Laws of Media

This would be a dream come true:

One of the last things Marshall McLuhan did was attempt another rewrite of Understanding Media (highly reommended) and result posthumously was the book with his son called "Laws of Media". I'd love to create a site where people could give their opinions apply to the media analysis. And they comment on the proposed law.

RSS and Google

Okay, for my last microcontent, I looked in Google for the link to RSS and got Mark Pilgrim. While Mark may (or may not) be a nice guy, I think Google blew it for both this search and their last algorithm update.

RSS and CMS

CMS is so Wired. If you were not burdened with years of previous experience, why would you ever consider an CMS or CES (Content Management System or Content Entry System) which did not have RSS as the foundation of the the design. In other words, RSS should be the foundation of the design of any web applicatin which assists in the creation of a web site.

My son would probably call most CMS products "old school." (It should be a four letter word.)

RSS is like fishing

(Disclaimer, I don't fish often, but can enjoy it.) Anyways, I think RSS is like fishing. You throw your hook (XML) out there and you never know who wil take the hook.

Micro Content

Micro Content is a very important meme. Don't let it go!

The web falls into the old way of doing business: publishing. Micro-content is the first meme that moves us out of the Amos and Andy Show and into the "message" of the new medium. (Let me explain. Amos and Andy was a very, very popular radio show that was redone for television. It did not work. The concept and use of a sound byte did not work in newspapers. The sound byte of internet content is mostlikely "microcontent." Exploit it, now.)

So start thinking about microcontent intead of pages. I know this is hard for people with a publication background (I'd perfer to use bias, but then peopel would not understand.) Work to free yourself from the old media!

My hands

I am very frustrated tonite. I had to redo much of the DWV installation I did on my new bathroom. It started out great, but the effort to tie it into the existing stack failed. So I have to restart tomorrow and pick out what piece I need from my local Home Depot. I'd rather buy it from my local plumbing supplier, but they close before I get home from work.

Anyways, my hands are now full of glue -- which is a bad think - and I'm peeling it off between keyboard hits.

Education Newspaper Stories in RSS (March 2004)

Newspapers and news organizations are one of the early adapters to RSS technology. On a regular basis I'll be updating an OPML with a list of newspapers that provide Education feeds and maintaining it here.

The BBC and New York Times are the veterans of this group. I'm not sure how long the Christian Science Monitor has offered their Learning feed. More recent are the Philly papers and now the Washington Post.

Please let me know if you know of additional feeds.

RSS 2.o Description Field

There are several ways to store content in RSS 2.0. This post show how Description can be different.

I know that you can put link into <link> or <guid>.

Makes it easy for feeders, difficult for programmers.

Fire Paige Petition

There is now a Fire Paige online Petition.

Chart: How News Travels on the Internet

This is a wonderful chart showing how news travels on the Internet.