Hummingbird Mentality

Paul Walch of Segala, asks ‘Do we want a code for blogs?’

This question has arisen due to the Kathy Sierra controversy, the case of the online harassment of an O’Reily writer by an anonymous group of commenters, at a blog created specifically for uncensored criticism. Very quickly the ‘blogosphere’ divided into two camps, those who repudiated the hate speech directed at Sierra, but considered it a cost of the freedom of speech that blogging affords. And those, like tech writer and Web2.0 pioneer Tim O’Reilly, who believed a response was needed (beyond the specific legal retaliation sought against the perpetrators). O’Reilly’s proposal was a code of conduct for bloggers. Here’s the wiki for the code under development.

What follows is my response to Paul’s question, both in terms of the idea of a bloggers code of conduct, and the specific code O’Reilly proposes.

In short

Absolutely not, as Glen Farrelly points out, ‘good’ bloggers will follow their own individual codes regarding what they perceive as responsible behavior, ‘bad’ or ‘irresponsible’ bloggers will not follow any informal codes.

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An article by Mike Elgan in Computer World Magazine, laying the boot into e-books, has sparked a surprisingly intelligent discussion on Digg. According to Elgan, e-books are bound to fail because..

1. They aren’t cheaper - both the hardware and content are more expensive
2. Content is available on other platforms (e.g.: PC)
3. People love paper books

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Just back from Barcamp Ireland 3. What a day, so packed I couldn’t possibly get to half the talks (which ran concurrently), but I managed three lectures and the panel discussion. The event was held in the beautiful Digital Hub, off Thomas St in Dublin. The building is fantastic, with bare brick walls and natural lighting throughout, and would make a fantastic billionaires studio apartment.

I’ve posted some wikified notes. I grabbed several mini interviews, on TFM’s sweet but pricey Roland wav recorder (check out the uber cheesy website), not enough material for a full blown podcast, but I’ve thrown them up, below. Also attempted to moblog throughout the day, with mixed results.

Mini Interviews

Sean O Sullivan of Rococo.
Robin Blandford creator of Comment Casting.
Darren Barefoot of Capulet Communications.

Update: Fixed the wiki link!

The committee of Trinity FM, collecting our award for Best Medium Sized Society, at the Central Society Committee Awards in the Hilton hotel, April 11th 2007. Congratulations everybody!

Abandoned modern chariot. Bettystown beach.

I grew up with parents who restricted my television viewing, and just like David Rakoff in last weeks ‘This American Life‘, I became unhealthily addicted. As the quiet bookish kid of two teachers, college educated parents on working class salaries, I spent my free time indoors, avoiding the neighborhood kids’ impulsive violence and myopic obsession with soccer. Instead of participating, instead of being excluded, I watched television. First on our enormous, deathly old, black and white screen, a groaning bloated beast with knobs which had to manually be tweaked; later on a tiny 14 inch color unit donated from a relative; a device that was for a long time my only window into the world beyond 1980’s Ireland. Into that window I stared, watching anything and everything. My preference was for shows featuring quirky comedic characters and action packed sequences, the A-Team, Thundercats, Captain Scarlet. I hated Irish TV and gorged on grainy, weather dependent, BBC and Channel 4, pirated from across the water.

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I’ve had to keep this under wraps for quite a while, but I’m incredibly excited to announce that Technolotics will be returning in the Autumn, as a prime time television show on RTÉ Two. We were approached by the channel last October after submitting an independent production proposal, and commissioned to produce 22 episodes to be broadcast weekly. Jason, Francis and I have spent the past six months jetting furiously back and forth across the Atlantic to NY and San Francisco, interviewing web 2.0 luminaries like Robert Scoble, Jason Calacanis, and the Ninja from Ask a Ninja.

We’ve updated our look and feel for television, so the show will diverge quite a bit in format from our original vidcast. The amateurish ‘broom cupboard’ studio has gone, replaced with a contemporary ‘Live at Three’ style set and full studio audience. Additionally the consulting team brought in by RTÉ to review our proposal, felt that some of our material was a little raunchy for pre water shed television. So we’ve made the jokes much more family friendly, and added a laughter track where appropriate. Due to the aesthetic requirements of TV, the parts of Jason, Francis and I, will be performed by Ryan Tubbardy, Gráinne Seoige, and Dermot O’Leary respectively.

I’m tremendously happy with how the first season has turned out, and I’d like to thank all those who’ve given their support and kept quiet about the project over the past few months.

‘Technolotics’, hits your screens on October 1st at 7.20, on RTÉ Two.

Wow..Looks like Jason Calacanis has inspired a trend. Came across the following whilst browsing jobs.ie.

Are you a social networker and serial photo up loader? If yes read on….

Looking for some extra cash? www.talkbeans.com is Ireland’s fastest growing social networking site - for grown up’s.
We are looking for people to build social networks…. for cash. Its a sinch and its a part-time job you can do anytime, night or day.

We are seeking well connected, fun, outgoing people who have left school - and no longer want to be profiled on social networking sites for Kids.

So www.talkbeans.com are offering European pounds for profiles. All you have to do is get people in your network to set-up profiles (with Photo’s) and use the site actively and we will pay you for each profile you create.

Duties:
Get your people to contact our people and post their profiles. To start making European pounds for profiles please apply below telling us why we should pay you to help build Ireland’s biggest and best social networking site.

Candidate
We love all types of people. If your cool your in. If your not cool your in. If your under 18 your out - try registering with bebo.

Responsibilities:
None. We are not very responsible and don’t expect you to be. We do expect common sense and nothing too rude.

Successful candidates will be contacted by email. Please apply telling us why you not them, Today.

www.talkbeans.com - Don’t be a has been. Be a talkbean!

Got to get me some a them ‘European Pounds’. Oddly the talkbeans site itself seems to be down. Shouldn’t they be advertising spamming this through a social network in any case?

Update: Site’s now back up, and looks unsurprisingly spammy. I wonder could Bebo sue over Talkbeans claim to be ‘Ireland’s fastest growing social networking site’?