Crawling around the Social Media Starfish, er, reading feeds

Uncategorized 1 Minute

So, I was reading feeds and just ran across Fred Wilson’s A VC blog (he’s a famous VC who lives in New York City and invests in a bunch of stuff that we use everyday). He posts that his favorite post was a picture done by the founder of Vimeo. Asks what does that say? About blogging?

It says to me that we’re all weird creatures and that we like weird stuff. Including a founder lying in bed pondering the future.

I put it on my link blog. Why? Cause I liked it too.

Translation: there’s something deeper going on on blogs.

1. Blogs have lost their humanity. Their weirdness. Instead we’ve become vehicles to announce new products and initiatives on.
2. We’ve gotten too caught up in the TechMeme games.
3. We’re bored. The interesting stuff is happening off blogs. This afternoon, for instance, I’m meeting Hugh Macleod and we’re just going to hang out in Palo Alto and have fun. Meet at the Apple store at 3 p.m. on University Ave.
4. Creative stuff and ideas and questions are getting spread out all over the place.

Anyway, hope you’re having a good weekend.

I’ve just put a bunch of stuff up on my link blog, including a report of what we were doing at Nokia on Thursday. Hey, there’s that Social Media Starfish again! Look for “NRC Palo Alto” or “Active Words” in the link blog and you’ll see the starfish.

Speaking of which, if you want to see just the headlines of my link blog, they are reposted over on Fast Company Magazine’s site and also on my Twitter feed for @scobleslinkblog.

There’s a lot of great stuff on my link blog. Joi Ito recommends PhotoPhlow. Fake Steve Jobs gives some interviews there. Microsoft’s Listas is discussed. B5 Media has a post about me being on its advisory board. Louis Gray talks about his love of FriendFeed. And on and on.

Why don’t you subscribe to the feed of my link blog?

Advertisements

Published by Robert Scoble

I give you a front-row seat on the future. Focusing most of my efforts now on next-generation augmented reality and artificial intelligence, AKA "mixed reality." SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER: http://clevermoe.com/scobleizer-news/ BUY OUR NEW BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Transformation-Robert-Scoble/dp/1539894444 "The Fourth Transformation: How augmented reality and artificial intelligence will change everything." WATCH MY LATEST SPEECHES: State of VR with Philip Rosedale (done in VR itself, very cool): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zAA1EVGUZU At GEOINT, June 2017: http://trajectorymagazine.com/glimpse-new-world/ Augmented World Expo, June 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4xHILvLD8E At Leade.rs, April 2017: https://youtu.be/52_0JshgjXI +++++++++++ BIO: Scoble gives you a front-row seat on the future. Literally. He had the first ride in the first Tesla. Siri was launched in his house. He's been the first to share all sorts of technologies and companies with you, from Flipboard to Pandora to Instagram. Today he's focusing on mixed reality, AKA "next-generation augmented reality" which will include a new user interface for EVERYTHING in your life (IoT, Smart Cities, driverless cars, robots, drones, etc). That's based on his view thanks to his past experience as futurist at Rackspace. Best place to find Scoble? On his Facebook profile at https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble He has been a technology blogger since 2000, was one of five people who built Microsoft's Channel 9 video blog/community, worked at Fast Company Magazine running its TV efforts, and has been part of technology media businesses since 1993. ++++++++ SPEAKER PITCH: Apple and Facebook now have revealed their Augmented Reality strategies, which means your business needs one too. Rely on Robert Scoble, the world's top authority on AR, to bring to your conference what businesses should do next. SPEECH ABSTRACT #1: TITLE: The Fourth Transformation: What's next in mixed reality (AR and AI) and the future of technology? Here's an example of this talk at Leade.rs in Paris in April, 2017: https://youtu.be/52_0JshgjXI Why "the Fourth Transformation?" Soon we will have phones and glasses that do full on augmented reality. Everything you look at will potentially be augmented. This world is coming in late 2017 with a new iPhone from Apple, amongst other products. Microsoft is betting everything on its HoloLens glasses that do mixed reality and the industry is spending many billions of dollars in R&D and funding new companies like Magic Leap. This future will be the user interface for IoT, Smart Cities, autonomous cars, robots, drones, and your TV. This is a big deal and Robert will take you through what mixed reality is and how it will change every business. Learn more about Robert's speaking style and contact his agent at http://odemanagement.com/robert-scoble/Robert-Scoble.html ++++++++ SPEECH ABSTRACT #2: "The Next Two Clicks of Moore's Law." Over the next four years, or two clicks of Moore's Law, a ton about our technology world will change. Scoble will bring you the best from his travels visiting R&D labs, startups, and innovators around the world. He views the world through his rose-colored-mixed-reality glasses, which will be the new user interface for self driving cars, Smart Cities, IoT, and many other things in our world. He'll send you off with some lessons for companies both large and small. ++++++++ SPEECH ABSTRACT #3: "Personalized Meaning: What is Augmented Reality For?" As we enter a far more technological world where even cars drive themselves, I predict we'll see a blowback toward the analog, more authentic world. What role does augmented reality play in both worlds? Get Scoble's insight into where augmented reality is going, see tons of real-world demos, and understand what he means by 'personalized meaning.' CONTACT: If you are looking to contact me, email is best: scobleizer@gmail.com. ++++++++ ENDORSEMENTS: IZEA Top 25 Tech Influencers: https://izea.com/2017/07/07/25-top-tech-influencers/ Time: One of the top 140 Twitterers! FT: One of the five most influential Twitterers! Inc. Top 5 on list of Tech Power Players You Need to Know: http://www.inc.com/john-rampton/30-power-players-in-tech-you-need-to-know.html Next Reality: #4 on top 50 AR influencer list: https://next.reality.news/news/nr50-next-realitys-50-people-watch-augmented-mixed-reality-0177454/

