Link: Opinion Column by PC Magazine: To Tag or Not to Tag, That Is the Question.

Dvorak just panned tagging over at PC Magazine.  Remember PC Magazine?  During the mid 90's, it was like an encyclopedia, or more fittingly a bible.  It was the crown jewel of the Ziff Davis tech publishing empire...  an empire whose fall has seriously cratered the LBO fund who bought it and then threw lots more money in it. 

Well, today, the latest news on PCM is that it cut its guaranteed circulation numbers nearly in half over the last year and the magazine isn't nearly has thick as it used to be.  Frankly, I'm not surprised.  Word of mouth, especially in tech, has become so inexpensive and efficient, I'm not quite sure why I'd pay to read an "experts" opinion, when you've got 10 million bloggers out there already consuming products and writing about their personal experiences with them.  I'd bet that most of the 700,000 paid PCM subscriptions are dentists offices.  People seem to like reading about which PC to buy when they're waiting to get a root canal.

Anyway, so here comes Dvorak writing in PCM and he's ripping apart tagging.  (Thanks to Anil for the link.)  Now, instead of bashing this guy, I'll use a lesson that Brad taught me:  Try to understand why a seemlingly smart guy thinks the way he does before you bash him.   Ok, so here's the summary:

"So far, tags have not even gotten popular enough to reach the stage of vandalism and spam. That they've attracted so little attention does not bode well for them"

So John thinks that if the masses haven't broken something yet, it isn't popular.  I guess he never looks up anything on Wikipedia either.  Frankly, I think its possible to build a system in a way that only incentivizes people to contribute something useful and meaningful.  You know, "spam" isn't the only garbage content people will create for monetary purposes.  I mean, for example, hypothetically, do you think there is more monetary incentive to write ANOTHER "tagging is great, bloggers are great" article, or a potentially congtroversal "tagging sucks and bloggers are brain-dead" article to buoy a dying magazine?

"The "folksonomy" notion is the bloggers' last hope of invention...   ...doomed to failure. The utopianism and idealism that exist in the online societies ignore the real problem with tags, metatags, übertags, folksonomies, and the like...   ...they honestly think that most people are goodhearted. The online world, because of its anonymity, encourages bad behavior. "You suck!" is a common post, and it would be the number-one tag if tagging ever became popular."

Actually, John, two of the most popular del.icio.us tags for your article are "idiot" and "ignorance" so maybe tagging is more popular than you thought.  Is that spam or is that just the voice of the people?

"Apparently it's lost on all of them that the term "tagging," in popular parlance, refers to the worst form of public graffiti. These people don't get out much, it seems."

Yes, and all phrases only have one and only one meaning.  Tagging, those idiots, means graffiti (and of course, all graffiti is bad, right, and never art...  who doesn't get out much?)  So scientists, stop using the word tagging for tracking endangered species.  Don't you know that words means graffiti?  Oh, little kids, too.  You can't play "tag" anymore.  Didn't your parents ever tell you that means graffiti?  Jeez...

So, basically, from reading the article, it seems that Dvorak's argument against tagging is that the public is evil and can't be trusted to catagorize their own world.  So, instead of intelligently designing systems to draw out the best in people, we shouldn't even try to leverage off of social networks and self organizing systems, b/c of the 1% who'll just wind up messing it all up.  We're not smart enough to do that, nor are we smart enough to deal with the 1%.  Perhaps all John needs is a good spam filter or did he not realize the spam war is over.

  Master of Terror 
  Originally uploaded by ceonyc.

See that guy in the red jacket and hat?  That's author Steven King.

Link: WFUV: Let’s Get Digital Panel - The Digital Music Weblog - digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com _.

This should be really interesting.... and I'm not just promoting it because its a Fordham related event:

"If the new world of mp3 blogs, mash-ups, downloads and ringtones boggles your mind, tune in to Let’s Get Digital on Thursday, May 19 at 9:00 PM, as host Jen Guerra takes a musical look at all things online. The New Yorker Pop Music Critic Sasha Frere-Jones, CDBaby.com Founder Derek Sivers, Berklee School of Music Vice President David Kusek, Creative Commons Executive Director Glenn Otis Brown and others join Guerra for an hour-long program examining how the race to get online affects not only musicians, but music fans and the music business in general.”

