Dave advices on how to gently get people to blog. Simple and so right.
And that’s blogging, and that’s all it is.
Damn right. Well said Dave.
How to get people to blog by Dave Winer
February 24th, 2006Blog about wanting some Stormhoek wine and get Hugh’s Attention
February 24th, 2006I emailed Hugh Macleod this week about Stormhoek providing some bottles of wine for the Blog Awards. Hugh’s probably up the walls and hasn’t got time to tell me piss off but why not try and get his attention by blogging about it? If you would like the opportunity to go home with a free bottle of Stormhoek wine after the blog awards then blog about it. (We’ll be charged corkage if we drink it in the hotel and I think it would be nice to enjoy it at home, nearer to where you make the magic happen on your blog.) So blog saying you’d like some wine. Link to this blog too.
Make sure to link to Hugh’s blog and the Stormhoek blog too and see will it get picked up and noticed by Hugh. This is a way is an experiment in blog power. I’m not going to email Hugh again as I think it impolite but I also want to see will all these blogs get his attention. The pre awards tech event almost fits nicely into his geek dinner idea.
So go on, do that thing you do and some of you do so well. Blog.
Friday bits n’ pieces
February 24th, 2006Congrats to BifSniff for making Screenhead. Screenhead is part of the Gawker Media Empire so gets a lot of eyeballs, which is apt for the cartoon in question.
Paige contemplates the blogging life and how she is distracted by the blog awards nominees. Welcome to my world! Please visit Paige’s site and comment on her posts. Some great stuff there. Send her more traffic.
The Tech meetup going on before the Blog Awards is going really well. Good to see some of the bloggers with passions for certain projects are going to be presenting.
Malcolm Gladwell of Blink and Tipping Point fame is blogging. Go subscribe and buy his books. What a great segway …
Speaking of tipping points, I think blogging will reach its Tipping Point when Sliabh’s idea about a less serious counter to the blog Awards occurs. I really like the idea but I fear we’re too early with it yet. There’s some 1000 blogs or so that we can deem as Irish. When we get to 5000, then maybe we could do this.
I’m being called a monster in work because I had rainbow trout for work today and ate it all including the head and eyes. Pfffft. Pics are on the way.
Bloggers – Take the Photo Challenge
February 23rd, 2006Listed below are all the blogs that were in the long list for Best Photoblog. I’m challenging you, the reader of this blog, to visit 2-3 of the below photoblogs and spend some time going through them and pick out 2 favourite photos from the blogs you visited and blog about them and include the photos or a thumbnail of them in the post itself. Introduce your audience to them and give the wonderful photographic artists a boost in traffic. Also link back to this post so I can see who’s taken up the challenge.
EDIT: Due to a silly error with my HTML skills I seemed to comment out half the list. Proper list now displayed.
Rymus.net
Redmum
Catriona
Gingerpixel
Iced Coffee
This is Diopter
Letter to America
Blather Abroad
North Atlantic Skyline
In Photos
Frogbrothers
Focuspocus
The Plastic Cat
Ina O’Murchu
I Like Cameras
PhotoGranny
iReland + iRMA + iPod = iACriminal?
February 23rd, 2006iWent
iBought
iPlayed
iRipped
iWenttoJail
iReland + iRMA + iPod = iACriminal?
Free the MP Three!
Bernard is having problems getting t-shirts printed because Café Press are acting all lawyery. I think he should look for another crowd to sell his t-shirts. Café Press are not going to fuck with Apples lawyers. Find an Irish source and print them locally.
If anyone wants to steal my idea of text for an mp3 campaign, work away. Just send me a free t-shirt. Black, large, soft material (Hey, I’m still a tough guy!).
Free the MP Three!
Pre Awards Tech Event – march 11th
February 23rd, 2006James mentions the pre-Blog Awards tech event being planned. I’ve handed over planning of this to Bernie or rather I suggested it to him that he do it and I legged it. The plan is that the geeks have a small tech event talking about a few things. James will talk OPML and feedgrazing, John Handelaar will talk about his Fax My TD/Vocal Voter project and someone from Microsoft will present IE7 and RSS integration. Bernie will line up one or two more people as well. Hopefully there’ll be a wiki up where people can register to go. I doubt I’ll be able to make it as I have the Awards themselves to play with.
Time will be 1500-1700. Location yet to be decided though it could be in or near the Alexander Hotel as the Blog Awards are moving there.
EDIT: Thatgirl suggests a more social get together for the non-techy people before the Awards. Having half the audience drunk will give it an authentic Jerry Springer feel. Nooooo!
How not to interact with the press – El Paso gives an example
February 23rd, 2006It seems that someone from the Sunday Times contacted El Paso about a story they carried and instead of helping them out they replied with a post claiming the Times were trying to steal their story and added:
Kate, nothing personal but the Sunday Times as a British newspaper has never done Dundalk any favours over the years so our reply is GO TO HELL.
How utterly backward thinking. One would think that if you blog something you’d want more coverage. Hidden agenda or not getting a story more attention is a good thing. If El Paso were worried about being misrepresented then do what I do and post the whole content of emails sent to the paper so there can be no misunderstandings. Readers of the Sunday Times are not dumb and I’m sure can make up their own minds. If one person read the story and it enabled more public discussion then it is a positive thing. Would you treat your fellow bloggers with the same small-minded contempt? And bloggers wonder why the press are wary of them!
Digital Rights – Public Lecture on Government Threats to Privacy TCD Feb 24th
February 21st, 2006Digital Rights talk on Government and Privacy. Feb 24th. TCD. Worth going if you’re around Dublin.
Please register for the Blog Awards
February 21st, 2006Damn you success! It seems there might be a LOT more people coming to the awards than initially expected so can anyone that wants to go register their attendance as soon as possible. I’ll be booking a new location judging by these numbers by end of week. Yikes. Not like I had enough to stress me!
I am not the child from Oliver but I thank you
February 21st, 2006So yes, I’m not that child who, as it happens, was also called Oliver. There have been a few posts, most recently Simon’s suggesting that there should be a whip-around of some sort for me. No need. My hotel stay is now being paid for by Microsoft Ireland and I am hugely grateful. A big thank you to Clare Dillon for making the no-strings attached offer. But have I told you how I’d prefer all my readers to use Internet Explorer to view my site and … 😉 Nope, Microsoft just like us bloggers so they have asked for nothing in return, like many other people who have kindly offered to paypal me money and so forth. Thank you everyone.
Just to be clear, my transparency post was not me with cap in hand, more me just being upfront with costs and what it takes to run an event like this. I have talked to other people who look like they are going to run some other interesting award events and hopefully my post helped them out.
Thanks for all the offers of financial assitance but I should be ok. However the best thing to do to help me is just tell as many friends of yours about the event and if you personally know people in the press, try and encourage them to do a story on blogging. You could also try and get more people to blog especially if you think their voice would bring something new and different to the community.
Speaking of sponsors, I’m toying with the idea that I’ll only accept sponsorship next year from companies that have a blog or employees that blog. That’ll make things interesting. 😉