GMG

page 13: “Ready or not, technology is here.”

page 13: “We are living in a time in which not even glaciers are moving at a glacial rate of change…”

page 15: The five most powerful tools of the new era of politics: cell phones, YouTube, social-networking sites, blogs, and online fundraising

page 34: “One might have considered the Democrats’ efforts during the 1990s as a form of benign neglect, except there was little benign about the neglect. Beyond the walls of politics, the world was changing faster than it ever had before, and increasingly politics wasn’t keeping pace and didn’t seem relevant or able to address what was happening.”

page 39: “Whereas a generation before, such a title (In an Uncertain World by Robert Rubin) might have come from the defense secretary or the secretary of state, by the end of the 1990s the uncertain world- the national unease- existed not in the stage of world diplomacy or national defense but in the economy… Even before 9/11 robbed Americans of their innocence, too many Americans seemed to have lost the sense of economic security that is critical for a successful middle class.”

page 45: “The power of a single individual to drive the national debate got its first real test in January 1998 when a gossip website called the Drudge Report first broke allegations of President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.”

page 48: “Lynn Reed sent a plea for the FEC to change its policy. By the time the FEC issued its verdict, Bradley had already raised $169,000 online. Gore, whose campaign didn’t accept online credit card donations but instead asked donors to print out a form and mail it in, had raised only $17,000.

page 53: The site’s (eBay) first item in 1995, posted by founder Pierre Omidyar, was a broken laser pointed that he had meant just to post as a test item, but to his astonishment it actually sold for $14.83. When Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to clarify that the laser pointer was broken, the buyer simply explained, “I’m a collector of broken laser pointers.”

page 55: Out of all the mainstream press in attendance, only ABC News’s Marc Ambinder noted what came next: Lott said, apparently in reference to supporting Thurmond’s 1948 segregationist presidential bid, “I want to say this about my statE: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.” The press might not have noticed but bloggers certainly did… The New York post called Lott “the internet’s first scalp.” It surely wouldn’t be the last.

Last Class

I don’t know what we’re all doing by blogging our opinions or discussing whether or not opinionators are worth their salt for merely blogging in the air conditioning and drenched in filthy sweat in combat boots. I just know that one way or another the war affects every American. Hopefully the affected understand this and face it, and qualify it, and process it.

My brother just returned from being a deck officer (Lt JG) on the Vicksburg in the Persian Gulf. My half brother is a LT who is always on submarines. My grandfather was a captain in the Navy. He worked at the Pentagon in his final days before dying of a heart attack at 48. My mother was teaching in France when this happened. She was my age.

I am so unbelievably proud of my brother and my family that I don’t know how to express it sometimes. I am not a neocon or even conservative. I’m not even sure what that means anymore anyway because everyone wants to expound on whether or not Bush is this or that. I don’t care (ok sounding apathetic in that regard). I just know that I can’t possibly do ANYTHING else except support my country and be a responsible consumer and citizen. I sent Robbie some care packages and indulged him in his phone calls at odd hours of the day for 6 months. I listened to the stories that haunt international waters. I listened to his voice and his maturity and his soberness. I know… I know…. I’m SO patriotic.

When Robbie returned to Fl his girlfriend broke up with him. She waited ’til he returned and I give her partial credit. Instead of my brother being devastated (he has a heavy heart), he flatly explained that: 1. he was gone for far too long to be completely heart broken and 2. he is back in the U.S. and that is a reunion that cannot be diminished by Jami’s infidelity.

I suppose (responsible) expression of opinions in support of the war resonates with people who have military family. I cannot speak for those who are in the military but I know that I have insurmountable respect and a deep love for people who support our country. And this is a good thing because love is a good thing to have.

Ok they deleted my Pearl Project article on Wikipedia, but I slipped something in Daniel Pearl’s entry:

Georgetown University has a class for graduate journalism students called The Pearl Project which is taught by Asra Nomani, a former colleague of Pearl’s at the Wall Street Journal. The class is to investigate the murder and kidnapping of Daniel Pearl.

Now let’s see if Wikiscanner can find me…

Just like everyone else, they should be able to assume whatever identity they want on the Internet

I looked up Barack Obama on Wikiscanner. According to Jim Wales, he thinks Wikiscanner adds to another layer of transparency on the web and on his site. In my opinion I agree with Wales that it’s a another light internet users can cast on even some of the most democratic UGC sites that flirt with the opportunity to provide misinformation. The web is a flattener that affords a checks and balances to an entity that grows too powerful. Each microcosmic example of how we can expose the truth on the web shows the power in numbers that web users have.

Steve Colbert’s quote (that I borrowed from Wikipedia and used to title this blog) should not be funny but rather obsolete to the most cutting edge of web users because the savvy ones know that no one conceals their identity anymore on the web. It’s simply too easy to find out who someone is now.

