the streams, both personal and community. Blogging is the synthesis of this new kind of community thought process.
- Joolio
Dave - haha! - that is awesome :D
- Susan Beebe
Pity there's no "Really, Really Like" button.
- Chris Baskind
Of course bloggin won't die, but you better have compelling content, because people have little tolerance for long articles.
- Todd Dewell
I think a large percentage of bloggers were really microbloggers, they just didn't have the correct apps to do that. The people that actually have something to say will keep blogging and those that just like to say something small or share something interesting will continue microblogging, or lifestreaming, or whatever variant you want to name it. Blogging is akin to publishing articles...
more...
- xero
This was known since the times of IRC: you can only have idle chatter or quick focused questions at that speed.
- Michele Costabile
Michele, if that premise is true, then kids only absorb important life-long lessons from their parent(s) when they're sat down for a full length lecture. No? :)
- Micah Wittman
The best food for thought always come in easily digestible chunks, however, sometimes you need to digest some larger/harder stuff to give you the ability to digest that chunk.
- xero
Agreed, well said, Xero.
- Micah Wittman
I thought completing a thought was the beauty of FriendFeed.
- Alan Eggleston
Microblogging is very much a product of the times, very ADD, very video-game-ish; so I agree strongly with the idea of longer.
- Rick Cogley
Just FYI, when I started Scripting News in 1997, it was entirely "microblogging" -- look in the archive. http://www.scripting.com/1997...
- Dave Winer
Dave - I very much appreciate you keeping up this fight. When I heard this past weekend the term "Lifestreaming", and seeing it picking up momentum. No, this has to stop. Twittering is an aside to your thoughts, or a highlight to pull people to your thoughts, if it's you only thoughts, you need put your head below the surface of your lifestream while carrying a big pile of rocks and...
more...
- Matthew DeVries
LOL, unfortunately, I don't think this problem exists just for blogging :)
- Armando & Cindee Edrosa
from iPhone
This isn't a fight. I love all this stuff. I was just saying what I think.
- Dave Winer
Even calling it a "Lifestream"? That's the creepiest sounding thing in tech, since Steve Balmer was threatening to "Squirt" his music onto my Zune.
- Matthew DeVries
Who really quit blogging? Even the most active lifestream addicts never really quit. For me, the blog is and has always been home. Everything else is somewhat ancillary, even when it's the first place I go. Critical thinking sometimes requires the depth of a written post.
- Ken Camp
Question: Of those of you out there who use posterous, do you use it as a replacement of your blog, a mirror of your blog or something different?
- Curt Mercadante
Ken - Rubel quit blogging.
- Matthew DeVries
One of the things I like about blogging is the ability to not finish a thought, not to try so hard to say all I have to say or say come to any definite conclusion in a single post. The unfinished thought is what encourages conversation. Let someone else add to your thought. Let others challenge your incomplete premise. I don't know everything, why pretend I do? My thoughts are never finished.
- Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)
Wow, you're right Dave, scripting news was indeed VERY much a microblog. Interesting & thanks for pointing that out!
- Rick Cogley
Just last night, my sister sent out a vague tweet that made no sense to me out of context: http://twitter.com/awarnoc... So I suggested she blog about the topic so that readers like me would understand the context. http://twitter.com/awarnoc... http://zelzega.blogspot.com/2009...
- Peter Warnock
Just because you can finish a thought, doesn't mean people will read it.
- Will Higgins™
Tell me about it. That happened earlier in this very thread. But at least you ca read it yourself.
- Dave Winer
Just as your diary became your journal and then your log, your log has become your stream. The web has become your life..... AND SO IT WAS, that in the year naught-nine, the web-log was renamed to life-stream, dissected, and it's pieces scattered about the hundreds of "cloud" services, from which it could fall as raindrops of thought, pinging here and there in an attempt to spread ideas to where they were needed the most.
- Joel Bennett
No time to read it. Can you give us the gist of it in 140 characters or less? Thanks.
- Diego Barros
Here's a picture, even easier than 140 chars. http://tr.im/qrBb
- Dave Winer
Haha, love it!
- Rick Cogley
Love the idea!
- Sampad Swain
Come on, Dave. Where's your sense of humor?
- Diego Barros
Where's yours?
- Dave Winer
If you were joking, that's cool. I can take it. :) (I was joking, honest)
- Diego Barros
Me too. :-)
- Dave Winer
Blogging is still the platform of choice for sharing a clear/uninterrupted flow of thoughts from a single perspective. Then comments rapidly add value to the original post's material (most of the time). We're witnessing the link power of blogging decline because that functionality (which is monetizable) is moving to social media. We are left with the question, how best should bloggers monetize if they're losing link passing strength? I'm working that issue now by frankensteining several parts together
- Mark Essel
Personalized/Customized ads based on public user status. Semantic tools (via API), memory (local user profile database), and the passing of information to an ad aggregator will help produce custom (dynamic web matched) advertisements. It should serve all parties involved (social media, bloggers/front ends, semantic processing houses, and advertising aggregators).
- Mark Essel
What do you mean, I have always been able to finish a ... ooh a nice shiny object...
- Marcel de Jong
Isn't it ironic that this post contained a clear and concise thesis, in under 140 characters?
- Mike Chelen
Good point Mike...
