links for 2006-05-17
links for 2006-05-16
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My business card says I am a blogger.
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attention..attention
links for 2006-05-14
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Yahoo’s guide to the Buzzaphere.
links for 2006-05-13
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Just don’t call it a cell phone.
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The compensation analysts figure the lowest paying parts of a mom’s job are housekeeper, laundry machine operator and janitor. Higher paying categories include computer operator, facilities manager, psychologist and family CEO.
Mark Cuban Given A Technical for Blogging But He Still Scores
Mark Cuban, blogger and owner of the Dallas Mavericks was fined $100,000 for blogging his criticism of NBA officiating. Cuban was also fined $100,000 was going onto the court on Sunday’s game against the San Antonion Spurs. According to Cuban, he started writing his blog because he wanted to be able to communicate directly with fans in part because he didn’t believe his team was getting fair coverage by the mainstream sports media.
Cuban has set records for being fined by the NBA for expressing his displeasure at officials on the court; this fine for blogging is the second time that the NBA has fined Cuban for expressing his opinions on his blog. In November 2004, Cuban posted that his blog fine was a first in professional sports and posed the question,
Do the customers and fans of the NBA or other leagues, feel it makes the league appear stronger , weaker or unaffected when a player, owner, coach, GM, executive publicly criticizes the league ?
Are you as a consumer more likely to purchase, watch, recommend our products, or are you more likely to reduce your attachment and purchase of our products ? How does it affect how you interact with us ?
Steve Rubel answered the question on his blog and said that in his opinion,
"In the end, the public will evaluate the criticism based on who else is validating it and their views of those parties…if a chorus of criticism arises that is deemed valid by those who cover the league in the press-it carries a different weight."
Is it possible that Steve is saying that public opinion is only influenced by the press? If so, this would be a surprising point of view from one of the Technorati 100 who "explores how social media is transforming marketing, media and public relations" on his own blog. Although, one has to be realistic about the meaning of "different weight," as Stephen Bryant points out:
"According to Gallup, only one in five Americans, or about 40 million of us, read blogs. By comparison, more than 55 million people visited newspaper websites in November of 2005 alone, according to a Nielsen//NetRatings analysis conducted for the Newspaper Association of America."
According to the 12/05 Pew Internet & American Life Project 8 million Americans say they have created blogs and 27% of internet users say they read blogs; the important component in this is the increase in blog readership, 58%. But 62% of internet users say they do not know what a blog is.
In other words, there are still more people in the world who get the "story" from tradtional media. Cuban’s NBA fine will no doubt drive traffic to his blog. Some of that traffic will no doubt be people who have never visited a blog before but read about the fine in the mainstream media and then wanted to read the blog.
This is an interesting twist to Cuban’s desire to use his blog to speak directly to fans as an alternative to the coverage of tradtional media sources. He is fined by the NBA for expressing his opinion on his blog; the event is covered in the mainstream media which most likely leads more people to pay attention to his blog and to his opinions than otherwise would have.
Similarly, the lack of media coverage of the Colbert speech on the part of the main stream media significantly extended its reach and life…the bloggers blogged the story and the bloggers became a story within a story. The audience for the Colbert speech was greatly expanded by its appearnce on YouTube, which reported that the video had been viewed 2.7mm times in less than 48 hours. As Liz Dunn said on the Technorati Weblog: Bloggers1, Mainstream Media 0.
Although the absolute numbers of blog readers is small relative to traditional media readers, the number of newspaper readers is declining as is traditional magazine circulation while blog readership is increasing. In fact, according to the latest Pew Internet & American Life Project about 50 million Americans get their news online and for a "group of high pwered online users" the internet is their primary news source.
Traditional media and social media each point the finger of credibility at each other but the big difference between the two is the revenue model for the content. In traditional media, the publishers pay the content creators and then own the content and the distribution of the content. In social media, the individual controls creation, ownership, and distribution of content frequently without a sustainable revenue model.
As Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis write in the Nieman Reports,
"The venerable profession of journalism finds itself at a rare moment in history where, for the first time, its hegemony as gatekeeper of the news is threatened by not just new technology and competitors but by the audience it serves. Citizens everywhere are getting together via
the Internet in unprecedented ways to set the agenda for news, to inform each other about hyper-local and global issues, and to create
new services in a connected, always-on society. The audience is now an active, important participant in the creation and dissemination of news and information, with or without the help of mainstream news media."
