Digital Identity --> The Big I -- Eric Norlin TDCRC
Eric Norlin gives an incredible dissertation on Digital Identity, something, Eric, is sure will be the next business phenomenon online. This is something I should be more familiar with, but am not.

It is precisely at this intersection of the real and virtual worlds
that digital identity sits. Digital Identity is not simply an online
phenomenon. Rather, it is a third state, a bridge that lies between
the real world and the world of ones and zeros. The liminal quality of
digital identity is precisely what makes it so significant.

If digital identity were nothing more than the ability to shop easily
online -- to auto-fill out the forms for ordering a book on Amazon --
then, quite frankly, digital identity would be very boring. It most
certainly wouldn't be some business altering force. But digital
identity is not simply contained to the online world; it straddles (or
is moving toward straddling) the two worlds of the real and digital.
As cell phone makers move towards location-based identity, as General
Motors deploys OnStar systems, as Fortune 500 companies use identity
management software to manage employee processes -- in these and many
more instances, digital identity is the bridge that ties the
electronic world to the physical world.

This makes me think of another "Big I," Digital Integrity.

Fee or Free: It's Economics!
Vin Crosbie gives a common sense reason to why content on the Internet is free in his latest ClickZ column. Vin plays down those who say we need to "educate" people to pay for content. There's an information surplus. Companies can't charge for content when it's so abundant. Now, if you have content that is on-of-a-kind, you'll be able to charge for content, and you should.

The Internet eased consumer access to information and astronomically increased choice of information sources. Most information is no longer scarce. It's becoming surplus. Publishers who distribute information are economically compelled to charge increasingly less.

Those of you who didn't nod off in economics class may remember how supply and demand works: You can charge much for something scarce or otherwise hard to obtain, but you must charge less if that something is surplus or otherwise easy to obtain.

Technological progress continually makes products more surplus and easier to obtain, even information. Result: Prices for information make ineluctable progress toward zero. Or, as Brand's observation is partly remembered, "Information wants to be free."

This makes me think about the homogenous nature of media in general. Few providers provide all of the content. It's become the same and it's everywhere you look. Mainstream media has become dull, and this is why I think Saltire is right when he says, it's all coming crashing down. There's no diversity in media today. And the media giants have shot themselves in the foot because they all thought their little formulas were going to deliver a constant flow of billions of cash-o-la. Someone forgot about the Golden Goose.

This is one of the reasons why the Web is so revolutionary. While there is an abundance of similar information, there is also an abundance of truly unique commentary. Conversations. Real talk.

But as I think out loud, and I'm thinking about David Weinberger's new book, Small Pieces Loosely Joined, which I just started reading, and he's talking the web as a space, not a medium. We go to places on the web, they aren't delivered to us -- as in the traditional sense of media. Because it's a place where conversations occur, not just the pushing of content, I wonder how we'll ever charge for content on the web. Would you pay a quarter every time you talked to your neighbor?

I say yes and no. I would pay to read some blogs, because they are so valuable. Others I wouldn't. I'd pay for the Wall Street Journal (I don't because my girlfriend does). But that's less conversation, more content...... anyways, enough meandering... back to work.

Micromarkets & Blogs: Chris Locke on NPR
Here is a transcription to Chris Locke's piece on NPR Marketplace talking about the blog phenomenon.

Garbage to one person is of high value to another, and the way the Internet works is that people group together around things that interest them. So the audience isn’t the mass audience, it’s little tiny micro audiences that aggregate around things people are saying that resonate with their own concerns. There has been an enormous amount of stuff written and said about the phenomenon of weblogging, which two years ago didn’t exist, and today there are something on the order of two million of these things in existence. It’s been a hockey stick spike.

Kartoo.com Mapping Search Engine
Rick Bruner points us to Kartoo.com which gives search results visually. I like the use of Flash on this site. Looks like some kind of Meta-Search Engine. Looks pretty neat, but I'm not too sure of the usefulness of it. I'll have to try it a couple more times.

