John Perry Barlow hat ein Blog eröffnet: BarlowFriendz.

I've been wary of blogs. Starting a blog looks a little like signing up for treadmill duty. Unless you like to write better than I do - and, personally, I'd rather pump septic tanks - consigning yourself to writing something every day looks like voluntary servitude. Furthermore, when I read some of the discussions on blogs, it looked a little like what you'd get if you invited all of your most socially dysfunctional friends into your living room and gave them plenty of beer.

Na dann prost und Herzlich Wilkommen ;-) http://barlow.typepad.com/barlowfriendz/

Gute Idee, die Blogger da mit dem "Geschenk in letzter Minute" angibt:
How To Give The Last-Minute Gift of Blog.
Funktioniert sicherlich auch prächtig mit http://www.twoday.net/members/newsite ;-)))

Okay, it's officially the last minute and you forgot to get your sister's roommate a gift. You're going to their holiday party tonight and you can't show up empty handed. What do you do? Fear not gentle bloggers, you'll have a great gift. The gift of blog.

What friend, family member, or colleague wouldn't want a beautiful new Blogger blog. Don't they know that Blogger is "The fast, easy, and free way to publish and share your information online?" Well it is. And it's damn sexy too. The following are instructions for how to set up a brand new, free, Blogger blog for someone as a gift and how to make it seem like you actually gave it some real thought. The giving-it-some-thought part is key to any successful last-minute gifting strategy.

[Via http://buzzmachine.com ]

Merry X-mas to Everyone !



.....und ein Prosit auf die Erinnerung wem wir Santa Claus verdanken... oder etwa doch nicht ? ;-)

[Via The Urban Legends Reference Pages: http://www.snopes.com/snopes.asp ]

James Glen Stovall, Journalistik-Professor an der University of Alabama hat ein Buch zum Thema online-Journalismus geschrieben: Web Journalism - Practice and Promise of a New Medium.

Aufgegriffen werden unter anderem Themen wie Public Journalism:

"This new relationship will have profound effects on the way journalists gather information and make decisions. Readers are likely to become sources of information and lead journalists to new inquiries and stories. They could provide valuable perspective to journalists who are new to a story or not part of the community they cover (two of the major criticism of journalists today), offering points of view that journalists would not normally hear in talking with “official” sources about their stories. The public journalism movement (often called civic journalism), which seeks to involve the community in journalistic decision making, could be taken to a new level with the Web."

....Weblogs:

”... on some topics, weblogs are a source of up-to-date information that no media organization attempts to match. In addition, weblogs have an inherent respect for their audiences and take advantage of their wide-ranging knowledge and expertise. While contributions may not come from trained journalists and may not be vetted through a traditional editing process, weblogs offer the possibility of presenting a much wider range of points of view about information than would be possible in the traditional media."

und Communities:

"The idea of an Internet community is something of a radical departure for traditional journalistic thinking. These ‘communities’ may be short-term and topic-oriented. They may not be confined to the geographic areas that have traditionally defined audiences for journalists. They are likely to dissipate once the issue that brought the individuals together fades. On the other hand, they may survive and thrive beyond the control or the participation of the journalist who began them."

[Via Hypergene MediaBlog]

Interview mit dem Weihnachtsmann - Von Erich Kästner

Es hatte schon wieder geklingelt. Das neuntemal im Verlauf der letzten Stunde! Heute hatten, so schien es, die Liebhaber von Klingelknöpfen Ausgang. Mürrisch rollte ich mich türwärts und öffnete.

Wer, glauben Sie, stand draußen? Sankt Nikolaus persönlich! In seiner bekannten historischen Ausrüstung. "Oh", sagte ich. "Der eilige Nikolaus!" - "Der heilige, wenn ich bitten darf. Mit h!" Es klang ein wenig pikiert. "Als Junge habe ich Sie immer den eiligen Nikolaus genannt. Ich fand's plausibler." - "Sie waren das?" - "Erinnern Sie sich denn noch daran?" - "Natürlich! Ein kleiner hübscher Bengel waren Sie damals!"

"Klein bin ich immer noch." - "Und nun wohnen Sie also hier." - "Ganz recht." Wir lächelten resigniert und dachten an vergangene Zeiten.

"Bleiben Sie noch ein bißchen!" bat ich. "Trinken Sie noch eine Tasse Kaffee mit mir!" Er tat mir, offen gestanden, leid.

Was soll ich Ihnen sagen? Er blieb. Er ließ sich herein. Erst putzte er sich am Türvorleger die Stiefel sauber, dann stellte er den Sack neben die Garderobe, hängte die Rute an einen der Haken, und schließlich trank der mit mir in der Wohnstube Kaffee....

Hier weiterlesen. [Via http://www.weihnachtsstadt.de/ ]

Wer was worüber sagt beziehungsweise besser nicht sagt, ist strengen Definitionskriterien unterworfen - und führt dazu, dass sich die Verhältnisse in ihr Gegenteil verkehren. Die Reglementierungen im Denkrevier waren noch nie so rigid und die Missbräuche so manifest.