- Mark Harai
There's NOTHING wrong with brevity. There is a time and a place for discussion and lengthy discourse.
- Will Higgins™
Mike Chelen - "a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning ... the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning." - Nope, not ironic
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew DeVries: that covers definitions 1 and 2, yet the 3rd is an "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result," where in this case the expected result was to explain how new platforms prevent thoughts from being finished, and the actual result was to the contrary :D
- Mike Chelen
If you say so. I never saw that definition, but I have no reason to doubt you, or motivation to find the source myself, so, I'll allow it.
- Matthew DeVries
aren't we all copying from the same online dictionary? http://www.merriam-webster.com/diction...
- Mike Chelen
No, I rattled mine out of something I memorized years ago.
- Matthew DeVries
wow, you got it perfectly word-for-word, remind me to pick you for my crossword puzzle team :)
- Mike Chelen
Based On My Wife, I’ve Been Using Social Media Incorrectly » Webomatica - Entertainment and Tech Digest - http://www.webomatica.com/wordpre...
Pablo Melchor, Frank Meeuwsen, Amber, Random Time Lord and 6 other people liked this
However, if I limited my social network usage to only people I know I would have never had the pleasure of meeting so many great folks.
- Keith - @tsudo
Forrester Research's Jeremiah Owyang on the Future of the Social Web - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Thomas Power, Gerald Neo, Christian Anderson and 20 other people liked this
If you ever want to learn something spend an hour or two with Jeremiah. I learn something new every time I chat with him.
- Jesse Stay
Nice video and prescience Jeremiah,thanks for sharing.
- Murat Gök
I like the idea of social contracts like a bee-glue between Social Context and Social Commerce.My Question is how can a small community with not such a strong social hubs influence a social contract when is challenge with a stronger community? It's about minority representation in a social contract...
- Dan Romescu
Interesting. I've used those eras in a school project on social media. But I don't understand why Jeremiah considers OpenSocial as belonging to "functionnality" (http://www.web-strategist.com/blog...). IMO, it's much more about colonization, if you look at the "Sharing and Accessing Social Data" page: http://www.opensocial.org/page....
- Jérôme Flipo
Starting to save cooking recipes Evernote. List is small right now, but hope to grow it. Figure that eventually I can type what I have in the fridge, and get a list of recipes that I like.
Frank Meeuwsen, Richard McKay, RyanEs and 7 other people liked this
Brilliant!
- Christopher Harley
I've been collecting recipes for a while now too. FF is a great place for that with all the Foodies who post stuff.
- Her Lindsay-ness
I didn't really "get" Evernote, until i started throwing recipes into it and using the iPhone app at the store to plan my shopping.
- Rob H.
I am going to start doing that as well. Thanks Lindsay! :-)
- Mathew A. Koeneker
Evernote is perfect for keeping recipes and a real time saver when in the store and looking up ingredients. I subscribe to the RSS feed for www.tastespotting.com. The feed gives you the name and a picture of the final result. When I find one that looks interesting, clicking on the picture takes you to the recipe and from there it's a quick post to evernote.
- Jim Easley
I like the 'Amazon Remembers' thing on the iPhone app (by Amazon). Would be nice to 'integrate' that with Evernote (API?)
Frank Meeuwsen, Nock Forager, mjc and Kate O'Neill liked this
Yeah, cool idea. :)
- Kate O'Neill
10 reasons why mind mapping software should be the foundation of your personal productivity system - http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/10-reas...
Daniel Schildt, Joshua Slocum, Alphonsus Lee and 57 other people liked this
We covered just this with Buzz Bruggeman on http://www.workfast.tv by this is a great list.
- Robert Scoble
All very good reasons. I can't live without my Freemind maps. Whether its planning code or even just problem solving. Its a lot more intuitive than trying to use Planner (or MS Project) to plan something, and can then be easily translated across to Project software if you need it to. Its especially good for defining your own workflow and strategies as well.
- Stephen Cropp
I've been trying out mind maps every now and then but still haven't been convinced. What exactly is it about mind maps that make you more productive or efficient?
- Benedikt Koehler
I've started to doodle mind maps instead of notes for meetings and it certainly makes more sense to me when I return to the notes
- Andy Britcliffe
from twhirl
What are the best programs to Mind map?
- Toby Graham
Desktop - Mindjet mindmanager
- Sasha Kovaliov(.com)
from twhirl
I use FreeMind. Open source and multiplatform.
- Mario Camou
from twhirl
They need to get smarter first. MindMeister gets close with the nodes you can click on to search for pages related to the node. I want to create a mindmap and have it suck in my bookmarks related to each node on the map via tags. That way I can just build the map, have the research I have done before come to me and then move on from there.
- Stephan Miller
from twhirl
Anyone remember "The Brain"? So much promise - but it didn't quite work. Mindjet is a really good but doesn't integrate well enough into my todo / project managment solution.
- Soulhuntre
I loved The Brain. I used it for web site architecture, too
- Francine Hardaway
from twhirl
Mindmapping is a useful construct. We used it with the major scenarios of our last software release and -- with MMPro and a TFS Plugin -- exported them directly into Microsoft Team System. Cool.
- Robert W. Anderson
from twhirl
Any good web-based Mind Mapping solutions? Ultimately I'd like an Evernote for Mind Mapping which would run everywhere.
