Puppy Purses: carry your dog like a purse
Puppy Purses: carry your dog like a purse. For people who really hate their dogs?
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Entries for March 2005
Trustees vote to eliminate the journalism programs
Trustees vote to eliminate the journalism programs and school papers at Ventura College and Oxnard College. Ostensively this is a budget issue, but probably had more to do with school officials wanting to limit negative on-campus press.
My business influences
As you may have noticed by reading the site in the past year, I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about companies…how they succeed, why they fail, how to approach them from a holistic sense so they make sense on a human scale and not just from a business perspective, that sort of thing. In deciding to start my own little company of one, here are a few things I’ve run across that have influenced how I’m approaching it.
Coudal Partners is a design studio based in Chicago. Like many blogs (their site is a little more than a blog, but we won’t get into that now), their site features advertising in the form of text ads in the top left corner of the page. But they only accept advertising from companies whose products they have used: “sell us something then we’ll sell you an ad.” I love this because it ties advertising back into its word-of-mouth origins, makes it more human, personal, and believable. (More on advertising stuff in a few days.)
I don’t have many heroes, but Craig Newmark is definitely one of them. He’s had offers to sell craigslist for millions of dollars, many offers from VCs, he could charge for all listings on the site, or he could fill the site with advertising, but this is what he wants out of craigslist (via Wired): “get yourself a comfortable living, then do a little something to change the world”. The many articles I’ve read about Craig have really reinforced for me that you need to let your values drive business decisions and not the other way around.
I’ve mentioned this a few times on the site before, but Ludicorp, the makers of Flickr, has the one of the best quotes about business I’ve ever read on their about page. It’s an excerpt from Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneurship, Democratic Action and the Cultivation of Solidarity by Charles Spinosa, Fernando Flores & Hubert Dreyfus:
Saying that the point of business is to produce profit is like saying that the whole point of playing basketball is to make as many baskets as possible. One could make many more baskets by having no opponent.
The popularity of Flickr has put Ludicorp in a tight spot and it seems like they’ll need to get big somehow in order to keep up with it (rumor is they’ve been purchased by Yahoo!). It’s a reminder that you may succeed beyond your wildest dreams and you need to be ready for it to happen. Whatever their path is, I hope they can keep true to the values that have guided the company thus far.
When Google decided to pursue their IPO, the filing included an “owner’s manual” written by Larry Page, one of Google’s two founders. Google is aiming high — focusing on the long term, trying not to be evil, taking on risk, not giving too much control of the company over to shareholders — and it will be interesting to see how they fare over the long term. Google’s gotten a lot of shit for aiming so high, especially about the “don’t be evil” stuff, just like the NY Times gets criticized for attempting to produce objective journalism, but I think that’s unfair. I’ll choose a company with ideals they’re trying to live up to over a business that’s aiming for the status quo any day of the week.
TextDrive, a hosting company, eschewed venture capital and went right to their users and asked them to pay their startup costs (in exchange for lifetime hosting). They raised $40,000 in 75 hours from the VC200. That’s what’s called “creative thinking”.
Dave Eggers gets a lot of crap, but I like the way he’s trying to run McSweeney’s:
But the way that McSweeney’s is run is, “Can there be a way that what they call mid-list authors, people who don’t sell in the Danielle Steel category, can still have an audience and still make a living?” McSweeney’s has very little overhead, to the degree that we can sell 6,000 copies of somebody’s book, and he can still get a decent amount of money, because he’s getting more per book because of the low overhead. That’s still our goal. I was just sort of going along with the same business model, like, “If we sell 50,000 copies, then everyone will do fine, and life will stay quiet.”
Not trying to take over the world, just doing something in balance with the lives of everyone concerned.
