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Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail, is no longer satisfied with mere transparency when it comes to running his magazine. It's time for radical transparency — open journalism, viewable by readers as it happens! Reader comments indistinguishable from stories! Topics arranged by popularity! Wikis everywhere! Workers control the means of production! Whores lay down with swine! Sounds like crazy talk, but Anderson floats the ideas along with supposed risks of each, countering that "in all these cases I think the upsides outweigh the downsides." But as usual, this latest Wired manifesto just doesn't go far enough.

• Lee Gomes doesn't care what all you Chris Anderson cultists think; The Long Tail is full of shit. Inevitable Anderson riposte t/k. [WSJ]
• Mariane Pearl, widow of slain WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl, writes her first column for Glamour. Ann Coulter, 45, immediately calls her a whore. [Glamour]
• Hard-hitting Observer investigation reveals that some firefighters in the "FDNY Calendar of Heroes" come from out of state. [NYO]

• Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is taking a trip to the South Pole. In a hydrogen-powered Hummer. With Buzz Aldrin in the driver's seat. And James Cameron filming it — in 3d. [Barrons]

Here's what's happening today in the world of the Long Tail (Wired editor Chris Anderson's niche-marketing theory, recently disputed in the Wall Street Journal):

• The Wall Street Journal tries hard to find a contrarian view for Wired editor Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail. Chris Anderson, amused, topples it like a sadist at a domino exhibition. [WSJ and The Long Tail]

Running Mischa Barton's nipple a close second for most overexposed item on the Internet, Wired editor Chris Anderson's The Long Tail is the perfect example of a tidy thesis stretched out to book form and embraced by the usual subjects (i.e., bloggers, and the people who try to understand them). Anderson's theory, for the two of you who may have missed the book party and every single website of the last two months, is that while brick-and-mortar commerce is reliant mainly on big hit items, the Web, with its infinite capacity for niche marketing, can focus on things that do much less volume but which will, over time and in aggregate, wind up selling more than the big hits. (Take a second and read that sentence again, we know we sure are.)

• The Inquirer likes the idea that AOL's Jason Calacanis was handed Netscape by someone seeking his failure. But everyone knows Calacanis will fail spectacularly, which is the Dogbert-endorsed fast track to success. [Inquirer]

The following press release reads like a Colbert-style parody, but it's a real (and really lame) release for an event with Wired editor and Long Tail author Chris Anderson. Chris's publicist is trying to hype up a glorified free-for-all conference call, headlining the release with "MEDIA ALERT...MEDIA ALERT...MEDIA ALERT."

• Tuesday: Tonight's edition of Net Tuesday discusses how non-profits can use the virtual world Second Life. Thankfully, Valley residents don't actually have to drive up to San Fran, since the talk is being simulcast in Second Life.

Valleywag feature: Chris Anderson's Lost Song Found

Here's a sad example of vlog Beet.tv video-stalking bloggers — bloggers! — through the party celebrating the launch of Wired editor Chris Anderson's book The Long Tail on Wednesday night at Tribeca Cinemas. Thrill to blurry footage of the top half of Dealbreaker's Elizabeth Spiers's head, plus Gawker Media's own Nick Denton, shot monolithically (and unawares) from below. Oh yes, and musician David Byrne. He probably has a blog too, the sumbitch.

When Condé Nast announced last night that it bought Wired News, the press acted like Wired was rescuing a desperate crew of disaster survivors. According to a friend of Valleywag at Wired HQ, that's exactly what happened.

Please enjoy the newly released article from Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, "The rise and fall of the hit," subtitled, "The era of the blockbuster is so over." If Anderson's popular theory of the long tail is true, the "hit" is marginalized, if not dead.

Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson (who gets major props for writing a whole trend piece without the words "Long Tail") skips the bullshit and commands Wired readers — this trend toward mass production, don't call it "user-generated content." Don't call it "Web 2.0." Don't use any of the perfectly serviceable phrases we already have.

In a new interview, media site I Want Media helps Chris Anderson plug his "Long Tail" marketing meme (a clever "Tipping Point"-like synthesis of basic economic rules). The Wired Magazine editor also defends the format of his magazine, an industry favorite with a slick print edition and a delayed, bare-bones online edition.

Marketer and pro-blogger advocate Curt Hopkins is a good and reasonable man. Good because he's running the Blogswana project, in which students will help those affected by AIDS in Africa tell the world about their plight. Reasonable because when he asked the following Valley people — people known as good souls with a passion for world-changing technology — for financial support, he expected a few yeses and a few nos.

You have things to do this weekend! You are very busy and important!

Wired Editor-in-Chief (and launch party co-host) Chris Anderson commenting on the possibility of having bloggers write pieces for the magazine. Anil Dash and I coughing loudly, whistling, pointing to ourselves, and spontaneously producing cardboard signs with "Will write Wired pieces for money," scrawled across them.*
(*Perhaps I exaggerate a bit. We were coughing quietly.)

The first media party since I arrived in New York, the Slate event at which Jacob Weisberg was unveiled as...