Posts tagged Blogging at Switched

Posts with tag blogging

Obama Loads His Team With 'World of Warcraft' Fan and Bloggers

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 21st 2008 at 12:02PM

Despite the looming possibility that incoming president Barack Obama may have to give up e-mail, there is still strong expectation that an Obama administration will be sensitive to technology issues. One of those reasons is his continued appointment of people with deep connections to cyber culture.

Obama's latest appointment is Tom Daschle as head of Health and Human Services (we thought that job would have gone to Dean). Daschle is a former blogger, though he doesn't appear to have had much dedication to the idea of blogging -- the blog only reveals two entries about his travels through South Dakota.

Other appointees are much more active though. Peter Orszag, who has been tapped to head the Office of Management and Budget, is an avid blogger (though he keeps comments on his posts turned off). Heading up his FCC transition team are Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach, grizzled veterans of the Net Neutrality battle. Both keep active blogs, and Webach even gets down with Twitter. There is even good news for gamers: Werbach is very active on 'World of Warcraft.' He belongs to a pair of guilds in the virtual world that consist mainly of academics and the tech elite.

What exactly this means for the policy of the incoming administration remains to be seen, but we're sure they'll be much more sensitive to the needs the tech industry and netizens than the Bush administration has been. [From: Silicon Alley Insider, and GigaOm]

Silenced Army Blogger Tells His Tale in New Book

by Tim Stevens, posted Nov 18th 2008 at 7:35AM

Last May, after a series of blogs created by U.S. Army soldiers on deployment gained worldwide notoriety and popularity, the military cracked down, effectively putting an end to the practice. Now one of the most popular of those silenced bloggers, Colby Buzzell, has written a book and continues to speak out about his experiences there and his hopes for the future.

Buzzell, who operated a blog under the nom de guerre CBFTW (Colby Buzzell F*** The War), wrote a number of posts from the warfront immediately after engaging in combat, including one famous one titled "Men In Black," about an engagement with a number of insurgents dressed in black. That post earned him plenty of attention from the worldwide media, and his superiors, too, who initially confined him to base then later ordered him to stop blogging altogether -- just 10 weeks after he started.

Now he's written a book, called "My War," which contains many excerpts from his blog, and continues to write for Esquire magazine while also working on a new book. Military blogs are still largely banned, though. Sadly, this means that the only way we're going to keep up to date with what's going on over there is the same way we always have -- through the traditional media. [From: CNN]

Colbert Blogs About Twittering, Introduces 'Simul-Tubing'

by Lee Bains, posted Nov 6th 2008 at 6:15PM

While many Americans tuned into those glum ol' news networks Tuesday night, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart dished out an entertaining -- if not absurd -- night of election coverage, as is shown in this clip on ValleyWag.

With a finger always on the heartbeat of young America, Colbert ran a multi-layered digital media assault from his seat behind the news desk. At one point during the evening, in a flurry of digital-age journalism, he informed the cable television audience that he would be blogging about Twittering. He even introduces a brand new news medium: Simul-Tubing (again, you'll have to watch the video to find out what that is).

If we wanted, we could probably look at this clip as commentary on the circuitousness (and mindlessness) of contemporary media, one media form's copy just being a reiteration of, or reference to, another media form's copy.

We could do that. But we'd rather just laugh. [From: ValleyWag.com]

Bandai Blogging 'Bot Renders Human Writers Obsolete

by Paul Miller, posted Oct 15th 2008 at 12:34PM

We always figured this day would come, but so soon? We're obsolete, ladies and gentlemen. It's been a great ride, and we're glad we got to do just one more Stevenote with y'all before we fade into the night, but the robots have arrived, and they're going to blog harder, better, faster and stronger. We cannot compete.

Bandai just announced the Net Tansor Web, a Wi-Fi-equipped robot with a built-in camera for snapping his soon-to-be-award-winning exposés and posting them to the Web at regular intervals alongside witty commentary. The bot can react to reader comments like "a little to the right," or "you suck" and adjust accordingly. Net Tansor also can handle live video, reads RSS feeds out loud and knows no fatigue. Bandai's going to be selling this for 50,000 Yen (about $490 US) whenever it's ready.

CuteOverload Pet Blog Finds Success in Print and on the Web

by Tim Stevens, posted Aug 20th 2008 at 10:30AM

Feeling down? Need a little pick-me-up? Like ridiculously cute pictures of ridiculously cute things? Well gosh, you've just got to check out CuteOverload.com, a site wholly dedicated to cute updates of cute things. It started three years ago as a little test blog for kicks, and now has grown into the beginnings of an aww-inspiring empire, selling the entire supply of its first calendar on Amazon.com in just 24 hours.

The site specializes in random pictures of random things that will make you smile (or gag, depending on your penchant for such things). There are shots of everything from puppies with stuffed animals to cuddly looking grizzly bears at the zoo. There's little commentary to clutter the pics, most submitted by readers to Meg Frost, who runs the site and still holds down a day job at Apple as a designer. But, with her cute empire growing and taking over the best-seller charts on Amazon, we think we see a career change ahead -- a very fuzzy one. [Source: The New York Times]

Click Here for the 10 Funniest Pet Web Sites

Congressman Wants to Set Rules for Official Twitter 'Tweets'

by Will Safer, posted Jul 17th 2008 at 9:58AM

Elected officials and government bodies have had official Web sites since the Internet came into popular use, but now Congress is trying to grapple with a relatively new Web phenomenon: microblogging.

