I have made several changes to my weblog mostly to clean up the clutter, and to make life easier for me as far as posting goes.
I am using the outline feature (which Rick explained recently) to manage my categories and other links; I highly recommend using this tool. It makes things much easier
I have created a new category called "Copyright Law" to handle all of the copyright stuff that makes its way into my news aggregator, but which I don't necessarily want to comment on. Of course, for those of you that want you can get just the XML feed for that category.
In the future I plan to add categories as needed. The main page will be the only place where I will make personal comments. But, if I make personal comments to a post that is copyright related, then it will appear on both the main page and the "Copyright Law" page. I guess what I'm trying to do is to stop posting things to the main page unless I write something original.
I also wrote a piece called This Blog, which is for people that are interested in starting a weblog; it includes links to a few of the people and places where I have learned about how to use Radio.
10:28:29 PM
Martha Graham on Writing
"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open..."
"No artist is pleased [There is no] satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
--Martha Graham to Agnes de Mille, Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham (from the introduction to George Carlin's book Braindroppings)
I have always liked that quote, especially since I came across it in a book by George Carlin (I can't picture Carlin reading that book, but then he is a fascinating guy with more depth than he is given credit for). I think this quote explains a great deal of the underpinnings of the blogging revolution.
Hundreds of plaintiffs' lawyers around the country are holding their breath as they wait to learn the fate of a billion-dollar settlement in a class action over faulty artificial joints manufactured by Texas-based Sulzer Orthopedics Inc. According to Richard Scruggs, attorney for Sulzer, the company will decide Wednesday whether so many plaintiffs have opted out of the deal that it's economically unfeasible. [Law.com]
Wendy's chicken sandwich is supposedly prone to exploding, showering diners with white-hot grease. In the lawsuit, Toledo attorney Samuel Bolotin alleges that a defect in the design of the chicken sandwich and the failure of Wendy’s employees to warn patrons of the risk of the sandwich’s exploding warrant a judgment against the company.
Mitzi Pumphrey is asking for no less than $25,000 from a jury to help pay for the pain and suffering caused to her and her family after she was "severely" burned by the sandwich. She and husband, Scott Pumphrey, are suing the company, the supplier of the chicken, and the "manufacturer" of the chicken. Via [bOing bOing]
This is the kind of information that large law firms (and other corporate organizations) should make available to the new recruits. A lot of the information may seem like "common sense" to those who already know how to interact with people at organizational meetings and marketing events. But as Jim McGee pointed out a few months ago, common sense may only be stuff that you know so well that you don't even remember learning it.
John Sumser writes "Blogging is in a primitive form. The heavy users only know that it is possible. "Why?" is a question that awaits a claifying "How?"
I only listed a few of the dozen here. Go visit John's site and read the rest of the article.
10:28:59 AM
Another blogger's response to John Robb's essay
John Sumser writes: "Small businesses create capital that is given to banks so that large companies can multiply it. Like lawyers, large organizations are risk mitigators whose challenge is not creation but maintenance. This is a task that small operations routinely fail. Small organizations make large gains possible. Large organizations thrive on the incremental." [5th Constituency] Via [Scripting News]
I like what Sumser says, and from visiting his site (5th Constituency) I found that I liked it a lot too (seems interested in Knowledge Management etc). So here comes another XML feed into my news aggregator.
Many blame Gerald M. Levin, the outgoing chief executive of AOL Time Warner, for the current deflated state of the company. [New York Times: Technology]
Apparently the annual shareholders meeting was a tension filled affair for AOL. This Times article doesn't say this, but the article in my local paper (by Shelley Emling of Cox News Service) mentioned that there was one supporter of the AOL boys there at the shareholders' meeting, which was held in the historic Apollo Theatre. Yes, Jesse Jackson was in attendance (as a shareholder??) and publicly praised the company.
"This is one of America's finest hours and I think you'regarding equal to this task," he told new CEO Richard Parsons, praising the naming of an African-American to the helm of the world's largest media company. Jackson, reflectin on the Enron scandal, also complimented the company for not "embarrassing us with a corruption."
Let's see...Jesse Jackson praises AOL openly at a shareholders meeting at roughly the same time that they name a new African-American director to their Board. Coincidence? Sure. Why not?
9:54:08 AM
John Robb's essay on economics - hmmmm?
It's entitled "The New Economy". I just read it and I think he's framed some issues that aren't widely discussed in the mainstream media. I also just read, this week, Tim Berners-Lee's book "Weaving the Web" in which he has a lot to say about the web's decentralizing force. When my friend Rich and I were having lunch the other day we started talking about what this decentralization will mean for corporations. We seem to have hit a point where centralized command and control (of almost any sort) is being threatened.
I mean it used to be that you had to have centralized control in order to take on big projects (i.e. building the pyramids, the Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal etc). Now, it's getting to the point where centralized control is actually a bottleneck. Berners-Lee made that point when he described a particular issue that came up in his quest to develop the world wide web, and how he couldn't afford to wait 18 months that it would take to go through "proper channels." So he just, as they say in the world of networking, "routed around the problem."
Command and control. Alas. It's not what it used to be...
The Cluetrain guys describe this more elegantly and succinctly when they say that "hyperlinks threaten the org chart." [cite] And how true that is. Anyway, John is right that control of information is changing. And I think (as many people do) that this is a good thing. Although, as we adapt to the change our economy is struggling to adapt too.
