I'm going to try and call the Denver PD later this morning and see if I can get a copy of the police report. Somehow I think they are going to make this one difficult to get your hands on. - Thomas Hawk
That's pretty amazing. Reading the article at ABC news the cop was saying that the sidewalk was private hotel property. Anyway, it'll be interesting to watch what happens with this because I have to believe a high-profile ABC producer is exactly the type of person you don't want to force a civil liberties violation on. What the hell is a cop doing smoking a cigar in public anyway....he might as well be eating a donut on that video. - Todd
Haven't you heard? George W. Bush repealed the 1st Amendment. - TranceMist
Now would be a great time to go off on an (irrelevant) anti-democrat rant, but police jackassery like this knows now political party bounds. - Dave Roth
At this point the ball is in ABC and Eslocker’s court. This case differs from many similar cases in that they have the money and all the resources (film, audio, witnesses, etc.) necessary to take on the City of Denver and the police involved. I would interpret any failure on their part to pursue this matter as either they don’t have the facts and law on their side or that they lack moral courage. - Robert Banghart
Ok, I've had to put about 6 calls into the Denver PD and the best I can get is a message to have someone call me back. I'm going to stay on them today until I see if I can get a copy of this police report. Will try them back in an hour. Police reports are public records and the report over this incident ought to be made available to the public. - Thomas Hawk
Ok, just spoke with Mary Dulacki at the Denver Sheriff's Department. There was a Sherriff involved in the incident as well. She is aware of the incident, asked me to put a request for their report in in writing via email but said that she does not think she will be able to get the report turned around for me today. I'm going to keep trying until I either get shut down or get a copy of one of these police reports. - Thomas Hawk
Thank you so much for keeping us informed. It can't be legal to be arrested for doing your job in a public area- can it? - Abby Martin
Thomas, I'm glad you're all over this. The tape looks outrageous and it sure appears the cops were abusive. My only concern is what we didn't see in the video. I'd be disappointed if it turned out the crew really *was* misbehaving, or that some obscure and possibly unconstitutional local ordinance actually defines a zone around a door as private property. What a mess. - Chris Baskind
Thomas, I have been trying for about an hour and can get no answer either. The best I've gotten is a few messages into the civil liabilities bureau, but I will keep trying as well. - Aaron Krug
Obviously the police officers are going to try and put their spin on this thing after the fact. They were stupid and probably had no idea who this guy even was. Looking forward to reading and reporting on those reports when I can get them. The point is though that they shouldn't be treating *anyone* like that. Even if they are a reporter. Police are given extraordinary power of authority. They should suffer large repercussions when they abuse that authority. - Thomas Hawk
When this stuff happens with cameras around, you know much worse is happening elsewhere. Such arrogance. This is the new America. - Chris Baskind
Whoa. Love that you highlight the attention this one will receive versus the everyday harassment photographers face. - TreJack
Just got this email back from the Denver Sheriff's Department: Tom-
There is no "report" per se in this incident. Asa Eslocker was charged
with interference with a police officer, trespass and failure to obey a
lawful order on a GSS&C (General Sessions Summons and Complaint). On a
GSS&C, the officer writes notes on the summons itself which is filed
with the Denver County Court. To get a copy of the notes, you need to
go to Denver County Court. - Thomas Hawk
I'll try the Denver County Court next and will keep working on trying to obtain an incident report from the Denver PD. - Thomas Hawk
Also interesting in that video is the police telling the camera guy to shut it off. Fortunately, the camera guy knew that he was under to legal obligation to do that. - Dave Roth
Seems as though we do not have the full story. The comment from the Hotel adds a new twist to this incident. If what the Hotel says is true, it seems as though the police did have a right to ask the ABC crew not block an entrance to a building. Apparently they were asked to move several times and didn't. What we saw on the video was only the tail end of the entire incident. While I do not believe the police should have treated Asa as they did by shoving him in the street, they possibly had good cause to arrest him. - Jeff P. Henderson
This is utterly infuriating. And Jeff, while I agree with you to some extent, I would like the word "block" defined by the hotel. - Vincent Ferrari
Vincient: The incident or the statement? - Roberto Bonini
I find it dubious that a camera crew could literally *block* a hotel's entrance to the point that guests could not get out. It was likely 3 or 4 people at most and certainly guests could walk around them. There is nothing illegal about filming a hotel's entrance. Even if this was the case the cop could have moved him up the sidewalk, not out into the street. I'm not buying the hotel's explanation. - Thomas Hawk
have to check this out when I'm home. - Todd Jordan
The Denver Sheriff's Department just told me that they don't have the name of the arresting officer. Still working with Devner PD to hopefully obtain that and a full police report. - Thomas Hawk
@Thomas: That's exactly why I wanted to know how the hotel defined "block." Sounds like a load to me. - Vincent Ferrari
As a friend of mine said today when he heard the news, "There goes hope." - Jason Shultz via twhirl
By "block people" they mean "allow higher-level lobbyists and congresscritters from being shown on air". I mean, in my less cynical days, if.. for example... Nancy Pelosi told me to kick an ABC camera crew out, I'd do it. - Wirehead
I'm much more cynical now, of course. :D - Wirehead