On Wikiscanner’s report of Barack Obama edits, one was “he has no chance.” Is there beauty in expressing an opinion that you know will reach millions of impressions or is this an ugly abuse of such a platform?

Chapter 8 of Nude Talk

It’s interesting to actually look at blogging in a case study format of cultures as we’re doing in Chapter 8. It makes sense that China doesn’t blog as openly as America and France. I mean, we all know that the French wear their emotions on their sleeves so blogging only makes sense for them… On a more serious note, I think I’m beginning to really understand and like this blogging stuff (although sometimes I just don’t feel inclined to blog myself and sometimes I get bitten with the bug to share on my blog all my thoughts– is this normal?).

I liked the quote of Le Meur defeding La Fraise and the t-shirt company to critics of the company by saying “… put the customer at the center of everything, rather than on the edge.” This is exactly why we are grasping on to blogs as a flattener of the uneven terrain marketers and advertisers used to create for consumers to navigate through. Although there is still quite a disparity in the old school and new school ways of doing things in business. I think all companies should have blogs, and rather than them being facades of pure PR fluff, they should be organic by the members of the company and receptive to consumers’ feedback.

We can learn so much about ourselves by studying other types of people and how they are innovative with the same technology.

Another more personal observation of mine is that I’ve quickly learned that a blog’s focal point can be anything on the long tail of topics, but these focal points revolve around human beings connecting to share with one another. The beauty of the blog is it’s a free way to share. This new wave of internet users is demanding things online be free. Free is what we will get because the competition will always lower the cost to nothing online.

Just today, I visited a local artist’s blog because it was mentioned in a Washington Post article fittingly about living on a budget. I was thinking about how, as I articulate subtler interests lately, I can stumble into a subcult of enthusiasts whose blogs are brimming with information. For example, I am getting ready to go mountain biking with a friend and I can just google the words mountain, biking, and blog to pull up a wealth of information. I am also interested in art because I’m a painter and as mentioned before, I can read blogs of local artists in D.C. so I know what’s showing where and what the artists are doing. Aside from the silly Julia Allison-type blogs of idle entertainment, I am beginning to embrace the long tail of my own interests by visiting the circles of people who are into similar things. It can really give you insight into what is going on around you and who you can meet. I especially like the aspect of openness and bloggers who are willing to email or comment back on the comments of others. I’ve heard Ted Leonsis will write back those who comment on his blog.

Overall, Scoble’s book is pretty neat and he really took his time dissecting the universe of blogging.

Emily on chat – cont. re: Ashley’s dog Galise

Emily: so i took him for a walk

 me: her

did it work out

 Emily: her

right

yeah it was cool

kinda like walking a squirrel

 Emily: she just wanted to smell things

is she a puggle?

 me: bingo

This one takes the cake for most random wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_harness

…. since I’m dogsitting Galise, you’d think between my roomie Emily and me we’d figure out how to work one of these things…

Nope!

Emily on chat:

 Emily: yeah i wikipedia-ed it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_harness

but this one is different in the picture than the one she has

this is tough

 Sent at 4:23 PM on Thursday

 me: hahah

 Emily: is that how it is supposed to look?

My brother and me on email today

Jill Phan to rbphaneu
show details 12:40 PM (9 minutes ago) Reply

“Wikipedia – the geekier the topic the more reliable the info, not so for non-geek entries.” Garrett M. Graff, author, professor (mine) and Editor-At-Large at the Washingtonian

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 12:33 PM

Robbie:

“The best thing about Wikipedia is that anyone can edit it, so you always know you’re getting the best information available.” – Michael Scott, The Office

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile—–Original Message—–
From: “Jill Phan”

Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:30:52

Subject: Re: Airport

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/capisce <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/capisce>

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 12:20 PM,

Robbie:

 There is no h in capice, and you will either have to pick me up yourself or ask her to drive me if at any point I am confirmed on something she is not.Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile—–Original Message—–

From: “Jill Phan”

Subject: Re: Airport

sure thing. i’m trying to get eric to stay for dinner. he and i are going to the dog park tomorrow. i’m dog sitting.
 
 
can’t wait to see you! so you and mer for sure are coming to my place for dinner. then we’re going to cap hill sat night with my friend albert and his friend chris. a nice change of scenery from gtown. capiche?

Robbie:

 Ok I will go.Do you want to ask her or me?Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

—–Original Message—–

From: “Jill Phan”

Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:06:53

oooo pooey… that’s somewhat late. was gonna try to have you do dinner at my place.
why doesn’t  meredith pick you up and then you two come over to my place for dinner?

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 12:05 PM,

Robbie:

  Dulles at 8:47 PM tomorrow.Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile—–Original Message—–

From: “Jill Phan”Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:03:45

 Subject: Re: Airport dulles or national? what time?

