Follow-up: The Dangers of Wikipedia

I first addressed an article on from the Syracuse Post-Standard on Wikipedia in a post titled “The Dangers of Wikipedia.” Since then many people have addressed the article with their own thoughts and arguments. I think the best point on the topic comes from a Syracuse University professor’s blog called Collin vs. Blog. In a post titled “Better to be ignored?,” Collin Brooke argues that the reporter and librarian are misunderstanding the whole point of helping students understand issues of credibility and authority.

Believe me when I say that I’ve looked, and I have yet to see the writing handbook that doesn’t assume that the only valuable information on the Internet is that which mirrors the “real world.” Credibility (in this model) is to be validated, through reference to a “real world” identity, rather than tested or explored via multiple sources. There are a gazillion sites for verifying the credibility of web sites, very few of which offer the simple insight that dates back to Aristotle at least: credibility is something you earn and develop, not something you simply have. When we ask our students to do research and to prepare the results in written form, we are teaching them to earn credibility through breadth and depth of research. You don’t earn credibility by citing an “authoritative source,” whatever that means. You earn it by testing your sources against one another, understanding what the reasons are for differences of opinion, and figuring out how to resolve them or to choose among positions, etc. In other words, authority should be something that each of us assigns to our sources, not the other way around. It is the result of research, not a prerequisite.

There is no better place to find multiple sources than the internet. It is easy to go out and get more information on a topic you’re researching online . . . just click on the next link in Google. What comes out of this searching and browsing is new thoughts and opinions which are born out of other information. It is a process, not a simple black and white issue of credible vs. not credible. The internet is can not be identified as being a trustworthy source of information or an untrustworthy source of information, in the same way other media can not. There are many factors that weigh on credibility and, thankfully, on the internet it is easier than to weigh those different factors than it is using other media. Fasoldt and the librarian missed this point and they have been called out on it by the blogosphere.

Finally, the other entry on the subject worth reading comes from Many to Many in a post titled Wikipedia Reputation and the Wemedia Project. The entry does a great job at summing up all the arguments that are swirling around out there. Both pages are worth reading.

August 31, 2004

20 Things I Think I Learned in College

After having moved my sister in to college this weekend I decided to write down some of the lessons I learned from four years at NYU. Some are kind of random, some are clichés and some are more advice than lessons. I probably could have gone beyond 20, but here they are:

1. Be careful, whatever you’re doing: drinking, drugs, sex, etc. Just watch out and be smart.

2. Laugh at yourself, especially when you’re drunk, nothing’s that a big a deal that you need to get down on yourself about it. If you can’t be an idiot when you’re drunk, when can you be? And for all those people who recount your drunken charades in order to embarrass you . . . if they were having as good a time as you, they wouldn’t remember what you did.
3. Be confident with who you are (it’s a cliché, but it makes a big difference – it really is true that people can tell whether you or aren’t).
4. Don’t do things you don’t want to do. If you don’t feel like hanging out with someone, just don’t do it . . . it’s really that simple.
5. Choose your friends carefully. Friends that you can trust, who will back you up no matter what, are the best kind. You can be less picky with acquaintances.
6. Never go out with a purpose of having a great time or meeting a girl/guy. Anytime you go into an evening with that much expectation it is almost sure to fail.
7. Talk to people . . . fuck them if they don’t talk back.
8. Realize that there are going to be times when you feel kind of depressed for whatever reason, they’ll pass. It happens to everyone.
9. Bros before hos (or hos before bros, whichever is appropriate). It’s never worth losing a good friend over someone of the opposite sex, no matter what they look like.
10. Eat before you drink and always have a good breakfast when you have a hangover, whether you feel like you should or not (the greasier the better — and a cup of water, orange juice and coffee always helps the next morning).
11. Sometimes staying in for the evening is not the end of the world. I know you may feel like a loser, but when you really think about it, it’s only one night of the year.
12. Try to stay away from tequila. It’s the silent killer; it always sneaks into an evening and kicks your ass before you realize it’s there.
13. Don’t hit snooze too many times on your alarm, it’s a really obnoxious move when you’re living with other people.
14. Write all the numbers in your cell phone down somewhere, because the odds of you losing it sometime during four years of college are very good.
15. Find yourself some good wallowing music, for those days when you’re feeling down.
16. When faced with a difficult decision, consider this: you’ll probably regret what you didn’t do, more than you regret what you did. (It’s kind of another cliché, but it’s a good point – why not just go for it now and worry about it later?)
17. If you’re really hammered, eat something and drink as much water as you possibly can before you go to sleep. You’ll feel much better in the morning.
18. Do a semester abroad because it’s really fun.
19. Take advantage of free stuff: free gym, free food, free time, etc.
20. Take pictures, you’ll appreciate having them later.

August 30, 2004

Protesting Up Eighth Avenue

As I was finishing my chicken sandwich with bacon and swiss a protest began to emerge up Eighth Avenue. I watched for a bit and was fairly unimpressed. There were a lot of people, but there seemed to be very little cohesion. Yes, I understand that they were all against Bush, but as with most protests I’ve seen, people were holding up signs for everything and its mother. Anyway, the most creative sign had to go to a Jewish group against Bush, which read:

The last time the Jews followed a Bush we spent 40 years in the desert!

That made me laugh.

Here’s a link to some photos of the march on Kottke.org

August 30, 2004

Johnny Boy

A friend of mine sent me over this song tonight by an English band called Johnny Boy (Warning: Site is Flash heavy with sound). Anyhow, the song is really pretty spectacular, it sounds like it belongs on the Lost in Translation Soundtrack. It kind of sounds like Jesus & Mary Chain, but poppier. Anyhow, I decided to post the MP3. It’s not great quality, it’s a vinyl rip, so without further ado:

You Are The Generation Who Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve

Enjoy!

August 29, 2004

Moving to College

For those who read my website regularly, be advised that the following doesn’t include any references to RSS and other dorky stuff. You have been warned!

I helped my little sister move off to college this weekend and came away with three observations. First, watching girls move into a dorm room is far different than watching guys. Beyond just the amount of clothes that come in the room, there is a certain female tension that just doesn’t seem to exist for guys (at least not in my experience). I think it’s mostly about the fact that most guys are willing to duct tape shit to walls.

My second point is that parents need to not be allowed in to the room for dorm setup. They really just screw the whole thing up. I firmly believe that the four kids moving into that dorm room could have figured out their whole setup without half the stress if it weren’t for all the parents walking around lobbying for their children. It’s ridiculous. I know every parent wants their kids to get a fair shake, but why don’t they all just get the hell out of there and let the four people who will actually be living in the room figure it out? At one point I couldn’t even stand in the room anymore, the level of tension was through the roof and no one was communicating. It was really a sad state of affairs. In the end it’s the kids who live there, so leave them all alone. It’s college, they’ve made it this far, why not let them figure this one out for themselves?

