Saturday, December 03, 2005
The Labrat
The Labrat is a fine blog offering some wonderful art, very groovy stories, and most importantly a recipe for the worlds SMALLEST cherry pie. What's not to like. Well, the "Bake 5 seconds with a magic wand." might be a bit of a trick, but I plan to give it a go. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Now, Now Girls, Your Father and I Think You're BOTH Pretty.
Or
How The Comm Has Come Full Circle… One Line At A Time
Dinner tonight (at a local, trendy chain restaurant) consisted of a fair cup of beer cheese soup, five reasonable (though far from outstanding) garlic and herb shrimp, a half order of tepid “seasoned” fries, three refills of Diet Pepsi (bastards didn’t serve Diet Coke) and planning session with my wife (Lisa, for those without a scorecard) about our upcoming Christmas shindig for her friends from work (I work on the Internet… you guys are my friends… no one’s local… BUT, if you’re in town on December 17th, swing by).
This is a discussion on “User Generated Communication / Content”?
Yes it is, hold tight.
Lisa and I were working out the menu and since we’re holding the party right in the middle of party season, by the time the folks get to ours they’re going to be turkeyed and hammed out. Ever wonder why turkey is traditional only at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter? Because most of us troll through so many get-togethers, pot-lucks and soirees we need months to recover before eating one again. My tyrosine level is just fine, thank you. So, instead of turkey, we’re serving chili.
WHAT?!? It’s one thing not to serve turkey or ham… but CHILI? MADNESS! It’ll never fly. Hey, where’s the COMM discussion?
Hang on, Space Ranger.
Yes, I have dedicated myself to the ludicrous challenge of creating a “Christmas Chili”. I’ve set these lax rules for myself:
All this talk of creating a wholly new recipe completely made me miss the experience of the meal I was eating, which is why what was probably a decent plate got the less than stellar review above. In other words, because I was choosing to invest myself in my own fabricated reality, I missed the reality I was currently in (and had paid for).
Within The Comm, I have the option of choosing my inputs in any manner of ways: I can read blogs, crawl through forums, listen to podcasts, etc. However, while choosing a blog on “The Fine Art of Creative Holiday Cooking”, I may simultaneously miss the live ‘netcast of “How to Make a Perfect Christmas Chili”. Worse, I may never know I missed it.
But is that really worse?
I jumped onto The Comm merry-go-round in 1985 with a 300 bps VicModem and the Circuit Circus BBS in Rochester, Minnesota. Like so many forums on the Internet today, it had the “intended” purpose of talking about technology (specifically Commodore 64s), but really was a place to chat about anything, everything and nothing. I picked up girls (“Hey babe, wanna see my coupler?”). Ok, I picked up geek-girls.
If you’ve never used a 300 bps modem, I’ll do my best to explain the experience. Instead of reading posts en masse and at leisure, you would receive them ONE LETTER AT A TIME as the sentences scrolled SLOWLY up the screen. In order to read the posts you had to have patience. But more importantly, when writing them, you took your time, used your mind, and made them worth reading because no one would bother getting to the end otherwise. Then, I got a 1200 bps modem and shortly thereafter a 2400 bps modem.
BAM! The Comm took a hard left and drove down a steep hill. At 300 bps, the world scrolled by slowly. At 1200 bps, it was faster, but you could still read in real-time as the posts scrolled up. But at 2400 bps, suddenly it was TOO FAST. No longer could you just read as it scrolled, you had to pause the screens and read the posts one screen at a time. Very much like using the internet today (but without all the pretty colors, formatting, and mp3s of Ballroom Blitz on Winamp).
So? Isn’t it better that way?
Of course… but no. At the slower speeds, you were able to read EVERYTHING because you had to. There was no way to “scan” a page or “skim” a post… everything was read as you waited for it one letter or sentence at a time. People put a thought into their posts (you hoped) and you did the same (they hoped). In the early days of The Comm, you were more likely to be read word-for-word, not just skimmed over for the highlights. Do I miss the “old days”? HELL NO! Looking back I wonder what made me sit there for hours reading what I can now read in about 90 seconds. But as I write, I admit I miss that people had to read what I laid down because it was fed to them so slowly.