- Al Degutis
from twhirl
I would lose my mind without mindjet mindmanager
- adolfo foronda
As I mentioned early --I'm a mindmapper junkie...and doing it collaboratively via mindmeister in real time has been great with clients.
- Leif Hansen
Al: www.mindmeister.com :) (multiple user updating real time, one touch Skype, jottable notes via 1. “My Geistesblitzes” = widget (Windows and Mac compatible) 2. SMS (Twitter) or 3. e-mail plus moticons, smilies, and tons of visuals galore. Once complied, the map can be exported and shared in various ways; which for a free service is phenomenal, plus the data can be exported in multiple ways.. I blogged about it here -> http://bit.ly/1EdpIG)
- Mona Nomura
love mindmeister!
- Peter van Teeseling
Mindnode! very lightweight and useful.
- Akshay Dodeja
@The Doctor: FreeMind isn't as good as kdissert, which is being renamed to Semantik.
- Tanath
Love Kdissert despite some peculiar interface habits
- Brad Nickel
YouTube - Bert & Ernie tries Gangsta-Rap - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Frank Meeuwsen liked this
Has/How/Why tech blogging has failed you - http://scobleizer.com/2008...
Yaroslav Nikolaev, Adam, Dimitar Vesselinov and 174 other people liked this
Long rant, sorry, had to clear the air so I can start blogging again. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Wow...I'm very interested and excited to see/hear/read what is to come from Scobleizer land next.
- Justin Korn
I hope I make your list and if not, please let me know why so I can potentially improve.
- Allen Stern
Glad to see that you are starting to realize, despite Techmeme that the world doesn't revolve around just the bay area.
- Harold Gilchrist
from twhirl
Gotta say you're bang on the mark there. Tech blogging should be about the tech, not the biz.
- Luke Robinson
Allen: I like your blog. It's just that I love hanging out with all of you and talking geeky stuff a lot more than talking about this deal and that deal and all that.
- Robert Scoble
Harold: I've always realized that. I feel I got unfairly tagged with believing the world only was about the Bay Area. I guess I deserved that to some extent, but this area is quite dominant in the world of tech (including the tool you're typing on right now) so some of my boosterism is to be expected. Funny that the top Israeli company has offices here too.
- Robert Scoble
Kudos to you Mr. Scoble, what a very bright post you delivered today! Thank you for bringing some fresh perspective, that's always refreshing and welcome. I'm also happy you cite Lifehacker as an example. They focus on the smartest digital experience possible and help us improve ourselves. That's the biggest deal of all. Techbloggers should never forget it.
- c0wb0yz
I love the tech first and foremost but the business is important too, especially in respect to the sustainability of said tech.
- Jamie
Jamie: I agree. But the business needs to serve the customers and the customers/participants/users or whatever you want to call you and me aren't coming first in this industry anymore and that's worrying.
- Robert Scoble
Wow funny enough thats the way i have been feeling for a while now I am looking forward to seeing what is next from the Scobelizer...
- John Spencer
from twhirl
I agree overall - CN has only a small percentage of biz - most is trends, analysis, and reviews. I had an interesting discussion about this with someone last week - if i had a computer that could handle video, i'd make a quick video to explain - there's an important part you are missing
- Allen Stern
Next is to get some sleep. Gotta be up at 7:30 to be at Fortune Conference at 8 a.m. for breakfast. It's an incredible conference, hope to see some of you at the Tweetup at 5:45 p.m.
- Robert Scoble
Allen: will be watching in the morning for what I was missing. I'm sure I'm missing a lot. I had to stop ranting at some point, it was getting too long! :-)
- Robert Scoble
This is often relevant from major blogs/ celeb bloggers. The smaller and more personal blogs are still focusing just on tech ;) Perhaps you need to update your feeds :-)
- Dennis Bjørn Petersen
from twhirl
Dennis: I know. It's why I spend a lot more time here lately than on blogging. The smaller stuff shows up here a lot more regularly and I see a lot less "Yahoo business news."
- Robert Scoble
Excellent post Robert. It's why I don't read Techmeme as much as I used to. The life and joy in exploring, playing with and dissecting tech, the geeky exuberance in 'new stuff' has been lessened across almost all tech sites in general, leaving a bland veneer that is just business talk. Things a geek like me doesn't care about, as I'm not an investor.
- Mo Kargas
Techmeme has suffered because most of the tech blogs they follow have become nothing more then PR outlets like you said.
- Harold Gilchrist
from twhirl
As I posted in your comments, that's a really good post. It's great to see the old Scoble back - the one who I started reading back when your "latest thing" was Tablet PC! Welcome back, mate.
- Ian Betteridge
Robert, blogging is becoming commercialized, as it becomes popular. I do not see it as a problem. It just might mean that you and a bunch of other likely minded people have to move on to a greener, more fascinating and less populated pastures. Like friendfeed, etc. Luckily, there are lots of them around and tons in the pipeline. Enjoy!
- Павел Романовский
I don't know, Robert. On the one hand I agree 100%. And can I say that as editor of WebWorkerDaily I am the one who gets those 15 press releases a day and I *constantly* have the "is this useful?" filter on. I hope that's clear in our postings. Anyway...Your post is kind of like the person who is used to picking their own corn complaining about the supermarket because it's not the same garden. It's not. The grocer has to pay its bills, as does the paid tech blogger.