David Bull is an artist who makes fantastic woodblock prints. He doesn’t number his prints, doesn’t sell through collectors, doesn’t even offer individual prints, and yet he’s been making a living from his art for more than 16 years. He sells subscriptions of his prints through his site and here’s a bit of his philosophy on that:
I like making prints, and am not afraid of the physical work of printing them. Unlike many artists, who prefer to keep their edition sizes small (to save work, or to keep things ‘exclusive’) and who must thus charge high prices for their prints, I prefer to make more of them and keep the cost to each collector as low as possible.
There are lots more people other there doing wonderful things with their business lives (37signals, the independent Mac developers like Ranchero, Delicious Monster, and Panic, etc.) but that’s enough for now.
It’s a dancetravaganza with Napoleon Dynamite vs.
It’s a dancetravaganza with Napoleon Dynamite vs. Fender, a robot from that movie Robots. This is the weirdest cross marketing thing I’ve ever seen…but I like it. (And Napolean is currently winning with 61%.)
The rise of comic journalism
The rise of comic journalism. “But since the renaissance of the mid-eighties, more and more writers and artists have been producing serious nonfiction comics about current events, from war crimes to hip-hop.”
Zopa removes (most of) the middlemen in
Zopa removes (most of) the middlemen in the lending/borrowing scheme; no more going through banks or credit card companies. Company takes 1% up front from the borrowers. UK-only for now. Fantastic idea…I’m in favor of anything that introduces a little competition into the collusive world of banking and credit cards.
Monday’s Non Sequitur comic strip called a
Monday’s Non Sequitur comic strip called a newspaper a “dinosaur blog”.
Bakers in Denmark are experimenting with tastier communion wafers
Bakers in Denmark are experimenting with tastier communion wafers. Consumers these days are so used to having many varieties of everything to choose from that this almost makes sense.
Great illustrations on these post-war Kikkoman advertising prints
Great illustrations on these post-war Kikkoman advertising prints.
Transformational geometry and iteration in cornrow hairstyles
Transformational geometry and iteration in cornrow hairstyles. “The Cornrow Curves software lets you use the geometric knowledge from cornrow hairstyles to create your own simulated cornrow designs on the computer.”
Some other names for God
Some other names for God. “The archangel Gabriel was summoned by the will of God. Gabriel bowed his head and replied, ‘How may I serve you, Jimmy? I mean, Lord?’ Thus followed the awkwardest silence in the history of heaven.”
NY Times is getting rid of the Circuits section
NY Times is getting rid of the Circuits section. Disappointing, but a bold move by the Times…they’re putting coverage where it belongs, regardless of whether it’s “digital” or not.
if:book on the hypertextuality of David
if:book on the hypertextuality of David Foster Wallace’s recent article in the Atlantic Monthly. “Most interesting is how the aesthetic draws inspiration from the web: the boxed notes suggest pop-up windows (or the electronic - not so much the paper - version of Post-It notes), especially when they’re layered. And the boxed phrases suggest nothing so much as the underlining that the Web has taught us signifies a hyperlink.”
Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack to reopen for
Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack to reopen for business on April 1st. I hope this isn’t some cruel April Fools joke.
Technorati and the evolving corporate conversation
Update 3/9/05 @ 9:16 AM: Dave Sifry, CEO of Technorati, has a nice writeup of the situation from Technorati’s perspective. Not only are they not censoring their employees’ weblogs, they are sticking by an employee (and a relatively new one at that) who did something foolish when they could have just pulled the plug on him. I especially liked the point about the speed at which the situation was handled…people these days want instant results (it’s easy to see how weblogs tie into this), but things don’t always work that way. Note to self: slow down sometimes, will ya?
Update 3/8/05 @ 9:11 AM: Niall has posted an apology on his site with a little more information on what happened. Here’s his most recent take on Technorati’s policy:
It is for this reason it is recommended that Technorati employees seek the opinion of a coworker if they are unsure of how a post might be interpreted by others, to lend a fresh pair of eyes and an experienced mind to your intended message.