My third point: The George Washington University has more sandals per-capita than any other school on the East Coast. It’s got to be true.

Whatevs Leah

August 29, 2004

The Dangers of Wikipedia

When I was in high school we weren’t allowed to use the library without a special pass. No amount of begging could get you in without that signed slip of paper. I once walked in during lunch and begged them to allow me to sit there and read a book. My request fell upon deaf ears and I was turned away at the door. High school librarians are a species unlike any other. That library was the most behind-the-times place on earth. The only thing older than the librarians were the books. Then there were the computers. Two of them were online and those students interested in using them were watched under the hawk-like scrutiny of a librarian with an uncanny resemblance to Yoda. It’s good to see that things haven’t changed.

In an article from Wednesday’s Syracuse Post-Standard, Al Fasoldt, the author of a past article suggesting people use Wikipedia printed the words of warning he had received from a librarian who had read the article:

“As a high school librarian, part of my job is to help my students develop critical thinking skills,” Stagnitta wrote. “One of these skills is to evaluate the authority of any information source. The Wikipedia is not an authoritative source. It even states this in their disclaimer on their Web site.”

Wikipedia, she explains, takes the idea of open source one step too far for most of us.

“Anyone can change the content of an article in the Wikipedia, and there is no editorial review of the content. I use this Web site as a learning experience for my students. Many of them have used it in the past for research and were very surprised when we investigated the authority of the site.”

What makes an authoritative source? What is she protecting her students from? While I agree that students need to understand that they shouldn’t trust everything they read, writing off Wikipedia is not the right approach. From my own experience, the information on Wikipedia tends to be better than the information found in many encyclopedias. While I’m not overly surprised that a librarian would be threatened by a site like Wikipedia, it bothers me nonetheless. The idea of socially collaborative software, like Wikipedia, is one that stands in opposition of what a library stands for. Libraries are the home of a whole bunch of books whose authority tends to rest in its binding, rather than the information inside it. All the information found inside Wikipedia is up for revision; if anyone finds incorrect information they can go ahead and correct it. What happens when someone finds something incorrect in a book? (Dare I mention that some books are imperfect?) They are left to try to find a publisher to print their retort? In the end I guess should never expect a librarian to get along with a tool like Wikipedia, but it upsets me that these people guard the connections to information for America’s children.

August 26, 2004

If I Ruled the Olympics

By Jeff Hughes

What about pole-vaulting…unless you’re storming a castle there’s no reason to know how to do this….

Which brings me to another point…what if we took a lot of these activities…. the decathlon of sorts…. and made a storyline out of it…

You’re locked in the dungeon and the only way out is to slide through a very small hole at the top of the bars…. that are conveniently uneven

Then you have to pull yourself above ground with the rings…

Man-eating dogs chase you 400 m to the wall…. which you pole vault over…

Directly into a moat…also 400 m…which you must medley through….

Once out of the water, there’s about a hundred feet of track and then 20-foot pit of spikes that you must long jump over

There’s then a watchtower where there’s a guy with a rifle and you have to take the shot put and knock him down

Climb to the top of the tower and take the rifle and fire 200 m, killing bunnies and things

From the top of the watchtower, there’s a diving board and you have to dive into a large pool of water beneath

Where there’s the world’s greatest water polo player and you have to take to score a goal…

Get out of the pool

Relax

August 26, 2004

The Impact of iPod on Mac Sales

A little over a month ago I wrote about the impact that the iPod could have on Mac sales (July 18, 2004: Will the Tiger finally break Windows?”). Today USA Today reported that this is just what’s happening. “Many students, after falling in love with the iPod, are packing for college with new Apple Macintosh computers.” The article, titled “Students crazy about iPod follow the music to Apple laptops,” reports that “Apple’s share of the education laptop market has risen to 26.7% from 22.6% earlier this year, IDC says.”

August 23, 2004

YellowArrow

I just got my new copy of Wired and a short story about YellowArrow.org caught my eye. YellowArrow apparently gives away a bunch of yellow arrow stickers (appropriately enough) and each has a unique code written on it and an email address to text from your cellphone. People then take these stickers and put them up anywhere around the city they want. They can then associate a message with the unique code and when you text YellowArrow you’ll receive that message back to your phone. Want to tell someone about a great little restaurant? Some cool graffiti? Best bar in the city? It’s a really cool way to leave your mark and let people know what you think is worth checking out, or to just get some random person’s opinion on what’s worth seeing or doing. I haven’t actually seen any of these around New York, but I’ll certainly look out for them. Supposedly you can pick up the stickers from those Go Card displays at bars and the like. This sounds like a lot of fun and a great way to create a kind of collaberative travel guide.

August 22, 2004

Notes on the 2004 Presidential Election Part 2

By Noah Brier

Michael Moore and Errol Morris both have made documentaries about politics. Both have won Oscars and both gave impassioned acceptance speeches. If asked, I assume both would call themselves liberals. This, however, is where the similarities between the two documentary filmmakers end. While Moore and Morris both made films that make people think about the current state of America, they went about it in very different ways. Ironically, Moore took an approach that was almost traditionally conservative, i.e., talking louder than the other guy. When people stopped listening to him, he picked up a megaphone and roamed the streets of Washington in an ice cream truck. Morris, on the other hand, enumerated his points clearly but dispassionately, and started a critical discussion. In my eyes, these films lie at opposite ends of the eloquence spectrum; while both were important and affecting, I personally prefer the voice that Morris chose.

One need look no further than their acceptance speeches to see how different the two men are. During his Oscar acceptance speech for Fog of War, Morris explained, “Forty years ago, this country went down a rabbit hole in Vietnam and millions died. I fear we’re going down a rabbit hole once again. And if people can stop and think and reflect on some of the ideas and issues in this movie, perhaps I’ve done some damn good here.” Moore’s Oscar speech for Bowling for Columbine, as many remember, was a bit different. Moore got on stage and screamed, “We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons.” In short, Morris takes a proactive position, Moore, a reactive one. These seem to be the two approaches available to Democrats and, if Moore’s celebrity status and box office numbers are any indication, Democrats have chosen the reactive route.

The problem is that while I basically agree with Michael Moore’s view of George Bush, I don’t particularly want him, or his narrative tactics, representing me. I want to be represented by someone with a strong position on clearly articulated policy issues, not just a loud position opposing current policies. I want to be represented by someone who encourages intelligent discourse and dialogue, not someone who just grabs a megaphone and an ice cream truck when people stop listening. Too often, such tactics just lead to more screaming and less listening. Let’s leave that approach to Republicans like Rush Limbaugh. Let’s focus Democratic energies on articulating productive policies that support our beliefs.

