Paul McKeon › Likes

I love the list, I can find lots of interesting people there to follow. Thanks. - Faraz Mullick

J'aime beaucoup Robert Scoble. Il est si timide. - Desirade

good I was worried about that - David Sanger

Apparently I've pissed off Scoble as I'm not on his suggested user list, but I'm still in good company: - BLOGBloke

Poor me, I'm not even on Scoble's Suggested User List (SSUL)... hehe - Marko Saric

Blog Bloke: you're on my SUL: http://twitter.com/Scoblei... - Robert Scoble

It's a good list... but most of the people I know who have signed up for Twitter in the past month aren't going to follow any of those people. No chance in hell. Twitter is now commercial. It's E!. It's Perez Hilton. It's being targeted at people outside the tech bubble-boy culture we exist in. There are heaps of people I know who should be on the list, but i also realize that my desires aren't that of Twitter OR the vast majority of those people now signing up for Twitter. - Johnny Worthington

Thanks Rob. - BLOGBloke

No more doughnuts in the break room. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

Dilbert rocks - But I think we know there's sarcasm in this excerpt. - James Kuypers

Agreed Robert! Finally something on which we agree :) - directeur

in my experience the best tech writers have technologist backgrounds: jon udell & david berlind come to mind, those that don't show their level pretty quickly & develop a way to fake it by baffling w/ babble & buzzword bingo - mike "glemak" dunn

its funny how the timing of the posts worked out :) - Adnan

1) People come here 2) People get inspired 3) People write on their blogs... go to step (1) - directeur

The first problem is defining what constitutes journalism versus editorializing. The best blogs are a good mix of the two, and subject matter expertise helps. Me? Former Linux developer, studied history of technology as an undergrad, have been a blogger on and off and now work in tech journalism. The mistake many bloggers (incl Arrington) make is doing the questioning in an editorial voice. He should have done what Robert did in his Qik interview the other day. Asking questions is not demanding answers - Andrew Feinberg

I'm a tech journalist who's written maybe a dozen lines of code in my life. Sure, John Udell and David Berlind are sharp as tacks (full disclosure: David is a colleague). However, I've been immersed in the technology industry for a long time. And I bring something to the work from my journalism background: The ability to separate fact from rumor, write clearly and concisely, and digest complicated subjects and explain them. - Mitch Wagner

IMHO Mitch is right, the task is the synthesis and this is an art by itself. I've written many things on things I totally ignored before (I'm a coder), it's all about collecting the info, choosing the accurate, and make something of this. The creativity lies in this process. - directeur

hey mitch, pls don't take this thread personally, just answering the question - both jon & david were first to come to mind (both friends) - i'm sure you do fine work for informationweek, though can't say that i read it - its not aimed at folks like me, i'm more of an infoworld type ;) - mike "glemak" dunn

@Robert But does a writer (blogger/journalist) lose some credibility when that lack of street cred shows through? The example Adnan linked was a perfect example; that one little issue buried in a long piece immediately drew attention and ire. @Andrew But how do you change your voice? Blogs make journalism moe personal; as I've said before, I'd make a sucky reporter but a great columnist. ;) @Adnan I know! I went back to add yours as soon as I'd posted. Perfect timing! - Cyndy

Cyndy: absolutely! This isn't only true of tech bloggers/journalists. I followed John Edwards around and saw how he'd give a really great reporter more time and better answers. I absolutely get better access because I ask better questions than many other people in the industry (and, even when I ask dumb ones, it's clear that I enjoy using their stuff anyway -- Mike Arrington, for instance, said he doesn't use Firefox 3.0 to Firefox's CTO. Who do you think will get asked back for an in-depth interview?) - Robert Scoble

In an ideal world? Me. LOL. But seriously, you. In reality? Arrington, because TechCrunch pulls so much weight. LMK which one happens. ;) - Cyndy

Cyndy: from what I can tell: both. Like you said, Arrington has weight. But Fast Company is no spring chicken, either. We print almost a million copies of that magazine. - Robert Scoble

I'm with Scoble on this. The devs I like the most are those who don't take my lack of deep code knowledge as a barrier to explaining stuff. They're also the ones who seem to understand far better than others what it is that users REALLY want to achieve. - Dennis Howlett from twhirl

dennis: you of course don't need deep code knowledge to be a good tech writer/blogger - the willingness to ask the right questions and actually listen to the explanations are necessary though, those w/ an actual operating background in tech tend to get this because in the real world of tech that's the way it works day-to-day, especially in big tech orgs no one individual is able to grok everything at every level - most of you zdnet folk do a pretty good job of this, its those that fake it that are wrong imo - mike "glemak" dunn

@Robert True, but looking at the mentality of people looking for attention, the combined reach of TC with the "It" factor is pulling more right now than established publications with a huge audience. I blame Gabe. ;) @Dennis/Mike I think I agree. Obviously, I haven't been doing more than little web sites in over 8 years, and I knew 6 months out of the game that I couldn't go back. But is a basic understanding of things like development practices something readers expect writers to have? ... - Cyndy

... (cont) How much immersion is required to establish that street cred? Can a newbie writer do it, or is there some sort of apprenticeship in the minds of the readers? - Cyndy

this is over simplifying it but don't pretend to be a subject matter expert if you're not - the tech writers/bloggers who think because they've been writing "about" something they are now sme's on their topics - this is when i start to tune-out/unsub - again both jon and david don't have this trait which is why i appreciate their work... - mike "glemak" dunn