My friend Raymond…
Posted: November 24, 2005 Filed under: Blogging, New Media, Tech 6 Comments »My friend Raymond is getting some attention for his love of OPML over on Dave Winer’s Scripting.com here and here. As is typical of format geeks, there’s a debate over on Raymond’s blog comments about why you’d use OPML over XHTML ordered and unordered lists. When are people going to realize that 99% of people don’t care? I’ve been involved in more format discussions than I care to remember, and in the end the reason RSS and OPML will become popular is because Dave Winer goes to the effort to develop tools rather than writing specifications and hoping someone will write tools for them. The format in the end doesn’t really matter much, it’s just a way to format data. There have been thousands over the years, and as long as everyone can read it, the rest is just syntax and semantics.
Josh and I were having a debate the other day as to whether using a pseudo-protocol like fireant:// was an acceptable solution for one-click subscribe in our aggregator. Most of the other aggregators are fighting over feed:// or some other specific file format (like iTunes pcast files). Why should we worry about all this when all we want is to enable easy one-click subscribe for people who already have our software? Josh’s concern is that the geeks will be upset over our use of a protocol that’s not really a protocol (of course, no need to remind people that feed:// isn’t a valid protocol either) instead of doing it through a file or some other method that’s more robust. Sorry, it works. The facilities are already in the OS and the browser to facilitate it, why not use it? Is it a hack? Yeah, so what? It works!
The same people who would be upset about us using fireant:// as a protocol are the ones who’d be upset that people are using OPML rather than XHTML formatted unordered and ordered lists. Hello? Who fucking cares. The user cares that it works! We spend far too much time debating the merits of one format over another and lot less time than we should making sure that software works for the end user. This is why Dave Winer continues to be a success in getting formats adopted, because unlike the Atom folks who have spent years making a format that’s the most robust and most well-documented, there isn’t a refrence implementation. Why is Microsoft Word the default format for exchanging documents and not OASIS? Because of the software people use. Why is RSS the preferred format for exchanging feed information? Because there was software that worked when the format was introduced that everyone could use as a reference implementation.
There something also to be said for simplicity. OPML and RSS are simple. Perhaps the specs are not complete and don’t cover all the use cases, but I can also code something up to work with them in a matter of hours. I investigated the Atom publishing protocol, and it would take me a couple days to do a pull implementation. By contrast, I have done a full Metaweblog implementation in a couple of hours.
Dave Winer can be an ass, but I give him credit where credit is due. The people who spend so much time complaining about him are excellent at complaining and not so good at getting things done. For that, I look to Dave.
Feed Fixed
Posted: October 30, 2005 Filed under: Blogging Leave a comment »Thanks to Rick Klau from FeedBurner, who answered my last post about problems with my stats in the comments. Somehow I hosed my mod_rewrite rules and http://clintsharp.com/feed/ was no longer redirecting to http://feeds.feedburner.com/clintsharp. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Rick.
Faster blogging ahead
Posted: October 29, 2005 Filed under: Blogging Leave a comment »I’m back from California, which of course i neglected to post to the blog to begin with. We‘re really kicking ass now. I didn’t really get to see much of the Bay Area, but it looks like I could be living there part-time in the next few months. We had some really great meetings while down there. I can’t wait until I can announce what came out of them. Stay tuned.
I really wanted a chance to hook up with Schlomo and Eric Rice, but there was no time. Sorry guys, maybe next time.
Something is up with FeedBurner’s stats
Posted: October 29, 2005 Filed under: Blogging, Default 2 Comments »I’m not a huge stats hound, in fact I only check them once a month. However, imagine my surprise when I logged into my FeedBurner account and saw my subscribers drop from over 100 to around 24. Something is seriously fucked up. I know some of the guys over there, like Rick Klau who I met at Gnomedex, perhaps I should email them. I have over 21 subscribers in Bloglines alone which are currently being shown as 1 subscriber in my Readership stats. Seems to have happened on October 20th. Oh well, I know you’re still reading.
Blogspot, why hast thou forsaken me?
Posted: October 16, 2005 Filed under: Blogging Leave a comment »Mark Cuban, Tim Bray, and Chris Pirillo all chime in this weekend about the Google Blogspot splog problem. It’s hitting me as well. Thankfully, they’re not hitting my vanity feeds, because an unknown blogger/vlogger/hacker isn’t worth writing about in splogs, but my hometown and soon to be again residence of Fort Smith, Arkansas, is getting hit mercilessly. I subscribe to a Technorati feed searching for “Fort Smith”, which should bring about about 4 or 5 legitimate posts a day. I’m now getting 20 to 30 splog entries daily. It’s ridiculous. Only 80,000 people live there, don’t they have better things to spam about? I hate to say this, because places like FreeVlog recommend them, but shouldn’t Technorati, Feedster, IceRocket, et. al. just exclude BlogSpot indefinitely until this problem is resolved? How does this factor into the Atom 1.0 API design? Is there facilities for captchas built into the protocol? This will make for an interesting next couple of weeks as this problem comes to a head.
Added Captchas
Posted: October 10, 2005 Filed under: Blogging Leave a comment »I’ve added captchas (authentication images) to my comments now. If you can figure out what it says, the good news is you won’t be moderated anymore. The other good news is I can stop getting a bunch of non-sensical emails and moderating a bunch of stupid-ass spam comments. Argh.
Gillmor Gang in Video?