Wirehead, you make such a great point. I don't want to get into details here (not enough room,) but when I was in college I worked for a major political candidate. I was asked to do something (remove someone, basically) at a political event that I'd never do today. I was immediately shamed for it by a senior member of the staff .. but I was a kid, and was just doing what a campaign staffer told me to. I regret it to this day (and fear the video will show up eventually, haha...) - Anthony Citrano
Since none us were there, and the definition of 'block' is rather ambiguous, it seems like we ought not to jump to too many conclusions about the cause of the incident until we have more info. The improper treatment of Asa at the end of the incident seems a bit clearer in my mind. - Jeff P. Henderson
I'll translate. "illegal to block entrance" = selectively and ruthlessly enforce a hyper-literal interpretation in order to shield political big wigs and their sponsors from public scrutiny. - Matthew Davidson
It would be nice to have seen video of when the hotel asked them to not block the doors; the sidewalk was big enough that the cameras would have had to been standing in front of the door to have been blocking the hotel entrance. Interesting that DPD only arrested Reporter and not camera person... - Greg Lato
PR Director for Brown Palace Hotel in Denver: Shannon Dexheimer Public Relations Manager sdexheimer@brownpalace.com (303) 312-5921 - Jason Shultz via twhirl
@Greg, my guess is that Asa was the vocal one and the cops needed a person to make an example out of, so they picked him. Which leads me to believe that the crime was not as serious as the charges. If the whole crew had really been blocking the door in an unsafe manner, they would have all been forced to move or arrested if they didn't comply. - Jeff P. Henderson
The first "police officer" we see in the video is in fact a security guard hired by the hotel wearing a Boulder County Sheriff's uniform. - Jason Shultz via twhirl
So security guards are allowed to arrest people? That's a new one... - Jeff P. Henderson
I found out last night from the Hotel PR Person that he really was a Boulder county sheriff and he was assigned to the hotel by the DNC. - Jason Shultz via twhirl
Heh. Now that's a cool idea - did you fave these with the FF post in mind? - TreJack
yeah, more and more I'm becoming aware of how my Flickr faves will appear and post in FF. I like the idea of themes. edythe does a lot of these really really well. - Thomas Hawk
I do the same thing Thomas by staggering my Flickr posts and uploads. It's a cool technique. I love posting to Flickr from my mobile with the intent of getting feedback and comments here on FF. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Hutch great post, I was thinking along these lines the other day as well. I started to compile to some data using the likes and comments ratio from people I follow. http://friendfeed.com/e/82eb76... - Mike Fruchter
I think we're in the midst of a new paradigm shift. I’m spending more time reading Lifestreams than RSS feeds and it's driven by the fact that the people I follow have become necessary filters now that I can't consume everything on my own. - Mark Krynsky
Hmm...Human filters -- laziness or genius? - Hao Chen
Hutch: You write some great posts. I could think of my communities as filters for information (with some people being especially influential - Robert Scoble, Louis Gray, Mona Nomura, Polly Roberts, Robert Patton, and Thomas Hawk on FriendFeed). However, one work I read said that our gift back to God (if you're religious) is our individual way of living life. I enjoy when other people share a part of their lives with me....and it helps shape my daily life also. Thanks everyone on FriendFeed! - Mitchell Tsai
Thoughtful and timely post, Hutch. There's lots of stuff that interests me out in the RSSsphere, really too much to keep up with on my own. However they find the time and energy to do it, filter folk like Scoble, Gray (and Hutch ;) ) lead me to more such stuff. But I also realize the value of "eating my peas" and sometimes feel I could use a little more filtering help finding that kind of information here. And, who knows, with the right amount of filtering, I might actually start to like peas. - Tom Landini
My Google Reader friends...and my FriendFeed friends, too! - Sarah Perez
That's what I was talking about ! There is a need for smart filtering aka human filtering :) - Alemsah
While I don't find the results useful, this shows how much room for innovation there is in search. Showing results in a magazine format rather than an ordered list is interesting! Too bad their resuls are so lacking in focus. - ryanmaule via twhirl
Thanks Mike - I like your graphics. How'd you make those? - Hutch Carpenter
Mark - I agree. Reading lifestreams, which include a lot of blog posts and mainstream news, is a great way to keep ourselves educated. - Hutch Carpenter
Thanks Mitchell. I called out Louis in the post, but your names are others that I had in mind as well. - Hutch Carpenter
Tom - you're hitting on something that really could be its own blog post (dibs!). It's the nature of the person doing the sharing. If I share Flickr favorites, it's OK. But if Thomas Hawk does it, you know something about what makes him tick. And that makes it more engaging, even for the same content. - Hutch Carpenter
Sarah - no surprise for you. As a top-notch blogger, I'd be surprised if you relied too much on a few people for filtering. - Hutch Carpenter
I like the paradigm shift concept. A curated life. Lots of choices and more friends who I trust suggesting what they are passionate about influencing how I might spend time reading, listening or watching. - Mary Anne Davis
This is a MUST READ post. nice job! going back to re-read - Christian Anderson
more important question.. How how are capturing the most interesting infonugguts available on the Web ? Then comes the question to how do you filter that to within the the FF community ? If you look at at some of the Non related tech items that are interesting, then Louis and many other's fail- and fail badly. Lifestream is not just about latest technology ideas and convo's , there are many other facets too ! Here is a typical thread that I point out 'stale' info <http://friendfeed.com/e/776813...> - Peter Dawson