In Fog of War, Morris allows his character, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, to tell his story, empowering his audience to digest the issues raised and draw their own connections. He stands out of camera view and doesn’t allow himself to obscure the point of the film. I left Fog of War moved by a man, McNamara, who was coming to grips with mistakes he had made. I left Fahrenheit 9/11 feeling as though Michael Moore had just yelled at me for two hours, albeit interspersed with a touching story of a mother who lost her son in Iraq and interesting insight into the relationship between the Bushes, the Saudi royal family and the Bin Ladens. At first, I laughed at Moore’s antics. But ultimately, it made me angry. He regularly broke up real insight with cheap potshots meant to appeal to the liberal crowd for laughs. Is this the approach that we, as a party, want to take in the twenty-first century? People who make jokes and scream are often just covering up for the fact that they really don’t have much that’s really productive to say. Now think about it: isn’t that the most common Republican criticism of John Kerry?

The Democratic Party took a step in the productive, pro-active direction at the convention, where it made a move to reclaim the American flag. It was an important place to begin; Republicans had essentially co-opted the flag and used it as their own personal symbol of patriotism. The American flag is a symbol of freedom; Democrats made that point at the convention, and they should reiterate it at every campaign stop. But it’s not enough. The next step is for John Kerry to stake his claim with a clearly articulated plan to end the days of a divided America. How is he going to help fix the growing gap between the upper and lower class? How is he going to approach the racial and ethnic schism that exists? How is he going to fix the privacy rights that were invaded by the Bush administration? These are just a few of the questions I want John Kerry to address. I, like so many other Americans, want to hear that he stands for something and how he’s going to fix the problems of
America.

The reason Americans care about politics is because, under all the disagreement, we all believe in American ideals and democratic rule. We believe in some manifestation of the American dream. While Michael Moore’s heart is in the right place. I want to see the injustices of the Bush administration put to an end as much as he does. I just think he goes about making his point in a less than useful way. The real difference between Moore and Errol Morris is that Moore wants to convince people and Morris wants to give people the tools to make an informed decision. If we are really the ‘progressive party’ that we claim to be, giving people the tools and allowing them to decide for themselves is the best path to take. I believe this is how we can bring this country back to a place we can be proud to call home. Call it youthful optimism, but I believe that we can achieve these goals.

August 18, 2004

Notes on the 2004 Presidential Election Part 1

By Jeff Hughes

Marilyn O’Grady, a surgeon running for New York State Senate, is quoted in the completely unbiased New York Post as saying: “Here’s my vote: Boycott the Boss. If you don’t buy his politics, don’t buy his music!” Yes. Good call.

I don’t pretend to understand the political game. I don’t pretend to know everything. I do happen to know some things, and one of those things is that when running for state senate you should not start by taking a big steamy dump on the Constitution.

For those of you who don’t know, Bruce “the Bossâ€? Springsteen is from a little town called Asbury Park in New Jersey. He’s extremely patriotic – hence “Born in the USA” – but to be patriotic today does not mean to love America. ‘Patriotic,’ as it is currently defined by the political landscape of this nation, means to close your eyes, shut your mouth and clap every time the current administration makes a decision. Bruce Springsteen has decided to be an advocate. Not for assassination. Not for overthrowing the administration with a violent Les Miserables-esque coup. As he eloquently wrote in the New York Times a few weeks ago [August 5: "Chords for Change"], he believes the country has veered down the wrong path; a path of social injustice. Social liberals like Bruce and I happen to believe that old people should have affordable health care and “homosexualâ€? and “evilâ€? are not synonyms.

The war in Iraq is unjust. Necessary as it might be or might have been in the near future, it is unjust. When the established reasons for going to war are proven untrue or remain unfounded, one must understand that a mistake was made in the ’cause’ department. I am not using the word ‘just’ with any moral implications, but instead talking strictly semantics. Look it up. It fits. I am not in the camp that believes the Bush Administration deliberately lied to the people in an attempt to gain support for this war. I don’t have a great deal of evidence for this, just a gut feeling.

But it is grounds for dismissal. And now the unfortunate side of the political coin: John Kerry. I don’t like John Kerry. I don’t really trust John Kerry. I don’t believe John Kerry is anything more than another politician who’s been eating his Cocoa Puffs from a large silver spoon since birth and now sponge bathes in ketchup with his absolute lunatic of a wife, Theresa. His second-in-command is a wonderfully attractive yet seeping into redundancy North Carolina playboy, who used the people of his state to springboard to bigger things. I have had a North Carolina resident tell me she “hates� John Edwards. Can anybody name one thing either of these guys done to better our country? But let’s not ask for that and just GIVE HOPE A CHANCE. (Is there a more benign tagline in the history of politics?)

So Mr. Thunder Road and a couple pals are out on the road singing their songs. And it is a very symbolic gesture of the current state of the Democrats. This is not a tour to elect John Kerry. This is a tour to unseat George W. Bush. The democrats have become a reactionary, with a confrontational mascot named Michael Moore. Do Democrats actually believing asking Congress to send their kids to war on film achieves anything? Another thing I know: it doesn’t.

The war in Iraq is unjust. But you don’t put all the ingredients in a bowl, preheat the oven and DON’T bake the cookies. The more appropriate analogy in this case would be putting all the ingredients in a bowl and then watching the chocolate chips and cookie dough take rifles and over-the-shoulder missiles and come after the chef. This is a war that has to be finished and someone needs to figure out how that’ll work. What’s Kerry’s plan? Bush’s?

You know they reenact the Lincoln/Douglas debates every year. Every single year. Two men were running for office and their debate – their ideas – were so brilliant that we dramatize them for the next 150 years. We don’t have that anymore. Would Michael Moore vs. Rush Limbaugh do anything but infuriate everyone? No. Be a hell of a sumo wrestling match, though.

The Democrats and Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for presenting the American people with such a lame pair of guys. The incumbent a complete idiot and challenger sporting the personality of a stop sign in Duluth. Voting for the lesser of two evils should be reserved for the starting DH on the post-Edgar American League All-Star team next year, not the presidency of what it still the greatest country in history.

And so I blame the Democrats for not engaging us intellectually. The Republicans made their decision four years ago, when they decided a war hero-author-intellectual wasn’t a strong enough candidate (Dubya mistakenly though McCain was referencing Ruxpin, not Roosevelt). Is there hope for the future? Maybe. It could be Barack Obama, a Harvard intellectual who speaks as if he knows he’s part of history and has a family background that plays like Roots meets The Wizard of Oz. His speech was something of a revelation.