- Judi Sohn
I know I am a newie to all this but I have been reading blogs for a while. I've bee thinking up a response and I'll post later. Long comments on the iPhone make for one queasy bus ride.
- Derick Valadao
Finally. Thank you. I follow 357 feeds. Everyday. Granted I have many pop-sites (lifehacker, engadget, etc) on the list. But not one is of these "new breed" of tech bloggers out there. Even though I am in the industry, they do not speak to me. They are just another form of CNN to me. Linking to each other and regurgitating the same gibberish, no matter how relevant or important, it does not speak to me. Anyway, welcome back! This is very refreshing news to me. I will be following it with much interest. TY!
- Carlos Ayala
We should all just organize a "Tech Blog Strike", unsubscribing to those blogs that only push press releases. Let's see how they sweat when they see their subscriber count falling...
- Jorge Escobar
Obviously my previous comment was "tldr". I just wanted to say how great it is that a person in your position is able to repurpose his content to better fit the goal you are trying to reach with your content. It's a great direction to take in a time where most blogs are just trying to echo up to the top.
- Derick Valadao
Excellent post on the state of the blogging nation.
- Sheila Thomson
My only real problem with tech bloggins is how easily ideas take hold and spread to get page hits. This is very easily seen in the Vista hatred - there was never any objective reasonf or it... but it was so useful for traffic generation and looking cool that it was rampant.
- Soulhuntre
from twhirl
It's probably less about the business/tech divide, and more about me-too echo blogging
- Dave Pelland
I think so... tech bloggers are jsut as easily victims of peer pressure and memes as anyone. Once an Idea ("love google") defines someone as "getting it" then few will look at it objectively.
- Soulhuntre
from twhirl
This is a welcome breath of fresh air. Fantastic.
- Pete Gilbert
Scoble. Great post. Agree completely.
- Tom Quinn
Super excellent post and, ironically, exactly what blogging is all about. One good thing about an economic downturn, it will weed a lot of fluff out of the infosphere -- with less incentive to act as promotional platforms for startups, blogs may get more informative about using established tech.
- Sprague D
Great article Robert. It is your authenticity even more than your tech blogging that has made you the great writer that you are. Anyone can report Apple's earnings yesterday. You have always had an honest voice though that makes your writing stand out.
- Thomas Hawk
The take away is 'sensational headlines'. Add to the "Rumor:" and we don't need this stuff unless it's coming from a tabloid format site
- Charlie Anzman
Blogging is about saying what I want to say, and sharing things that I like with anybody who cares to listen. I'm not interested in driving traffic (thank goodness) or repeating what others have said, but contributing to a discussion.
- Chris Nixon
Great post Robert. Very good read and right on the mark. I religiously read feeds in Reader, but only a few that help me. I love Lifehacker. Almost everyday I find something new and useful to my job.
- Gary Schmidt
The Techie audience thirsty for knowledge is much smaller then the Get-rich-quick audience, but the largest demographic are the Free-lunch boys. The blogs with the most revenue have tricked their advertisers into believing teenage boys are business decision makers.
- paul mooney
I love tech bloggers and the things they write about. The good ones will always come at a common topic from a different angle and I just LOVE that because it makes me think outside the box and start connecting dots all over the place. Robert you are definitely one of those bloggers that I love to read and I don't think any of the ones I read have failed me.
- Devlin Dunsmore
from twhirl
Awesome reading! THX a bunch!!
- Ronald
I have to agree about the comments system though. One thing that we started to see a while ago was data portability and being able to communicate accross services. I think Disqus does that quite well and it's a great first step to making sure that the comments system becomes a little more useful on blogs.
- Derick Valadao
Well said Robert, left a comment, said my piece, cheers!
- Steve Spalding
Wow, an impressive and honest assessment of some major issues in the techblogosphere.
- Richard Akerman
Robert - I'm not in the tech industry. But I love what lots of tech stuff has done for learning stuff in my life and for others. And I want to keep on learning. You've certainly helped me here - I wouldn't know a fraction as much about using Friendfeed productively, for example. Glad we're going to see more of this kind of stuff. Welcome back.
- Tom Landini
Knocked it out of the park. If we can just get back to being geeks again, a lot of this drama will calm itself...
- Jared Smith
Great read, but kind of depressing the way things have gone. I just like being a bit geeky and all things will work out in the end.
- Alan Ashley
from twhirl
Shripriay, you hit it on the head. It is a shame that all the tech bloggers just wants to be Engadet or Gizmodo these days.
- Harold Gilchrist
from twhirl
Nice writeup Robert. I enjoyed your detailed analysis & history of the situation. Perhaps you can lead us in a new direction?
- Mitchell Tsai
i read the tech bloggers then try to actually use the gadget. would like to hear more results from the usage angle.
- Lee Kent
Shripriya, I agree with you wholeheartedly. My original comment was much longer but got cut due to length. I wish more blogs were like Louis Gray and Lifehacker which take a step back and then hit us with posts that are useful/interesting almost 100% of the time. Zero Punctuation is a great example for the gaming crowd--one post a week, internet fame.
