I read an article last week about a man who took an entire year off work to walk from California to New York to work through some "issues". In the mean time, he lost 100 pounds, became semi-famous and wrote a daily journal on a blog. You can check it out at www.thefatmanwalking.com.
My only question is wouldn't he get tired carrying his computer and all the components? I guess if you're determined it doesn't matter!
This entry is for the legal minds in class – Jill and Chris – but I thought it was interesting in light of our class conversations.
According to Advertising Age, an advertising agency in New York, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, dropped its suit against Lance Dutson, a blogger for Maine Web Report, for copyright infringement, defamation and trade libel and injurious falsehood.
Dutson started blogging about the work WKPA was doing for the Maine Office of Tourism in October of 2005, arguing the strategy the agency provided was misguided. WPKA had bid for broad search terms that also were the interest of some of Dutson’s clients. The blog took on a life of its own (where have we heard that before) and so WPKA decided to sue Dutson to protect their reputation and because their business had been hurt. As a note, I did a Google search for WKPA and they were listed number 17 behind all the blog listings for this issue.
It’s interesting to note the case was dropped the same day The Boston Globe published an editorial calling for the agency to drop the lawsuit and when a Maine state representative said he had asked the governor to suspend working with the agency.
I understand state agencies have a lot to consider when selecting agencies to complete their work – are they in the state and will it help total state revenue, will this be the best agency to complete the needed work, etc. But, I think the Maine Department of Tourism needs to more closely consider what kind of agency they want to work with. This issue and the way it was handled should be closely considered when the agency is up for review.
Just thought I'd add a quick post about the buzz in the Blogosphere surrounding the possible indictment of White House adviser Karl Rove.
A handful of liberal blogs, led by this story in truthout.org, began reporting over the weekend that Rove had been served the indictment papers by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
So far, there has been absolutely no mention of this in the MSM. Of course, this provides the perfect test for whether the Blogosphere is ahead of MSM in reporting breaking news, whether it rushes out stories before verification, and whether the Blogosphere is capable of "keeping a story alive" and getting the MSM to follow suit with its own coverage. In other words, this could be the perfect case study of how the Blogosphere operates, and how accurate it is. Stay tuned!
Well, I actually didn't blog through birth, I just wanted to get your attention, but Rachel Mosteller, the author of this article did. I blogged through birth!
I found the article in one of my baby magazines and here Ms. Mosteller actually did blog through her first child's birth....why? She says it was to keep friends and family updated on her labor and delivery. I say it's because she's crazy! I'm still not even sure I want to be awake for it, but this woman took her laptop and had the presence of mind to form actual sentences!
For me, this is waaaay too much information. Why anyone would want to tell everyone they know (and lots of people they don't know) about every pevlic exam, injection and bodily function that occurs during childbirth is beyond me. That a magazine such as American Baby is touting this fascinating morsel of information it in its pages tells me that blogging has come quite a long way and apparently I'm IN a demographic that was TMI about this kind of thing. (although I can assure you I only read it for this class!)
If you want to visit this journalists blog-site, you can do so at the appropriately named SheNuts.com. I'm not making this stuff up, that's actually her web-address and she's known as the "Sarcastic Journalist" Here's the link, enjoy! The Sarcastic Journalist
One of my friends, on his personal blog, indicated that a "well-known company" may create a facebook-type website centered around sports. This would be freakin huge. Online communities linking Jayhawk fans and other college/pro teams are already in existence. Can you imagine what it would be like if the fan sites had someway to interact with the other fan sites. There would be some of the most vile, slanderous language ever conceived on the Internet. It would be great.
A project like this would have to do something more than just be a message board for your own team. It would really need to be an arena for putting fans of one team against fans of another.
For the NFL season, there's always a new message board for your team each week, depending on who your opponent is. Fans from both teams could then post on the same board. The idea could work for all sorts of sports but just thinking about the capacity of this website is making me wonder if this is a workable idea.
A big step toward online, on-demand movies & video.
Bittorrent has been one of the more recent -- post-Napster, that is -- file-sharing protocols on the Web. I've seen it used for distributing rock music boots and live shows. Apparently the technology is pretty good, but I've never drunk at that trough so I can't say first-hand. If you wanted, say, the entire show from a given night last fall when Cream had its four-night Albert Hall run, Bittorrent was the place to go.
Now Warner Bros. has decided it better get serious about selling movies and TV programs on the Web, and the studio's going the Bittorrent route, at least initially.
Check out details in wired.com.
The ol' Internet pirates of yore are all getting their privateers' licenses.
I caught an interesting story on AdRants yesterday about how men’s magazines are down in advertising because the advertisers are moving to more interactive media. According to MediaWeek Monitor, men’s magazines were down four percent in ad pages through June. The story from MediaWeek even had the word converge in it – saying younger men are finding their content and advertising online.
I wonder what group will be the next to converge?