So I’m voting in November. And I’m voting for John Kerry. And my logic is this: when a team doesn’t hit, you firing the batting coach. Not because you think someone else can make them hit but because you want to send the message that the .230 team average will not be acceptable. I believe in sending a message to the top and to the world that how we’re acting now is not what America is. No election in my lifetime (short, though it may be) has been about so much. For me, it’s about taking back the country I love so dearly. Putting the Supreme Court back in charge of protecting civil rights and not denying those who leave themselves open for attack by simply being who and what they are.

All I ask is that for my vote and the vote of everyone like me, we get a president we can turn to and say: he’s smart enough to figure this out. I can’t say that now.

August 18, 2004

del.icio.us Reliance

I’m going to sing the praises of del.icio.us again, so forgive me.

Yesterday del.icio.us went down. I don’t know how long the service was down for, but when I tried to send a bookmark to my del.icio.us account I was unable (del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site, read “Musicbrainz, Audioscrobbler and del.icio.us” post for more info). I didn’t know what to do with myself. I could bookmark it in my browser, but that left me with some unsearchable and unlabeled, bookmark that I would most likely never look at again. I’m amazed at how quickly del.icio.us has become an essential part of my internet experience. I use it every day to keep track of sites, both for work and personal use. I label future research I may be interested in covering as well as sites I just find interesting or amusing. It has moved into the essential category for me, which also includes Google and Bloglines. Other than that the only internet tool I use every day is email (and fantasy football tools, now that the season is getting under way). It’s worth a try if you haven’t used it, you won’t go back to those browser bookmarks any time soon.

August 18, 2004

Cow Crossing

I was looking through my photos and ran across this cow crossing sign from Poland. I figured I’d post it. There may be more to come, there may not.

August 16, 2004

ALF Facts

According to my ALF Season One DVD (which I just recieved in the mail), here are some ALF facts:

Real Name: Gordon Shumway

First Job: Apprentice Lint Brush

Marital Status: Single…but still looking!

Birthplace: Planet Melmac (Lower East Side)

I wasn’t aware of the Apprentice Lint Brush, but it’s good to know.

Check out Stephan’s ALF-Page for all your ALF info.

August 16, 2004

Dropping the Capital ‘I’ in ‘internet’

Today Wired News announced an important change to its style guide: It is dropping the capital letters at the beginning of ‘internet,’ ‘web’ and ‘net.’

But in the case of internet, web and net, a change in our house style was necessary to put into perspective what the internet is: another medium for delivering and receiving information. That it transformed human communication is beyond dispute. But no more so than moveable type did in its day. Or the radio. Or television.

I’ve never understood why these words had to be capitalized and it’s something I’ve found very hard to remember to do. I think Wired is right in bringing the internet in line with other media. While it is incredibly powerful and different than media of the past, in the end it is a means of communications, not something more. Wired concludes with this:

This should not be interpreted as some kind of symbolic demotion. Think of it more as a stylistic reality check.

Naturally, as part of a company name or organization — the Internet Movie Database, for example — the “I” remains capitalized. It also remains capped in headlines, where Wired News style decrees that all principal words are capitalized.

But now, by lowercasing internet, web and net, Wired News is simply giving the medium its proper due.

August 16, 2004

Google’s Playboy Interview

The SEC was more than a little upset with Google for their interview with Playboy Magazine which will be appearing in the September issue. As a punishment for violating their quiet period, the SEC has forced Google to include the full text of the interview they did with Playboy in their prospectus. (Warning: this takes a very long time to load, Kottke.org has posted the full text of the interview without the rest of the prospectus.) The interview provided some interesting insights into Google’s corporate ideologies and was a fun read (as most Playboy interviews are). Brin and Page discuss everything from GMail’s privacy concerns to the Chinese government, although I found this exchange the most interesting:

PLAYBOY: How has Google saved lives?
 

BRIN: When people look up information in a life-threatening situation. Someone wrote that he was having chest pains and wasn’t sure of the cause. He did a Google search, decided he was having a heart attack and called the hospital. He survived and wrote to us. To help in situations like that, Google has to be quick and correct. Other people have written us with similar stories. We get postcards and pictures of them with their family. Those are extremes, but there are countless other examples. People are helped with their careers. Students are helped when they study. It’s a powerful tool.

PLAYBOY: When someone is having chest pains and searches the web for information about them, for example, it’s essential that the information be correct. How does Google know about the veracity of a website’s information?

BRIN: Similar to other media—books, magazines, whatever—you have to use judgment.

PLAYBOY: But isn’t the Net, where anyone can put up a web page, more likely to have erroneous information?

BRIN: Yes. Joe Blow can write something in a few hours, post it and it’s on the Net. It could be about neuroscience, and he may know nothing about neuroscience. More typical inaccuracies in other media are from out-of-date material. In both cases, you have to apply judgment. The Internet helps because you can quickly check a number of different sources. If I were seriously interested in something important to me, I wouldn’t just click on the first search result, read it and take it as God’s word.

PAGE: Which is a great thing about the Internet, because you can read information from many sources and decide. Libraries might have some of the information but probably not all—and not necessarily the most up-to-date.

This relates directly to what I discussed in my Idiocentricity and the Internet post. Brin and Page realize the power of the tool they have created. It has the potential to make people rethink the way they traditionally accessed information. In a pre-internet world, one source was often enough to form an opinion off. In today’s digital world, however, that is not the case. The internet teaches us that we should not trust single sources, we should search around and develop our own answers.

What’s so amazing about Google is that about 90% of the time the most relevant page for your source comes first. This is because Google is using collective intelligence to figure out where pages should appear in searches. Since the system is based on how many incoming links a page receives we are seeing information at the top that other people have read and appreciated enough to link to. This, however, is only the first step and we must not forget that even with the collective intelligence of the internet world at work, we still need to question all the results we receive and find our own answers. If we begin to rely on Google as we do the library, simply believing that if we find the information in a book there it must be true, then we run the risk of losing the real value of the internet. That value is deeply rooted in the connections, not necessarily just the information.

August 16, 2004

Garden State Soundtrack

While the movie is not one of my favorites, the soundtrack for Garden State is pretty spectacular. Nothing really new or trailblazing, just a really great collection of songs. Here’s the tracklist:

1. Don’t Panic – Coldplay

2. Caring Is Creepy – The Shins
3. In The Waiting Line – Zero 7
4. New Slang – The Shins
5. I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You – Colin Hay
6. Blue Eyes – Cary Brothers
   
7. Fair – Remy Zero
   
8. One Of These Things First – Nick Drake
   
9. Lebanese Blonde – Thievery Corporation
   
10. The Only Living Boy In New York – Simon & Garfunkel
   
11. Such Great Heights – Iron and Wine
   
12. Let Go – Frou Frou
   
13. Winding Road – Bonnie Somerville

I love The Shins and pretty much everything they do and the Iron & Wine cover of Such Great Heights was one of my favorite songs of 2003. Also fantastic is Let Go by Frou Frou, which I hadn’t ever heard before and have been listening to a lot since getting this soundtrack.