Viele Begriffe unterliegen einem verordneten Gebrauch: Friedensgespräche, Terror, Rassismus, Menschenrechte, Toleranz und so weiter. Haben wir vielleicht zu wenig Toleranz? Alles lässt sich mit diesem Begriff durchsetzen, er ist kaum noch zum Aushalten. Ich will überhaupt nicht tolerant sein, sondern wissen, was gemeint ist, sonst würde Toleranz nichts Anderes als «Klappe zu» heissen.

Wenn sich mit den Begriffen alles Beliebige behaupten lässt, breitet sich am Ende ein voreingenommenes, dienstwilliges Denken aus, das sich über die Sache stellt und keinerlei Einwand hinzunehmen braucht.
Ausschnitt aus: Die Aufklärung ist noch nicht überholt von Aurel Schmidt

Interessanter Artikel von Rebecca Blood im Guardian Unlimited:

A weblog is something fundamentally new. Something no one can quite put their finger on, not yet. And those who try to define the phenomenon in terms of current institutions are completely missing the point.

Consider the average weblog. Maintained by an unpaid enthusiast, this site will be updated perhaps a dozen times a day with links to interesting news stories and entries on other weblogs, accompanied by a few lines - or paragraphs - of commentary. A blogger interested in current events may include links to several accounts of one event, noting differences in tone or detail, another may post the occasional recipe or pictures from a recent trip.

A blogger may have a thousand readers, but more likely a few hundred or a couple of dozen, some of whom will offer comments of their own, right on the site. The weblog is at once a scrapbook, news filter, chapbook, newsletter, and community.

This is not passive news consumption. Neither is it broadcasting. The average blogger has time to surf the web, but no resources to report stories. Some bloggers will follow a news story to the end, some may lose interest after a few days. Commentary will range from the fully-formed to the random blurt and can freely mix the public and the personal.

All this represents something new: participatory media. And it matters. Not because of its resemblance to familiar institutions, but because of its differences from them.

Weblogs are just too varied, too idiosyncratic, to fit into an existing box. Industry analysts might call this disruptive technology because weblogs have changed personal publishing so profoundly that the old rules no longer apply. We are at the beginning of a new age of online publishing - and I predict that this generation of online pamphleteers is just the first wave.

Hier weiterlesen beim Guardian Unlimited : Rebecca Blood: The revolution should not be eulogised

Microsoft lanciert nun doch die NEWS-Watch,......

After months of delays, Microsoft said that a line of Internet-linked watches will hit the market in mid-January. The devices, developed by Suunto and Fossil, will be fed news headlines, stock quotes and sport scores wirelessly.

"We worked really hard to make it 'glanceable information,' " said Jeff Bruneau, product manager with Fossil. "You glance at your watch to see the time, now you can see a news item as well."

Fossil's watches will cost $180 to $200, and require a $10 monthly subscription to Microsoft's MSN Direct service. Buyers can visit the MSN site to customize the information they will receive.

One Fossil model is designed to look like Dick Tracy's famous two-way wristwatch. Two-way radio is not included - but the watch will flash faux messages from "the chief" and "Tess" through the day.

*amkopfkratz*,...... Wer braucht sowas ??

[Via The New York Post: Web-Ready Wristwatch Due In Jan]

BLOG-IRAN was an idea that arose from the minds of Activists, Bloggers and Web Surfers who were all strong supporters of the Iranian struggle for freedom and had grown tired not only of the lack of attention being given to the movement in the mass media, but also the lack of public awareness and knowledge on the subject. Backed by the desire to spread truth and awareness about a people suffering incredible injustices and the will to answer the Iranian cry for freedom, these activists formulated BLOG-IRAN, a grassroots movement supported by bloggers, activists and web surfers from around the world.

The BLOG was selected as the medium for this grassroots project because it has become one of the world's most free forms of expression. "Blog-Iran" is the link between every blogger that supports the Iranian movement for freedom.

http://www.activistchat.com/blogiran/
Und auch : http://www.activistchat.com/blogiran/unitedblogs.html

[Nachtrag 18.12. 1900] Zum besagten Thema einen interessanten Artikel in der Seatle Times gefunden: Matt Rosenberg als Gastkolumnist:The blogs of freedom

Now more than ever, the fresh voices of Iraqi bloggers will be an invaluable counterweight to traditional media coverage. In the weeks and months to come, turn to them for crucial, first-person insights on this unfolding, and uplifting, birth of a democracy.

Iranian government has started to filter popular weblogs and websites in Iran, while the Internet was literally the only free medium Iranians could access. The goal of this weblog is to provide official and unofficial news about Internet censorship in Iran and encourage International observers and activists to fight for the freedom of information in Iran.

Sehr lesenswert! ;-)

http://stop.censoring.us/
.....und perfekte URL !)

Von einem aufmerksamen Kollegen ein Buch bekommen,..."Salam Pax: Let's get bombed"

Ein wirklich eingenartiges Gefühl,....ein Blog in Buchform in den Händen zu halten,....naja wenigstens kann man es im Tram lesen.

....als quasi historisches Dokument,...linear und ohne Kommentarfunktion.

http://dearraed.blogspot.com/

Tiere sind ja ideal für Propaganda und bringen meistens auch den "Jöööö-Effekt" gleich mit.

Dieses "Bushsche Doggy-Video" bleibt einem irgendwie doch im Halse stecken,... The White House wishes ....frohe Hunde-Tage. ;-)

Barney-Cam.