Peter - that's a tough one. Politics, life sciences, and other good subjects aren't going to be something everyone wants to read. Louis as Information Filter works because of what he's interested in: social media. But that's not to say a really good Info Filter isn't just waiting to happen in say, life sciences. It'd be up to people to subscribe to him or her. - Hutch Carpenter
Hutch , but then again the Human Filter is akin to what can be called as the "Project Golden Sheild" -- the followes are falling into that sceanrio slowly and steadly, albiet unkowningly of both parties !! - Peter Dawson
Filters for non-tech photos & cool stuff: Mona N, edythe, RAPatton, Anna Haro, Mark Wilson, Thomas Hawk, Mrsth, Mahdi Ebrahimi, Eric (ejp1082), mhmazidi, Vincent X, Selma, Maryam Ardakani, Donato, Russellreno, shandiz, Andrew Baron, JA Castillo, Raoul Pop, Mladen Srdić, Corie Allison - Mitchell Tsai
Haven't found any filters for science stuff on FriendFeed yet. Science quality here is pretty low (aside from tech). I was thinking of going on a Del.icio.us binge through the major sciences to post hot people & articles. Check out Harvard's Lisa Randall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... hot chick & top string theorist "On Gravity, Oreos and a Theory of Everything" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11... - Mitchell Tsai
Hutch, I sent you a dm on twitter regarding the pie charts. - Mike Fruchter
Hutch, very interesting post thanks. Glad my random thought was able to be of some assistance :) - Michael C. Harris
this is the early stage of the technological support of group intelligence, group consciousness - Gregory Lent
Michael - your post kicked off some good thinking. Glad you like the post. - Hutch Carpenter
gregory - I like that take. Each of us serving as somewhat different information filters in a group, and how intelligence spreads within that group. - Hutch Carpenter
A really nice post, very timely. I follow many on FriendFeed such as Robert Scoble and Loic Lemeur and use Netvibes, StumbleUpon and Delicious + popurls and Mahalo (cheers Jason!). Great post! - Hayk Hakobyan
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 via 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 via 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 via 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 via 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... - JungleG
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 via 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 via twhirl
This is a welcome breath of fresh air. Fantastic. - Pete Gilbert
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
I don't actually read Techmeme or Techcrunch or other tech blogs that much, as I'm not anything like an insider. I indulge my "social software as spectator sport" obsession by reading Friendfeed, basically. Friendfeed plays the hype filter role that tech blogs are theoretically supposed to play but don't. - K Welch
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 via twhirl
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
this, along with Luis Grey's article today about Techcrunch and Techmeme, are both really interesting features on why blogging, and more specifically high-profile bloggers that were once more passionate, more personal, more engaged, more interesting, are falling to the wayside - Kevin via twhirl
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 via twhirl
The key issue for me is that there isn't enough analysis. Just reporting what an app does is useful, but very baseline useful. What are the implications? That's where tech bloggins has really failed. - Shripriya via 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 via 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
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
Robert, I loved reading that entry. It felt so personal and it read like it came from a passion rather than a business. This is what lacks in the the tech blogging industry, passion. I think I'm going to add you to my RSS reader. If this friendfeed conversation isn't proof that tech blogging is failing then I don't know what is. Keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing this change implemented. - Michael Narciso via NoiseRiver
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
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 are not trying to balance the original goal of their contributions with the benefits of increased consumption. Scoble was right to point to lifehacker as a great blog which scaled and still stayed relevant to their readers. - 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 paradigm of saying you want to be a connector, yet will to let comments slip and glide across all properties that you own. For the record there are 46 comments there and 57+1 comments here. Anyhoot, nice read. - Peter Dawson
I just approved a bunch of comments that were held in moderation. Now there's 88 comments over there. Whew. - Robert Scoble
I'm deeply suspicious of this recent anti-blogging meme (thanks to Calacanis!) Blogs are simply shifting into another priority (within the enlarged mediasphere). As much as I enjoy the "micro" trend, it's also highly reductionist with an absence of elaboration and important context. Blogs provide a space for a different kind of information processing and engagement. If anything, blog hasn't failed me, I have failed my blog (i.e., to choose something EASY (like this) over the *work* of creating a full post. - melmcbride
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
Robert: The way you're using your blog WITH FriendFeed is ideal. Same for Twitter, etc. I think we ought to focus on the meaningful integration of these tools for media production and conversation as opposed to versus or hierarchies. I suspect we are on the same RSS here :) - melmcbride
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
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/word... - 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/subm.... 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 pace.
I have to also agree about the TOO MUCH content every day. It is just too much to handle, and most of the time you read about the same things from several blogs, then you bump into the same content in services like Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook...
I've recently noticed that my subscribers counter is not going anywhere than little up and down. I think it as a lot to do with the fact
