Wednesday, November 13, 2002

How Blogs Change Site Traffic Patterns. This is an important piece for everyone interested in, involved with or affected by Web site construction and publishing, including all bloggers. Matt Haughey gives in. Matt Haughey: “I don’t keep track of post titles, I don’t think the syndication file is all that useful without HTML, and I’ve never personally found much use for a RSS reader. That all changed when a friend said she wasn’t reading my site anymore, or any sites for that matter that didn’t carry RSS feeds.” Brent’s Law of Weblogs: If you’re not syndicating, you’re not publishing. This law is descriptive, not prescriptive. RSS, or something like it, was inevitable. I used to read a couple dozen sites regularly—now I read about a hundred sites. Far more than I could ever follow in my browser. And I do actually visit the sites I subscribe to: when there’s something interesting in their feed, and it links back to the site, I go to the site. Traffic patterns are changing, definitely. But RSS is a chance for webloggers to reach an even wider audience. It doesn’t mean that the HTML version of one’s site is now irrelevant—in fact, because of RSS and newsreaders I now visit lots of sites I never used to visit. [inessential.com] 8:08:55 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Scott Rosenberg Says This is Good Stuff. Believe It. Blog worthy Steven Johnson's books -- "Interface Culture" and "Emergence" -- represent some of the most thoughtful and idea-laden writing on technoculture you'll find anywhere. Johnson, who was co-editor of the late lamented Feed as well, is now blogging away at www.stevenberlinjohnson.com. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment] 8:03:16 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

One More Reason Not to be a Republican. Proposed bill could jail hackers for life. A last-minute addition to a proposal for a Department of Homeland Security bill would punish malicious computer hackers with life in prison. [CNET News.com] Not only that, here's a really salient paragraph from that story: During closed-door negotiations before the debate began, the House Republican leadership inserted the 16-page Cyber Security Enhancement Act (CSEA) into the Homeland Security bill. CSEA expands the ability of police to conduct Internet or telephone eavesdropping without first obtaining a court order, and offers Internet providers more latitude to disclose information to police. Deceit and dishonor of a seriously malodorous order. These guys are so power-hungry that it is downright scary. The American people got what they asked for. More's the pity. 7:57:51 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

I Think Your View is Too Short-Horizon, Robert. Steven MacLaughlin is talking about the TabletPC today. Yeah, I agree. However, he asks manufacturers to hand them out to evangelists so they can help get the word out. I totally agree that'd be a great marketing technique, there's one problem with that: margins are non-existent. What does that mean? It means that return on investment for such an act would not be there. How many Tablets would some company sell by giving even a highly-trafficed Weblogger a free Tablet? I doubt we'd sell more than a couple. Our margins on hardware sales are way less than 10%. See the problem? Now, if you can guarantee me you'll sell 100 units or more, let's talk! [The Scobleizer Weblog] Interesting to hear the thin margins, Robert, but I think you're selling short the impact of market influencers. One guy who has 10 friends who ask him what to buy and who recommends a Tablet PC may only spawn two sales directly. But some of those folks who don't buy one will want to act like they have insider knowledge at the next kegger they have (do people still do keggers?) and influence another couple of buyers. Etc. Etc. Steven is right. Besides, with all of NEC's money, they couldn't afford to be wrong by a couple hundred Tablets? They'll piss away 10 times that in one bad ad campaign, I guarantee it. 7:54:27 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Keep a Close Eye. The Internet faces a free-speech test. The Supreme Court hears challenges to a pair of sex-offender laws and enters a debate that could set new rules for access to online information. [CNET News.com] Privacy, as my colleague Dan Gillmor continually points out, is one of the two or three most crucial issues of this generation. These cases could result in significant rulings. You can't afford to ignore the Supremes. 11:30:12 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

I'm Trying Another New Blogging Tool. I've become so enchanted with blogging that I have been spending way too much time blogging and exploring the space. My old buddy Tim Lundeen of Web Crossing fame and my son-in-law Jeff Soule, who works for Tim, have been nudging me lately to check out WebX 5.0, a product that is still in pre-release. It incorporates blogging into a full-blown discussion board system, one that I've admired for many years. In addition to being a community server, WebX has always been a full-blown development platform. The new Version 5 is a major leap forward for the product I chose for discussion boards at Salon.com and later at CNET's Builder.com. It is eminently more customizable, supports a full-blown object model on the server side, is scriptable in JavaScript and now supports a plug-in architecture that will spawn new models for making money in community. But IT BLOGS!. And does so very nicely, including creation of RSS feed, categories, mutliple blog editors and two features I've really wanted in blogging: email signup by readers and email notification of the blog owner when comments get posted. I'm transitioning a couple of my categories over to WebX5 so I can do a legit comparison of the blogging experience between Radio and WebX. Here's the temporary home of my WebX Blog. I'll be interested in your comments. (If you go there and you really want to try this new tool before it's released, shoot me an email. I can only set up blogs for a small handful of folks on this test server, but I'd love to share the experience and get more feedback.) 10:56:44 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Clearly, We Need to Make Spam More Expensive Somehow. The Economics of Spam. higgins writes "The Wall Street Jorurnal has the best story I've ever seen on the economics of spam. A self-described "spam queen" (Clean link; should work for ... [Slashdot] If you read that article, you'll find that where direct-mail folks anticipate responses in the 2% range, spammers can make money -- and lots of it -- with tiny fractions of that figure. The cost of sending the spam is just too low. So one way to stop spam -- no an original idea -- is to raise the price of spam somehow. What ideas have you seen on this subject? 9:16:23 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Dr. Robert Schuller. "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" [Motivational Quotes of the Day] 9:06:04 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

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