Topic
- Weblog Writer's Meeting on 2004/01/08
- Disclaimer
- These notes are a best effort.
- Blog your corrections and commentary.
- Email me for removal of crediting.
- Webcast Details
- This will be webcast
- And recorded for later on RealMedia (possibly MP3 as well)
- Chat back on #bloggercon!!
- RO will be speaking for IRCers
- Attendants
- New Attendants
- SP: Steve Pomerory (?)
- DO: Dermot O'Rourke, from IAP
- DW: Dave Winer
- JM: Jay McCarthy
- SZ: Sooz
- BD: Betsy Devine
- WK: Wendy Koslow
- SJ: Scott Johnson
- SR: Shimon Rura
- AG: Andrew Grumet
- MF: Michael Feldman
- RO: Ryan Overbey
- JB: Jessica Baumgart
- SN: Sun
- VN: Vernica
- MM: Matt May
- RH: Rick Heller
- GE: Garrett Eastman
- BS: Bob Stepno
- M: Madhu
- Past Attendants
- LW: Lisa Williams
- CL: Christopher Lydon
- G: Gregor
- MW: Mike Walsh
- AS: Aaron Swartz
- FT: Fons Tuinstra
- LM: Larry Mils
- JH: Jeffrey Henning
- JiM: Jim Moore
- TA: Tracy Adams
- Topics
- New People Intros
- Garrett is back
- A librarian at Rowland Institute and has a blog for his library users
- Want to come and hear people
- Dermot O'Rourke
- Originally from Ireland, lived in Boston since early 70s
- Works at MIT
- Clinical research center - brain and cognitive sciences
- Reservation in South Dakota... blogging may helpful
- Blogs may be able to disseminate information
- Went to IAP
- Matt May is back from California from W3C
- BestKungFu.com - not a martial artist expert
- What's going at the W3C?
- Works in Accessibility
- Accessible to people with disabilities... not just people who are blind
- Gross & Fine motor disabilities, ADD
- MF: WHY DO DRIVE UP ATMS HAVE BRAILLE DISPLAYS?
- Version 2.0 of many guidelines
- Criticism of other guidelines
- For example, the "type this in" pictures
- XQuery, OWL, and RDF
- DW: Bloggers are pragmatic and the W3C isn't
- It's a continuum
- DW: Worried about redefining what we do
- Never clarified what we were doing... and let's codify that
- DW: Don't want to tell us what to do
- The idea is to describe how we intended to design the system... write out the assumptions in our work
- DW: But it's a bit behind the times... respect the wild
- Static Free...
- From RIT, wrote up phone post system
- MM: Johnny Appleseed approach for standards... install on everything
- Uses Blosxom and other open source technologies
- DW: (Posting the worst picture ever... LOTR)
- Live blogs
- Chris (w/ Static Free)
- Didn't know where she was going
- Was promised free dinner, not REALLY disappointed
- Currently don't do anything
- Not a blog... unless a LiveJournal counts
- JM: Not really a blog!!!
- Read about a random person's life... pay for LiveJournal it's good stuff
- Privacy issues are BS... it's a public place
- http://www.livejournal.com/users/nchanter
- IAP Blogging Training (from MF, AG, and BS)
- (AG is talking by default)
- A non-progressive class, the material repeats for an hour and a half
- Everyone gets their own computer and they see lecture notes (grumet.net/teaching/weblogs-1)
- 4 things to do... barely got to the last one
- Intro - 15 minutes
- Intro to weblogs - 30/45 minutes
- DO: Hit perfect Golden Mean... great, hit everything
- MF: They could've talked about "what makes a weblog different" for the entire session
- DW: There's a lot of interest on a curriculum
- MF: Almost everyone had a post on their new weblog by the end
- Didn't have to bring their own computers
- BD: Have the next BloggerCon at MIT
- MF: We need a room like this
- One outcome is that there is a lot of material...
- DW: Maybe put the HOWTO up front? That's what I came for?