Published

37 thoughts on “Crawling around the Social Media Starfish, er, reading feeds”

  3. Pingback: Ghillie Suits » Crawling around the Social Media Starfish, er, reading feeds

  4. Blogs have lost their humanity? Whose blogs? It depends who the blogger is, whether blogging is their career, etc etc.

    I dont see some great change, maybe the realisation is new but the phenomenon isnt.

    Cant talk aout blogs in such general terms. Anyway blogs have never been the main source of all useful and interesting and weird stuff on the net, I know there is a tendency to talk everything up as new, but Ive always found plenty of weird interesting stuff on the net, no matter what the TechMeme of the day is. Forums, messageboards, mailing lists etc are so similar in many ways, and can be welcome homes of the weird.

    The honeymoon period of blogging is over, as it is for podcasting and vlogging. When the excitement of the new territory is over, its time to see whats really worthwhile and stands the course.

    Ive had a fun weekend, was of more use in a single day to humans, by releasing a quickly botched together leopard ichat hologram type effect, than I have been in many years of waffling in forums & comments.

    Like

  5. Blogs have lost their humanity? Whose blogs? It depends who the blogger is, whether blogging is their career, etc etc.

    I dont see some great change, maybe the realisation is new but the phenomenon isnt.

    Cant talk aout blogs in such general terms. Anyway blogs have never been the main source of all useful and interesting and weird stuff on the net, I know there is a tendency to talk everything up as new, but Ive always found plenty of weird interesting stuff on the net, no matter what the TechMeme of the day is. Forums, messageboards, mailing lists etc are so similar in many ways, and can be welcome homes of the weird.

    The honeymoon period of blogging is over, as it is for podcasting and vlogging. When the excitement of the new territory is over, its time to see whats really worthwhile and stands the course.

    Ive had a fun weekend, was of more use in a single day to humans, by releasing a quickly botched together leopard ichat hologram type effect, than I have been in many years of waffling in forums & comments.

    Like

  6. Well “some” blogs aren’t vehicles to talk about new products and inititives, so I’m not sure you should paint “all” blogs into that category.