New to Me
Adding 2 blogs to the blogroll today. XPlanes' bblog (via POELog) which has some good marketing and business blogging. And Boing Boing (via Rick Bruner), which points out the interesting and annoying things in life, like why Blockbuster requires you to rewind DVD's.

NPR Clueless
Marek J writes an open letter to NPR on their assbackwards policy on requiring permission to link to their (see, I did it) web site.

Blogging Giving Voice to Women in Iran
JOHO points us to a very neat story about women blogging in Iran -- allowing them to express themselves freely for the first time in history. Check them out here -- I can't understand a word of it, but I like the idea.

Sean Carton: ...Death of the "Official Story"
Sean's latest in ClickZ talks about Macromedia's use of blogging to "promote" their new products. Sean points us to a very important study by Edros and Morgan which found only 10% of consumers trust Internet advertising.

I think blogging and other forms of C2C communications (Sean mentions instant messaging, SMS, email chat rooms .... BTW, I think what makes blogging so powerful is that its truly in the public sphere, where as apps like instant messaging are private communications...) are the future of "marketing." "Marketing" in quotes because as oppposed to B2C marketing, where a company pushes a message to a customer, C2C marketing is where businesses facilitate and encourage the communication between customers. And going back to that stat where only 10% of people trust internet advertising, I think customers are looking for some kind of communication that is lower in the bullshit and higher in real value. As marketers we need to facilitate this marketing and ensure its integrity and honesty is upheld above anything else (including -- and don't jump -- negative commentary).

From Sean's article:

Whether Macromedia knows it or not, what it's done is merely institutionalize a trend that's been building up in the consumer landscape for years, a trend that many commercial advertisers are loathe to address: that the Internet now makes it virtually impossible to create a unified "image" consumers will swallow. Sure, you can still create "brands" people can identify, but now, if that finely crafted brand image doesn't match reality, you're gonna be found out.

Interestingly, Mike Chambers, one of the Macromedia bloggers, said that it wasn't a decision by Macromedia to start the blogs but a decision by the 5 community managers who are blogging for Macromedia today.

Facing the Music: Michael Wolf
This has got to be the most realistic and honest look into where the music business is heading. Saltire chimes in with commentary on the piece too. From the New York Magazine:

Starting in the fifties, and then gaining incredible force in the sixties, rock-and-roll performers eclipsed authors as cultural stars. Rock and roll took over fiction's job as the chronicler and romanticizer of American life (that rock and roll became much bigger than fiction relates, I'd argue, more to scalability and distribution than to relative influence), and the music business replaced the book business as the engine of popular culture.

Now, though, another reversal, of similar commercial and metaphysical magnitude, is taking place. Not, of course, that the book business is becoming rock and roll, but that the music industry is becoming, in size and profit margins and stature, the book business....

Radio, heretofore ad hoc and eccentric and local, underwent a transformation in which it became formatted, rational, and centralized. Its single imperative was to keep people from moving the dial -- seamlessness became the science of radio. ...

From mono to stereo to Walkman. It just happens that the next stage of technological development in the music business has largely excluded the music business itself.

I would comment, but I think it's all been said.

Search and Ye Shall Find
Kottke searches the top 10 search engines for the top 10 search engines. Pretty neat.

Doc on Advertising and Blogs
Doc has a lengthy piece on Harry Copelands Blogonomics piece in Pressflix:

Agreeable stuff, indeed. But Henry's going somewhere with this, and it's not a place all of us will want to arrive at. .... Advertising..... So maybe there's a market there. But it's one that will exist between bloggers and advertisers. Not between bloggers and readers. ....The minute this blog turns into an intellectual property business, or the minute that I need to "monetize" it in some way, it will have a different purpose than the one that brings readers to it now.

I tend to partly agree with Doc. But I think we're looking at this blogging and business concept from the wrong angle. It's not about placing ads on blogs. It's about turning bloggers into advocates for your products and/or service and connecting networks of common communities (i.e. common groups of blogs) to larger websites of mass appeal. So several micromarkets are connected to a corresponding mass market (i.e. corporate web site).