Posted: August 15, 2005 Filed under: Blogging 1 Comment »Check out this post from Steve Gillmor on August 2nd (I know, I’m really behind on my reading):
Soon it will be September and a new budget year. Once more the Valley will turn back to flipping startups and serving fish and chips. But this time the deals will be with the new content kids on the block, and Firefox will rule the land. And I shall be editing the new Gillmor Gang video edition, brought to you in part by SkypeSight and InMediaWeTrust.
The Gillmor Gang video edition? I thought I’d die before I saw the day, but if I can make it till next year I might see it (lest we forget that Gillmor and his gang have been known to be video poopooers in the past). Give me a call Steve, my number’s on this site, I’ll be happy to help. We’re always looking for more people on the bleeding edge with us.
The Power of Seattle
Posted: August 14, 2005 Filed under: Blogging 2 Comments »God, I love living in the Greater Seattle area (don’t want to say I live there, lest the West-Siders pounce on me calling me a poser 
). I invited Phillip Torrone of MAKE Magazine out to the Meet The Vloggers event at the Apple Store on August 6th for an interview for Clint on Tech. While there, Matt & Pete from LeanBackVids and VlogMap.org showed Ander’s Wonderful World video, which he made with Google Earth and VlogMap.org data. It’s a great video, check it out. pt posted a link to this on the MAKE blog, and Scoble, via Daniel Nugent who obviously reads MAKE, posted a link to it on his blog. All this because of a simple email to pt asking if he’d like to show up. I love the fact I live in an area with so many successful new media players. Robert, I think you should be my next interview on “Clint on Tech.” Whatcha think, have some time in the next few weeks?
I’m hoping to stay in this area come the end of the year. However, right now the leading contender in the job market (the firmest thing coming) is in Denver. Anyone know what the blogging/vlogging community is like in Denver? Vlogging isn’t nearly as promising as it is here, but I’m a bit ignorant about the blogging community there. I’m not sure I’m in a position to start another company again, that seems like it would be better attempted in another 5 years or so, but I’d be happy to join an early age startup. I’m talking to a couple, but nothing’s firm yet. Anyone in Seattle looking for a New Media Guy & Technologist?
Update:
I love PubSub, Technorati, etc. I posted this less than two hours ago, and Robert’s already responded (check the comments). It’s better than email, really. I’m much more likely to respond to my name mentioned in my vanity feeds than my email, but that might be a volume thing.
Why can’t bloggers understand text turned to video?
Posted: August 10, 2005 Filed under: Blogging 3 Comments »Om Malik (who actually responded to my A-Listers slow down post yesterday), has missed the point of releasing products like DTV, which was released yesterday for the Mac. I’m continually amazed at bloggers, who are New Media plays, who are unable to understand the progression of video in the world of New Media and user generated content. If you were to come here and watch my back catalog of videos, you’d rightfully talk about what total shit it is. Honestly, unless you know me or you’re here to learn something from my “Clint on Tech” show, you’re not likely to find anything of value. Video diaries, which are the vast majority of vlogs being produced today, are not the future of user generated content, at least not content that’s for mass consumption. Themed content, including such illustrious genres as cooking shows, news shows, and technology shows are already here, and fiction content, which will entertain the masses, is coming.
User generated content is the long tail, which has been written about extensively. The appeal of user generated video content is the ability to generate content which exists solely in the long tail. With the barrier to entry at virtually nothing (a PC, camcorder and software can be had for as cheap as $700 or $800), the point is that the niche content that will never be produced by mass media now has an outlet. However, right now the community is just coming past the point where we’re getting over the idea that we can indeed put up whatever we want onto the Internet and people will watch it, and it’ll still be 6 months to a year before quality content with production values to rival cheap television production will be had. It’ll be another year or more after that before we can rival television for amount of quality content. Podcasting had the advantage of large amounts of out of work radio personalities, due to consolidation in radio from the likes of Clear Channel, and the talent, time and funding required to produce quality audio quality is significantly less than video. The talent is out there, but we’re still working to recruit it.
The irony in the entire situation is that in 1997 and 1998 (hell, even 2000) when blogs were just starting to attract good writers in droves, the vast majority of people would have looked at them and asked the same question they’re now asking about user generated video, “Who the hell would want to read (watch) this?” Without Radio Userland, Blogger, etc, it would have been impossible to enable the ease of publication and syndication necessary to give the bloggers, who are now accomplished writers, a platform to reach their audience. DTV, and other videoblog related items that are being released now with a dearth of content, are being released to provide the platform for publication and syndication that will be necessary to bring the droves of people into the video longtail.
Om is not alone here, Dave Winer, Steve Gillmor, and others have repeatedly poopooed video, when they not long ago were pioneering the same path. Why is it that bloggers, who were in the same position not 5 years ago, can’t seem to grasp the progression video is going to follow, when it’s so closely paralleled to the path blogging followed?
Slow down A-Listers!
Posted: August 9, 2005 Filed under: Blogging 2 Comments »I know I know, don’t mention the A-List. I don’t care how you define it, but at least with my A-List, which includes such people as (not linking to them since most of them are on my sidebar over there and I don’t feel like typing out a dozen links) Jeff Jarvis, David Weinberger, Om Malik, Robert Scoble, Steve Rubel, etc, I wish they’d write less. Blasphemy! It really doesn’t have anything to do with the content, it more has to do with the fact that I’d like to keep up with these people but the volume is just too great, especially if you’re busy for a week or two. I need to learn to skim better.