- Derick Valadao
Hmm... A Scoble article I like.... Is this the Seventh Seal? Seriously, you're right on in that the echo chamber of groupthink has made tech blogging boring and predictable. I think there's a few people out there fighting it, and FF makes it easier to find them. I think you're off on the business side, though... I think it SHOULD be about the technology, but the entrepreneurs coming out of the Valley have made it necessary for us to discuss the business side by not having solid business plans.
- Jason Carreira
Anyway, hope this is a sign of things to come from you.
- Jason Carreira
Thanks Robert. Great read, and perspectives. Love to see more on productivity, like Lifehacker. Just became a GTD convert BTW and loved the David Allen piece.
- Jericho
Thanks for that Robert -- perspective is key.
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
I'm sorry but those that don't scale are toast, from a commericial and traffic standpoint. I know that is part of the point (varying aims and objectives of blogging etc.)
- Alex Hammer
Slap your self and get back on that horse Robert. You have NOT failed us. Human nature makes us want what we do not have. For some it's page views/revenue, for trolls it's attention, and others it's n-list status. The rest of us are looking to quench our thirst for knowledge. And please give our group a little credit. We have become ever-so-skillful at weeding out those sources that do not provide this knowledge. I repeat...You have NOT failed us.
- Andrew Smith
I appreciate what you are saying, and am glad that others share the same opinion as myself. What happened to being the guys who always had some tech trick that seemed like magic to the uninitiated? The joy of tech for me is showing that magic to others and getting them interested in what's out there too, and lately we have all become business whores a little bit. I look forward to the future content coming from you, and getting back to what made tech cool in the first place, the tech itself.
- Aaron Krug
One of the things I value most about Robert is his inner homing mechanism. He's very prone to get lost, but something always shakes him loose and he re-calibrates. Or is that re-boots? (Kind of like iPhone 2.0 now that I think about it.)
- Michael Markman
I agree w/ your article, Robert. The wonder that makes so many of us interested in tech does get lost at times- I never saw tech blogs as the place for that stuff, but appreciated it when I found it there.
- anna sauce
Alex: While scaling is necessary if you want more people to view your content, why should that come at the cost of the content itself? Too many startups are trying to replace a solid marketing plan with social media and end up trying to use big blogs as a means to advertise their product and ride the traffic tail to customers. From what I gather, this tends to make jaded bloggers who...
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- Derick Valadao
I kinda find this funny.. the comments are so distributed between FF channel and Scobles blog channel ? which one am I too follow ? I mean yesterday we had this big huge augments about cluster and fragmentation of conversations. So Robert, here's a suggestion. Turn off comments on your blog and let your readers comment on FF only. Else dont post your blog entry to FF and break your own...
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- Peter Dawson
I just approved a bunch of comments that were held in moderation. Now there's 88 comments over there. Whew.
- Robert Scoble
melmcbride: good point. It's easy to just stay on FriendFeed all day. It's hard to come up with something new to say that takes more than a short paragraph. Damn, I'm sounding so old school. The neat thing is when I do a longer blog is comes in here and improves everything.
- Robert Scoble
i think this is part of the echo chamber that is the silicon valley. people who live there use the "new" thing for so long they soon get sick of doing it. they are same people who think everyone elses use technology the same way they do and feels the same way they do.
- Jonathan Jesse
Scoble steps out of the bubble and takes a breath of fresh air... hopefully more follow or we're going nowhere fast.
- Harish V
I thought this was great! Robert, I think what I hear is your desire to just do whatever the hell you want to without regard to "The Man". Go for it. You of all people can do that!
- Elliott Ng
Robert the real issues is that everything really only needs to exist once. Conversations don't neeed to exist in many different places. Your blog comments and the conversation here are all the same conversation. I'd love to explain the solution as i see it but it'd take too long.
- Anton Mannering
Robert I am still lost- How can you profess to be be a convo aggregator , yet approve 88 comments on your blog ? @Anton, no Blog comments and these comments on FF, are two different sets of conversation happening on the same topic. Lets not confuse this fact !! There is a fork in the convosphere.
- Peter Dawson
@ Anton: I sort of agree with you, but i don't think comment fragmentation is all bad. Sometimes well-written comments appearing somewhere else can draw attention to good ideas. If I don't subscribe to a particular blog but see the feed posted here on FF, I'll pick it up and then maybe I'll go straight to the blog. There's value in fragmentation along with the frustration.
- phil baumann
I think a service like disqus should be used so that friendfeed comments on links to blog posts (with comments therein) will all show up no matter which medium you use to discuss them. Does this exist yet? I thought disqus would have this covered by now.
- Derick Valadao
Great points as always Robert. We're with you on this.
- Missionary Broadcasting
Peter: I approved about 40 that were being held in a moderation queue. I don't let newbies post a comment on my blog because then it'd be overrun with spam. FriendFeed has a much better system to protect against spam than my blog's comments. I think that it'd very cool if I could replace my blog's comments with FriendFeed, but that'd require an API that would make a URL, return it to my blog, and get it linked in, all really quickly.
