Citizen-Generated Media (CGM)

But Will It Become a Suicide Magnet? Or a BASE Jumper’s Destination?

Outside the National Park, on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, construction has begun on a spectacular Grand Canyon Skywalk, which will allow intrepid hikers to walk where only birds used to go.  Of course, the birds get there for free, and it will cost you $25 when the Grand Canyon Skywalk opens this March.  Normally, I might look askance at this intrusion into geological nature, but it turns out that the Hualapai tribe is one of the few that supports itself without the benefit of gambling casinos.  And now that all helicopters and fixed wing aircraft are no longer allowed below the Grand Canyon’s rim, this at least simulates that former aerial experience.

Quiz You

Are you a terrorist-coddling, lily-livered, cultural relativist who ignorantly prides yourself on your tolerance and humanity?  Are you a secular progressive who never read Milton and who secretly doubts that evil lurks not only in the world, but also in the hearts and minds of everyone?  Was your membership application to the Daughters of the American Revolution returned because you are on a Homeland Security watch list?  If you’re not sure, take this handy quiz, put together by someone who had much too much time on their collective hands.

‘Tis the Season of the List

It’s December and annual lists are sprouting like truffles in pig excrement.  Here are a few to tickle your palate, your funny bone, or perhaps your cerebral cortex.

1) 81 Movies for Geeks that Do Not Suck

2) Sites That Top Diggers Read

3) Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2006

4) 33 Names of Things You Never Knew Had Names

5) Ten Best Reference Works

6) Songs for Aliens

7) Best American Stores that Specialize in Chocolate

8) The Seven Wonders in Each of America’s Fifty States

9) Twenty Unique Uses for a Post-It Note

10) Aggregation of All the Lists Fimoculous Could Find

11) Fifty Top Music Videos of 2006

12) Fifty Works of Art You Should See Before You Pass This Mortal Coil

13) 2006 Weblog Award Nominees in Many Categories

14) Best Political Books of 2006

15) Ten Most Popular Typefaces for Newspapers

16) Best Books According to Slate

17) The Economist Looks into the Crystal Ball for 2007

18) The Christian Science Monitor Selects the Best Fiction of 2006

The Power of You

EDTime Magazine has either brilliantly captured the changing global nature of communications, or copped out entirely, in its recent choice of “You” as its annual person of the year.  All us bloggers should bask in the reflected glory of the collective you, and polish up some smartass line on how being named Time’s “Person of the Year” was the culmination of a career’s efforts at breaking the logjams that plague communications modalities. By the way, “you” (we) narrowly beat out the runner-up, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not a North Korean or an American politician in sight! But Time failed to mention the way-more-brave Iranian bloggers who are pressuring their own government.

Business Blog Summit

Today, I attend the Blog Business Summit, a three-day conference in Seattle.

Some of the people that I profile in The Blog Ahead, including conference speaker Robert Scoble, The Search author John Battelle, and Weblogs, Inc. CEO Jason Calacanis, are going to be there, so I’m toting copies of my book to surprise them with.  I must say, this is one business blog that doesn’t bog down like many do.  It mixes aesthetics and information well, and is deep enough to reward someone that spends more than thirty seconds perusing it.  One of the major presenters at the Summit is going to be Ben Edwards, the Director of New Media Communications at IBM.

You Can't Be Careful Enough

They say that bad television inspires bad behavior, and here’s proof.

Here’s more: A certain Nosy Parker in Seattle posts an ad on Craig’s List suggesting that “she” loves to be dominated, and waits for 24 hours and collects all the slathering male responses, then posts them on a website for all to see.  Some of these men posted from their work addresses, while others sent photos of their private parts, while still using their real names. Over 170 responses were received in one 24-hour period. This “false bait” scenario was made famous by NBC’s Dateline, a show that garnered top ratings for establishing and secretly filming pedophile traps around America.

Expect repercussions in the Pacific Northwest as this unwanted publicity ascends through the Internet hierarchy.  At the same time, another Internet sensation was unmasked as naked self-promotion.  “Lonelygirl15” created a firestorm, probably among the same population that fell for R. F. Jason’s Craig’s List stunt.  As reported by the Los Angeles Times, it was that big bad talent agency Creative Artists that was behind the buzz.  More details and links in the New York Times article by Virginia Heffernan.  Soon, these hoaxes and annoying privacy invasions should be sufficient to deter all but the dimmest of thrill-seeking web surfers. By the way, Craig’s List seems to be enjoying land office growth, and according to Online Media Daily, now receives almost 14 million hits a month.

September 11 as Greek Tragedy

With all the bathos on television and radio, the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was sure to dredge up the most splendiferous display of cliché o’er many a lunar moment.  I do not desire to wallow in this, but respectfully pass along an article on the two 9/11 feature films (thus far!) in which their roots in Greek tragedy are discussed, and a photo album for those who just cannot get enough. For those who want to remember the Twin Towers as they were before that fateful day, a Twin Tower photo site meets the demand. If you think September 11 went unnoticed in the Muslim world, think again.  Jihadist websites abound, according to the New York Times. 

Net Neutrality and DRM Manifestos

Edward Felten is a Princeton engineering professor who has been very active in evaluating digital rights management schemes.  He has published a ten-page thought paper on the complexities surrounding net neutrality, available for all, of course. It’s called “Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality.”  Also recently made available by Microsoft is a speech that Cory Doctorow gave a couple of years ago to its senior management, entitled “DRM and MSFT: A Product No Customer Wants.”  This is available as a transcript and as a video link. 

The Best and Worst of Days

America has had some exceedingly good days, and some horrific ones.  Media Orchard has tasked itself to come up with the ten best and worst days since our country’s inception, and they make for fascinating historical reminders.  It is interesting as we near this one year anniversary that Katrina did not make the cut.  Very debatable...

The Blog Ahead Launches...Finally!

Here is a little book descriptor I stumbled upon that I had written this spring and I thought it worthy of posting as opposed to a boring old Press Release...

The Blog Ahead is written to discuss the advancement of higher level discovery and communication taking place due to the global blogging phenomenon.  A discussion of both historical communication and theories on communication, both recent and distant, are brought together to give context to the existing tipping point occurring on the web.

I keynote excerpts and analysis of conversations (blogs) primarily in the political, legal, media and business realms.  Interjecting keen, well-supported and sometimes humorous content, one of the key themes - the idea of an entirely new prototype for global communication virtually being responsible for a new tangibility of the human mind – is explored.