Art of Getting Over

Surf on over to Don Blake's blog. Part travel blog, part mind trip, all Don.

Spinsanity Again Is Great

I don't know how they do it at Spinsanity. Time after time they deconstruct a media myth. I just read about Safire in the NY Times spreading a lie about Dean. And you know it will know be repeated in talk radio where they have no reporters researching the truth. Here's the outing of another lie.

Recent Purchases - First Entry

I end up buying books a lot. Sometimes I go to the library, but more often than not I have to buy a book. This is especially true for technical books or internet books. Also, my son and daughter need books for school. And then there are books and other items I buy for gifts.

Then tonite I got my new issue of Wired has a partial page about what staff recently purchased. I really liked this idea and have seen a few other blogs do it - so here goes: my recent purchases.

Seven Laws of Blogs

People continue to try and answer the question of "What is a blog?" I believe we should be answering "What is a good blog?" This is a much more interesting question and it helps advance blogs as a medium.

My proposed answer to this question uses the framework for deriving The Seven Laws of Money by Michael Phillips, Salli Rasberry, et. al.

1. Do It. A blog, no matter how well planned, is worthless unless the author does it. In most cases this means writing. The blog needs a constant stream of ideas, observations, news and more. If you do it, the blog will satisfy.
2. Blogs Have Their Own Rules. If you don't follow the basic rules of blogging, people will have a hard time finding and reading your blog. These rules are different than the rules for a web site or any other media. Though not yet well defined, this is the major topic in most books about blogging.
3. Blogs Produce Good RSS Feeds. This is not about RSS. Rather a well written blog results in a good RSS feed. Snappy headlines, compelling content and a link to more quality information. The elements of a great blog map directly into RSS.
4. RSS feeds are not Blogs. While a good blog produces good RSS, the reverse is not necessarily true. For example, an RSS feed could be a rather mechanical report from some server's monitoring system. Obviously not compelling reading and certainly not a great blog.
5. Writing a Blog Does Not Get You Accepted. Any one can start a blog. You can even have great ideas and but not everyone is is going to notice tomorrow. Or maybe ever. So do you write for yourself or to get accepted?
6. Reading a Blog Gets You Accepted. Blogs are open and simply by reading (or listening) you become part of the club. The blog you are reading is probably being read by others, maybe even linked to by others. So if it is good, link to it.
7. There are Worlds Without Blogs. Have you notice that people take vacations from their blogs? I can not hug my kid with my blog. And a blog does not taste refreshing. Just as "sound bites" don't sound the same in a newspaper, some things don't translate into a blog. Enjoy your blog. But enjoy your life.