Read the whole thing…I don’t think Technorati’s position on this is unfair at all. It’s a tough issue and it’s going to be messy at times (as we saw with Mark Jen’s situation at Google). Companies in the past have typically been very top down with everything, including the “message”, emanating from upper management. As companies have become more open, they’ve relied on their employees “drinking the Kool-Aid” to ensure a uniform message to the outside world. But lately, customers have been wanting something more authentic and some companies, particularly in the blogging space, are attempting to provide it. And they’re probably gonna get a little bloodied for it in the short term. Is it even possible for a company to participate in a conversation in the marketplace with multiple opinions represented, some of which may even be in direct opposition with each other? How will customers react to a company disagreeing with itself in public? (Answer: probably not very well in the short term.)
Note: I modified the title of the post to something more accurate and less inflammatory given the situation as it currently stands.
Original post
On Saturday, Niall Kennedy posted some Photoshopped “propaganda posters from the 1940s to express how corporations would like to control what their employees say on a weblog, at a bar, or even to their families”. At some point after that, he took the post down after Technorati (his employer) complained about it and replaced it with the following:
Technorati would rather I did not express an opinion on issues such as corporate blogging policies that are affecting the world of weblogs. This post has been overwritten and my artwork posted to Flickr is now marked as private and available only to Flickr contacts marked as friends.
Yes, I was threatened with “serious consequences” for not seeking corporate approval for a weblog posting relating to an industry issue. Tomorrow will undoubtedly bring many conversations about if employees are allowed to have their own voice and write weblog entries without passing through an executive mouthpiece first.
It should be interesting. A blogging company applying strong filters to employee weblogs about public issues that affect the community.
If my original post is not up for a while, you will know how things turned out. I love the industry and writing about weblogs, technology, and search and hope to continue to share my personal point of view in the future.
The original post is back up on Niall’s site (update: looks like the post is down again) with the following disclaimer:
The commentary expressed on this weblog is my point of view and may not necessarily represent the point of view of Technorati.
On a post about this on Buzzhit, Niall explains what happened (italics mine):
Technorati executives are concerned about how employee weblogs expressing opinions may be interpreted as an official Technorati position. All Technorati employees have been asked to review weblog posts with staff members before posting. I reinstated my original post this morning and I am ready to willing to hear the community’s response to my individual voice. I hope to continue to share my passion for the industry through my weblog without editorial oversight.
For a company that relies on aggregating content by scraping full posts from almost 8 million blogs, vetting their employees’ personal writing seems like a curious (not to mention ironic and hypocritical) position for Technorati to take. Aside from this specific incident, I’ve noticed that blogs written by people who go to work in the blogging industry usually get updated less, are less about blogging than they were before as well, and are also less critical of blogging. If everyone who’s really into blogging gets snatched up by blogging companies and eventually clam up, I don’t see that as a positive thing for the industry as a whole.
The Thai government has plans to build
The Thai government has plans to build a museum with a simulated tsunami wave. “And at the same time, because tourism is an enjoyable product, we would also… like to (use technology) to make the museum more attractive and interesting by making a simulation of a tidal wave.” Wah?
The US Government and identification requirements
The US Government and identification requirements. “I would voluntarily give up credit and other information for a card to avoid long airport lines, but I am not sure the Internal Revenue Service should have access to that data.”
There is absolutely nothing intentionally funny about this photo
There is absolutely nothing intentionally funny about this photo.
Best of NYC Food 2005 from New York magazine
Best of NYC Food 2005 from New York magazine. The Shake Shack, serving a west coast-style burger, garners the coveted Best Burger title.
This MetaFilter post is chock full of
This MetaFilter post is chock full of links about various London tube maps.
Google Desktop Search goes 1.0 and adds API support
Google Desktop Search goes 1.0 and adds API support. Another block of the GooOS. And no doubt now that Google is Microsoft’s biggest competitor.