- MF: I think they need 2 sessions - the Intro and then the new
- DW: What can we do more?
- DO: Good idea to do a follow up?
- MF: Every month: part 1 and part 2
- Blogging Center
- (DW talks by default)
- Recruit guys like Hank Barry to type
- Hank Barry's visit
- Level 1
- There's a blog program -- support, training, improve software
- Do blogs, not in a completely experimental way
- Make it into something as standard as email and ftp
- Annual BloggerCon
- Teaching...
- MF: Research?
- Not on my list... maybe though?
- The Berkman Center is about this in the short term, but eventually will be spun on
- MF: Response?
- Good response, "We like it, Want to do more!"
- Have to make it work though
- Level 2
- Protocols and technologies
- Might appeal to companies who work with blogs
- Feedster, Six Apart, etc.
- Interest to those things that grow from blogging
- Be a non-commercial place for these standards
- Like what happened with RSS 2.0
- Guardian / Care-taker
- Level 3
- Create an environment for people like everyone here who are looking for opportunities
- Whether Business or Academic
- Create a pulse... regular meeting
- Not necessarily premeditated
- Need help?
- People
- Hank Barry
- He's very much a Berkman guy
- CEO of Napster in hay day
- Into the Internet as Commons idea
- Courageous and interesting
- bring business people and VCs in to recreate a 50s/60s university environment
- deliberate effort to join academic and business
- rekindle business stuff
- RO: Academia = Professional Begging
- BD: Many people interested into foundations. Another model is like the MIT Media Lab: Go to the businesses with this for research money
- DW: Meeting with a big company next week... will be told straight out
- DW: Maybe the Hewlett Foundation? Lessig is excited.
- RO: Important to get the name "Harvard" on it.
- DW: Can't say that there is a center at Harvard (yet)
- Invest in the 2004 predictions... not really a business, community based but gives back.
- create an environment for businesses to prosper
- Dave's OPML Aggregator
- This is the next thing, the future of 2004?
- How do you subscribe to someone's collection of feeds? Rather than just a feed?
- First few days it was just the RSS-User list, then every got on it
- There's a science to create a community
- Create a tight group of evangelists
- Betsy is the best at this!
- SJ: You can never go wrong is hiring really smart people
- Want to give people the power to subscribe to feeds for me...
- Delegate masters of subject categories
- JM: In the old world is was not dynamic
- DW starts demo
- Feeds.Scripting.Com
- Top 100, Enter URL, Upload File
- Just share OPML files... without an idea of how to do it
- Can subscribe to any feed you see easily
- SJ: Devil's advocate: OPML granularity? What about some of the other things?
- Weather and types of content?
- How do you draw distinction between types?
- RSS community has to work with each and fix it... we can do it!
- 5 Different URLs for RSS feeds?
- In the XML file you redirect to the "real feed"
- This an incentive.
- SP: Could be useful for associating with categories
- Can't do it without automatic support from the format.
- We're going to get Harmonizers and Synchronizers
- This will have a built in harmonizer (for your OPML)
- New Features
- Find out what someone else has subscribed that you don't have...
- Best way is to open up the database
- Problems: Bandwidth is an issue. And Politics of the community.
- GE: OPML of the masses
- Announcement: Jesse Ventura will be a Harvard fellow
- How I Blog?
- MF: Distinctive methodologies --
- MF: Would be ready next week.
- JM will probably do it
- RSS Conference
- 21st or 22nd?
- A virtual conference... a telephone call
- Look for details online... RSS Winterfest and Thursday blog
- DW: I wanted users... not just developers and that stuff
- Find out what users talk about when users talk about RSS
- Wednesday/Thursday morning
- Come and invite people to Berkman to talk
- People don't care about format, they want functionality
- Not Discussed but Mentioned
- Next Week Topics
- MF will demo his Dreamweaver / Manilla blogging
- DW talk about inclusion in Channel Z
- Talk more about Salons
- Citizen Blogging
- Notes