Go to WFUV's website for more info and the webcast.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from the VP of Strategy and Planning of Trylon Communications.  It was a mass e-mail with the subject "BDI Blog Event - Continuing the Conversation".  Trylon co-sponsored this blogging conference that I went to a couple of weeks ago that I really didn't find particularly interesting.   Then, on top of that, they sent me another mass e-mail today.  Basically, they're touting their services, but if anything, they're making it blatently obvious that either a) they didn't actually attend the conference or b) they don't understand blogging at all.   Here's the jist of the exchange:

"Dear Charlie,                                                 

Thank you for attending the BDI blog event on May 3^rd.  I hope you found the presentation on “Blogs and the Impact on Media Companies” to be worthwhile.   On behalf of Trylon Communications which co-sponsored the event, and our President/CEO Lloyd Trufelman who spoke on the panel, we wanted to provide some follow-up since there was so little time to answer everyone’s questions on the topic."

I didn't go to the panel.  I signed up for it, but struck up an interesting conversation with a PR person from the American Foundation for the Blind and skipped out.  Now there's a productive group.  They just published quick tips on making blogs accessable to the visually impaired.

"Accordingly, I am forwarding links to some recent articles that might be of interest.  The first, by USA Today’s Kevin Maney, reports that blogs might not be new, but rather a continuation of a press trend that began in the 18^th century! "

You don't say?  Wow, that's really... um... interesting, I guess...  if I was into bar trivia.  The other links she sent?  One from New York magazine and the State of the Media report.  Nothing like passing links on blogging written by mainstream media to someone who not only blogs, but teaches an MBA course on blogging.  But that's not even the best part!  They link to a PDF press release (eek..  a press release!  How non-bloglike!) and cite that blogs are...

"a PR opportunity that our firm noted back when Web logs emerged in 2002 and has been practicing on behalf of our clients ever since."

Hmm... So you've been at this for 3 years and you tell me by linking to a press release in a mass e-mail that I never opted-in for?  Somewhere out there, Steve Rubel's "spidey-sense" is going off and he can't figure out where the trouble is.  Its right here, Steve... in my inbox.

"Considering our firm’s track record of delivering cost-effective, tangible editorial and corporate PR results exclusively for many top trade and consumer publishing and media clients nationwide since 1990 (all without strict billable hours or long-term contracts),  there may be a future match between our expertise and your company’s needs."

I highly doubt it.

So, I replied and gave them all the reasons why they should be blogging this, maybe politely informing me of their blog, and then never contacting me by e-mail again unless I ask for it, and simply letting me decide whether or not I want to subscribe to their blog.  I also asked where the opt-out link was on their e-mail.

The response?

I get this awful thing in my inbox...

  Now I'm on their "PR Ideas" HTML newsletter mailing list.  Unsubscribe?  I have to type in my name and my e-mail and then click a box and then click submit if I want out.  So, you send me mail, then I have to type in the e-mail address you just sent me this mail at in order to stop getting it?  I'm sketched out beyond words. 

Pubsub presented at the conference.  Let's see if they subscribe to their own Pubsub feed and find this.  I can't wait to hear their response.

Lesson for the day:   Don't spam a blogger.

Yes, I play kickball.   ZogSports, the same league we all play dodgeball in, has a kickball league as well.  We won our first game 16-3, but that may have led to a little bit of overconfidence, because we didn't do as well last night.   We lost to the Ligers 14-7.   Plus, it didn't help that our ump what a very loose interpretation of where the foul lines were.  That puts "Those Punks Stole Our Name" at 1-1 for the season. (That's our team name, for obvious reasons.)  Still, we had a lot of fun and got pics and video thanks to my  hobbled buddy Marina, who sprained her ankle in the first game.

So, now that the co-op thing is going smoothly, I've started thinking about the car.  I really want an '05 Mustang GT Convertable.  Its a V-8, and since I can't drive a stick, it needs to be automatic.  I'm flexible on the color, but would prefer black or grey. 