- Robert Scoble
I haven't read the comments here, but feel I can comment. Robert, as someone who as known you for five years now - just before the mania began - I am pleased to hear this. What got me into your blog in the first place was your ENTHUSIASM for technology, particularly GTD. Never let that go. You be you. I will be me. And everyone else will be everyone else. In the end, you gotta follow what you love. It works for everyone from Steve Jobs to the Pope. Your friend online and off - SR
- Steve Rubel
@ phil bauman Ok 2 things. First of all I didn't say it shouldn't appear in many places. I'm saying that if you're in Roberts comments and I'm on Friendfeed then we should be able to see ALL the conversation from both. But it need not exist in a whole bunch of places only be visible from there. Second I think the argument that there is value in fragmentation is similar to saying there is value in using a ploughshare pulled by an ox. Ther is but not to most people.
- Anton Mannering
@ Robert Scoble: Interesting you should mention your blog comments being friendfeed. I know a startup or two working on those problems. In reality though the issues become way bigger when such a service is subject to really large numbers (non-tech crowd). Solving those problems is where the fun and games are and I only know one startup with a real solution for that.
- Anton Mannering
Ironic, isn't it--the influences (PR, marketing, big media) the original bloggers were trying to break away from are--surprise-- still here and the game hasn't changed as much as we thought. PR people still push their stories, tech and news blogs focus on a few big name co's and start looking like traditional media, etc. What's needed is more of the energy, enthusiasm and original thought that Scoble and others brought to the game earlier on--otherwise, we've only duplicated the old media on a new platform.
- mark ivey
I send you a tweet also but I believe that I must also write here how spot-on was your post... I can't wait to see more real Tech news coming from you and I hope that this will force other bloggers to remember how they started back then...
- Manos Matsakis
This is clearly your best post ever. Thank you for all of your hard work. I read your blog because it entertains me. I would love more posts "sharing geeky things." On the other hand, if you blog about news, technology, and a few pro-company biases, that's nothing to be ashamed of. Just because you (or any other blogger) do not provide a perfect balanced news experience does not mean that you have failed. People are responsible for finding their own news this day in age.
- Brian Wilson
Great post and I totally agree. "What's needed is more of the energy, enthusiasm..."
- Eric_T
Great stuff Robert. As blogging and social media continues to spread outside of tech and into other niche industries and verticals, those of us facilitating and evangelizing that spread should continue to look back at this post so history isn't repeated. See you at the Ritz tonight.
- J.J. Toothman
"I think that it'd very cool if I could replace my blog's comments with FriendFeed, but that'd require an API that would make a URL" - yeah I second that motion. If I had a widget that could do that but with bi- directional flow , that would really be a convo aggregator. This will certainly be an interesting challenge to some of the geeks out here !
- Peter Dawson
You can, if you're willing to give up the content. Glenn developed a great plugin that allows for bi-directional flow. It works for Wordpress and (I think) Blogger http://blog.slaven.net.au/wordpre...
- Steve Spalding
Great timing :) I got strange looks this weekend when I said that I don't review anything that has been 'pitched' to me - but rather things I discover that I think are cool. I discovered something this weekend at BlogHer that I will review. But no one sent me a press release. :) It's just a really neat gadget!
- Lucretia Pruitt
I think you should watch the movie 'Resurrecting the Champ' - its about a Writer. Drew the analogy to your post and the movie (that I just happened to see yesterday) http://mrinal.vox.com/library...
- Mrinal Desai
Enjoyed that rant, Robert. I'm not a tech geek, I don't read techmeme or techcrunch as the gist and trends can be followed here on FF, but I do read blogs like yours, Louis, Jeremiah and Hutch's, mainly to learn new things. Before FF I had never heard of Rescue Time, Jott, Evernote or TSheets for example, but hearing about new ideas and then experimenting with them myself, well that gets me interested and excited. The corporate enterprise stuff leaves me cold, it isn't nifty or flexible enough for users.
- Sally Church
Nice post. The PR influence bit reminded me of this article by Paul Graham: http://www.paulgraham.com/submari.... Agree to the fact that Tech blogging has been less 'tech' than it was a couple of years ago.
- Nikhil Dandekar
I loved the rant earlier yesterday, and even more impressed by the ff reaction. My take on your blogging, having followed you since MS days. Stay on what you think, not what others think. Avoid the whole Gillmor Gang bs, and associated groupthink.
- Bankwatch
I think that every new medium matures as it becomes possible to make real money at it - this is inevitable. I don;t think it will be the death of blogging certainly but we are in a new phase. Older blogs will mature and still keep that flavor or they will stagnate and die. The personalities will decide that. One of the things I like about your work Robert is the enthusiasm. Sometimes it makes you a bit naive, others it makes you a little to fast to declare something game changing but it is always good input
- Soulhuntre
Robert, just read your wonderful post now, and I'm still fascinated by it. I'm commenting here because I know you'll read here first. You know, this competition that you were taking about, almost cause me to stop blogging, but then I realized that I'm writing because I like it, so as far as I'm concern, I'm not trying to compete anyone, this is why I'm taking things easy and on my own...
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- Orli Yakuel
Orli: you know me too well! :-) Yup, agreed. Just do it because it's fun. The problem is that posts that make us all smarter don't stick around very long because of the flow.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, maybe it's because 'blogs' are not so unique anymore. Lets take Friednfeed for example: everyone can get noticed here just because they favorite picture on Flickr or dugg story on digg (regardless if they writing a blog, or giving any other opinion in the subject) this and other massive content mixed up together on a daily basis is flowing so fast, it almost seem that if you'll...