So as the authority shifts from content owners to individual producers and users, how does traditional media "reach out" to social media to retain ownership of the content. Syndication? Who has an ownership model for the content? BlogBurst. Who does not? IndieKarma.
The lines between mainstream media and bloggers are blurred as online magazines such as Newsweek link to blogs via Technorati and online magazines such as Businessweek Online host blogs on their site. However, BlogBurst which was launched on May 2, 2006 redefines the relationship between blogs and mainstream media.
BlogBurst has signed up 600 bloggers who responded to "Got a great blog? Get big time exposure! Increse your reach, visibility and readership by making your blog available to our network of leading publishers;" available for a share of ad revenue. Publishers, according to Wired quoting Pluck’s (Blog Burst is a service of Pluck) gain "expert blog commentary on travel, women’s issues, technology, food, entertainment and local stories where publishers may not have dedicated staff." This doesn’t sound too bad, right? This wouldn’t be a revenue model would it?
Well according to Stephan Bryant advertisers are lined up like airplanes at O’hare for online advertising and niched blogs present an attractive revenue magnet for newspapers. Since blogs are conversational media, newspapers are expressing an interest in joining the conversation by syndicating blogs.However will the relationship between the newspapers, the advertisers and the bloggers influence the content? Well, time will tell.
Now back to Mark Cuban, and his intermediated strategy. Cuban says that he is a whiner.
Well, he is a blogger and in this case, I believe they are synonomous. He says,"Whining is the first step towards change….People who don’t whine are punching bags. They just go about their days, their jobs, their lives, knowing there is
nothing they can do to change a darn thing, so why say a word ? They see no reason to whine because they know
they are incapable of affecting change."
In the Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki, says that people tend to grant an undeserved amount of authority to those who talk the loudest. Or those that whine the loudest? Or those who are passionate enough about their beliefs to write a blog to express their point of view; or passionate enough to express a point of view to the referees.
Steve Rubel again, In the end, the public will evaluate the criticism based on who else
is validating it and their views of those parties…if a chorus of
criticism arises that is deemed valid by those who cover the league in
the press-it carries a different weight."
I think the chorus that Steve refers to is the Wisdom of Crowds. I think Mark Cuban wants to provide information so that the crowd can make an informed decision. In the coverage of him and the Dallas Mavericks,Cuban says, "there was not a whole lot of fact-checking done, not a whole lot of accountability," and blogging "was my chance to correct what needed to be corrected. Too many times I read what I was doing from people I’d never talked to — ‘rumor had it,’ ’sources say.’ " He says blogmaverick.com "has changed how the media deal with me" because if reporters are sloppy, "they know I’ll call them on it."
"Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and
don’t. The other half is composed of people who have nothing to say and
keep on saying it." Robert Frost
Tags: Mark Cuban, Technorati, Media, Wisdom Of Crowds, Blogmarverick, Blogging, NBA, Steve Rubel, San Antonio Spurs, Mavericks, Mainstream media, Social Media Tags: YouTube, Pluck, BlogBurst
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links for 2006-05-11
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Does Linkedin deliver? Deliver enough? Deliver what it says it delivers?
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competes directly with AOL…who will own the kids: AOL or MySpace? Stay tuned!
links for 2006-05-09
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It auto-generates a news summary every 5 minutes, drawing on experts and pundits, insiders and outsiders, media professionals and amateur bloggers. 2000 blogs and the links that love them.
links for 2006-05-08
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From Ozgur Alaz
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Multi-tasking enablers.
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Jet Blue sets up space in NYC to record customers’ experiences.
links for 2006-05-07
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If you multitask AND use big words you are doomed.
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Six Questions to ask yourself: 1 What is happening in the world today. 2. Whar does it mean for others. 3. What does it mean for others? 4. would have to happen first (for the results we want to occur)? 5. What do we have to do to play a role 6.What do we do next?
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Girls rock the digital divide.
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Vint Cerf and Esther Dyson offer predictions on the future of the Internet, advertising, and media.
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MySpace, MyYahoo, MyCoke…If its my Coke, how come I have to pay for it?
links for 2006-05-06
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“{ Is }citizens’ media becoming a proxy for civic engagement.”
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Great overview of CGM/WOM analytics from Matt Galloway.
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“In the 24 hours before her MySpace account went dormant, Taylor received one last helpful e-mail from a friend: “U know u can just make another one but have a different name. That’s what I did.”
Bonding on MySpace
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Marianne's Space
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Marianne's Profiles
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