Videos of three lecutres given by Hans Bethe in 1999
Videos of three lecutres given by Hans Bethe in 1999. “The presentation makes use of limited mathematics while focusing on the personal and historical perspectives of one of the principal architects of quantum theory whose career in physics spans 75 years.”
Hans Bethe, one of the last surviving
Hans Bethe, one of the last surviving giants of the nuclear age, dies aged 98. The NY Times has a nice extended obit.
An interview with Cory Doctorow about his
An interview with Cory Doctorow about his writing, science fiction, and a bit about technology.
When knowledge workers are the most valuable
When knowledge workers are the most valuable part of the business, business is going to run into problems. “The upshot is that in many knowledge businesses the employees often do better than the shareholders.”
Help a newbie blogger out
A few days ago, I got a letter from a reader named Randy:
I am father to a 2 1/2 yr old girl with her second cancer who is going for a bone marrow transplant in late March. I have just started to think about fundraising when I was forwarded your interview in Wired and it got me thinking that perhaps I could use the same approach to raise money for Julia.
I have been keeping a blog since she was diagnosed the 2nd time on 12/30/04. Although I am a web architect, I know next to nothing about blogs and am spending all my time researching cancer. Thus, the format, graphics, and look and feel have been completely neglected — the main focus has been the content in order to — keep a record for family, journal for Julia for when she is older, help me philosophize about life and put her illness into perspective, etc.
I was hoping you could give me some tips on getting started — some questions that come to mind:
- Finding an ISP that allows you access to the servers (I am currently hosted at Geocities and would have to upgrade just to get PHP and MySQL).
- How to set up processing for micropayments? (We have a fundraising idea around Julia’s treatment and progress which would require periodic debit from an account.)
- Tips for building traffic.
- Links to 1) sites that help a blogger, 2) sites to blogs you would consider top-notch, anything else you feel is useful
I know I could find this stuff myself, but I was hoping that you could jump me up the learning curve so that I could get Jules’ site up and running.
I emailed him some recommendations but I figured you folks would have some good advice as well. Are there alternatives to PayPal for donations? Tips and sites for beginning bloggers would be helpful as well…Google was only moderately helpful and most links I found skew towards business uses of blogs. Try and keep the duplicate information to a minimum and when in doubt, be more verbose rather than less…”Bitpass is good for micropayments because…” rather than “Try Bitpass”. Alright, go.
The abilities required to prosper in the
The abilities required to prosper in the modern world are more right brain these days than left.
A look at Google’s back-end systems and
A look at Google’s back-end systems and how they maintain redundancy.
An interview with a Korean-American manager of a NYC deli
An interview with a Korean-American manager of a NYC deli.
The Internet Revolution has Little to do with Technology
The Internet Revolution has Little to do with Technology. A kid watching TV is “unlikely to ever be involved in the production of any television” but that’s not so with the internet.
Great watercolor paintings of the creation of
Great watercolor paintings of the creation of the NYC subway from third graders. I love the last one with the guy holding the black box aloft…very Rocky Balboa.
Wow, I didn’t know Hartz flea and
Wow, I didn’t know Hartz flea and tick products could be so harmful to cats.
Four million year old skeleton is oldest biped ever discovered
Four million year old skeleton is oldest biped ever discovered.
New book claims Nazi Germany did nuclear
New book claims Nazi Germany did nuclear bomb testing as early as 1944. But experts (and I) disagree. There’s no way they had the infrastructure necessary to make enough enriched uranium for a functioning weapon.
The making of Gunner Palace
The making of Gunner Palace. Filmmaker Michael Tucker cut the entire film on location in Baghdad and in his living room with Final Cut Pro.
Newsweek on “The Blogosphere’s Matt Lauer” (i.e. me)
Newsweek on “The Blogosphere’s Matt Lauer” (i.e. me). On full-time blogging, microcelebrity, and journalism.
