1. The Forbes anti-blogging piece was crap
2. Dave Winer is LiveBlogging the Microsoft announcement today, along with bunch of other guys.

LiveBlogging is tough. Its tough on the guy trying to capture everything being said. Tough to add your opinions to what is being said. And tough to keep track of the crowd.

I learned this the hardway at Gnomedex ’05. I asked no questions, kept my head down and tried to keep track of the stage and the room. I didn’t intend to liveblog, I was just trying to take notes for myself. JD had pointed out on his blog what I was doing and it clicked… I am writing for me but sharing with everyone. As a result I spent hours digging through what the other Gnomedexers were writing about (and podcasting and vidcasting). I wanted to see the other SIDES of the story.

Its tough on the guy live blogging.

Its even tougher on the event organizers/company you are liveblogging. Because you give up control. Because you are letting the cat out of the bag. You cant spin the message or the events the way you used to. You are being held to a higher standard, in both content and presentation.

25 minutes into it, all we’ve heard so far is marketing hype. They haven’t shown or said anything new yet. They need to read my How To Demo document. The people in this room are tough customers.
-Dave Winer

Cause we all have a little Dave in us. And now we let him out

Great post from Mark Cuban concerning the video iPod launch this week. Cuban is involved in the creation (HDFilms, HDNet) and distribution of content (Landmark Cinemas, DVDs, and a number of syndicated TV properties).

Its not inconceivable that just as DVDs have surpassed box office in revenues and the theatrical release has become a commercial for the DVD sale, the network TV broadcast could become the commercial for the download sale. I dont see download sales surpassing advertising revenue, but I do see it as likely that the download sales could more than compensate for any advertising market weakness brought on by ratings erosion and / or changes in how ads are delivered on TV. I also think it wont be long before we see an ad or two in front of the show that will further increase revenue.

This move (the Video iPod release coupled with ABC making its content downloadable) is a big step. This creates a video podcasting opportunity for microbroadcasters going forward. Similar to the way Podcasting became a phenomenon:
the device (iPod or any other)
+ plus interested users
+ broadband
+ a distribution platform (the internet)
+ cheap tools to ‘roll your own’
=
the potential of ‘everyone a broadcaster’.

The barriers to entry are falling. Talent and a voice is more important these days than having an AVID. Look at what Amanda Congdon and RocketBoom are doing – they are producing their own show, ON A DAILY BASIS. Microbroadcasting. Systm, NerdTV, Rocketboom – all examples of we-media, citizen media, personal publishing. Not a big production. Small, fast, personal, interesting, fun.

And congrats to RocketBoom for the debut at a Steve Jobs presentation:

I rarely use the 4 years of high school french that I didn’t learn to describe something, but VG Map fits the bill (see title above).

VGMap is a new library created by Eyebeam R&D that allows designers, developers, and mapping geeks to overlay data on top of Google Maps in a richer way than is possible using their standard system. It is called VGMap because it adds vector-drawing capability to the already-awesome GMap API.

This is another example of we media. Users taking google’s maps, APIs and home-grown ingenuity to do something cool. The Eyebeam guys have combined GMaps with Flash (ooohhh vector goodness) and released a spec and set of ActionScript libraries for doing it yourself. Sharing is one of the tenets of Web2.0.

A description of Eyebeam:

Eyebeam engages cultural dialogue at the intersection of the arts and sciences. Its goal is to forge an understanding of the relatedness of these practices, which are becoming increasingly significant engines of cultural production. Eyebeam amplifies the flux and hybridity of the art/science intersection by openly fostering the parallel strands of EDUCATION, RESEARCH, PRODUCTION, EXHIBITION with its public and peers. It implements this mission by:

> Providing educational programming and access to cultural resources to the community.
> Facilitating research and development of innovation in cultural production and technology.
> Enabling artistic creation by providing access to technological and cultural resources.
> Expanding and informing the critical perception of art, culture and media through exhibitions and public programs.