Coyote Gulch

Saturday, October 4, 2003

The Speculist - What Kind of Thinker Are You?
The Speculist asks, What kind of thinker are you?. I think the test is wrong about me.
10:13:20 PM

Doc Searles - BloggerCon
Doc Searles:."The Web is a writer's medium."
8:46:21 PM

Denver November 2003 Election
The Rocky Mountain News [October 4, 2003, "Amendment 32 deserves defeat"] is urging voters to reject Amendment 32. From the editorial, "Amendment 32 is a well-meaning attempt to address these problems by wholesale revision of the 1982 Gallagher Amendment. Unfortunately, it would create other problems at least as grave as the ones it would eliminate. The actual provisions of Amendment 32 are fairly simple: It would fix the taxable portion of residential property at 8 percent (just above the present 7.96 percent) and freeze it there, and then get rid of a constitutional requirement that residential property always pay roughly 45 percent of the tax. As a result, residential property taxes will be freer to rise, and rise they surely will. Amendment 32 will sock homeowners over time with a significant and growing tax hike - or at least those whose property values rise at a healthy clip. If the past two decades are any guide, of course, that includes most of us, including the vast majority of metro Denver homeowners. It won't matter whether your income goes up or down, whether you're retired or at the peak of earnings: You could pay substantially more for the privilege of living in the same home and enjoying, in most cases, the same amenities. That, we're convinced, is unfair."
8:00:53 AM

Denver Post - Bloghouse
I've been a bit disappointed in the Denver Post's Bloghouse until recently. Most of the bloghouse posts did not contain links. I think one of the differences between weblogs and other forms of journalism are links. Weblogs are a conversation and linking is essential. The richness of the conversation is enhanced by following the links on weblogs because the blogger introduces you to the background information that helps form their opinion.
Yesterday's d.note (written by Dani Newsum) shows that she is getting weblogs. The fact that her post contains links to content outside of the Denver Post is huge. Even if you don't agree with her about Rush Limbaugh, yesterday's d.note was a fine example of a weblog post. Kudos to the Denver Post for encouraging proffessional webloggers and allowing her to link outside content. Maybe the editors haven't seen her weblog yet. It would be just like her to spring something new like that on her bosses.
Here's an e-mail that I received from Gil Asakawa after Bloghouse's first week:
"Hi John, the history of our humble blogs is pretty straightforward -- Howard Saltz, the Post's Associate Editor/New Media & Strategic Development, led the DenverPost.com redesign efforts, and as part of the move he wanted to add a lot more online-only content to the Web site, including blogs.
I was hired just a month ago and one of my first jobs was to find writers who could provide regular blogs -- even though most of them had heard of a blog before. Of the bunch our Colorado Journal was never called a blog but obviously it is a very refined form of blogging, and of the rest, Dani Newsum is an accomplished writer and commentator on Channel 12; Lou from Littleton is a "people's sportsguy" from talk radio and Amy Lewis is a freelance writer who was referred to me. There are a couple more blogs on the way in the weeks to come. My babbling will probably be the most regularly and often updated, and approximate the blogs out there on the Net more than the others, esp. at the start.
So it's an ongoing joyride, forging some new territory (esp. to these guys, and to Post management as well). I'm just trying to hold on and have fun.
R.e. the 60-day fair use thing you cite, I'm not sure what that is, but these bloggers' stuff should remain online for a damn long time, and if they for some reason are unlinked I can always link them back up to the site again. (ed. The Post Acceptable Use Agreement states that articles on only kept online for 60 days. I don't like link rot and many of my Denver Post links from the 2003 Denver Municipal Election are now broken.)
Thanks for taking the time to write, and please e-mail me anytime with questions, comments, suggestions, criticisms, whatever. I'd love to hear your thoughts not just on our blogs but all our content.
Cheers, Gil"
7:26:30 AM

e-mail John: