18 Jul 2002
Thu, 18 Jul 2002
Ashcroft vs. Americans
This piece from the Boston Globe is so quotable that I can't even begin to quote it without copying the entire piece. Here, just read it.
Posted at: 19:41 | permalink
Google Lawyers Suck
Sigh. I was excited to report that somebody had developed a Google-like interface to Amazon via the new Amazon SOAP API. Then I realized that that valiant effort was killed by Google's attorneys. I'm gonna have to re-think where google fits in my scheme of things now. Previously, I thought that they were above this sort of thing. Now, I'm not so sure. It's really sort of ironic, considering that Google has benefited tremendously from the hype surrounding their SOAP API and are now going to learn a difficult lesson about negative PR when this hits Wired magazine.
You'd have thought that they'd have read the Cluetrain Manifesto.
"Markets are conversations."
That conversation just turned ugly and full of expletives. I wonder whether Amazon's legal people would get involved in the conversation?
Join me in your best Austin Powers imitation voice: I think I'm gonna vomit.
Posted at: 19:31 | permalink
John Hiler: The Dark Side Of Blogging
John Hiler at MicroContent News has an interesting article about The Dark Side of Blogging. It's interesting for one reason: it tells only one side of the story.
John says, "This is the dark side of blogging: the emphasis it puts on our egos. If I write something and someone else blogs it on their site... well all of a sudden, I feel validated and great about myself. Same thing goes with press mentions: you read a few articles that mention you by name, and you start feeling like you really are all that."
And I'm here to tell you something you probably already know. The web has a way of balancing this egomania quite well. For instance, examine this chat log about an analogy I made a few months ago. Now, how could I possibly develop an ego problem when I've got people saying such wonderful things about me?
Dave Winer wrote about this just the other day. In the article that Dave refers to, Andy Lester says, 'Second, think before you type. What you say will be archived, logged or otherwise stored in some permanent form for Google to pick up within days. This goes for IRC logs, too. "This will go down on your permanent record" has never been so literally true.' And that's exactly what we have here. Google has a wonderful way of leading me to these posts.
When bloggers post an article, some will agree, some will disagree, the emotionally mature among us will do it in a non-emotional way, but even that group will slip and go ballistic occasionally. We are human. With an attitiude of humility, I take the good with the bad, give it some thought, occasionally respond, occasionally concede, most of the time realizing that it's a fleeting issue that's not worth worrying about.
In the end, while I think there are corners of the culture that can be destructive, I think the blog world is moderating itself reasonably well. The clickstream has a wonderful way of promoting blogs that aren't spitting venom 24x7x365. Speaking personally, my self-deprecating ego is going just fine. Blog on, but in the spirit of the web, link a little while you're at it.
Posted at: 10:14 | permalink
Shameless Self-Promotion: Get Color Block Gear Now
In my never-ending quest to keep up with Dave Copeland, I've got gear: www.davidwatson.org | Powered by CafePress.com. Specifically, color block gear based on a screenshot of the blog that you're viewing now.
Posted at: 02:27 | permalink