    But the number of blogs that are just blatent rss feeds of other feeds to get revenue for whatever adsense they are running is increasing.

    Some of us humans that are just being honest are still around.

    Like

  7. Well “some” blogs aren’t vehicles to talk about new products and inititives, so I’m not sure you should paint “all” blogs into that category.

    But the number of blogs that are just blatent rss feeds of other feeds to get revenue for whatever adsense they are running is increasing.

    Some of us humans that are just being honest are still around.

    Like

  8. > “Blogs have lost their humanity. Their weirdness. Instead we’ve become vehicles to announce new products and initiatives on.”

    Well, maybe that’s true for the blogs you read, but not for most of the blogs I read. Come back home. Read some Montana blogs. Read some personal blogs. Read some blogs with no ads.

    Read some non-tech blogs.

    I dare you.

    Like

  9. > “Blogs have lost their humanity. Their weirdness. Instead we’ve become vehicles to announce new products and initiatives on.”

    Well, maybe that’s true for the blogs you read, but not for most of the blogs I read. Come back home. Read some Montana blogs. Read some personal blogs. Read some blogs with no ads.

    Read some non-tech blogs.

    I dare you.

    Like

  12. I know your claim is in the service of a larger point about the evolution of communication formats, but it strikes me as a bit of a hasty generalization. Why don’t you trade OPML files with a different person each day for a week, particularly people who are outside of the “fabric” of TechMeme, and see if you can still confidently make the point?

    Like

  13. I know your claim is in the service of a larger point about the evolution of communication formats, but it strikes me as a bit of a hasty generalization. Why don’t you trade OPML files with a different person each day for a week, particularly people who are outside of the “fabric” of TechMeme, and see if you can still confidently make the point?

    Like

  14. “Blogs have lost their humanity. Their weirdness. Instead we’ve become vehicles to announce new products and initiatives on.”

    I’m not sure I don’t agree with you. Perhaps after a while, if you’re involved personally with weblogging, you lose the spark, and you just don’t care anymore.

    Like

  15. “Blogs have lost their humanity. Their weirdness. Instead we’ve become vehicles to announce new products and initiatives on.”

    I’m not sure I don’t agree with you. Perhaps after a while, if you’re involved personally with weblogging, you lose the spark, and you just don’t care anymore.

    Like

  16. Pingback: Scoble: ‘Blogs Have Lost Their Weirdness’ : Professional Blogging News

  19. Couldn’t agree more on the increasingly mainstream and “me too” mentality of blogging, Robert.

    At Dibbly Media, we regard this as an exciting opportunity to do something a little different. (I believe we’ve got an interesting article featuring your good self coming up soon.)

    Dibbly Media

    Like

  20. Couldn’t agree more on the increasingly mainstream and “me too” mentality of blogging, Robert.

    At Dibbly Media, we regard this as an exciting opportunity to do something a little different. (I believe we’ve got an interesting article featuring your good self coming up soon.)

    Dibbly Media

    Like

  21. 1. They never had humanity, it just seemed that way when you were on the top of the heap, and basking in the hype glow. Blogs are generic mass-market CMS, nothing more. Software is not human.

    2. Games? Well no one to blame, except yourselves. There is life outside of the Bay Area.

    3. Bored? See #1 and #2.

    4. It’s called commodization, happens all the time, in every instance, in every economic model ever, in all of total human history.

    Like

  22. 1. They never had humanity, it just seemed that way when you were on the top of the heap, and basking in the hype glow. Blogs are generic mass-market CMS, nothing more. Software is not human.

    2. Games? Well no one to blame, except yourselves. There is life outside of the Bay Area.

    3. Bored? See #1 and #2.

    4. It’s called commodization, happens all the time, in every instance, in every economic model ever, in all of total human history.

    Like

  23. Pingback: Steve Rubel on Web 2.0 Kool-Aid - Can I hear an Amen | WinExtra
  24. Pingback: The Great Web 2.0 Con Job | WinExtra

  25. >”I read hundreds of non-tech blogs.”