The problem is that there don't seem to be any V-8 Convertibles in stock....  and the inventory search tool on Ford's website sucks.  It forces me to search by zip code first, instead of just telling me where the damn car is.  If there was V-8 Convertable in Boston with an auto trans, I'd be there this weekend.  Florida?  Done... I'd make a little trip out of it.  I wanted the car for the summer, but now it looks like I either wait three months or settle for a V-6 with less horsepower than the Grand Prix I used to have.  That's garbage.  Oh, and I searched on eBay, but I couldn't find any automatics.  Nice job, Ford.  Create a buzz around a car that you can't find anywhere on the lot. 

Somehow I doubt that Ford subscribes to a Pubsub feed and will find this blog post.  Does it really take 3 months to build a car?

Link: CNN.com - Cell phones can now receive Amber Alerts - May 17, 2005.

No good reason not to sign up...    Go here to put your cell number in.

On Sunday, I went to my parents house to meet the new family dog.   You see, we had to put our dog, Puba, to sleep, after almost 15 years.  It was very upsetting for everyone and, at first, my parents said they weren't getting a new dog. 

That didn't last long.

So now they have Joy the dog.  I'm not such a fan of the name.  Check out this video clip of a conversation (You may need the latest version of Quicktime... its an Mpeg4 file.) between me and my mom regarding the name while we play with the dog.  Mom, at one point, suggests that we name the dog Cuba, after Cuba Gooding, Jr.  The thinking there being that the last dog was Puba, and I suppose there's some special significance to the "-uba" suffix.  Now, we don't really know much about this dog, because we've only had her since Friday, but, the few things we do know about her are that she's fuzzy, she's female, and her fur is white.  I like Cuba Gooding, Jr., and he was great in Men of Honor, but...   well, he just doesn't bear any resemblence whatsover to this dog.  Sorry, Cuba, we're probably not naming our dog after you.  :)

So the Downtown Boathouse is now open and in full swing.  Come see us if you're down by Pier 26 (right by the trapeeze school) on the weekends from 9ish to 5-ish.   We had a little spring cleaning to do when we first opened, but by noon, the public had found us and we had about 10 boats on the water at a time.  I'll only be there until about 1:30 today because I'm going to see "Sugar", which is apparently the name of my parent's new dog.  The rest of the pics can be seen here.

We have unconfirmed reports of a new dog in the O'Donnell household.  Apparently, my parents went to the pet store and broke down.  So they lasted all of a month and a half with an empty house.  Its another female bichon, and she's nameless.  My dad suggested that her personality be observed for a while to figure out a proper name for her.  I'll be putting up photos and probably a video as soon as I visit, which will probably be Sunday.  More as this story develops...

So the young man formally known as Jeff the Intern turned Jeff the Analyst turned Jeff the about to be Grad Student has started a little web business.  Its called Peculiar Poker.  He's been bugging me to send some traffic his way.  Frankly, I told him that he should start a poker blog to generate a buzz around his t-shirts, but, he'd rather mooch of my audience first.  So, if you like poker and your friends won't allow your fuzzy self to play barechested, maybe you should buy one of his t-shirts.

So yesterday, I broke 1000 hits for the first time, and I'm on track to probably do close to that again today.  I have 80 subscribers via my Feedburner feed (I can maybe name 6 of them) and lord knows how many on my Typepad feeds.

However, most of you are pretty quiet.  Most of the people who comment aren't into RSS, so I've got this population of people that I don't know who like to read.  Now, my guess is that most of my traffic comes from Fred's blog, so you're reading b/c you want to hear what's going on with Union Square Ventures or our portfolio companies.  That's fine, of course.  But I'm just sort of curious who some of you are, so if you'd like to introduce yourself for the first time via comments, to me and the rest of the crowd, feel free.  I'm particularly curious who CBT the Mac User is and whether or not there are people who know me who check this out, but don't actually tell me that they read. 

Link: 7Online.com: Big Collapse Sends Rubble Tumbling onto Henry Hudson Parkway.