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 11:58 AM,

Robbie:

   Meredith is getting me from the airport unless you want to.Any preference?Love,
Robbie
 Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Surfing, Searching, Syndicating

I remember when “surfing the web” was the buzz. I remember when we thought it was so cool to have a glimpse through these virtual windows called websites. But they were like walled gardens because they would not allow us the freedom to have information at our disposal. The web’s launching of popularity in the nineties seemed advanced at the time (I still remember being in elementary school and feeling really cool that my older brother taught me how to Instant Message on AOL 3.0) but retrospect affords us the luxury of understanding our tendencies and preferences in how we interact and use information a little bit better. Once google gave us a boost in our ability to search for things, we could slash search costs and articulate and refine our preferences even better and with more ease. But even google and other search engines required us to enter in what we expected to find. In Naked Conversations, chapter 14, Scoble and Isreal discuss how RSS feeds are becoming the new sliced bread in information on the web. Instead of continually cherry picking our searches when we feel a pang of hunger for information, the information is sitting in our inboxes waiting for us to eat. We are being fattened with information enabled by RSS feeds and tagging on the web. Ever since I’ve embraced Google Reader, I can read more blogs and keep abreast on different topics. We’re so fattened with information sitting at our doorsteps, now we even look for our peers to share their input. Are we getting lazier? Are we bored with searching on our own? Or are we advancing our web use and transforming it into an interface to gather information from large amounts of people with little effort in interacting with them. I think we are beginning to trust each other on the web more than ever. I know that input from others is also the new buzz. On TV, I see commercials for Hotels.com emphasizing their new customer review feature for others to view. I know that the currency of rating one’s reputation online is like no other reinforcement with e-commerce save developing the programs for ensuring secure methods of credit card payment. Forget purchasing an item on e-Bay or Amazon from someone with low trust ratings.

I have a friend who was doing video editing on a site based out of my hometown of Fort Myers, FL. It’s something called LoyalTV. While LoyalTV is a site obviously in its embryonic stages in web 2.0, the concept is neat. It’s a YouTube of product reviews. If you’re a fan of Diet Coke and you want to tell others how much Diet Coke is so great, you create a video and have others rate it. I’m still trying to figure out the relationship between the funding by advertisement and the popular brands who are advertised by general consumers and what the creators of the site had in mind. I don’t think I addressed whether or not there should be a Bill of Rights in blogging, but I think keeping the web as open a forum as possible for creators and keeping bloggers as transparent (honest, authentic) as possible are the only contingencies for blogging. The rights we have in America suffice and carry into the blogging realm (glad I’m not in Pakistan!). Bloggers should be able to blog about what they want without abusing their ability to influence a large crowd at virtually no cost.

I can’t wait to see what’s next after syndication (perhaps Scoble and Isreal will follow suit with something starting with an S. I love alliteration…)

We the Media revisited (Chapter 8)

“…The sheer volume of information deters all but the most dedicated news hunters and gatherers. But the tools are improving fast, and it won’t be long before people will be able to pick and choose in a far more organized way than they do today.”I feel like this excerpt from We the Media (page 165) showcases a microcosm of the total effect happening right now with the  general “flattening” of the world. As jobs are shifting overseas physically and technologically, we as information consumers are shifting our tastes. It’s hard to put a finger on this movement, but I think this complements Friedman’s point in his book The World is Flat. Another point is made in We the Media that the more technology is embraced by the masses, the more effective it becomes. It’s like an external economy of scale with computers. Once a large number of computer users collaborate, information is produced faster and more efficiently. Gillmor states that value is created in a factorial formula by the change of one-to-one connectivity to few-to-few. To extrapolate on my interpretation of this,  information that is disseminated so easily and so far now is becoming more valuable than ever. This means that we need to be savvier in how we will protect our information. Even Georgetown University was recently in the news regarding a data security breach as a result of a theft of a computer that had thousands of social security numbers on it. From witnessing the reaction of the University in its liability for harboring such sensitive data on a machine that was vulnerable to theft, I have since begun to protect my own identity. Also, I think information other than credit card numbers and social securities is becoming more and more sought after. People get onto their favorite blog because they want to know what is going on in their particular world of interest. We live such fuller, more informed lives than ever before. It is sometimes trippy to think of how spoiled we are in terms of connectivity. I think of my brother being on the Persian Gulf but still being able to post pictures periodically of his 6 month tour. I think of my professors on Facebook with me; whether or not they approve of my profile, they are nevertheless my friend. I think of how ambiguous relationships have become with social networking sites melding mutual friendships and relationships. In an anthropology class I learned that human beings are natural creators. We like to leave our marks and we like to make sense. This historical observation has not diminished but has only become more apparent in just how creative we can be.