Blogging opens up honest conversations about products, issues, companies, hobbies and habits. With that said, it is essential that "the system" helps maintain the integrity of bloggers. I think Jeff Jarvis has got it dead right (in a Gonzo marketing kind of way) when he says, "the wise marketer will recognize a community of shared interest and will underwrite that community .... 'we share an interest and affection for this community.'"

Gonzo Marketing & Blogs
Lot's to catch up on, since I've gotten back from Hilton Head (thank you very much). This is a really interesting read on applying Gonzo marketing to blogs. And so is this. These two pieces are really central to this idea I keep thinking about, incorporating blogs and business. From Jeff Jarvis:

that instead of intrustive advertising, the wise marketer will recognize the power of blogs and join that power by joining the community. Instead of buying ads on blogs (which we'd all love, but which would not work even if it happened... witness other failed Internet ad movements; we will be spared that humiliation thanks to timing) the wise marketer will recognize a community of shared interest and will underwrite that community, will help make it possible, will say by that act "we share an interest and affection for this community."

And Corante has a pretty cool diagram which, I'm sure, will be similar to what I'm thinking too.

A Brief History on Blogs
Rebecca Blood blogs a history of blogs .... pretty interesting (via msnbc, which by the way, is a terrific mainstream article on blogs -- see what'd I say about equalibrium, it's already kickin' in ;-)).

A Fine Farewell
Rick Bruner blogs a fine farewell to Andy Bourland in Executive Summary. Andy has decided to move out of the interactive field. Why, I'm not sure. He still has a great mind for it, no matter what he says. Nonetheless, I remember first subscribing to ClickZ, which Andy co-ounded, ran and operated. It was the best commentary on internet advertising, marketing and media. A lot of those old articles would probably still inject wisdom into this infant industry. I still find ClickZ one of the best sources of commentary. In a way, ClickZ has always been a collection of blogs by industry professionals -- even though they were never referred to as such. Best of luck to Andy.

Attack of the Blogs
There's been a lot of mainstream press lately on blogging (Corante has got a complete list) ... and I don't think the press has it entirely right. Newsweek ran a story, "Will Blogs Kill Old Media?" -- San Antonio Express: "Are Media Being Blog-rolled?" The list goes on.

The real story isn't Bloggers vs Mass Media. It's really about bloggers and mass media, and how they will co-exist. The Newsweek article quotes Dave Winer as saying, "By 2007, more readers will get news from blogs than from The New York Times." I say without the New York Times blogs won't exist, and without recognizing blogs, the New York Times won't exist.

News media slowly allowed corporate powers to control their stories. Advertising, ratings, political correctness, cross promotion and corporate bias crept into the newsroom unchecked. Because there was no counter balance, it grew out of control. Blogging creates an equilibrium. The " unbespoken outsiders—impassioned lefties and righties, fine-print-reading wonks, indignant cranks and salt-’o-the-earth eyewitnesses to the 'real' life[er's]" will keep those giant media companies in check. Now maybe we can start trusting the news again, wherever it may come from.

Scott Rosenburg is thinking along the same lines in Salon:

Typically, the debate about blogs today is framed as a duel to the death between old and new journalism....

The rise of blogs does not equal the death of professional journalism. The media world is not a zero-sum game. Increasingly, in fact, the Internet is turning it into a symbiotic ecosystem -- in which the different parts feed off one another and the whole thing grows.

Weblogs -- which often consist of annotated links to media Web sites as well as to other blogs -- would barely be able to get by without the informational fodder provided by the mainstream media. Meanwhile, time-strapped reporters and editors in downsized, resource-hungry newsrooms are increasingly turning to blogs for story tips and pointers. No one has enough time to read everything on the Web; blogs offer a smart reader the chance to piggyback on someone else's reading time. Good journalists would be fools not to feed off blogs.

Weblogs expand the media universe. They are a media life-form that is native to the Web, and they add something new to our mix, something valuable, something that couldn't have existed before the Web....

It should be obvious that weblogs aren't competing with the work of the professional journalism establishment, but rather complementing it.

