Didja hear the one about the young writer who got her start as a big bad blogger—until a savage backlash from readers made her reroute her career? Well, check out the October Glamour, in which Gawker alum Jessica Coen calls for an end to the "unmitigated and unintelligent nastiness" you find online. How did Coen's Damascene conversion come about? WWD has the scoop.
Robert Scoble, ostensible PodTech videoblogger, is at it again: Armed with magic marker and whiteboard, he plots the "blog of the future" — on video, alas, not in an actual blog post. His dream features for the uberblog boil down to two categories: First, visual elements and themes readily available today, no time machine required, but Scoble, not "a pretty expert HTMLer," can only draw imaginary boxes to represent them. Second, a utopian merger of Facebook, blogs, and desktop apps that we've already heard about before from Scoble. Along the way, Scoble uses a few books from his desk and swooshing sound effects to simulate Apple's popular Cover Flow media-browsing technology. And from this, we learn that PodTech hasn't gotten him an eraser for his beloved whiteboard. We were spared the hour Scoble could spend "just talking about comments" — thank you. Oh, and his readers are still complaining about his use of video and Kyte.tv. The full, and fully unwatchable, video after the jump.
Videoblogger Robert Scoble's future employer may well turn out to be Kyte.tv, the website for which he's dumped ostensible paycheck-issuer PodTech to carry his video screeds. but there's one small problem with this plan: The loyal readers of his Scobleizer blog hate Kyte. Moreover, they claim Scoble is losing his way. They want the old Scoble back — the blogger who actually, you know, wrote blog posts. They want full text that they can scan, consistent with Scoble's diehard stance in favor of full-text blog feeds, rather than sitting through minutes of pointless video.
I wish Robert Scoble, the intermittent blogger, would take a break from making videos, too. In response to criticism of his incoherent videos about would-be Google killers, he's created a fresh set of incoherent videos explaining what friends are and how Facebook understands the meaning of your personal relationships. Again, he pulls out the whiteboard and marker — green this time — to "illustrate" his so-called point, a point that could be better made in a brief blog post. I've watched the painful videos so that you don't have to. But this time, there's some welcome good news.
A few words associated with former PodTech videoblogger Loren Feldman, infamous for his political correctness, might include "chaff," "talentless," "idiot comedian," or "racist." "Artistic inspiration for generations to come" wouldn't be the first phrase to come to mind. But Charles Hope, a blogger for online video site Blip.tv, says that Feldman could be responsible for "a deeply moving work of art." Huh?
If you're heading to Vegas to cover BlogWorld & New Media Expo—"the world's first, industry-wide blogging tradeshow"—be sure you're properly credentialed. "Press credentials are open only to accredited members of the professional media and will require submission of articles and verification that you intend to write for a publication on the conference." Good idea! You don't want those untrustworthy, parasitic bloggers covering the event, would you? [Information Week, via]
Ceci n'est pas un blog. Six days after vowing not to blog until he can "add value", PodTech videoblogger Robert Scoble blogs, "I'm SO enjoying the blog break. I think I'll keep it going for a few more days cause I'm not ready to come back." And then proceeds to blog on and on and on and on. One could expect Scoble to bend the meaning of "value" — but "blog"? Scoble continues to rewrite the dictionary by declaring his own predictably amateur video of this weekend's BarCampBlock event in Palo Alto "historical." "Historical" because he waves it past three thoroughly photographed Valley types? Or is it merely because he was behind the camera? The depths of Robert's Scoble's self-delusions are truly surreal. Historical, or hysterical? You be the judge.
Jason Calacanis and Dave Winer weren't the only ones lowering the Gnomedex geekathon's quest for spiritual uplift. Robert Scoble, the outspoken videoblogger, took issue with Warner Music digital guru Ethan Kaplan's critique of the conference. Not, mind you, for anything Kaplan said, but for his failure to address bigger issues that plague the real world. Scoble thinks that Kaplan is hypocritical for working for a record label that publishes a rapper with an "evil" no-snitching policy. As fellow Valleywag contributor Nick Douglas astutely points out in the comments, Scoble is saying that an employee is culpable for and complicit in any and all wrongdoings committed by an employer during his tenure at the company. It's an outlandish standard that Scoble himself couldn't meet at current employer PodTech, let alone previous paycheck-issuer Microsoft. But it's typical in displaying geek hubris. Sure, we can all change the world. Let's hold hands and blog!
Gartner, the Internet research firm, is making a bold prediction that flies in the face of the contemporary spasm of blog enthusiasm: Blogging will peak this year, according to a summary of the report by Ars Technica. And this stat really caught my eye: There are 200 already million ex-bloggers. Oh, I can think of a lot of names I'd like to see added to those ranks. And I could speculate about what a slowdown in blogging could do to a lot of blog-based businesses in the Bay Area. But I'm just not feeling it. Instead, with apologies to Monty Python, a sketch about an ex-blogger.
You ever think there could be anything more annoying than those couples who have a single e-mail address (wendiandrupey@aol.com, etc.)? The Wall Street Journal proves that, yes, there is! It's part of a disturbing new trend that is tearing marriages apart.
What kind of good ideas are coming out of the Yearly Kos convention? Here's one!
A blogger's life is tough. Roll out of bed, brew some coffee and begin espousing your views to the world — all from the safety of your home and Strawberry Shortcake bathrobe. Those are the harsh working conditions that prompt us to, like oppressed steelworkers of old, demand organization and representation. We want a freaking union. Or so say the deluded Internet scribblers at Chicago's YearlyKos blogging convention. Those attending the gathering are under the impression that a professional labor group will make bloggers more respectable. Instead, the call to arms just shows how clueless political bloggers are about the business.
Virginia Heffernan will pick up her blog, Screens, and move it from the New York Times to the... New York Times magazine, where she'll also do a column about "home entertainment." From the Times memo: "Virginia Heffernan plays a role at The Times not unlike that of Russell Owen, the correspondent who nearly 80 years ago traveled literally to the end of the earth to cover Richard Byrd's pioneering expedition to the South Pole. Except that Virginia does the bulk of her exploring from Brooklyn, in front of her computer...." Heh.
Chastened by the $4 billion loss it inflicted on Apple shares in May, Engadget has started more rigorous factchecking. Of other blogs. Our sister site Gizmodo was taken in by a fraudulent tipster — a 16-year-old Australian with the same name as a Google product manager, which lent his email just enough credibility for a Gizmodo writer to run it. Editor Brian Lam, embarrassed, issued a complete retraction. Boy, do I know how that feels. Of course, Gizmodo's item ran on a Sunday, when it couldn't affect the public markets — and the minor Apple hardware updates promised in the faux tip were unlikely to move the stock, in any event. Memo to my Gizmodo colleagues: Next time you screw up, try to make it matter a bit more, will you?