This type of communication is typified by sites like Twitter, which allows users to write short notes or updates on their daily, hourly or even minute-by-minute activity, and share the information with people who subscribe to the service. It's fast, easy, and lets large groups of people follow the activities of their friends or others whenever they update their Twitter feeds. A single Twitter update is known as a "Tweet."

Blogging and e-mail have been used as tools by politicians running for office, but as official communication, this is something new, and the U.S. Congress has rules on how its members send messages to constituents.

According to Republican Representative John Culberson of Texas, it's time for Congress to catch up with the micro-blogging fad. Current Congressional rules apply to e-mail and Web sites, but don't account for messages that appear on Web sites outside government purview, such as Twitter. To him, easy communication is a critical tool for government. As Culberson told CNN in an interview last week: "The single-minded goal needs to be to shine sunlight in every dark corner of the Congress, to make the Congress and the government as transparent as humanly possible."

One of the concerns is that Twitter and other sites, like Qik.com, and Utterz.com, or even YouTube, which allow for video clips to be shared, can also include advertising, or have content that might not fit with an elected official's goals. That gives some pause to House Franking Commission Chairman Mike Capuano, a Massachusetts Democrat, who says some representatives might have concerns about their postings showing up next to political ads.

For his part, Culberson is going to continue using sites like Twitter undaunted. "I'm not stopping," he told CNN. "They will not stop me. They can no more regulate the Internet than they can regulate the wind." [Source: CNN.]

World's Oldest Blogger Dies at 108

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 14th 2008 at 11:19AM

Olive Riley, the world's oldest blogger, died this Saturday in a nursing home in Woy Woy, Australia. The bubbly and mentally sharp Riley began blogging in February of last year with the help of a friend who helped put Riley's posts on the Web.

Riley won herself a sizable international audience with her ruminations on historical events of the last century -- she was born in 1899 -- and her upbeat entries on life. She even posted occasional videos, including clips of her singing a "happy song." Riley was not a passive poster either, she had frequent communication with readers from around the world, helping to keep her mind fresh and her spirits up.

Riley's posts can still be read and watched at The Life of Riley and World's Oldest Blogger. [Source: Reuters]

Teen Kicked Off Student Council for "Douchebag" Blog Post

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 3rd 2008 at 8:32AM

Blog posts and social networking sites have cost people jobs, relationships, and freedom. But it's rare that high school students get blatantly censored and reprimanded for using for using foul language on said online outlets outside of school.

Avery Doninger was the class secretary at Lewis S. Mills High School in Burlington, Connecticut, but was barred for running for re-election her senior year after she referred to school officials as "douchebags" in posting on her personal blog.

The trouble began when the school repeatedly delayed a battle of the bands the student government had organized. After being rescheduled twice already, the school wanted to reschedule again because a particular teacher could not make the event to work the lighting equipment. When the student government suggested hiring a professional or letting a parent work the equipment, the school balked.

Continue reading Teen Kicked Off Student Council for "Douchebag" Blog Post

Blogging May Offer Health Benefits

by Tim Stevens, posted May 30th 2008 at 1:14PM

Blogging is fun, informative, and is amazingly still gaining in popularity after all these years. Did you know it's good for your health, though? According to a recent report in the magazine Oncologist, cancer patients who wrote about their experience and treatment felt measurably better than those who did not. Such behavior is called "expressive writing," and blogging definitely falls under that category.

Expressive writing also includes keeping a journal and writing poetry and the like, however blogging is seen as especially beneficial because of the direct ability for people to receive encouraging comments from others. Doctors are finding that those who partake in expressive writing not only feel better but sleep better too, something even those in good health can appreciate. This is stark contrast to the fears many recently had about blogging being a potential health risk after prolific blogger Om Malik's heart attack at 41.

Now, though, doctors seem to be saying "write two posts and call me in the morning." So, the next time you're wide awake at night don't reach for the remote control, start writing. Just be prepared for some less-than encouraging comments, too. [Source: Scientific American]

Wal-Mart Quietly Launches Buyer Blog

by Tim Stevens, posted Mar 4th 2008 at 9:20AM

Corporate buyers are the generally unknown people who have a huge impact on what you buy. They're the ones who decide which products wind up on store shelves and which ones find themselves sold at heavy discount on woot.com. Buyers don't tend to talk too much about what they think about the products they purchase, at least not in public, and, as a company, Wal-Mart would prefer to give presentations on cost-cutting shipping methods than divulge just how it goes about selecting which products to stock. Curious, then, that it would create a blog where its buyers are ostensibly allowed and encouraged to rant or rave about, well, just about everything. And yet, that's just what Wal-Mart has done.

The blog, called Check Out, has a multiple entries covering a number of products. A (very) few of the posts are vaguely critical about products that Wal-Mart or its membership-only warehouse spin-off Sam's Club sell, but a quick scan through the pages of the blog reveals that the overwhelming majority are exactly what you'd expect from a blog run by Wal-Mart and filled with posts from Wal-Mart employees. There are posts stating that "Wal-Mart has become the destination for all things Hannah" (speaking of course about Hannah Montana), a post raving about the "just too cool!" Apple TV (available at Sam's Club), and one talking about the current iteration of the Elmo craze and which other toys are equally hot right now.

So, is this an unbiased collection of rants and raves from unfiltered employees or just another marketing tool? We wouldn't go so far as to say the whole thing exists only as a thinly veiled sales scheme for the retailer, but it sure reads like one. Regardless, it's getting a somewhat better reception than their attempt at Facebook marketing.

From NY Times

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