So what's mass media to do? I say, embrace blogging. Make it part of your entity. Or watch your entity disappear.

Or just listen what rageboy has to say (how does he do it? Speak with such honesty?) Great to see him back, btw. He's really been writing up a storm (here too).

Marketing Blogs Unite!
Been very, very busy lately and not much time for blogging as I would like. So much to blog, so little time.

But I wanted to give a big thanks to recent mentions from other "marketing bloggers." My traffic has really been heading up. Thanks to Deborah Branscum for the link, Oliver Travers for his mention on Web Voice, Rick Bruner for the perma link under his Blog Marketing links and Rob Poel who I think was my first visitor, ever. Oh yeah, how could I forget, and Steve MacLaughin for his thoughts on my Jack Feuer blog.

ClickZ: Seana Mulcahy on Advertising and Blogs

Could this be the future of blogging?

Blogging isn't widely used, accepted, or provided by companies to employees. The technology would be an excellent forum for workplace communication. Quite often, my clients are trying to target the at-work audience. This would be a perfect fit. Not only would it be a great way to brand or promote products and services online, it would also allow advertisers to gain planning insight. Have you ever watched postings on an online bulletin board or lurked in a chat room? It's amazing what you can find out about people's interests, needs, problems, and attitudes toward a brand.

Many pundits strongly disagree. They believe blogging is built on trust. I agree. They think promoting a mobile phone or airline tickets or soft drinks on a blog would be horribly wrong. That's where I say, "Give me a break."

Open a newspaper, use the remote control on a TV, flip through a magazine, listen to the radio. What are you surrounded with? Advertising, of course. Perhaps these cynics want to protect and preserve the untouched atmosphere. I respect their opinion.

But I still say, "Why not slap an ad on it?"

There are many things that just don't jive here and is typical of what is so prevalent in advertising today. If it moves, "slap an ad on it."

First, I don't think advertising and blogs mix. I said it below, and I'll say it again. Seana treats blogging as an unusually effective outlet for advertisers. I don't get this. Why is a blog a better place to slap an ad? To me, its just another place -- if not, a worse place. When a real voice is juxtaposed against advertising, the real voice wins and the advertising loses.

I don't really consider myself a pundit. I'm in advertising just like Seana. But I don't think "promoting a mobile phone or airline tickets or soft drinks on a blog would be horribly wrong," I think it would be horribly ineffective. Why would it work? I can appreciate the use of blogging for planners -- to gain insight into customers -- But that's different than slapping an ad on it.

That's not how you use the web in business. You talk with. Not talk at.

Adverblogging
Rick Bruner, who originally blogged about Nick Denton's new venture (see last entry), writes about some of the possibilities of blogging, marketing and, now, PR (and the unfortunate coinage of "adverblogging").

Rick blogs about how Macromedia is backing the launch of their new MX platform by creating a blog maintained by 5 staff developers. The internet tears down the boarders between customer and company where marketing-speak dies and real voices thrive (rhyme not intended). Rick claims adverblogging is inevitable. While I'm not sure about "adverblogging," the term, I know Rick is right.

P.S. Rick has a really cool section of his site slapping fun at all the un-creative logos with swooshes and orbits.

Blogvertising?
Nick Denton, founder of moreover.com, is starting a new venture revolving around the idea of making it easier to search for blogs (good idea). The plan would be ad-supported (bad idea).

Denton plans on mixing blogs and advertising. Advertising and blogs don't mix. Unless if you're "advertising" someone elses blog (Pyrads, Blogsnob, for example).

The way I bet it roles out, advertising gets distributed on this blog network, the network gets paid for advertising, maybe bloggers get a portion of the pay (in which case, this might work). Now, Denton's plan is vague, so I may be totally off the mark. But the fact that it sounds like a purely adsupported revenue model instantly raises my skeptisim.

Bottom line: Why would advertising a company's product or service resonate on anyone's blog? When a real voice is juxtaposed against advertising, the real voice wins and the advertising loses.

For info go here, here, here, here, here and here.