    So, Robert — you *read* hundreds of non-tech blogs?

    Or, you *scan* hundreds of non-tech blogs?

    To find the ‘humanity’, one must read.

    So I still disagree.

    Like

  26. >”I read hundreds of non-tech blogs.”

    So, Robert — you *read* hundreds of non-tech blogs?

    Or, you *scan* hundreds of non-tech blogs?

    To find the ‘humanity’, one must read.

    So I still disagree.

    Like

  27. SB: you have no clue if you think there’s a difference.

    Can I tell you what they wrote about after looking at an item? Yes.

    Can I find the important item out of 100s of items? Yes.

    Do you need to look at a tree for more than 1/30th of a second before your brain can recognize it’s a tree? No.

    Most blogs aren’t very long. I can read the average post in 1 second.

    Go to http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/

    How long do you take to read that page? It takes me about 20 seconds unless something is interesting to me. Then it takes longer.

    Like

  28. SB: you have no clue if you think there’s a difference.

    Can I tell you what they wrote about after looking at an item? Yes.

    Can I find the important item out of 100s of items? Yes.

    Do you need to look at a tree for more than 1/30th of a second before your brain can recognize it’s a tree? No.

    Most blogs aren’t very long. I can read the average post in 1 second.

    Go to http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/

    How long do you take to read that page? It takes me about 20 seconds unless something is interesting to me. Then it takes longer.

    Like

  29. Well, I would think that Global Voices would be a good place to find “humanity” — but one would have to click through and actually read a post, rather than simply scan the summaries on the front page.

    Gosh.

    How about the whole universe of personal blogs? Try, maybe, ample sanity: http://www.amplesanity.com/

    I know, I should let this drop. But a combination of the Montana connection and my love for real-people blogging keeps me tapping away at you…

    Like

  30. Well, I would think that Global Voices would be a good place to find “humanity” — but one would have to click through and actually read a post, rather than simply scan the summaries on the front page.

    Gosh.

    How about the whole universe of personal blogs? Try, maybe, ample sanity: http://www.amplesanity.com/

    I know, I should let this drop. But a combination of the Montana connection and my love for real-people blogging keeps me tapping away at you…

    Like

  31. SB: do you “read” a newspaper? Really? Do you read every single word in it? Or just scan the page for something interesting, then you read that in depth don’t you? To me that whole process +is+ reading.

    But don’t judge me on whether I’m scanning or not. If I’m not “reading” the materials coming through my feed stream I won’t pick killer stuff for you. Judge me by what I put on my link blog. is it the best stuff available? Yes or no. Many many people tell me it is. So, if that’s true, then I must have picked those items somehow. Hint: I read EVERYTHING in depth that I put on there.

    Like

  32. SB: do you “read” a newspaper? Really? Do you read every single word in it? Or just scan the page for something interesting, then you read that in depth don’t you? To me that whole process +is+ reading.

    But don’t judge me on whether I’m scanning or not. If I’m not “reading” the materials coming through my feed stream I won’t pick killer stuff for you. Judge me by what I put on my link blog. is it the best stuff available? Yes or no. Many many people tell me it is. So, if that’s true, then I must have picked those items somehow. Hint: I read EVERYTHING in depth that I put on there.

    Like

  33. Pingback: 10,000 Marshmallows Daily Links 2007-10-25 - 10,000 Marshmallows - Marketing Accountability: How to eat 10,000 Marshmallows
  34. Pingback: LaunchSquad : Blogs : Exclamation

  35. I see where you’re coming from. My blog lost its humanity when a family of monkeys took it over to post webcomics on it. However the content is still pretty interesting, in fact sometimes it’s totally bananas and readers often go ape over it.

    Like

  36. I see where you’re coming from. My blog lost its humanity when a family of monkeys took it over to post webcomics on it. However the content is still pretty interesting, in fact sometimes it’s totally bananas and readers often go ape over it.

    Like

  37. Pingback: infovark » On the Corporate Blog…

Comments are closed.