| Tuesday, December 21, 2004 |
| TEN THINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT BLOGS |
Radio had its own golden age in the 1930's.
In the 1950's, it was television's turn.
Historians may well date the golden age of
the blog from 2004 -- when Merriam-Webster.com's
most searched-for definition was blog.
How long can it last? Who know's? Here's
what we discovered about the new medium this year
By CHRIS TAYLOR)
BLOGGING CAN GET YOU FIRED
------
When Delta airlines flight attendant
Ellen Simonetti, 30 -- a leggy blond and
self-styled "queen of the sky"-- began her blog,
she thought it would be fun to post pinup snapshots
of herself in uniform. Delta wasn't amused and
promptly fired her. Undaunted, Simonetti retitled
the blog Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant and
detailed her legal battle to get her job back.
GO TO: queenofsky.journalspace.com
BLOGGERS GET SCOOPS TOO
-------
After book editor Russ Kick read that the
U.S. military was clamping down on press photos
of coffins coming back from Iraq, he did'nt just
pen and angry rant on his blog, the Memory Hole.
He filed a Freedom of Information Act request---
nd embarassingly for the Pentagon, was mailed a CD
from the Air Force with 361 coffin snaps, which he
promptly posted. The national press, which hadn't
thought to ask whether the mailitary had picures,
beat a path to Kick's door.
GO TO:thememoryhole.org
BLOGGERS CAN BE FAKERS
------
Plain Layne, a highly personal blog supposedly belonging
to a Minnesota lesbian named Layne Johnson that drew
thousands of fans over 3 1/2 years before mysteriously
disappearing, was revealed to be a hoax. Hundreds of fans
helped track down the real author, Odin Soli, 35, a male
enterpreneur from Woodbury, Minn. Later in the year,
fake Bill Clinton and Andy kauffman blogs became hits.
GO TO:
plainlayne.dreamhost.com,billclintondailydiary.blogspot.com
BLOGGERS KEEP NEWS ALIVE
-------
So your blog han'st succeeded in getting national
attention for your pet issue? Don't lose heart. Just blog,
link and repeat. It worked for conservative bloggers
like Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, who trumpeted the
Swift Boat Veterans Claims this summer, as well as for
liberal blogs like Daily Kos,which investigated evidence
that Pres. Bush wore a wire in his first debate. Some of
the issues had questionable merit, but persistent bloggers
made the subject tough to ignore. Say it enough times
online,and someone is bound to hear you.
GO TO: Instapundit.com,dailykos.com
BLOGGERS CAN BE TITILLATING
---------
In May a blog graphically detailing the sex life of an
anonymous Capitol Hill staff member prompted D.C.'s most
intriguing game of guess-the-author since Primary Colors.
Jessica Cutler, a.k.a. Washingtonienne, was
later outed and fired by her boss, Ohio Representative Mike DeWine, for "inappropriate use of Senate computers".
(Her site is not for kids) In another sign of the times,
her first postfiring interview was with Wonkette,
another Washington blogger.
GO TO:
washingtoniennearchive,blogspot.com,wonkette.com
BLOGGERS MAKE MONEY
--------
Earn a living in your pajamas! Online ads
(along with Google's automated ad server) allow popular
bloggers to go pro. Joshua Micah Marshall talkingpointsmemo.com,
a political blog, say he makes $5,000 a month from banner ads --
enough to hire a researcher assistant.
GO TO: talkingpointsmemo.com
MOST BLOGGERS ARE WOMEN
----------
Men may have taken the lead in the early (read: geeky)
days of blogging, but that's not the case now. According
to a survey of more than 4 million blogs by Perseus Development,
56% were created by women.More bad news for the boys; men are
more likely than women to abandon their blog once it's crated.
Call blogging 21st century room of one's own.
GO TO: blogsisters.blogspot.com
CANDIDATES LOVE BLOGS
--------
O.K., so Howard Dean never wrote his blog. But his campaign
workers posted a surprisingly intimate online diary of life
on the road, and Dean had collected $20 Million in contributions
via the internet alone by the end of January 2004. It didn't take
a long for other politicos to catch on. When New York attorney
general Eliot Spitzer announced that he was running for Governor
this month, he did so on his blog.
GO TO:
blog.deanforamerica.com,spitzer2006.com
PETS HAVE BLOG TOO
-------
It started as an in-joke among feline-friendly bloggers:
why not post pictures of their pets every Friday afternoon?
Friday catblogging became a hit, and soon
even NASA was playing along by posting pictures of the
Cat's Eye nebula.
GO TO: carnivalofthecats.com
ANYONE CAN DO IT
-------
Blogs would'nt be such a democratic medium if they weren't
so easy to set up. The most popular service, Blogger,
owned by Google, boasts features like push-button photoblogging.
Microsoft has launched a trial version of its own blogging service.
GO TO: blogger.com,spaces.msn.com
(ABSTRACTED FROM TIMEMAG) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 3:26 AM |
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Name: infraternam meam
Home: Chicago, United States
About Me: I am now at the prime of my life
and have been married for the past 25 years.
Sickly at times, but wants to see the elixir vita,
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