I’m amused at the similarities of the Blogoshpere and the PodCast-o-Phere (?!?) to those early days of BBSing. When chatting on those early BBSes, it might take all day to hold a conversation and people genuinely took their time to write quality material (assuming you hung out on the right kinds of BBSes). Then, as the modems got faster, BBSes gave way to forums, and posts became “threads”, people started interjecting every little thing that popped into their head whether it had to do with the conversation or not (“d00d! UR k-rad! Go Lakerz!”). BUT, that’s only one side of The Comm… THAT side… on THIS side of The Comm people don’t sit around all day waiting to drop in a zinger (“you, like, suck, man, ya know?”), instead, most of the communication happens slowly, over time (this conversation may last one or two days), and therefore ends up better thought out (in theory). It’s like 300 bps… but faster!
Comm it?
Kep!
How The Comm Has Come Full Circle… One Line At A Time
Dinner tonight (at a local, trendy chain restaurant) consisted of a fair cup of beer cheese soup, five reasonable (though far from outstanding) garlic and herb shrimp, a half order of tepid “seasoned” fries, three refills of Diet Pepsi (bastards didn’t serve Diet Coke) and planning session with my wife (Lisa, for those without a scorecard) about our upcoming Christmas shindig for her friends from work (I work on the Internet… you guys are my friends… no one’s local… BUT, if you’re in town on December 17th, swing by).
This is a discussion on “User Generated Communication / Content”?
Yes it is, hold tight.
Lisa and I were working out the menu and since we’re holding the party right in the middle of party season, by the time the folks get to ours they’re going to be turkeyed and hammed out. Ever wonder why turkey is traditional only at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter? Because most of us troll through so many get-togethers, pot-lucks and soirees we need months to recover before eating one again. My tyrosine level is just fine, thank you. So, instead of turkey, we’re serving chili.
WHAT?!? It’s one thing not to serve turkey or ham… but CHILI? MADNESS! It’ll never fly. Hey, where’s the COMM discussion?
Hang on, Space Ranger.
Yes, I have dedicated myself to the ludicrous challenge of creating a “Christmas Chili”. I’ve set these lax rules for myself:
- It must be identifiable as chili (for example, a stew is not chili).
- It must contain some traditional Christmas ingredients (eggnog, lutefisk, cranberries? I dunno which yet; I’ll get back to you on that).
- It must not suck (one of the guests is a chef and the other is a 4-star restaurant manager -- no pressure or anything).
All this talk of creating a wholly new recipe completely made me miss the experience of the meal I was eating, which is why what was probably a decent plate got the less than stellar review above. In other words, because I was choosing to invest myself in my own fabricated reality, I missed the reality I was currently in (and had paid for).
Within The Comm, I have the option of choosing my inputs in any manner of ways: I can read blogs, crawl through forums, listen to podcasts, etc. However, while choosing a blog on “The Fine Art of Creative Holiday Cooking”, I may simultaneously miss the live ‘netcast of “How to Make a Perfect Christmas Chili”. Worse, I may never know I missed it.
But is that really worse?
I jumped onto The Comm merry-go-round in 1985 with a 300 bps VicModem and the Circuit Circus BBS in Rochester, Minnesota. Like so many forums on the Internet today, it had the “intended” purpose of talking about technology (specifically Commodore 64s), but really was a place to chat about anything, everything and nothing. I picked up girls (“Hey babe, wanna see my coupler?”). Ok, I picked up geek-girls.
If you’ve never used a 300 bps modem, I’ll do my best to explain the experience. Instead of reading posts en masse and at leisure, you would receive them ONE LETTER AT A TIME as the sentences scrolled SLOWLY up the screen. In order to read the posts you had to have patience. But more importantly, when writing them, you took your time, used your mind, and made them worth reading because no one would bother getting to the end otherwise. Then, I got a 1200 bps modem and shortly thereafter a 2400 bps modem.