While I’m talking about music, here’s my five favorite albums for the year so far: Moonbabies – The Orange Billboard, Kings of Convenience – Riot on an Empty Street, Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand, Rilo Kiley – More Adventurous, The Killers – Hot Fuss (Erlend Oye – DJ Kicks would make the top 5 but I don’t think mix albums can be compared to LPs)

August 13, 2004

The Effects of the Cruise Swagger

This was too funny not to post. Apparently Tom Cruise’s swagger can have some incredible effects on the world, according to Jamie Foxx, Cruise’s co-star in Collateral. This comes from a People Magazine interview with Foxx [via The Corsair via Defamer]:

Foxx: It’s like this: We’re all thinking Tom’s not coming. He comes in with all the Tom Cruise swagger. He’s the messiah. I’ve never seen black people so shocked. My sister calls her friends. ‘Oh my God, he’s here! Oh my God, he looks so good! Girl, you should see him!’ I say to him, ‘Did you know you could start slavery right now?’ The bodyguards were having to keep people away. The whole hip hop community got on their two-ways and said Tom Cruise is a thumbs up, because he came down here to kick it with us and he’s cool.

August 12, 2004

The Importance of Connections

I ran across this quote from Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum via ONFOCUS:

“No piece of information is superior to any other. Power lies in having them all on file and then finding the connections. There are always connections; you have only to want to find them.”

This is the power of the internet. It is not in the information, but in the connections between them. I find that I tend to learn more from my search and subsequent linking from one page to another than I do from actually reading any one entry. It is the experience that sheds light on the subject, not necessarily any one entry. The medium is truly the message. It is an interlinked world we live in and the internet brings that fact to the forefront. “There are always connections; you have only to want to find them.” Makes me want to read Eco.

August 11, 2004

Athens 2004: Stupid Hyperlink Policy

Here’s another in the long list of WebPages with stupid hyperlink policies. The website for the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics only allows you to link to them if you write for permission and you use the term ATHENS 2004. Here’s the policy for your reading enjoyment:

For your protection and ours we have established a procedure for parties wishing to introduce a link to the ATHENS 2004 website on their site. By introducing a link to the ATHENS 2004 official Website on your site you are agreeing to comply with the ATHENS 2004 Website General Terms and Conditions. In order to place a link embedded in copy interested parties should:

a) Use the term ATHENS 2004 only, and no other term as the text referent

b) Not associate the link with any image, esp. the ATHENS 2004 Emblem (see paragraph below)

c) Send a request letter to the Internet Department stating:

• Short description of site
• Reason for linking
• Unique URL containing the link (if no unique URL than just the main URL)
• Publishing period
• Contact point (e-mail address)

This is another large institution that is oblivious to the workings of the Internet. How is it possible in this point in the web’s development there are still large WebPages out there that think they can control the links pointing them? Second, why would they even want to? The more pages that link to you, the better the Google position. If everyone linked to this page, it’s within the realm of possibility that it could overtake the official Olympic website (at least that’s how I understand the way Google works, it is possible that in the cases of official websites like that there is some kind of special positioning, though I highly doubt that). I just am amazed every time I run across a site with so little understanding for the workings of the web.

August 11, 2004

Bloglines Email

I recently started using the Bloglines email address feature and it’s great. What it allows you to do is create an email address for those annoying email newsletters that haven’t converted over to RSS yet. Anything that comes into that email address is then just shown to you in the same way a new RSS entry would. Not only is this great for email newsletters, but it’s also great for signing up for anything that’s free that you think might sell your info (or you just don’t feel like crowding your inbox). You can simply create a new email address for whatever your signing up for, and then just get rid of the email when you’re done with it. I’ve created one email address to receive travel specials from a number of different airlines and another to receive all my fantasy football news. Bloglines has really thought through what they’re doing and created a great product. Go sign up and find out for yourself.

August 11, 2004

ALF’s Official Return to TV

In more non-RSS/blog related news, ALF is offically returning to television. ALF’s Hit Talk Show will begin airing in October on TVLand. Although I admit that I was less than impressed by the first episode which aired a few weeks ago, I expect ALF will grow in to his role as talk show host. On top of the new talk show, ALF Season One DVD comes out next week. Life is good.

August 10, 2004

Ali G Commencement Address

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, deadlines loom large. Anyway, I ran across Ali G’s commencement address to Harvard today and it was too funny not to post some excerpts from. Go read the whole thing.

But more importantly it’s wikid dat in Harvard young women and men gets to learn so many amazing subjects.

Some of u here will have been studying medicine…dat knowledge come wiv a lot of responsibilities. Remember, doctors is some of de most powerfulest people in de world – u can give life, u can cure disease and u can ask to see a woman’s [whistle] wivout getting slapped.

For those of u studying history, u probably learnt a lot about de Presidents. Like who was Jefferson, and what did Lincoln give America – apart from de town car.

Some of u iz de best legal students in de country. U would know wivout even thinking, how to get someone off a charge of possession. And if any of u do, then can me remind u – Room 204 at the Best Western. Just do me a favour put your ear to de door, and don’t come in if u hears me shouting ‘Natalie, play wiv me light saber’.

Let’s talk about de finances of all dat k-nowledge dat’s been dropped on u. It costs $38000 a year to go to Harvard. Now I don’t know how u lot has earnt dat – [TO PORN STAR] apart from u – and u iz earnt every penny, but most of u iz got dat cash from your parents.

All you fathers out dere u iz made choices – wiv dat money u could have bought top of de range Lexus but instead u chose to invest in ya kids future. IZ U MENTAL? If u iz got other kids me hopes u don’t make de same mistake again innit. Does u realise how many honeys u can get wiv a Lex. ‘allo sweetness my son’s got a Harvard degree’ [FEMALE VOICE] ‘wot, who cares’

Or [CAR NOISE, WINDOW DOWN, ELBOW OUT] allo darlin, wanna check out de dvd player in de back aiii.’ [her] ‘wot’s dat?’ [me] ‘it’s ostrich leather’ [MIME BLOWJOB]. So students give it up for your parents.

Let’s talk bout de future – your future. A lot of you iz probably worried bout employment. Unfortunately most of u WILL end up gettin jobs – especially now u iz got de burden of a degree.

While you’re reading commencement addresses, make sure to check out Jon Stewart’s address to William and Mary.

Lets talk about the real world for a moment. We had been discussing it earlier, and I…I wanted to bring this up to you earlier about the real world, and this is I guess as good a time as any. I don’t really know to put this, so I’ll be blunt. We broke it.

