Blogging

The value of a link

Two days ago I wrote Doubbletalk about the irony of a couple of links on the Scripting News page. Dave Winer was nice enough to link to my piece yesterday with some clarification that got me thinking. First, Winer said:

Josh Brauer comments on my linking to a story about Apple a couple of days ago. I asked him to post this to the web, and I thank him for that. There is a misunderstanding. I point to pieces from Scripting News only because I think they're interesting. I often point to pieces I disagree with. A link from Scripting News says nothing more than I thought it was interesting. No other endorsement.

I'm intregued by this as it has me thinking. Winer and I both have pages we call "News" pages. Winer's is much more robust and has a more defined purporse and audience than mine.

Value The Oxford American Dictionary says value is the amount of a good or service that is considered to be equivalent to something else for which the thing can be exchanged. What is the value of a link on the web? In my case it's a few hundred hits. I give somebody links and they get a hundred or so more hits than if I hadn't. Winer gives me links and a few hundred more people come my way and get my spin on life.

Like so much of the web it's hard to place value on electrons.

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Hmmm....

I've watched with interest lately as a couple of email lists I see from time to time have heated discussions. What continues to surprise me is that there are blog authors engaged in a great debate, who have their blog in their email signature, but who don't post anything about the discussion to their blog. I don't understand why.

Olympic Blogging

Wired has an article yesterday about blogging and the Olympic games.(Link from Scripting News.) It says "participants in the games may respond to written questions from reporters or participate in online chat sessions -- akin to a face-to-face or telephone interview -- but they may not post journals or blogs until the Games end Aug. 29." So here's my question to all athletes: What would you like to tell the world about your experience at the games (include your thoughts about competition, your sport, life in the Olympic village, etc.)? Please respond via the web - this website or yours - instead of via email.

You might see from that question that the restrictions the IOC is trying to place are a bit ridiculous. I wrote previously about the [Amy Acuff] Olympic Diary which is being published on Playboy's site. Friday's entry is entirely an answer to a question about acupuncture sent by a reader. It got me thinking that all an athlete needs is a foil to ask the right questions. So my question to would-be Olympic bloggers is what question would you like to be asked?

Do blogs spell the end of good writing?

Drew McKenzie, former columnist for Penthouse, which is now going through bankruptcy, has an interesting point in his article about the recent decline of the porn peddling magazine. There are plenty of other explanations for why the magazine is failing.

McKenzie says "I'd hoped it would survive the onslaught of the "mags for lads" and their popular 'bits-and-blurb' format. FHM, Maxim and Stuff have succeeded because market studies show that guys 18 to 34 won't read big stories and they want pieces broken up. But Penthouse refused to change with the times."

This describes my dissatisfaction with most blogs. The content is often inconsistent, my own writings in this space are a prime example their on-again off-again nature. There have been debates about editing weblogs. This is not about editing, nor about the quality of writing on weblogs. There are definitely some outstanding examples of great writing on weblogs. The problem with weblogs, for those who are avid readers, is that there is never enough to them.

BloggerCON

BloggerCON is going on this weekend. The best feed I've found is the quicktime feed. There is a great discussion of Blogs in education going on right now. I hope it will be available later as there are good suggestions about how education can be enhanced by encouraging students at all levels to publish to an audience wider than their teachers or classrooms.

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