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- Orli Yakuel
Evernote-cool iPhone - http://qik.com/video/129647
Carlos Ayala, MiniMage TKDteacher of FF, Matt Craven and 35 other people liked this
...app. Rocky and me agree that this is the most useful app we have seen so far.
- Robert Scoble
Yeah, I'm loving it so far.
- Corie
i think the iphone web app is better than the native app right now. surprising but true for me
- David Jacobs
from feedalizr
Use it every day. Excellent application & execution on multiple platforms.
- Dean Terry
david - why is it better do you think?
- Brooke Shelby Biggs
I wish the Mac-based application was a bit more solid, but if I had an iPhone, I would definitely love to have Evernote on it.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
They got 30,000 new signups (and even more downloads) the CEO, Phil Libin, told me this morning (since Thursday). Nice bump for a company that not many people have heard of before.
- Robert Scoble
I'm really enjoying my first few days with Evernote. A very natural addition to the iPhone.
- Chris Baskind
This is definitely one of or the most-used app for me so far as well. Really like the audio notes feature ...
- Patrick Jordan
brooke: native app type is smaller and you cannot rotate it into portrait view. Other than that I love Evernote
- David Jacobs
from feedalizr
The Evernote app seems to have weird spacing issues when creating a new note on my iPod touch.
- Mack D. Male
I've been using it almost daily for months since the beta and it has made a huge difference to my workflow. Once I get an iPhone I plan on scanning my shoe boxes of biz cards into it. It really is a super app on both my Mac and PC.
- Dom
How do you tell it to OCR text in an image? I feel stupid but don't see where to do that.
- Douglas E. Welch
from twhirl
Douglas - others may correct me, but I think you do not have to 'tell it' or do anything special to make OCR in images happen - it's just an in-built, automatic feature ...
- Patrick Jordan
Patrick: you are right. It just does it automatically. I just took a picture of a business card. A few minutes later I searched for the name of the person on that card and it found it and highlighted his name on the card. Very awesome.
- Robert Scoble
Thanks Robert - thought that was how it was supposed to be. And yeah, Evernote has been seeming very awesome to me ever since they launched the private beta for this version - great on the desktop, in a browser, on the iPhone, everywhere ...
- Patrick Jordan
Yep. I kept thinking it would show me the text as text in a field somewhere, but it just indexes it as part of the search. Cool
- Douglas E. Welch
from twhirl
I've been using it daily since beta too, one of my fav apps; I have personal, science and business notebooks, v cool tool.
- Sally Church
The only thing is that the iPhone app doesn't support the "zoom" or "email" features that the web does - key features in my mind, especially email.
- Tony
Is it just me or can one not edit pre-existing notes?
- Akiva Moskovitz
@akiva i noticed the same thing. i love the iphone app, but can't seem to edit existing notes, only view them and create new ones
- Brad Warren
Very cool Robert. Do you know if they will support speech recognition?
- Jim McCusker
I just reconnected my old LCD flat panel scanner. And I found if I use a custom invoke to the evernote app, it will automatically open with the scanned image in it! perfect.
- Phil G
This is my favorite app of this sort.
- Sean Oliver
up there with the best of them.
- Zee.
Great app, but my free account get blocked every month though :)
- Svartling
@J. Phil, how'd you do that?
- Glenn Slaven
I have a canon scanner that comes with an ancient piece of software called "scangear toolbox" .. in the settings you can configure up to 3 custom tabs, that can call an application by name. I set up evernote as one and flickr uploadr as 2. Both work perfectly when scangear invokes the app.
- Phil G
That's cool, I'll have to try that
- Glenn Slaven
SarahLacy.com: Blogging's Crossroads - http://www.sarahlacy.com/sarahla...
Frank Meeuwsen liked this
Sarah Lacy wonders wether blogging is on a crossroads in the sense that people want to go back to more intimacy, personal contact etc. As a reaction to the Jason Calacanis-anouncement to stop blogging
- Ton Zijp
Interessante ontwikkelingen!
- Frank Meeuwsen
is blij met goed nieuws over zijn vader. Hoeft zijn gezicht vier jaar niet in ziekenhuis te laten zien.
Melle Gloerich and Frank Meeuwsen liked this
Kijk dat is mooi nieuws!
- Frank Meeuwsen
A unique Friendfeed feature would be: A visual map that shows how ideas/links/submissions are spread from one person to another via 'like'. This would show influencers, networks, and communities of interest
Nikpay, Frank Meeuwsen, Sudha Jamthe and 33 other people liked this
awesome idea Jeremiah! Ooooh I WANT this feature bad!!
- Susan Beebe
firstly , time stamps are needed, secondly 'likes on multiple same URI could be difficult. I may Like an entry from a friend's del.ious entry or maybe from another person who actually posts the URI on FF. How can this mapped out ? A visual map normally has one start point/seed and then spawns outwards to various nodes and then branches even more.
- Peter Dawson
heres a classic e.g of a like in multiple places from the same user but different URI http://friendfeed.com/e... and the other URI http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Peter Dawson
Exactly how do you determine who or what an influencer is? This is less obvious than it appears. I've seen "big names" retweet ideas of someone with a lower social profile. The original idea came from person A but person B has a larger social network. So, who is the influencer here, the person who came up with the idea or the person who told all of their friends? If it is person B, doesn't that discount the substantial influence person A had on them? You're privileging social capital over creative capital.