One of the Greatest Things about the Internet are Gems like this
I quote:

I said this is what is happening on the net. We have never in our
lives had a channel to say this, to tell what it's like to be human ....

I don't want to be a hero, I said. Don't want to have a thousand
faces, launch a thousand ships. But I wonder why we think this way.
Where our sense of shifting destiny has gone. For better or worse, I
said, I am trying to live my life in public. Online. We've never had
any channel for this. No models. And the models we need are not
"model" lives but real ones. Uncertain and afraid, crippled, broken.
Trying to make sense of our minds and our hearts and the world we
encounter out here. Telling each other what it's like to be human.
Making what we can with all we've got. Not shitting ourselves and each
other with facile platitudes, easy formulas, empty slogans. A human
life for all to see, for what it's worth. It may not be worth much,
but that's what I'm doing here. Not a model life, but writing that
shakes and shivers and burns and speaks for whatever life we have.

Agency.com Blogs It
This is a very, very cool new blog by the folks at Agency.com. I think this takes a lot of courage. For an ad agency to open up their conversations to the rest of the world is pretty revolutionary. (Thanks to SherpaBlog for the link).

John Hiler on Blog Marketing
Deborah Branscum interviews Coronte Microblog creator John Hiler. John shares with us how blogging will be important to marketing. Not sure I agree with all of John's conclusions, but an interesting read nonetheless.

It's Friday!!
.... and it's time for some peanut butter and jelly.

Googlewog: The Power of a Brand via Doc's Blog
Doc writes a heartwarming piece about his son in his blog today. This could have easily been an ad. Any copywriter could write such a story. But what makes this one so much more powerful is the voice is real. The power of the internet is that it opens up the relationships between customers and the products they buy (although Doc didn't pay for Google, you can get the point). People will be linking to Doc's story all day today. Google is winning in the process because it delivers a stellar product. And Doc has something neat to say about it.

New Marketing Blog - NetMarketing
Stumbled accross this new marketing blog called NetMarketing by Robert Lock via the Corante Blog. Lots of industry info.

BTW just added a discussion forum via Bravenet (thanks to NetMarketing). So talk it up folks ...

Adweak: Ad Criticism & Blatantly Fake News
Thought of making a parody website of Adweek. Looks like someone already did. Pretty funny site. Check it out.

Totalitarian Control of the Browser - First Our Inboxes, Now our Browsers
Sean Carton gives another scary view of things to come in his latest ClickZ article at what some marketers are trying to do to our browsers. The sad thing is, I think Sean is dead on with this prediction.

Why Google Works.
From Seth Godin's blog.

April Fools joke courtesy of Google.

Ads that People Want
In an advertising world where 2% responses are something the cheer about ....

Media Central's Media Buyer's Daily reports on a study by Knowledge Networks/Statistical Research Inc which found "73% of consumers surveyed said yellow pages ads are more important than other ad types because they 'provide information at the time of purchase'.... Local and national yellow pages advertising generated 13.6 billion in revenue in 2001."

See, sometimes useful things aren't quite so sexy.

Marketing that a customer wants is marketing that works.

Arbitron tells CARP to go Scratch
This is HUGE. The fact that the Nielson ratings of radio has come out against CARP's recommendation is going to make this one a real fight ...

NEW YORK, March 25, 2002 -Arbitron Inc. provided congressional leaders with detailed reasons why they should oppose the digital rights fees recommended by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) and, instead, institute a five-year moratorium on such fees for streaming media.

"We foresee that the impact of these fees will dramatically reduce the consumer's choice of streaming content, limit the diversity of streaming 'voices' on the Internet, stifle competition among content providers and impede the growth of a popular new medium," wrote Bill Rose, vice president and general manager, Arbitron Webcast Services, in letters to members of Congress.

More here.

He's Alive!
BTW, Eric Norlin is on a blog roll today....

Free to Fee?
This is a question of been pondering for a while. I think Andy Bourland hits the head in his renewed column on ClickZ.

