Cluetrain Chugs Again. Those words are Doc Searls’ who announces an open forum coming Tuesday, June 16th at the Harvard Law School. Doc, David Weinberger and Jonathan Zittrain will host the forum which is titled, “Cluetrain at 10: So How’s Utopia Working Out for Ya?” There will be a webcast which I hope we’ll be able to download and listen to on our Zunes!
The Great Facebook Vanity Url Rush. Lots of “Got my Facebook Url!” tweets a couple nights ago as the minutes ticked past midnight. Two standout tweets were, first, from Ryan Farley who reported that someone claimed default.aspx. It actually links to a profile (though I don’t know for how long.) And from fellow Vermonter Ryan Burdick, “I stayed up until midnight for this? Jesus, I have two kids who will be punching me in the nuts at 5am.”
The Good Life. The subtitle to this Awkward Family photo earns it this week’s Everyman’s Choice Link award.
Webcast time. Get your ass in the chair. Informative MSNBC webcasts hosted by Chris Anderson with Watts Wacker and Nathan Zuckerman. I watched one, but I don’t sit at my desk or laptop and watch video, particularly conversational video. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I’ll happily watch (rather, listen) to webcasts on the go, but I’ll pass when I’m forced to sit and watch talking heads.
Guy #3. Seth Godin’s insightful statement of the day. “It’s guy #3 who makes it a movement.” A video from Sasquatch Music Festival 2009 demonstrates his point. I watched it until guy #2 joined in…
When the Thrill of Blogging is Gone. Interesting statistics and blogger stories in this NY Times piece. “According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned.” Then again, the Times writer should have realized that Technorati stopped accurately tracking blogs way before 2008 and based his statistics on another resource.
On becoming a popular blogger. Good story from Copyblogger about two tailors and why one got the business—because he was likeable. So we should be likeable bloggers, I guess. (Too late!) Another useful reminder in the post was that regardless how excellent we become in our particular niche, what we know is a commodity. But forget all of that. The real motivation for blogging is to be the guy in the picture. It’s like Michael (Jeff Goldblum) said in The Big Chill, Everyone does everything just to get laid. Karen: Who said that? Freud? Michael: No, I did.
Good service? From these guys? Two amazing things happened to me this week. First, a buddy at the MSDN Roadshow was telling me how AT&T service was really good, and second, Chris Brogan tells a story about USAir personnel being generous and resourceful. It will take a lot more than one post for me to ever fly USAir again, but I’ll take a chance on AT&T service for an iPhone.
Cuban’s WTF To Do List. Mark Cuban says this is the year of WTF, and provides a list of To Do’s for 2009. Take lots of chances, make sure you’re in a job you love, figure out how to be the best and start the day motivated with a positive attitude. I agree with those, but the first To Do, “Recognize it’s okay to live like a student,” not so much. I look back on those days of beans and mac and mashed potatoes as “when I was poor,” so that I wouldn’t have to be poor now. It’s an essential period, heck, I’d say required, but I’d like to think it’s a one-time deal.
You should consider it a f**ing honor to read my Twitters. Ted Dziuba announces he's now tweeting. Actually, it's a pretty enjoyable stream.
You’re going out weird, Grasshopper. David Carradine being found dead with a rope around his neck, wrist and, oh yes, genitals, is going out pretty weird in my opinion. If the guy weren’t dead, he probably be a bit embarrassed. I admire how Jerzy Kozinski, one of my favorite authors, was more purposeful in how he went out, lying down in the bathtub with a plastic shopping bag twisted around his head and taped shut around his neck. Kozinski’s death had nothing to do with sex, but if you were to bring sex into it, Everyman wants to go out like Sgt. Phil Esterhaus from Hill Street Blues, the precinct’s eloquent “let’s be careful out there” wordsmith sergeant. Esterhaus died of a heart attack while having sex with his enthusiastic girlfriend in his hospital bed. For purposes of clarity, it doesn’t have to be a hospital bed.