- Liz
+2 for Liz
- Hutch Carpenter
This would be another tool for creating elites. Is that really what we want?
- Chris Baskind
A brand manager's wet dream.
- Sprague D
Chris: good point. But my curious side really want to know how all this stuff is really happening!
- Susan Beebe
I like the idea of charting how information moves virally to see who the influencers are. Hopefully, this would let you see who infuences the so called "elite", "a-lister", "agent-of-change".
- Mathew A. Koeneker
from fftogo
Ohhh, that would be awesome. I'd love to sit back and watch an idea spread.
- Summer
Mathew, all these ""elite", "a-lister", "agent-of-change" are actually pretty mch just with large Social capital. not the creative capital ( +3 goes to Liz !!). This AM, I saw a lot of chatter on Lumosity, to me this was wickedly old in terms of tech tech. http://friendfeed.com/e... however, when looking back onto FF you will find Leo Laporte posting it and many peeps then repurposing that twit/post via many methods, digg, rooms etc.
- Peter Dawson
@spragued please no more brands and managers for them
- A.T.
To respond to those: The influencer could start at the source node (creative capital) as well as those who are sneezers (spread to many others) it can serve the purpose of both.
- Jeremiah Owyang
It could look like Digg's swarm ... that would be pretty cool
- David Weiner
Steven...Read Seth Godin's work, yeah it's like boogers ;)
- Jeremiah Owyang
Hey Jeremiah, I just posted about a new Google patent to do exactly this http://www.socialtimes.com/2008...
- Nick O'Neill
love the idea.
- mjc
I am using the like feature as a form of bookmarking - almost in lieu of stars in Google Reader.
Voyagerfan5761, Frank Meeuwsen, Mitchell Tsai and 32 other people liked this
I use it to indicate "hey world, this is worth reading!" and for bookmarking, too!
- Susan Beebe
Yes, it's a Gesture model.
- Jeremiah Owyang
I use it as both as "hey read this!" and as a bookmarking type feature.
- Aaron Myers
from Alert Thingy
Me too. I am using this feature to save interesting link with mobile phone for future browsing with a computer
- Marco Castellani
from fftogo
i use it to say that I liked it.
- Rob Williams
It's a vague bookmark/like type action for me as well. BTW, I misuse "Hide" and it's become my "mark as read" button. I try to follow a "FriendFeed Zero" philosophy. :-) I wish that "Like" flagged items would pop back up for me whenever anyone commented on them, even after I've read/hidden them.
- Ken Sheppardson
Ken, I don't think you're misuing "hide". I often use it as a pseudo-"mark as read" too.
- Ha3rvey (not Akiva)
Ken & Harvey: there's a greasemonkey script for hiding items upon read automatically: http://userscripts.org/scripts...
- Susan Beebe
steve did you see my post yesterday regarding ff and delicious? http://www.centernetworks.com/delicio...
- Allen Stern
@Allen I did. Stats back you up http://trends.google.com/website...
- Steve Rubel
@ Steve Rubel - bookmarking on the web means tagging... that cannot be done with "like" - what am i missing ?
- Kishore Balakrishnan
@kishore your right there are no tags here. I do use likes to find stuff I want to go back and review later.
- Steve Rubel
I echo the sentiments of the mobile user.
- Mathew A. Koeneker
from fftogo
Steve , if FF has a feature that permits users to define tags and use them. IT will be very powerful. I am think along the lines of Labels /Tags similar to Gmail ..
- Peter Dawson
I use it to say I like it, but sometimes I use it to bookmark something I want to have easy access to later on.
- David Cook
Bjorn, you can click on "likes" on the right side of your FF home page and see the list.
- Trish R
actually for some reason i never noticed the hide or more buttons. I also use like as an indication that I liked something, or sometimes as a bookmark. Ken when others comment on things I have commented on they do pop back up on my list. or else I am dreaming...
- R. Ferguson
yup
- Marco(aureliusmaximus)
There's also a greasemonkey script that allows you to mark something as "later". It's really useful, if you don't have time to read something now. You get a later tab to go back and check it out. Plus it adds a "like" to the post as well.
- Jason Toney
I use Twitter to show what I think is interesting and it shows up here. yes FF has the following activities: creator, critic, collector, joiner, spectator.
- Jeremiah Owyang
I'd just like to point out that you can't see past your last 300 likes. Make sure that that bug doesn't bite you :)
- Yuvi
in persian FF we are using the like as a form of "link recommandation".
- mhmazidi
I use "FriendFeed Read Later" (greasemonkey script) for that
- Sarah Perez
@Sarah I haven't seen that one, linkage?
- Aaron Myers
@ Steve Rubel: I did this too and later found another way: First I opened a private room. Now if I want to "save" something, I click on "More" (on the same line with "Like" and "Hide") and "Reshare this entry" to put the content into my private room. I write a small comment with tags.
- Yves Oesch
I created my own private room to which I save links, either from inside FriendFeed or from the web at large. Generally links that I want to return to for blogging purposes.
- Hutch Carpenter
Three Little Tips for Capturing Info Bits Quickly - http://www.micropersuasion.com/2008...
Luca Belletti, Josh Shabtai, Mark Dykeman and 4 other people liked this
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