Is it just me or did the whole Les Blogs thing fizzle big time (at least to North Americans)?  Sure there’s lots of news about it, but it seems like the whole thing made no real splash at all.

I think the problem is the so-called "A-listers".  Not blogging.

Lately, I have been moving more and more "A-list" bloggers into my "zzzzzzz" folder in Thunderbird.  This is where I put the ones that I used to like, but am finding less and less relevant each day.  I only check the "zzzzzzz" folder once a week or so and clean it out about once a month or so.  Everyone else, I keep up with.

Sometimes I get so fed up with a blogger that I actually enjoy booting the feed into the "zzzzzzzzzz" folder.  Take that!

I really love it when I can pull someone out of there (Paolo is the only one so far).

I keep wanting to take Joi Ito out of the "zzzzzzz" list, but can’t seem to justify it.

Zawodny seems to have lost his cool back at the sky gliding camp.  Now he just bitches half the time and makes excuses for Yahoo and himself.  To the "zzzzzzz" list.

I’d take Dave Winer out if he’d just stop putting markup code in his titles.  Jeez.  What a geek! (he sent me an invite to Yahoo! 360 though - thanks Dave - I like your writting when it’s legible).

Now I guess I’m bitching.  Oh well, you can always put me on your "zzzzzzz" folder or just hit delete.

I hope BlogNashville goes better (it should, there are better people there, like Jay Dedman - oops, Dave Winer is presenting at the same time) but I think the "blogging" thing is over (not writing them, just the "real" conferences).  $50 says that even the 2006 SXSW will be so "last year".  Any takers?

Addendum₁: Jeez! Some jerk weenie jerk left a trackback, linked here, misquoted this blog and then credited the wrong person.  Apparently this is the organizer for BlogNashville!  I hope he/she handles details better in the real world than they do in the blogosphere.  Trackback deleted! I’m not even gunna link to the offending page

Addendum₂: I changed "jerk" to "weenie" because they apologized and corrected the name, but only put quote marks over a single word I said, taken out of context.  Jeez!  I hope this guy checks out some of the journalism vs. blogging sessions.

Addendum₃: Now he’s complaining that I called him a "jerk" inspite of his self-admitted lack of attention to detail.  He does have excuses though.  ("Excuses? Reasons? They are all the same to me." - General Arturo Salazar)  On the other hand, some of his other readers are also complaining about his misrepresenting their words too.  So I gues he’s promoted back to "jerk" again.  I still hope it’s a great conference for all who go.

Addendum₄: I’m standardizing on seven z’s in "zzzzzzz-list’.  I added a new category.

I had been meaning to write a post about a Seth Godin experience that I had recently, but one of his blog posts today gives me a second reason.  Regarding today’s post:

Interesting Question: what happens in viral marketing when people identify with the wrong brand? 

Case in point: The Beverly Hills Hotel is a venerable institution that can be identified with bungalows, whereas the Beverly Hills Hilton is just a big brand hotel chain down the street that nickles and dimes you for every little "service".

Moral: we’re not all mavens with respect to everything.

Especially me…

I have been enjoying Seth’s newsfeed and blog for some time now and his name and work has become a familiar one to me.  I have even mentioned him to others and have certainly emailed links to his posts to old school marketing folks I seem to constantly meet (my favorite is "shortcuts").

Much of what he and Malcolm Gladwell have written has resonated with me.

The recent "Seth Godin" experience that I referred to was this…

The other day, I was thinking about something pretty deeply and my vision fixed on a point ahead of me.  I have a small rack of little reference books on my desk, filled mainly with those O’Reilly quick ref’s and a gadget manual or two.

All of a sudden it occurred to me that I was staring at the words "SETH GODIN", running sideways down one of the books.  I thought "What is this doing here?" and suddenly I remembered that "Unleashing The Ideavirus" was one of those Amazon "Better Together" offers back last year when I pre-ordered Gladwell’s "Blink".

In that moment I realized that I must have accepted the additional book (probably because I was gunna have to wait several more months for Blink and probably because I had just finished the Tipping Point and wanted more viral marketing exposure).

I recall browsing Seth’s Ideavirus book when it arrived and liking a lot of what it had to say.  I must have then placed it in the reference rack with the hope of reading more later and then forgot about it (and him) for several months (it’s probably better to keep a book like this in the john, it will get read much faster).

So, here’s a case where the author’s blogging did not cause me to purchase the book (but I’d love to take a look at his "liars" book - i have too much to read these days and so I don’t just order everything I think I want like I did back in the boon days).  But Seth’s blog (blogs actually, I think he has at least two) certainly do promote Seth and his ideas.  And now I can’t wait to read more of Ideavirus.  It’s a wonderfully vicious cycle.

I love finding treasures already in ones own library.

Finally, the pieces fall together.  I need to pay more attention to people’s names, especially in this attribution crazed world.  I had a professor in college (Ky Fan) who used to hammer us about that.  We could often state and prove very complex theorems, but couldn’t tell you who first wrote them and when.  In spite of my rigorous academic upbringing, I still wonder sometimes how important this really is.  We all stand on the shoulders of giants, but then, so do they.

We live in a world gone "attribution" mad.  There’s even a licence for it now.  I wonder what would happen if, as a University instructor, I were to license all my handouts and materials (and even the course content itself) with a Creative Commons "attribution-shareAlike" license and then sued all my students that did not adhear to the licence over the course of our lives.  What would happen if I added the "non-commercial" or "no derived works" options?  Personally I am beginning to think that "intellectual property" is an oxymoron, but this is a subject for another post.

At least now I know who wrote "Unleashing the Ideavirus". 

Thanks Seth!

Rocketboom has a great little video about some fascinating wireless and true p2p experiments at Parsons School of Design. 

Subjects use wireless p2p devices (bluetooth?) to communicate using vibrations in order to produce a bird-like flocking behavior.

Interesting and fun, but my question is: why would a bunch of people willing choose to follow a "lead" bird?  Wait a minute.  Never mind.

Click the pic for more flocking info.

"What is The Law?  The Law says:"

Artists’ Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2005 or ART Act - (Sec.
102) Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit the unauthorized,
knowing use or attempted use of a video camera or similar device…

…
Sets forth penalties for such violations, which may include
imprisonment for not more than three years for a first offense.
Considers the possession of a recording device in a movie theater as
evidence in any proceeding to determine whether that person committed
such an offense, but shall not, by itself, be sufficient to support a
conviction for such offense.

…Authorizes, with reasonable cause, the owner, lessee, authorized agent,
or employee of a movie theater to detain, in a reasonable manner and
for a reasonable time, any person suspected of committing such an
offense for the purpose of questioning that person or summoning a law
enforcement officer…

(Sec. 103) Establishes criminal penalties for willful copyright
infringement by the distribution of a computer program, musical work,
motion picture or other audiovisual work, or sound recording being
prepared for commercial distribution by making it available on a
computer network accessible to members of the public, if the person
knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial
distribution.
 
Link: Bill Summary & Status.

So now theatre ushers are cops?  That should be good training for when they grow up and become Homeland Security agents.  What’s next? Camera registration?