BAM! The Comm took a hard left and drove down a steep hill. At 300 bps, the world scrolled by slowly. At 1200 bps, it was faster, but you could still read in real-time as the posts scrolled up. But at 2400 bps, suddenly it was TOO FAST. No longer could you just read as it scrolled, you had to pause the screens and read the posts one screen at a time. Very much like using the internet today (but without all the pretty colors, formatting, and mp3s of Ballroom Blitz on Winamp).
So? Isn’t it better that way?
Of course… but no. At the slower speeds, you were able to read EVERYTHING because you had to. There was no way to “scan” a page or “skim” a post… everything was read as you waited for it one letter or sentence at a time. People put a thought into their posts (you hoped) and you did the same (they hoped). In the early days of The Comm, you were more likely to be read word-for-word, not just skimmed over for the highlights. Do I miss the “old days”? HELL NO! Looking back I wonder what made me sit there for hours reading what I can now read in about 90 seconds. But as I write, I admit I miss that people had to read what I laid down because it was fed to them so slowly.
I’m amused at the similarities of the Blogoshpere and the PodCast-o-Phere (?!?) to those early days of BBSing. When chatting on those early BBSes, it might take all day to hold a conversation and people genuinely took their time to write quality material (assuming you hung out on the right kinds of BBSes). Then, as the modems got faster, BBSes gave way to forums, and posts became “threads”, people started interjecting every little thing that popped into their head whether it had to do with the conversation or not (“d00d! UR k-rad! Go Lakerz!”). BUT, that’s only one side of The Comm… THAT side… on THIS side of The Comm people don’t sit around all day waiting to drop in a zinger (“you, like, suck, man, ya know?”), instead, most of the communication happens slowly, over time (this conversation may last one or two days), and therefore ends up better thought out (in theory). It’s like 300 bps… but faster!
Comm it?
Kep!
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Even the Dog Knows What the Doorbell Is
or
A Continuing Argument Against the term “User Generated Content”
Brainerd, Minnesota is about three hours north of Minneapolis. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone and I certainly don’t fault you. It’s a resort town for hunters, fishermen and the occasional motion picture (Fargo was shot here, the locals are mighty proud). I’m not a local and for that I’m equally proud. Today, we’re talking about what’s MINE.
The house I live and work in is a fully restored 100-year-old Sears & Roebucks’ clone. It’s comfy, nice to look at, surprisingly well insulated (WHEW!) but when a previous owner rebuilt it he oddly left out a doorbell. Knock loud little missionaries, I’m working with headphones on, blasting William Shatner’s Has Been directly into my brain (“You’re gonna Diiiie!”).
I have two pets, a cat and a dog. Technically, I have four, but the goldfish don’t inspire me to comm about them… they don’t do much more than look at me longingly for food three seconds after they’ve been fed. My, they are exciting.
Oliver is a one-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, which means genetically he’s one of the smartest breeds of dog. Sadly, Oliver is from the shallow end of the gene pool. Whenever a doorbell rings on TV he goes barking like a fool and runs to the door. I’ve had this dog since he was a pup, I’ve raised him in this house, and he has never heard a doorbell. The previous owner whelped him and raised him for seven-and-a-half-weeks in a barn. Now, that’s a SPECIAL kind of stupid.
But is it really? Perhaps he’s channeling another dog (Patricia Arquette, where have you gone?) or the sound of the doorbell has somehow been hardwired into the psyche of the beast (Pavlov, you BITCH!). It doesn’t matter, the fact remains that the dog knows exactly what a doorbell is for.
You, the blog reading, podcast listening, forum trolling public know what The Comm is by instinct. You might have been introduced to it at one point (few of us were born with a mouse in our hands. No, that’s not a mouse). Using it is easy: pick the format you like, are comfortable with, are forced to use or is company policy and go. The problem, of course, is that you are creating communication on an unprecedented level. Where your ancestors (or, {gasp}, you) once said things, thought things, and believed things that would be communed and vanish into the ether, now they become a permanent part of The Comm - that part of the online world that allows you (YOU!) to be on record as having said something, anything or nothing… kinda makes you fuzzy, doesn’t it? We’re in this together, you know. Our 15-minutes have been stretched to a lifetime… but if everyone is famous why would we care who’s got the time today?