Please don’t be mad. I know we were supposed to bequeath to the next generation a world better than the one we were handed. So, sorry.

I don’t know if you’ve been following the news lately, but it just kinda got away from us. Somewhere between the gold rush of easy internet profits and an arrogant sense of endless empire, we heard kind of a pinging noise, and uh, then the damn thing just died on us. So I apologize.

But here’s the good news. You fix this thing, you’re the next greatest generation, people. You do this—and I believe you can—you win this war on terror, and Tom Brokaw’s kissing your ass from here to Tikrit, let me tell ya. And even if you don’t, you’re not gonna have much trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked guy pile of enemy prisoners and don’t give the thumbs up you’ve outdid us.

August 10, 2004

Sportsguy RSS Feed

The last excuse I had for not using RSS has ended now that I’ve disocvered Bill Simmons has a feed. In fact, it turns out that you can get any columnist and most ESPN headlines this way. Call me what you will, but now every time Sportsguy puts up a new article, I will know. For that I’m very happy.

Here are some other important NFL feed links:
John Clayton
Chris Mortensen
Len Pasquarelli

And one baseball feed:
Peter Gammons

August 6, 2004

Speaking Out Against Bush

I just got around to reading Ron Reagan’s new essay in Esquire titled “The Case Against George W. Bush”. It’s a well-articulated case against Bush written by a former president’s son. He knows how to write and really spells out all the accusations against George W. There’s really very need for comment on the piece. Outside of his views of his father’s presidency, which no one would expect to be anything except glowing, Reagan is very thoughtful and strategic in the way he sets out to expose George W. Bush. I read somewhere, and agree, that this piece is far more damning that Michael Moore’s film (and better put together). Go read it, but in the meantime, here are a few exceprts:

And chances are your America and George W. Bush’s America are not the same place. If you are dead center on the earning scale in real-world twenty-first-century America, you make a bit less than $32,000 a year, and $32,000 is not a sum that Mr. Bush has ever associated with getting by in his world. Bush, who has always managed to fail upwards in his various careers, has never had a job the way you have a job—where not showing up one morning gets you fired, costing you your health benefits. He may find it difficult to relate personally to any of the nearly two million citizens who’ve lost their jobs under his administration, the first administration since Herbert Hoover’s to post a net loss of jobs. Mr. Bush has never had to worry that he couldn’t afford the best available health care for his children. For him, forty-three million people without health insurance may be no more than a politically inconvenient abstraction. When Mr. Bush talks about the economy, he is not talking about your economy. His economy is filled with pals called Kenny-boy who fly around in their own airplanes. In Bush’s economy, his world, friends relocate offshore to avoid paying taxes. Taxes are for chumps like you. You are not a friend. You’re the help. When the party Mr. Bush is hosting in his world ends, you’ll be left picking shrimp toast out of the carpet.

What’s odd is that none of these lies were worth the breath expended in the telling. If only for self-serving political reasons, honesty was the way to go. The flight of Air Force One could easily have been explained in terms of security precautions taken in the confusion of momentous events. As for the carrier landing, someone should have fallen on his or her sword at the first hint of trouble: We told the president he needed to do it; he likes that stuff and was gung-ho; we figured, What the hell?; it was a mistake. The banner? We thought the sailors would appreciate it. In retrospect, also a mistake. Yup, we sure feel dumb now. Owning up to the 9/11 warnings would have entailed more than simple embarrassment. But done forthrightly and immediately, an honest reckoning would have earned the Bush team some respect once the dust settled. Instead, by needlessly tap-dancing, Bush’s White House squandered vital credibility, turning even relatively minor gaffes into telling examples of its tendency to distort and evade the truth.

GEORGE W. BUSH PROMISED to “change the tone in Washington” and ran for office as a moderate, a “compassionate conservative,” in the focus-group-tested sloganeering of his campaign. Yet he has governed from the right wing of his already conservative party, assiduously tending a “base” that includes, along with the expected Fortune 500 fat cats, fiscal evangelicals who talk openly of doing away with Social Security and Medicare, of shrinking government to the size where they can, in tax radical Grover Norquist’s phrase, “drown it in the bathtub.” That base also encompasses a healthy share of anti-choice zealots, homophobic bigots, and assorted purveyors of junk science. Bush has tossed bones to all of them—”partial birth” abortion legislation, the promise of a constitutional amendment banning marriage between homosexuals, federal roadblocks to embryonic-stem-cell research, even comments suggesting presidential doubts about Darwinian evolution. It’s not that Mr. Bush necessarily shares their worldview; indeed, it’s unclear whether he embraces any coherent philosophy. But this president, who vowed to eschew politics in favor of sound policy, panders nonetheless in the interest of political gain. As John DiIulio, Bush’s former head of the Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives, once told this magazine, “What you’ve got is everything—and I mean everything—being run by the political arm.”

Fortunately, we still live in a democratic republic. The Bush team cannot expect a cabal of right-wing justices to once again deliver the White House. Come November 2, we will have a choice: We can embrace a lie, or we can restore a measure of integrity to our government. We can choose, as a bumper sticker I spotted in Seattle put it, SOMEONE ELSE FOR PRESIDENT.

August 5, 2004

Craigslist: An Effective Use of RSS

While searching for Rilo Kiley tickets the other day, I discovered that Craigslist has added RSS. You’ll notice in the lower right hand corner of any search you do there is a link to RSS and a ? which links you to an explanation of what RSS is. This allows you to easily follow any search or category you want, rather than having to go back to the site constantly and check for new postings. This is where RSS will be so valuable in the future. I’m sure Google will be adding an RSS option to their news and web alerts in the future (which, if you haven’t tried them, are pretty cool as it is). So if you’re looking for a new apartment or just want to keep up with what people are giving away for free on Craigslist, get yourself an aggregator and enjoy the wonders of syndication.

August 4, 2004

6 Albums I Listened to in July

Since I really haven’t posted much in the way of music, I’ve decided to post some albums that got me through July:

A.C. Newman – The Slow Wonder: It’s the songwriter from The New Pornographers doing his own thing. Much more acoustic/less power-pop than his stuff with the Pornagraphers.
Song: “Miracle Drug”

Kings of Convenience – Riot on an Empty Street: Don’t really know how to describe this one. It’s not really upbeat, but it’s not a downer either. There’s some electronic elements going on, but also some acoustic ones. It’s definitely a relaxed sound, but beyond that I got nothing. It’s just good.
Song: “Misread” (I really love this entire album, it has jumped to my three favorite albums of the year, so choosing a favorite song is very difficult.)

