Sunday, December 7, 2003

Heart of Lightness

Om Malik just gathered a bunch of encouraging thinking from Jacques Vallee, one of the founding fathers of the Internet. (The Heart of the Internet is Vallee's comprehensive history of the subject.) Good reading:

What I found most interesting was his passion for weblogs, and why he feels they are going to save the Internet. He sees weblogs as an extension of the computer conferencing concepts he had pioneered.

"Weblogs are a new form of that and I think this is what the network’s real purpose. Weblogs are much more practical that websites and people can interact," he said. The French-born technologist believes that the weblogs will make a big impact in the way information is shared. "They will have a big impact on journalism and politics," he added. Vallee’s views are counter to many other so called experts who believe that weblogs are adding clutter to the Internet, breaking down Google and basically reducing the value of the institutional media.

He believes that weblogs play a major role in this campaign, because it is the only way to find out how a particular politician thinks and reacts on an issue. "A 10-second quote on CNN does not make sense and the folks want to react to the information they get. Politicians who are in tune with this are more realistic. Howard dean has used it effectively and I think politicians cannot hide behind press releases and press relations officers anymore," says Vallee.

In many ways he believes that weblogs can act as a counterweight to the growing control of large corporations on media and the networks. But he is still very worried about the future of the Internet. "People who built the network thought these would be new medium and the user would be in control of the information and where it came from. I think it was like that for the long time but I think it is turning into news media traditional and we are bombarded by the information we are getting in the under media," says Vallee, who has chalked up a pretty decent record of both venture capital investments and predictions. "The big companies need culture change; especially the cable companies which need to learn the concept of digital media," he quips.

Camera/Camcorder shopping

Roland Tanglao recently asked my shopping advice about combo camcorders and digital cameras. He liked my response so much that he put it up on his blog.

By the way, notice the Ads by Google to the right of the post on the blog, and how appropriate they are to the subject matter of the blog. They actually achieve a holy grail of advertising: adding value to the editorial work while not influencing the writer(s) in the least. In other words, by working for the readers as well as the publisher.

Best excuse for too many arguments

Wizbang! is hosting a Weblog Awards thing. I lost count at 21 categories. The one you're reading now is in the Best Playful Primates Ecosystem Level Blog category. Apparently it wasn't nominated to one of the more sensibly categorial categories (e.g. Best Media/Journalist Blog). Vote for whatever you like, resting assured that it doesn't fucking matter. Really. Except as fun, which is mostly what it's about.

So where's my money?

The New York Times sez A team of Internet theorists -- David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Howard Rheingold -- consults for the campaign. That would be the Dean Campaign.

Anyway, not true. For me, at least.

I'm sure some of my thinking and writing has influence; but I'm sure it's not only on the Dean Campaign. When I read or listen to Cameron Barrett and Stirling Newberry, both involved (one officially, one voluntarily) with the Clark Campaign, I sense some degree of influence there too.

But there is a big difference between influence and employment. I'm not employed by any campaign.