It’s all about the little dog and the doorbell -- we know it’s there, we know it means something, but the house isn’t wired for sound and opening the door is scary. Do you bark at the noise or break out the braided copper and get to work?
Identifying what The Comm is, what we have, what I have is what has brought all this up and why I’m writing today (you lucky dog, you!). The Comm is MINE! It’s not OURS, it’s MINE. You’re equally entitled to say “It’s MINE” and I encourage you to do so, but don’t make the mistake of believing that we SHARE The Comm, we don’t. The Comm is about controlling your own reality and not only how you choose to perceive it but how you choose to RECEIVE it. No one has the same Comm.
All Comms are Equal, but Some Comms are More Equal Than Others.
Comm again?
Kep!
A Continuing Argument Against the term “User Generated Content”
Brainerd, Minnesota is about three hours north of Minneapolis. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone and I certainly don’t fault you. It’s a resort town for hunters, fishermen and the occasional motion picture (Fargo was shot here, the locals are mighty proud). I’m not a local and for that I’m equally proud. Today, we’re talking about what’s MINE.
The house I live and work in is a fully restored 100-year-old Sears & Roebucks’ clone. It’s comfy, nice to look at, surprisingly well insulated (WHEW!) but when a previous owner rebuilt it he oddly left out a doorbell. Knock loud little missionaries, I’m working with headphones on, blasting William Shatner’s Has Been directly into my brain (“You’re gonna Diiiie!”).
I have two pets, a cat and a dog. Technically, I have four, but the goldfish don’t inspire me to comm about them… they don’t do much more than look at me longingly for food three seconds after they’ve been fed. My, they are exciting.
Oliver is a one-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, which means genetically he’s one of the smartest breeds of dog. Sadly, Oliver is from the shallow end of the gene pool. Whenever a doorbell rings on TV he goes barking like a fool and runs to the door. I’ve had this dog since he was a pup, I’ve raised him in this house, and he has never heard a doorbell. The previous owner whelped him and raised him for seven-and-a-half-weeks in a barn. Now, that’s a SPECIAL kind of stupid.
But is it really? Perhaps he’s channeling another dog (Patricia Arquette, where have you gone?) or the sound of the doorbell has somehow been hardwired into the psyche of the beast (Pavlov, you BITCH!). It doesn’t matter, the fact remains that the dog knows exactly what a doorbell is for.
You, the blog reading, podcast listening, forum trolling public know what The Comm is by instinct. You might have been introduced to it at one point (few of us were born with a mouse in our hands. No, that’s not a mouse). Using it is easy: pick the format you like, are comfortable with, are forced to use or is company policy and go. The problem, of course, is that you are creating communication on an unprecedented level. Where your ancestors (or, {gasp}, you) once said things, thought things, and believed things that would be communed and vanish into the ether, now they become a permanent part of The Comm - that part of the online world that allows you (YOU!) to be on record as having said something, anything or nothing… kinda makes you fuzzy, doesn’t it? We’re in this together, you know. Our 15-minutes have been stretched to a lifetime… but if everyone is famous why would we care who’s got the time today?
It’s all about the little dog and the doorbell -- we know it’s there, we know it means something, but the house isn’t wired for sound and opening the door is scary. Do you bark at the noise or break out the braided copper and get to work?
Identifying what The Comm is, what we have, what I have is what has brought all this up and why I’m writing today (you lucky dog, you!). The Comm is MINE! It’s not OURS, it’s MINE. You’re equally entitled to say “It’s MINE” and I encourage you to do so, but don’t make the mistake of believing that we SHARE The Comm, we don’t. The Comm is about controlling your own reality and not only how you choose to perceive it but how you choose to RECEIVE it. No one has the same Comm.
All Comms are Equal, but Some Comms are More Equal Than Others.