Moving from "free" to "fee" is risky. If you offer content that's simply "nice to have" rather than "vital to have," chances are your audience won't pay you a dime. If you have a bunch of competitors offering similar content for free, you're not likely to succeed in charging for what your readers can get elsewhere for nothing. If your audience is ill-defined or if the solutions you offer are only a modest improvement over the status quo, they won't open their wallets, either.

Those offering superior to none content will thrive in this model. Those offering information that's a commodity will fail. Regardless I think just as it was foolish to rely on just ad revenue to keep a site up and running, it would be foolish to rely only on paid subscriptions.

I've got an idea buzzing in my head (see last few entries) about introducing blogging as a source of income. Stay tuned ....

Fast Company on Blogging

Blogging is starting to tip. First MSNBC, now Fast Company gives us their take on blogging ...

Blog Journalism: "Say good-bye to the old-school pundits on the op-ed page of the New York Times. It's time to blog."

Peer groups organize themselves in hundreds of different ways. But what they all have in common is a shared sense of mission: what the military calls "unit cohesion." That cohesion -- a kind of network effect -- is what makes the peer group, or team, much stronger than the simple sum of its parts .....

They call themselves "Webloggers" -- or "bloggers," for short -- and they're providing the most energetic, lively, and passionate analysis, commentary, and opinion around....

When they're not focused on themselves, mainstream journalists spend most of their time sucking up to sources and writing with a keen eye toward source protection. Bloggers spend most of their time engaged in constant communication with their readers. In so doing, they create a network of sources who are always on the lookout for interesting articles, columns, stories, and items.

Blogs Demassifying: (although I think this author misses many beats, it translates well for those still living in a mass-broadcast world) " Weblogs aren't just glorified pages of links and rambling personal sites; they are an antidote to mass media."

"A Weblog is based entirely on trust," she says. "People come because they like to read what you write. If you suddenly began promoting Nokia cell phones on the side, news of it would come out quickly because this is a close-knit community. And that would be a tremendous breach of trust. It would be a scandal in the Weblog community because it goes against our entire ethic."

Fast Company contributor's blogs here. And their list of favorite blogs here.

This popularization of blogging is a little scary. I need to complete my ideas on using blogging for business before some dinosaur makes a mess of it all.

Bloggers in a Dot Bomb World
Henry Jenkins has written two (similar) pieces (here and here) on the increasing popularity and importance of blogging.

What I really like about Jenkins' pieces is how he melds blogging and mainstream media: Mainstream media will help shape our nation's common values, principles and core issues and the web (via blogging) will reframe those messages for specific segments and communities ....": turn on the TV and it feels like the same programs are on all the channels; turn to the Web and it’s impossible to distinguish the good stuff from the noise. Bloggers respond to both extremes, expanding the range of perspectives and, if they’re clever, creating order from the informational chaos."

I think Jenkins' articles go beyond some of the beliefs in the blogging community that the broadcast/mainstream media will die out and be replaced with a world of loosley joined pieces (for a kids explanation, which is also great for some grownups check here). While we live in a world where we can connect to someone thousands of miles away, we are still connected to our neighbors and our physical communities. The irony is that broadcast will maintain the consistency in values among neighbors while the web will diversify our culture and empower us to follow our passions and gain alternate perspectives on the physical world, like politics, sports, business ideas, and other issues and topics.

Blogging For Businesses .....
How does business use blogging? I've got some solid ideas. And they begin with David Weinberger's idea that customers (should) "own" a business' web site. And it continues with Chris Locke's idea in Gonzo Marketing that companies should underwrite websites that express common interests of the company's customers and employees.

Except my idea doesn't keep the underwritten web site separate from the company's web site. Instead, a community of bloggers (of both employees and customers), is hosted and promoted on the company's web site. Those who hold passions revolving around a company's product or service can discuss that passion within a community of bloggers on the company's web site.

The blogs will still be "owned" by the blog's creators while maintaining autonomy, similar to how one hosts their blog on Blog Spot. However the host will reflect a more niche community. For example, my blog on Guitar World Magazine's web site could be http://scottmusic.guitarworldblog.com. If I offer similar, but non-competing service, or content, and have gained the popularity to do so effectively (like Chris Locke has done in his community), Guitar World will underwrite my web site, promote it, etc. In return I link back to Guitar World's web site, and I send them leads.

