Personal note to Dave Winer (in response to his plea): after May 12, Microsoft will definitely be testing its feeds with Radio UserLand. :-)

Ahh, you know, in recent weeks, I've heard of some "big name" journalists who have it out for weblogs. They think we're running a secret society. They see us as threatening their business model (albeit then they make fun of the fact that I only have a "micro" audience here). They see us as prissy little spoiled brats cause we get to publish anything we want without having an editor clean it up and "fact check" it first.

I almost was believing they had a point, but then the "mainstream" press keeps shutting down folks who do weblogs. Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News points to the latest case.

That's OK. I hope they keep thinking this is a secret society that isn't relevant. It means we have more time to figure out how to do it right.

Dan, it just means you and your news organization's "brand" have been increased in value. How did Microsoft get to where it is today? They had incompetent competitors. You should be thanking the great turtle in the sky that you work for Knight Ridder, who, while they change your URLs every few years, get it more than most news organizations.

OReilly's conference wiki is being provided by Socialtext. Lots of cool stuff for conference attendees (and wannabees like me).

Just seen on Ross Mayfield's blog: Esther Dyson jumps into the fray with her own weblog. Don't worry, it isn't worth visiting yet. But, welcome to the secret club!

Ahh, Joi did know about Moveable Type's announcements last night. Joi's company invested and Moveable Type announced a new hosted service. Interesting.

Ray Ozzie is back in the weblogger cult.

Andrew Orlowski in the Register tries to make the claim that webloggers at the O'Reilly conference have taken over and are now creating a cult. Heh. Now all you webloggers just stare into the screen and say "mooo" after me, OK?

Andrew: didn't ya hear? All of us webloggers last night decided that weblogging is passe and that our 300 collective readers definitely won't change the world. Oh, I guess you didn't get the memo since you aren't in our secret club. Heh.

Here's Steve Gillmor's new CRN weblog. Now, Steve's a guy who gets it. He knows more people in the Enterprise space than any human should be allowed to know. He's bright and nice and gracious on top of it.

Alan Meckler calls what he is doing a weblog. Alan Meckler hasn't linked to anyone outside of his company for more than two months. Alan Meckler is a bore. Alan Meckler will not get a link from me, no sir ee. Alan is not doing a weblog, he's just trying to make a marketing spiel have the sheen of a weblog.

Course, certain vice presidents who tell me "you suck" think that a bad link from me is worse than death. Nah, worse than death is when you have no one talking about you at all. No links=no traffic=no customers=no hype. Not that my 16 readers matter much anyway. Plus, someone (John Dvorak are you there?) should tell Alan Meckler that weblogs are yesterday's news and that he should move onto something cooler like "mesh computing" or something.

"OK, Scoble, what's up with you and Meckler?" Just having fun with the dude. I keep hoping he'll write something interesting. I keep hoping he'll actually do a weblog. He started out so strong. But he's fading fast. I guess he figured that my 16 readers wasn't important enough. He just might be right.

Wanna find Alan Meckler? Visit Google and search on his name.

I heard a rumor tonight (well, more than a rumor, but I'm not gonna be the first to break wind) that Moveable Type was gonna announce something last night, but I don't see anything on their weblogs or news sites about it. Anyone have the skinny? Guess I'll need to wait for everyone to stop partying at the O'Reilly conference. A bird whispered in my ear: "talk to Joi, he might know something." Joi?

A personal note to Don Box: who you seeing the new Matrix movie with? I'll be alone in Seattle on the 15th and would love to invite you to Matrix Reloaded. Of course, I have a feeling a few other "Moo'ers" might wanna come too.

Not all weblogs are ego-driven inanities like mine is. Some, like Loren's, actually show off how to do stuff like use a Tablet outside in bright sunlight.