Comm again?
Kep!
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
The Case for COMM -or- Why "User Generated Content" Just Doesn't Cut It Anymore
In 1985 I was cruising the future on a 300bps modem tied to my C-64 rocket and it was a whole new world! All at once I could communicate with people I didn’t know, couldn’t know and wouldn’t know and instantly (instantly meant something different in 1985) get a response about anything, everything and nothing. It was a magical time… a magical place… it was OZ with green screens and passwords! The Yellow Brick Road was paved with emoticons, flame wars, gFiles and the XModem protocol. No one got it, no one wanted it, the online world was a haven for geeks, freaks and lawyers trying to catalogue case files.
They called us BBSers and we saw the future in them thar hills. From the beginning of the modemized world we were creating our own content, driving data and sticking conflict into any and every crevice we could latch a conspiracy onto. At first it was a lot of “Hi, my name is BIBBY THE FIREHEAD and my friend SKIPPSTER said this was a k00l place. Uh… what do I do now?” Handles, aliases and ruggish behavior littered the online world, but a glimmer of light was sparked and the beacon of the Internet was on the glow.
Flash forward to a world gone online slap-happy! Data jump, baby! Got data? Who’s data? Want more? Want less? It’s your choice. My choice. Our choice. Screw the dot, the age of COMM is here!
Every few years the world leaps forward with just how much information is easily available to the common man… the end of 2005 seems to be that time again (Got Coke?). No longer are we dependent on a single local newspaper… two or three nationals? HA!… only a few good news sites online? Not this week! Long gone are the days of three (or four) VHF and a couple of UHF television channels (you’re OLD if you get that reference)… and recently dead are “only” 50 cable channels… I’m up to 220 in my neighborhood… but go ahead, download the best of last nights programming and skip the commercials. It’s no longer about what WILL we choose but about what WON’T we choose. Want to find out what happened to your old pal JJ? That’s so last week! Let’s see what he’s thinking about today, this hour, RIGHT NOW! We have the remote, a bowl of popcorn and the Barcalounger of Tera-Petrabytes… screw what information YOU want to give us, WE pick and choose the blogs, wikis and podcasts that matter to us! Our news is no longer a broad stroke, it’s a tactical strike!
We command, control, communicate and commune. No longer are we BBSers, Internet Users, Dot-Commers or Geeks. We’re in charge of what we see, hear, read and feel in a way like never before. Is it a revolution or an actualization? Does it matter? Go to www.pickyourfightaboutanything.com and have at it… that’s your business, not mine. We no longer want just the right to free speech; we demand the entitlement to be heard.
It’s 2005 going on 2006 and some of us have been on this Internet ride for over 20 years. Let’s get tattoos. But who are we? Are we Bloggers? Are we Podcasters? Are we Wikians? No. We’re all of that and more. I’m a Seller on eBay, I’m a Member on forums, I’m a Contributor on Usenet, and I email my mother. It’s all “User Generated Content”… and let’s face it, that’s a mouthful no matter how you say it!
Part of the problem with “User Generated Content” is that we call it “Content”. While that might be an accurate name for most of what we do, it’s not all encompassing and certain aspects slip through the cracks (I don’t do Coke or Pepsi, I drink Fresca… where do I fit in?). However, it is all COMMUNICATION. “User Generated Communication” hits it all... text, voice, photos, video, smell... it’s all about communicating SOMETHING... ANYTHING!
So, with that in mind, I propose we adopt a new word to our collective online vocabulary: COMM.
COMM (noun): Any form of “User Generated Communication / Content” such as a Blog, PodCast, Wiki, eMail, etc. “Time to check the COMMS about the big flood!”
COMMING (verb): The act of creating “User Generated Communication / Content”. “Everyone’s COMMING about the President’s impeachment.”
COMMER (noun): An individual who COMMS. “He’s a COMMER who blogs and podcasts twice a week about the care and feeding of tropical fish.”
COMMED (verb): Past tense of COMM. “He was COMMED about for days after winning the gold medal.”
