Monday, March 17, 2003
Alan Meckler: Come on dude, engage us! I expected so much from you. So far, I'm disappointed. Oh well. I was hoping for a conversation, but so far all we've gotten is dreck that's not even worth linking to. Next!
Comment [] Trackback []Hmm, Marc Canter gives us another status report on Open Standards (for personal publishing).
I'll be honest, I pretty much ignored the first two. Hey, most of the world ignores the first two of anything. But now he's starting to get somewhere.
I've been reading his stuff over and over. There's a lot there. But what I really want is a killer demo. A prototype. Something I can use today to create a killer new type of blog.
Also, I think Marc focuses way too much on protocols and vendors. Let's look at it another way.
When you read the San Jose Mercury News, do you care that they used Adobe Photoshop and Quark XPress to produce your newspaper? I don't.
I feel the same way about weblogging. I really could give a rats ass who's weblog tools you used to put a picture on your page, or write your words.
Now, when I was a vendor, I felt the other way. I wanted everyone to know that I used Radio UserLand to build my blog.
It's definitely a problem, since there are two conflicting goals happening here.
I'm also trying to absorb what Ryze is doing and what all the other guys in the personal publishing/identity space are doing. Obviously something is happening, but to me it isn't as big a deal as when I first saw ICQ. At least not yet.
Maybe I'm missing it, though, and it'll all look different in the morning.
On the other hand, I want the ability to easily publish a weblog with words, easy to add photos, and other cool things. I think this weblog thing has a long long way to go before it will feel "finished." It's still way too hard to get a digital picture up on my weblog, for instance.
Marc, don't despair, it takes me a while to "get things" and eventually it'll click just what you're doing and how I can add some value to it. I definitely am spending some time thinking about what I want my weblog (er, personal portal or whatever this stuff becomes) to be in the future and Marc is probably one of those who'll give me tools to fulfill my dreams -- I can't wait to see what comes out of his head next.
This is an area I wish Microsoft were investing in. Instead they are doing MSN Groups, which really come short. It's funny, I still own a few of the largest MSN Groups and MSN's management has never asked me how to improve what they do.
Is anyone from the MSN groups listening? If you are, I'd be happy to outline what I'm thinking about here.
By the way, Kevin Lynch over at Macromedia has a bunch of photos on his weblog. That tells me that he's probably working on a photo tool for webloggers. Hmmm. Kevin's weblog is definitely inspiring. I have more than 4000 images shot on my Nikon and I want to share those with you in the same way that Kevin is sharing images on his weblog. Right now it's too time consuming to bring pics into my PC, cut them down, put them in the right place, upload them, and then put in the right HTML. There's gotta be a better way.
What an honor. Thomas Lewis, who works on the .NET Framework Evangelism Team, says I'm one of his favorite blogs. Then he goes on to defend me "for those who say you are a Microsoft homer, I don't agree."
Plus he reminds me again to listen to Carl Franklin's .NET Rocks program (which is always excellent).
Bummer. I sold this Paul Stojanovich a camera a long time ago. He died recently by falling off of a cliff. You all know him as the producer of the show "Cops." (among others). His dad was a regular customer of mine at LZ Premiums.
"The more transparent our company becomes," says Chris Hollander, Microsoft employee, "the more I hope people realize that there is no evil empire ... just a bunch of passionate, smart geeks."
Joshua Allen is absolutely right. Microsoft shouldn't be judged by what's put on air at MSNBC. That all said, if I were at MSNBC, I'd be embarrassed by putting Michael Savage on the air. What would I do if I were at Microsoft? I don't know. My gut tells me that I'd insist on removing the letters "MS" from "MSNBC" if the network's executives insist on keeping this guy on air. Yet another reason that spreading the Microsoft brand all over the place wasn't all that bright an idea. Of course, I generally like Ries and Trout's marketing ideas and Microsoft definitely flouts many of their prescriptions.
Ahh, Harry Pierson is quoted by Mary Jo Foley and asks what I think of all this. Definitely it's the new world. I imagine there'll be a day when I get quoted about something or another that NEC is doing. It sure would be nice, though, if journalists always include a link in their articles back to the source. That way we can always put it back in context for people who want more information. Main-stream press folks, though, rarely link to outside resources. Why is that? They don't want their readers to leave. It's yet another reminder, though, that what you say online is important and may be used against you at some time in a future. It's a wacky new world, that's for sure. Be careful out there.