Erlend Oye – DJ Kicks: He’s part of Kings of Convenience. This is him DJ’ing. Throws out a lot of different sounds from Phoenix to the Rapture. This is the mix CD I want to make. Rather than putting together a mix cd with a repetitive house beat for 60 minutes, Oye opted to use good songs and string them together, even though some of thei mixing isn’t spectacular. But who cares as long as it’s fun to listen to? (That’s my opinion as a DJ and a listener.)
Song: “Sheltered Life”

The Killers – Hot Fuss: I was waiting for this one since I heard the single, “Somebody Told Me.” It’s rock in the same realm as The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand and The Fever (whose Red Bedroom is another good album from the last few months).
Song: “Mr. Brightside”

Jim Guthrie – Now, More than Ever: Like combining Iron & Wine and Death Cab for Cutie (specifically Ben Gibbard). It’s emo-ish at times, but overall it’s a good album that’s very laid back with some acoustic sounds and a voice that sounds hauntingly similar to Gibbard’s at times.
Song: “The Evangelist” (It’s a very sappy song, and the lyrics aren’t that great, but I really like it when he sings “quantum physics.”)

Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender: Fairly bizarre. It’s kind of in the same realm as Bjork. Newsom’s voice is high and funny sounding, but after a few listens this album really grew on me.
Song: “Sadie”

August 4, 2004

Another Meme Experiment

Copy This GoMeme From This Line to The End of This Article, and paste into your blog. Then follow the instructions below to fill it out for your site.

Steal this!!!! This is a Gomeme — a new way to spread an idea along social networks. By adding this GoMeme to your Weblog you can get higher Google rankings for your site, and help your friends get higher Google rankings too. You will also be participating in an experiment to generate a distributed Blog survey and test how memes spread through social networks.

By following the instructions below, your blog will be linked from every other blog that discovers this GoMeme downstream from your blog (from your readers, their readers, and so on). And that will raise your Google rankings in proportion to the number of downstream bloggers that get this GoMeme from you and post it to their blogs.

The dataset from this experiment is public, open and decentralized — every blog that participates hosts their own data about their own blog. Anyone can then get the whole dataset by just searching Google for this unique string: 98818912959q This code is the “global unique identifier,” or GUID for this GoMeme — it marks every web page that participates in this GoMeme so that it can later be found with all the others. (Note it may take a week or longer before Google indexes your blog, so be patient).

To find out what a GoMeme is, and how this experiment works, or just to see how this GoMeme is growing and discuss it with others, visit the Root Posting and FAQ for this GoMeme at www.mindingtheplanet.net .

Disclaimer

This is purely an experiment and is just for fun. We are really just curious to see what will happen and this is not a commercial project. Participation is voluntary. We don’t mean to annoy anyone. However, if you don’t have much curiosity, or at least a sense of humor, you may find this experiment to be upsetting. In that case, you might try drinking a good strong cup of coffee. If after that you are still unhappy with us, just don’t read any further and have a great day! (If you don’t want your blog to get better Google rankings, that’s purely your choice!) On the other hand, if you are interested in exploring new technologies and pushing the envelope, then keep reading and we look forward to your participation in this experiment. We also request that participants in this experiment refrain from spamming anyone with this GoMeme. To spread it, just put it on your blog; that should be enough.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ADDING THIS GOMEME TO YOUR OWN SITE

Step 1 First, to add your site to this experiment, copy the GoMeme to your site from the “Copy This GoMeme From Here” heading above to the End of this article. Please copy this whole article and try not to alter the text so that it is authentic for the people who get it from your blog.

Step 2: Now, fill in your answers to these Required Survey Fields (Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers). These will later be automatically data-mined by bots to compile the survey results.

(1) I found this GoMeme at URL: http://www.pheedo.info

(2) I found this GoMeme on date (day/month/year):04/08/04

(3) I found this GoMeme at time (in GMT format): 13:25:00

(4) I foundit via “Newsreader Software” or “Browsing the Web” or “Searching the Web” or “An E-Mail Message”: Newsreader Software

(5) I posted this GoMeme at my URL (use a hyperlink): NoahBrier.com

(6) I posted this on date (day/month/year): 04/08/04

(7) I posted this at time (in GMT format): 13:35:00

(8) My posting location is (city, state, country): New York, NY, USA

Step 3: If you’re feeling very altruistic today, also fill in these optional survery fields (Replace the answers below with your own answers):

(9) My Weblog is hosted by: NoahBrier.com

(10) My age is: 22

(11) My gender is: Male

(12) My occupation is: Writer

(13) I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: Bloglines

(14) I use the following software to post to my blog: Movable Type

(15) I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 16/07/04

(16) My web browser is: Firefox

(17) My operating system is: Windows XP

Step 4:Now add an entry for your site after the last entry in the PATH LIST below:
Your entry should be of the form: line number, URL, hyperlink, optional personal GUID for your blog.

(Note: If you would like to track all postings of the Meme that result from your posting of it, once Google has indexed them, you may add your own optional GUID after your hyperlink on your line of the Path List — just make sure it is short, unique, and doesn’t return any results on Google — for example “mysitename137a2r28″. Also note, if the path list gets too long, you should still try to include the whole path in your blog — even if you have to put the list on a continuation page rather than the excerpt for your posting — and make sure others copy the whole GoMeme along with your Path List when they get the GoMeme from you — If they don’t copy it, your blog and your upstream blogs won’t be linked from their blogs).

PATH LIST

1. http://www.mindingtheplanet.net Minding The Planet, mindingtheplanet14798
2. http://www.pheedo.info Pheedo
3. http://www.noahbrier.com NoahBrier.com, noahbrier.com135365d
4. (your Path List entry goes here in the form URL, hyperlink, GUID. Also, please add a new line after this one, for the next person.)

The End

You did it! Now spread it! If all goes well and others find this GoMeme from your blog, you should see some interesting results. Please comment back on the original post and tell us how you’re doing or what you observe, if anything noteworthy happens.

August 4, 2004

Idiocentricity and the Internet

Terry L. Heaton has posted a fantastic new essay titled “The Power of Attraction,” part of his “TV News in a Postmodern World.” Heaton’s essay is worth reading and he covers many interesting topics, however, one paragraph in particular stuck out for me:

A case in point is the discussion currently underway regarding the influence of bloggers and the blogosphere — a remarkable Postmodern development. Attempts to assign rankings to various blogs to determine their influence are based on the hierarchical (and therefore Modernist), mass-marketing concepts of reach and frequency. Traditional journalists fear bloggers are whacking their fatted calf, and many bloggers are actually joining in this misdirected fear-cum-anger. The ensuing debates over credentialed versus uncredentialed, opinion versus objectivity, checks and balances, echo chambers, and — most importantly — who has the greater ability to influence the masses, all lock the debaters into purely Modernist arguments. In so doing, the point is missed entirely, and that is that influence in a Postmodern world is entirely the opposite of convention. Individuals now determine their own influences. Think about that for a minute. Do you ever wonder why nothing you try seems to be working anymore? There’s your answer.