Using bumptunes and the Powerbook’s new accelerometer
Using bumptunes and the Powerbook’s new accelerometer to control iTunes playback. “You rock the machine backwards for the next track, and rock it forwards for the previous track.” Could use the same technique for “rapid-fire email filing (tilt right to delete, left to keep, like you’re driving through time through your mail inbox)”. Awesome.
Photo gallery of 25 years of skateboarding
Photo gallery of 25 years of skateboarding. Audio narration by old school skater Steve Alba.
Micropatron gifts (L@@K L@@K)
Well, we’re a week and a half into the three-week “fund drive” (if you’re just tuning in, start here) and it’s time for a shout-out to the kind people and companies who have contributed gifts for some lucky kottke.org micropatrons (contribute $30+ and you have a chance). If you haven’t looked at the list in awhile, you’ll notice some additions.
I chose the gift contributors fairly carefully. With one or two exceptions, most of the list is comprised of either friends/acquaintances of mine who are supportive of what I’m doing, companies that have an interest in blogs and blogging, products I’ve used, or people who have gone or are going out on a limb to do something entreprenurial in their lives (selling photography, software, soap, books, etc…labors of love and commerce). I have a special place in my heart for the latter group because they’re in a boat similar to mine and it makes me happy than I can help get the word out about their projects.
Recent additions to the list:
- Copies of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. What’s there left to say about Gladwell?
- Gift certificate to Threadless. My near-exclusive supplier of tshirts.
- Signed copies of Spacebloom: A Field Guide to Cosmic Xflora. This looks fantastic…and published in the year 2267?
- Signed first edition hardcover of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom from Cory Doctorow. Cory co-edits BoingBoing and somehow manages to write award-winning novels in the meantime.
- One handmade Italian journal from Eastgate Systems. These look beautiful.
- Gift certificate for handmade jewelry from I Like Beads. I like Alison.
- One VIP Rip gift certificate from Ripshark. Ship ‘em your CDs and they’ll convert ‘em all to MP3.
- One 12” x 18” signed print by Marshall Sokoloff. Love Marshall’s photography.
- T-shirts from Diesel Sweeties. Note the sweet use of Silkscreen.
- Gift sets of bath and beauty products from Petal My favorite is the Oatmeal & Honey soap.
Solid gold platinum executive class founder gifts:
- Photo prints from Eliot Shepard. Great photography.
- Print of an explodingdog drawing from Sam Brown.
- Copy of “Thinking of You” by Sam Brown. Various works from explodingdog collected into a book.
- Copies of PulpFiction from Fresh Squeezed Software. Mail.app-like newsreader for OS X.
- Subscriptions to Heather Champ’s Print Club 2005. One print a month for a whole year!
- Flickr Pro accounts from Ludicorp. Everyone loves Flickr.
- Basecamp accounts. Web-based project management made easy.
- Copies of NetNewsWire and MarsEdit. Award winning newsreader and blog editor for OS X.
- Copy of TopStyle from Bradbury Software. An XHTML/CSS editor for Windows from the creator of HomeSite.
- Copies of FeedDemon from Bradbury Software. Feature-packed newsreader for Windows.
- Movie-sized jewel cases from Jewelboxing. High quality jewel cases for your DVD projects.
- Pixiesdiscs. Audio CDs of each of the Pixies stops on their recent tour.
- 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival registration. The conference of choice for bloggers everywhere.
- Copy of Studio MX 2004 with Flash Professional from Macromedia. Flash, Freehand, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks for Windows or OS X.
- Signed hardcover copies of Emergence from Steven Johnson. One of my favorites from the past few years.
- A coveted spot in TextDrive’s “webhosting for life” offer. They will host your site until you or the company dies.
- Personal license for Movable Type or a lifetime discount on Typepad from Six Apart. Choose from two popular blogging systems.
- Signed copies of The Wisdom of Crowds from James Surowiecki. He writes the excellent financial column for the New Yorker.
Again, here’s the detailed list and here’s how you become a micropatron for a shot at one of the above.
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