|
|
|
“Compasses are really like computers.”
- Carolyn Jones, St. Joseph County Parks’ leisure service leader, trying to encourage readers of the Sound Bend Tribune to attend a workshop on using map and compass called “Where am I?.”
My publisher received a review copy of Michael Banks’ Blogging Heroes (Wiley, 2008) and passed it along to me. We don’t request nor regularly review books, and are not sure why this one was sent exactly, but I was intrigued by the title. The subtitle tells it all: “Interviews with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers.”
Here’s the bottom line: it’s far more interesting to read blogs than to read about bloggers talking about blogging. Now, I say that as someone who’s blogged for more than three years, so your mileage may vary. Each chapter is an edited transcription of a phone interview with a well-known blogger or a not so well-known blogger who runs a well-known blog. I was most interested in the names I knew: Robert Scoble and Mary Jo Foley to name two.
The interviews are ok, though they cover the same ground: how did you get into blogging, do you leave comments on other blogs, do you use search engine optimization… And, the answers were strangely the same. That got rather boring after about five chapters.
That said, I did feel encouraged that many of the repeated themes paralleled my observations and how we chosen to run this blog. These include:
Blog about something you are passionate about
Don’t feel pressed to post stuff that’s not “worthy”
Be open to comments
Have a thick skin
Read other blogs (many of those interviewed follow hundreds of RSS feeds; my list number 30 maybe)
Comment on other blogs (I don’t do that much of it)
Don’t rehash what others have already covered unless you break new ground
Don’t worry too much about being first with a story
Blogging well takes a lot of time and regular attention
The blog is whatever you want it to be
That last one is perhaps the most important. Nearly everyone interviewed agreed there are plenty of electrons around for all to blog. And, if you are passionate, you’ll find an audience, big or small. I got dinged a few months back for basically rehashing a story that appeared elsewhere (not in the geopress/blogs) without adding anything. It got me thinking seriously about the criticism. What I realized is that this blog, which does offer opinion, also acts as a giant filter to all news. We pass on stories that don’t make the geopress or geoblogs but are relevant to this community. That’s part of this blog’s mission.
Blogging Heroes probably won’t tell you much you don’t already know if you are already a blogger. It won’t tell you too much that’s revolutionary if you are new to blogging. What it may do is confirm you are in the same boat with other, well known bloggers. And, that feels pretty good.
ChannelWeb offers up a slideshow of eight “cool” location-based apps. A few were new to me. But I think the important thing the list highlights is the fact that there’s a slew of them out there and it’s going to take quite a bit of energy on the part of the providers, carriers or potential users to sort out which is the right one.
In a fascinating article published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, the city of Sacramento, CA is profiled as a model for discovering the realities of $4 gasoline and planning for "clustering the places where people live more closely with the businesses where they work and shop," according to the article. Urban planner Mike McKeever is the architect that pushed through the "smart growth" strategies (light rail, bike paths, etc.) which wasn’t easy when he started on the job back when gas was half its price. The article in print provides maps showing the increase in per capita expenditures on public transportation from 2000 to 2008. The online article provides a map showing projected conjestion from development with and without Mr. McKeever’s "Blueprint" for growth through 2050.
Last week Ask.com moved off its longtime mapping platform to Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. What are the practical choices these days for those who want mapping as part of their portals? Has customization and a unique look and feel been overshadowed by a few strong hosted solutions to which everyone will eventually migrate? Our editors sort out the options and trends and end up using the “c” word - commodity.
Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")
Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here’s the index with all the info.