An individual determining his or her own influences is something I decided to name idiocentricity (I’m not sure whether anyone has referred to it as this before or not). It is what makes the internet such a powerful medium, and what makes blogs and other social software such a great addition to the web’s landscape. We have now begun to shift away from messages being broadcast to us by traditional media, instead opting for the route of the internet. This allows us to sit at the center of our media universe and pick and choose what we receive. We are no longer held hostage by the television schedule, rather, we can just tune into an aggregator and receive all the news or entertainment that we’ve decided we want.

When we want to know something, we no longer look it up in the encyclopedia, instead we Google it, which gives us any number of answers ranked in order of how many other people thought those answers were good enough to link to. From there, we have to choose what information is reliable and what information is not and make a final decision on the answer to our original question. Answers hardly ever come from one source anymore. Now, thanks to search engines, we put together our own answers and explanations, we own the final product, it is an amalgamation of any number of sources. Rather than the traditional top-down mediation of old media, broadcasters decide what is and is not news, we are able to make the final decisions and create our own stories. Thanks to blogs, not only is more information being reported on than ever before, but also now everyone has a chance to add the debate by publishing their own opinions. It is a truly democratic medium.

Heaton ends his essay with a discussion of viral marketing. What the internet has taught people is that they should be able to access information directly. This is why traditional advertising is less effective and why viral marketing has proven to be such a powerful tool. People want to communicate directly with their products, not have their meanings mediated to them by the company through advertisements. This is especially true in young people who have been influenced by postmodernism in so many aspects of their lives, from hip-hop music to the internet. I will conclude with two paragraphs from an article I wrote for the June issue of American Demographics about Obey Giant and viral marketing titled “Buzz Giant Poster Boy.” [Subscription Required]

For Fairey, it’s about connecting with all these people. That’s why he says the ultimate goal of a brand “is to be the equivalent of the Beatles. You’ve got the dumbest guy and the smartest guy in the room singing your song.” Fairey continued, “I want something that resonates and affects people on different levels, but connects with everyone.” For this reason, most of the products that he designs for his Obey clothing line blur and break traditional cultural rules. “I intentionally make hybrid products,” he explained. “We’re always trying to flip stuff up.” Fairey then revealed his “truth”: “If Public Enemy can sample Slayer, I can do that [make hybrid products].” (For those not on top of late ’80s music, Public Enemy is the archetype for political hip-hop. On their 1988 album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, they sampled the heavy metal band Slayer, fusing two very different styles of music.) For Fairey, the crossing of those two genres symbolized the dissolution of boundaries, not just in music, but in all culture.)

Fairey grew up in a generation that has consistently rejected traditional limits. Turntables were no longer just tools to play music on, they became instruments with which to make music. Songs of the past became a giant database of samples and inspiration for reconfigured mixes. The Internet, phones and cable were not just means of talking or watching television, but parts of a complex network connecting telescoping groups of individuals, and cultures throughout the world. On top of it all, as Neisser notes, “The fact that kids watch TV, talk on the phone and IM all at the same time is a behavioral change that no marketer can afford to ignore.” With access to such a plethora of information, he says, “The mass market is crumbling before our eyes. As a result, you are talking about 280 million individuals.”

August 3, 2004

BK Needs to Give it Up

Following the success of Subservient Chicken, Burger King has come out with two more attempts at viral campaigns. One, House of Ugoff, feels like a cheap rip-off of Ali G characters. The other, Angus Diet, I just don’t get. The beauty of Subservient Chicken was in its simplicity. It was a guy in a chicken costume on the screen and you told him what to do, nothing more. Nothing to read, nothing to think about, just funny. For those reasons it connected with exactly the audience Burger King was trying to reach and it was a huge success (46 million hits for a project that cost under $100,000). Now Burger King is going back to the well, and twice within 3 months. Now maybe they’re trying to go after a different demographic, however, I doubt that. (I admit I have spent very little time on the sites because I don’t find them amusing). You would think that a company would have the wherewithal to stay away for a little while and let their past success sink in. The other sites simply diminish Subservient Chicken’s impact, which could see a second round if Subservient President is to take off. In the end I’m just surprised that there’s no one at Burger King telling them to slow down with the viral sites, it’s a cool thing to do once. After that first time, however, you’re exposed and need to step back. Consumers have a good nose for this kind of stuff, and Burger King reeks of bandwagon jumping, it’s sad that it’s their own.

August 3, 2004

Easy RSS Subscriptions

After seeing Anil Dash put all the easy subscribe links to various aggregators in his latest post (something I had often thought about), I ran across a neat program called quickSub. Basically what this does is put a little javascript popup list over an XML button. I have added it to my index page and I’m in the process of adding it to the rest of the site. It works like this:

When you put your mouse over the button a list of popular aggregators comes up and my RSS feed has been preprogrammed in, so all one has to do is click on their program of choice and, voila, they can be subscribed. This is a step in the right direction towards making RSS accessible to the world.

UPDATE (1/10/05): I have since turned off quicksub because I found it was often more confusing than helpful.

August 3, 2004

Testing Meme Propagation In Blogspace: Add Your Blog!

This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).

The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet (Permalink: http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2004/08/a_sonar_ping_of.html) — results and commentary will appear there in the future.

Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate — the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.

The GUID for this experiment is: as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawst (this GUID enables anyone to easily search Google (or Technorati) for all blogs that participate in this experiment). Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post (see URL above). (Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.)

INSTRUCTIONS

To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and then answer the questions below, substituting your own information, below, where appropriate. Other than answering the questions below, please do not alter the information, layout or format of this post in order to preserve the integrity of the data in this experiment (this will make it easier for searchers and automated bots to find and analyze the results later).

REQUIRED FIELDS (Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers)

(1) I found this experiment at URL: http://www.wingedpig.com

(2) I found it via “Newsreader Software” or “Browsing the Web” or “Searching the Web” or “An E-Mail Message”: Newsreader Software

(3) I posted this experiment at URL: http://www.noahbrier.com

(4) I posted this on date (day, month, year): 02/08/04

(5) I posted this at time (24 hour time): 15:10:00

(6) My posting location is (city, state, country): New York, NY, USA

OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS (Replace the answers below with your own answers):

(7) My blog is hosted by: NoahBrier.com

(8) My age is: 22

(9) My gender is: Male

(10) My occupation is: Writer

(11) I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: Bloglines

(12) I use the following software to post to my blog: Movable Type

(13) I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 16/07/04

(14) My web browser is: Mozilla

(15) My operating system is: Windows XP

August 2, 2004