Our Generation’s John Lennon
The other day I was talking to my uncle. He’s my dad’s age, a boomer. I was struggling to explain the importance of Steve Jobs’ death to my generation (“Generation X”, more or less) when this popped out of my mouth: “He was our generation’s John Lennon.” Ever since I said it, it’s been rattling around my brain. Could it be so?
“Nobody Uses Their Real Name” and Other Outdated Notions
I got my first email address in 1991. I was a freshman at UC Santa Cruz and a friend took me to a basement geek office where you had to fill out a paper form to get your free ucsc.edu email account. In the box labeled “User-name” I started to write “Derek.” My friend stopped me. “Nobody uses their real name.” He said it like he was talking to a child.
How to Turn a Fan into an Enemy in Under 140 Characters
Because I’m a media dork, I’ve listened to NPR’s On The Media since its debut. It’s the first podcast I…
On The Network Manifesto
I’m thinking about starting a podcast or something called “On The Network” to counter all the idiocy I hear in traditional media about the internet. If I did, here’s the beta version of the 10 guiding principles that would guide it.
All Media Is Social*
All media is social because human beings are social. The only difference is that it happens much, much, much faster now. We’ve sped up the refresh rate in our mediated conversations so much that the previous version looks like it’s not moving at all.
Yochai Benkler on Why Now’s Better
Yochai Benkler, when asked the usual asinine internet-as-echo-chamber question by Brooke Gladstone on this week’s On the Media, said this:…
Why Everything Sucks, Why That’s Awesome, and How It’s Changing Us
I think I’ve finally figured out why everything sucks. And it’s actually kind of awesome. I bought my first guitar…
How To Save A Newsweekly in 5 Easy* Steps
Newsweek is for sale. While sad, it’s also an amazing opportunity to reinvent what a newsweekly could be. And it…
Two Brain Cells Is a Lot in Some Places
Some old friends of mine are quoted in Tech Radar’s elegy to GeoCities. My soundbite is on page two. “The…
Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists
Search Engine Optimization is not a legitimate form of marketing. It should not be undertaken by people with brains or souls. If someone charges you money for SEO, they are running a scam.