COMMIE (diminutive noun): A casual or juvenile COMMER. “Mike, at 8-years-old, was only a COMMIE and wasn’t taken as seriously as older, more active, COMMERS.”
It’s respectful to our roots, it’s pointed towards the horizon, and it’s short enough not to interrupt the DIVX I’m watching.
I’m COMMED out.
Kep!
They called us BBSers and we saw the future in them thar hills. From the beginning of the modemized world we were creating our own content, driving data and sticking conflict into any and every crevice we could latch a conspiracy onto. At first it was a lot of “Hi, my name is BIBBY THE FIREHEAD and my friend SKIPPSTER said this was a k00l place. Uh… what do I do now?” Handles, aliases and ruggish behavior littered the online world, but a glimmer of light was sparked and the beacon of the Internet was on the glow.
Flash forward to a world gone online slap-happy! Data jump, baby! Got data? Who’s data? Want more? Want less? It’s your choice. My choice. Our choice. Screw the dot, the age of COMM is here!
Every few years the world leaps forward with just how much information is easily available to the common man… the end of 2005 seems to be that time again (Got Coke?). No longer are we dependent on a single local newspaper… two or three nationals? HA!… only a few good news sites online? Not this week! Long gone are the days of three (or four) VHF and a couple of UHF television channels (you’re OLD if you get that reference)… and recently dead are “only” 50 cable channels… I’m up to 220 in my neighborhood… but go ahead, download the best of last nights programming and skip the commercials. It’s no longer about what WILL we choose but about what WON’T we choose. Want to find out what happened to your old pal JJ? That’s so last week! Let’s see what he’s thinking about today, this hour, RIGHT NOW! We have the remote, a bowl of popcorn and the Barcalounger of Tera-Petrabytes… screw what information YOU want to give us, WE pick and choose the blogs, wikis and podcasts that matter to us! Our news is no longer a broad stroke, it’s a tactical strike!
We command, control, communicate and commune. No longer are we BBSers, Internet Users, Dot-Commers or Geeks. We’re in charge of what we see, hear, read and feel in a way like never before. Is it a revolution or an actualization? Does it matter? Go to www.pickyourfightaboutanything.com and have at it… that’s your business, not mine. We no longer want just the right to free speech; we demand the entitlement to be heard.
It’s 2005 going on 2006 and some of us have been on this Internet ride for over 20 years. Let’s get tattoos. But who are we? Are we Bloggers? Are we Podcasters? Are we Wikians? No. We’re all of that and more. I’m a Seller on eBay, I’m a Member on forums, I’m a Contributor on Usenet, and I email my mother. It’s all “User Generated Content”… and let’s face it, that’s a mouthful no matter how you say it!
Part of the problem with “User Generated Content” is that we call it “Content”. While that might be an accurate name for most of what we do, it’s not all encompassing and certain aspects slip through the cracks (I don’t do Coke or Pepsi, I drink Fresca… where do I fit in?). However, it is all COMMUNICATION. “User Generated Communication” hits it all... text, voice, photos, video, smell... it’s all about communicating SOMETHING... ANYTHING!
So, with that in mind, I propose we adopt a new word to our collective online vocabulary: COMM.
COMM (noun): Any form of “User Generated Communication / Content” such as a Blog, PodCast, Wiki, eMail, etc. “Time to check the COMMS about the big flood!”
COMMING (verb): The act of creating “User Generated Communication / Content”. “Everyone’s COMMING about the President’s impeachment.”
COMMER (noun): An individual who COMMS. “He’s a COMMER who blogs and podcasts twice a week about the care and feeding of tropical fish.”
COMMED (verb): Past tense of COMM. “He was COMMED about for days after winning the gold medal.”
COMMIE (diminutive noun): A casual or juvenile COMMER. “Mike, at 8-years-old, was only a COMMIE and wasn’t taken as seriously as older, more active, COMMERS.”
It’s respectful to our roots, it’s pointed towards the horizon, and it’s short enough not to interrupt the DIVX I’m watching.
I’m COMMED out.
Kep!
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