Bloggers in a Dot Bomb World
Henry Jenkins has written two (similar) pieces, on MSNBC and MIT Technology Review (here and here) on the increasing popularity and importance of blogging.

What I really like about Jenkins' pieces is how he melds blogging and mainstream media: Mainstream media will help shape our nation's common values, principles and core issues and the web (via blogging) will reframe those messages for specific segments and communities ....": turn on the TV and it feels like the same programs are on all the channels; turn to the Web and it’s impossible to distinguish the good stuff from the noise. Bloggers respond to both extremes, expanding the range of perspectives and, if they’re clever, creating order from the informational chaos."

I think Jenkins' articles go beyond some of the beliefs in the blogging community that the broadcast/mainstream media will die out and be replaced with a world of loosley joined pieces (for a kids explanation, which is also great for some grownups check here). While we live in a world where we can connect to someone thousands of miles away, we are still connected to our neighbors and our physical communities. The irony is that broadcast will maintain the consistency in values among neighbors while the web will diversify our culture and empower us to follow our passions and gain alternate perspectives on the physical world, like politics, sports, business ideas, and other issues and topics.

Blogging For Businesses .....
How does business use blogging? I've got some solid ideas. And they begin with David Weinberger's idea that customers (should) "own" a business' web site. And it continues with Chris Locke's idea in Gonzo Marketing that companies should underwrite websites that express common interests of the company's customers and employees.

Except my idea doesn't keep the underwritten web site separate from the company's web site. Instead, a community of bloggers (of both employees and customers), is hosted and promoted on the company's web site. Those who hold passions revolving around a company's product or service can discuss that passion within a community of bloggers on the company's web site.

The blogs will still be "owned" by the blog's creators while maintaining autonomy, similar to how one hosts their blog on Blog Spot. However the host will reflect a more niche community. For example, my blog on Guitar World Magazine's web site could be http://scottmusic.guitarworldblog.com. If I offer similar, but non-competing service, or content, and have gained the popularity to do so effectively (like Chris Locke has done in his community), Guitar World will underwrite my web site, promote it, etc. In return I link back to Guitar World's web site, and I send them leads.

The Tipping Blog
Very cool and interesting follow up piece from John Hiler at Corante ... Malcom Gladwell's Tipping Point is used to explain the potently viral element of the internet. Which explains why Rob Poel saw that everyone else had already blogged John's earlier article on why google loves blogs.

An interesting exerpt:

Understanding how Link Mavens and Connectors work transformed my thoughts of how ideas spread. You can literally see the process take place online in a way that is virtually impossible in real life.

It's generally a five-step process:

1. An Expert (one might call her a Content Maven) Writes or Creates something interesting and puts it online (creating the critical component of any online ideavirus: the link)
2. A Link Maven comes across the link, and blogs it to their site
3. A Connector finds the link and blogs it to their site (or the aforementioned Link Maven has Connector-like traffic levels)
4. The link starts to Tip within the weblog community
5. The link Tips beyond the weblog community, as the rest of us find out about it

Advertisers think about banner-ad campaigns as a way to carpetbomb their audience with ads. But in a world where ideas and links can Tip so dramatically, perhaps it makes sense for them to revise their thinking.

ESPN Goes to Washington
This is why the baseball, Jagr and the Wiz will never rule this town. Why Steve Spurrier is the Rageboy of sports. The past DC'er's cling to, without relent. And the real men with a say in this town.

Amateur Journalism Ruled Equal
This is a great win for Free Speech and Blog Journalism. From Doc. Anyone know where I can get a copy of the ruling?

Back in the Bloghouse
Worth a read, or two or three. No comments, just letting it soak in.

I Changed My Name
"Hyper-Conversations" was ... well .... kinda lame, and not entirely me. Plus this ties in with a web site which I'll have completed more sooner than later (www.web-sense.com) which will market ... myself.