thoughtsignals

I would have loved to have been at BookExpo in LA to see this panel with John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga about building online communities.

Scalzi talked about his experience establishing himself as the “benevolent dictator” of the conversational community that grew up around his blog, which has evolved into a culture that is capable of entertaining itself even when he’s not around, like when he’s up against a book deadline. Keeping the readers informed of deadlines and other parts of the writing process, he added, had an unexpected effect: “The community is kicking my ass to not blog so they can get the books.”

There’s nothing on YouTube that comes up in a quick search, but maybe somebody will post something. In the meantime, more details over at GalleyCat.

Want to broadcast your own call-in talk radio show? No problem. Thanks to BlogTalkRadio you can. Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz reports the site is drawing 2.4 million visitors a month, and giving lots of folks like us a new voice.

Most shows are hosted from home by bloggers who need no special equipment and pay no fee. The only requirement is that they put a link to the program on their Web site. On BlogTalkRadio’s site, visitors can search for programs by name or category.

The process is nearly idiot-proof. The host logs on to a Web page with a password, types in when he wants the show to air, and then — using a garden-variety phone — calls a special number. The computer screen lists the phone numbers of guests or listeners calling in, and the host can put as many as six on the air at once by clicking a mouse. Listeners can download a podcast version later.

Is thoughtsignals radio in the future? Maybe (after grad school) — stay tuned.

(Hat tip to my colleague Kathryn who first brought this to my attention.)

Cnet has an interesting interview with John Battelle, founder of the blog network Federated Media and an expert on Google, online publishing and other things. He says what I’ve been thinking for years, and what makes the Internet so interesting to me as a writer:

I believe even more than ever in the value and quality of content. What I think has changed is that the creation of content, and I’m using content very broadly here to include services as well as traditional approaches to content…but I think the creation of content has decoupled in the last five years. Decoupled from the media business–I mean Viacom, Time Inc, CNET, Wired, Condé Nast–and that decoupling means that talented producers of content, for the first time have access to distribution, tools of production, and the ability to actually execute and produce their own content without having to attach themselves to traditional media businesses.

Link.

A new service, PicApp, allows bloggers to insert photos from major photo agencies, such as Getty, into their blog posts for free. So, for instance, if I wanted to start littering my blog with photos of Britney Spears and other troubled celebrities, I could.

Of course, the service may insert advertising.

PicApp (hat tip to GigaOm).

This is like something straight out of a William Gibson novel:

Yes, I blog from a sailboat and cruise the azure waters of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Mexico. “Call me Slogger,” to borrow from the opening line of that saga of the sea, Moby Dick.

But whales are not my game. I chase lesser creatures. Specifically the men, women and issues involved in the $3 billion California state stem-cell agency — the world’s largest single source of funding for human embryonic-stem-cell research.

David Jensen, a former newspaper reporter and editor and political PR guy blogs from his sailboat off the coast of Mexico. This Wired first-person piece is mostly about the struggle to find Internet access while living on a sailboat. But the fact that he writes mostly about stem cell research and policy makes it all the more remarkable. Ten years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible.

How the world is changing.

Advertising Age’s Bob Garfield is writing a book online titled “Listen.”

Because it turns out that all those guys with the PowerPoint presentations you’ve been sitting through for the past three years – you know, the ones insisting “The consumer is in control” – are absolutely right. The consumer (and voter and citizen) is in control: of what and when she watches, of what and when she reads, of whether to pay any attention to you whatsover or to make your life a living hell. This might be an excellent time, therefore, to listen to what she has to say. And it sure wouldn’t hurt to make her your friend.

Introduction to the project here, first installment, and second installment.

Startup newspaper BostonNOW is printing excerpts from local bloggers in its print edition.

John Wilpers, editor in chief of BostonNow, a free weekday daily introduced last month, said he wanted to fill the paper with items that local bloggers submitted to the BostonNow Web site.

Last week, editors began culling posts and running excerpts next to articles from reporters and newswires. The blog items, which appear in gray boxes, are still relatively few, but Mr. Wilpers said he thought the feature would grow.

Mr. Wilpers, who previously edited two other free commuter newspapers, Metro Boston and The Washington Examiner, said he wanted to address what he believed was the news industry’s biggest problem: an inability to connect with the communities it covers.

I expect there will be a certain amount of moaning that this is another sign of the end of newspapers (no, their declining circulation, readership and ad revenue would be the sign of that). However, I also expect that we’ll see a lot more of that. Other newspapers are already doing this in one form or another, and many papers are printing excerpts from their own bloggers in the print edition (a sure sign that momentum has shifted from print to the Web).

Newspapers have a long history of printing things that aren’t really news — comics, recipes, letters to the editor, horoscopes, etc. This isn’t that new. But it is a good idea.

Link.

Mediapost writer Karl Greenberg has put a stake in the heart of a buzz campaign for a riding lawnmower. Maybe.

“I torpedoed a buzz campaign. I feel really awful about it. Especially since it’s a good campaign.

…

You see, my story — the one I wrote about the fictional grass and the fictional blogs about the grass — shows up on the very top of the list of results you get when you type in … the name of that fictional grass. “

Well, actually his story isn’t appearing at the top of the search results for Google any more. This morning it’s No. 4; No. 3 is another blog post about the incident, and the top two are links to sites that are actually part of the campaign.

You can see the search results here.

Just kidding. I’d love to have your ads (maybe, we can talk).

But for advertisers wary of placing ads in places where the content may be unpredictable and perhaps inappropriate, Feedburner has introduced AdClimate. The tool enables advertisers to identify key words that are problematic and keep their ads off posts that contain those key words.

By way of example, let’s say you have an aversion to the word, “wingnut” and the thought of your ad for pinenuts showing up in a publisher’s blog post about the history of wingnuts would be totally unacceptable (hey - who are we to judge?) AdClimate to the rescue. In addition to screening a multi-language default list of inappropriate language, advertisers can submit their own list of keywords next to which they don’t want their ad to appear - wingnuts and all.

Do other online ad providers, like Google, do this? I don’t know. I bet this will be popular, though.

Link.

N&O Editor Melanie Sill outlines the difference between what her paper is reporting on the Duke lacrosse case compared to at least some of what has appeared on blogs before the N&O reported it.

We heard all kinds of rumors and tips, but we don’t publish unattributed rumor and we almost never quote unidentified sources. Much of this gossip went right up on blog posts, but we used such leads and rumors as initial information that had to be fleshed out on the record or through independent verification.

She does a nice job calmly laying out the difference between what the N&O is doing in the name of traditional journalism compared to what some bloggers have done. And I think she manages to avoid re-opening the whole “blogging vs. journalism” hobgoblin.

Also, she notes that Roy Cooper has (apparently) refused interview requests from N.C. media but jumped at a chance to go on 60 Minutes.

Cooper is North Carolina’s attorney general and has a responsibility to speak to the local community, including reporters who work to inform people here. It’s ironic that after condemning Mike Nifong’s play-to-the-cameras actions, Cooper gave exclusive access to a national television program.

Link.