Doc Searles on blogs

What is a blog? The oft-cited Doc Searles shares his thoughts in a PowerPoint from the “Les Blogs” conference in Paris. Or, if you’d like the html version …

Try slide 17 for the nub of things:

• Blogs are journals
• They are not “sites”
• They are not “content”
• They are not “media”
• They are not here to “deliver an experience”
• They are not an “emergent synchronization mode”
• There’s no argument about “who’s a journalist.” We all are.

Searles’ basic argument is that blogs are individual writings — speech — that turn into conversations through the linking ability of the Web. Treat them like content, he says, and we run the risk of censorship.

This is why news media and blogs struggle to find compatibility. We in this business see such things as content. That’s fine. Call them online columns, which is what most really are when we produce them.

From Scoble:

Google moves its blog to Blogger, adds blogroll

Yeah, TDavid, it is an honor to be blogrolled on Google’s blog. Google recently moved its blog over to Blogger.

So that’s why my previous attempts to subscribe to this have failed recently. Note to self: check this out in the morning.

History of the Graphical User Interface

Ars Technica has a great history of the GUI that just came online. I was one of those “Xerox invented it, Apple stole it, Microsoft stole that” kinds of people. It’s great to realize that, really, everyone stole everything from someone else and none of this is unique.

From Ensight, a blog by a chap named Jeremy Wright. Looks like an article well worth looking up. I’m reading feeds in bed through FeedDemon, so can’t look them up just now. Oh, for a wireless internet connection!

Well, I am leaving Scrutiny after nearly a year and have a new job as a Business Analyst at another authority. Just a week to go – my first day is 16 May.

What’s it all about? Well, project management basically. A real growth area in local authorities in the UK, and one I am keen to learn about. And guess what? To help keep a handle on all the information that will be coming my way, I am going to be blogging about it. Not here, though. One of the joys of WordPress is that I can have multiple blogs running from the same MySQL database. So, I have just started Project: Blog and will be updating it starting from about now.

I guess you can expect maybe a couple of posts a week over there. It should be pretty interesting (if you are interested in project management…) Still, to help differentiate it from this one I really do need to apply a new theme to it…

Does anyone know how I can insert trackbacks to posts I am quoting or writing about whilst within BlogJet?

At the moment I am having to edit posts while online to add them in, which kind of defeats the object of the exercise…

8 Secrets of the New Super Blogs from Vaspers the Grate

8 Secrets of the New Super Blogs:
Blog Revelations from Otherwhere

(1.) Blogs will be interesting…or die.

(2.) Blogs will be unusual, abnormal, unique…or die.

(3.) Blogs will be practical, helpful, valuable…or die.

(4.) Blogs will be creative, innovative, artistic in both literary and graphic stylings…or die.

(5.) Blogs will be authoritative, reputable, credible, reliable…or die.

(6.) Blogs will be imaginative, original, personalized, customized…or die.

(7.) Blogs will be strong, loud, brilliant, brave…or die.

(8.) Blogs will be ethical, moral, legal and legitimate, altruistic…or die.

An article by Dan Gillmor: Operating Systems and Recent History

Early last week, Bill Gates demonstrated Microsoft’s next Windows desktop computer operating system at a conference for manufacturers of computer hardware. Later in the week Apple started selling its latest version of the Macintosh operating system, known as Mac OS X Tiger.

Interesting article on Michael Howard’s signal of his intention to resign as leader of the Tories on the BBC.

The last thing the Tories want is another instant resignation similar to William Hague’s the day after the 2001 election defeat.

And there is no clamour for Mr Howard’s head after what most believe was an effective election campaign.

Mr Hague clearly believed he was also doing the best by the Tories, but that is not how it turned out.

Thanks to the recently introduced election procedures, it tipped the party into a prolonged battle which ended with outside candidate, “quiet man” Iain Duncan Smith winning as a result of the grassroots vote and then suffering an unhappy spell in the leadership.

The Tories are determined not to go down that route again and Mr Howard has given them time to sort out a new leadership election procedure – which will inevitably mean giving MPs the greatest say.

And he has also ensured that should be a swift process to allow his eventual successor time to bed in before the next election in 2009 or 2010.

There will be some in the Tory party who will grumble that he has not given them time to recover from the election defeat before being thrown into another, internal campaign.

And there is no doubt that the contenders will start positioning themselves immediately for the contest which most will hope comes within the next six to 12 months.

But most Conservatives probably believed the best they could hope for from this general election was an honourable second place, and Mr Howard has delivered that.

When I first heard that he was quitting I was under the impression that he was doing it straight away, Major and Hague style. But leaving a break of 6–12 months does make sense.

Blunkett returns in new Cabinet, according to the BBC:

David Blunkett has returned to the Cabinet as work and pensions secretary as Tony Blair reshuffles his top team.

Patricia Hewitt has been appointed health secretary – with John Reid moving to defence and Geoff Hoon becoming Commons leader.

In other changes, Alan Johnson takes the new post of secretary for productivity, energy and industry.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Home Secretary Charles Clarke remain in their posts.

David Miliband enters the Cabinet as community and local government secretary.

The shake-up came after Mr Blair won an historic third election – but with a majority cut from 167 in 2001 to 66.

Mr Blair said he had “listened and learned” after the election result.

The prime minister acknowledged the Iraq war had been “deeply divisive”.

But he said he believed people wanted to move on.

Am working on a large list of links of pages I regularly visit. At the moment it is very incomplete, so have temporarily password protected it.