Back in 2000, Darrel Austin and I started the climbingturtle blog to share interesting links and a personal comment on them. During that same time, I started an internal blog for the my employer – for the same purpose. Darrel and I took a couple year hiatus in ‘02. Then, I started the Work Better Weblog in January 2004 – and Darrel and I started co-blogging again at MNteractive.com that Spring – adding more authors along the way and pulling some of the old posts out of the Way-Back Machine. Autumn 2004 gave birth to the First Crack Podcast and shortly thereafter – my Garrick Van Buren.com

When did you first hear the word blog and what was your first impression of the idea behind it?

My first associations with the word ‘blog’ were kottke.org and blogger.com.  I saw it as an easy way to publish publicly – in contrast to email which is private publishing. Weblogs as a personal journal or diary never resonated with me, I’ve always thought blogs as a public meeting place was much more interesting. The kind of place we all contribute to, build off one-another, and learn from each other. Too few exist in real life as it is – too many neighborhood parks are mostly empty. Too little public discourse is happening about our communities. It’s tough to get together simultaneously. Blogs make that easier – you’re in your pajamas on your schedule.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

Speed to press is the 1st-level disruptor. There’s no publishing method faster, cheaper, and with a wider geographic reach. The added bonus is inexpensive editing – that’s the aspect newspapers, television, and radio can’t duplicate. The best blog posts are filled with updates, corrections, and piles of comments.

The 2nd-level disruptor is knowing what public conversations are happening about you. This changes the discourse, adds a layer of accountability. Blog search is just starting to show us what this disruption means.

What is the most important aspect of a person’s blog to you? What keeps you coming back?

The first answer is – ‘them’, the second answer is – ‘me’.

First the writing needs to have perspective and enthusiasm. Without that, just pack up the keyboard. Some writers need a specific person to write for – each post I write is to help me work through ideas. I consider each post the start of an idea, the first early signs of a conversation – a ‘What if’ ,  ‘What about’, ‘Hey, look at this’, or ‘Am I full of crap?’. The great thing about blog is you can change your mind, you can revise, and if you’re real lucky that’ll get you attention.

There are two factors to keep my attention – write about something I’m interested in and wrap an RSS feed around it. Even if the first is true, I don’t have time to remember URLs or manually scan bookmarks. Getting in my feedreader is extremely easy – and once you’re there  – you gotta work at getting out.

Finding good bits of conversation in hundreds of RSS feeds is an entirely different problem. There are 500+ unread items in my feedreader as I write this. Most of them have timely and important things to say about topics I’m interested in – otherwise they wouldn’t be in my reader. Problem is, the reader I use it’s difficult to connect emerging memes. This is something Technorati and Memeorandum do with the entire universe of blogs and news. I’m still looking for the solutions that does this for the people I care about.

Where do you see blogging in 5 years?

Invisible. Like parks and house numbers – they exist everywhere, are persistent, and life wouldn be far less enjoyable without them. Blogs will be identifying sign posts and gathering places as they are today, but the word itself will be indistinguishable from ‘website’.

And people will be fired for not having a blog. As I’ve stated before – if I search for someone and a weblog doesn’t come up – I hesitate. It’s the easiest way to find out where someone’s head is.

Who do you think some of the most influential bloggers are and why?

The early Suck.com made hyperlinking a comedic artform. Early on I read more kottke.org and 37svn.com . I’m glad Kottke can go full-time and I think 37Signals’ work using blogging to build markets is impressive.

Lately, I look towards Doc Searls , Dave Winer , Hugh MacLeod, Dave Cecchi – their writing makes me stop and think about what they’re saying as much as why they’re saying it.

For blogging and new media in general to be able to succeed it is belived that the conversation between the producer and the consumer is more important why do you think this is?

The low-barrier of entry in blogging – and internet publishing as a whole – puts all publishers on equal footing and with their audiences. For too long, customers haven’t been directly involved in the creation of what they’re purchasing (with their time or money). Our world is now one of abundance – the only differentiator anyone has is their personality and their relationship with others. Success hinges on providing each customer with a valuable, unique relationship. This relationship is most visible in a conversation – online or in some other marketplace. Blogs provide an easy way for everyone to talk about their relationships – good, bad, otherwise.

What would you tell a blogger who is trying to figure out the journalism world? (For blogging to become an even bigger powerhouse in the citizen journalism world the bloggers have to learn from the success and mistakes of journalism)

If journalism means I call up people, attempt to understand an issue in a new way, and double-check what people tell me – then, the difference between journalism and blogging is whether or not I have shoes on. I think the mistakes of journalism are a result of their tools. To date – publishing and documenting tools were very expensive often needing advertising subsidizes to support them and even then were restricted in column inches or airtime. Bandwidth and digital tools are close enough to free that reporters/bloggers/journalists of any flavor can go very deep, publish whenever they have something to share, and correcting as new information arises.

The biggest constraint in blogging today is that everyone doesn’t have a blog. Dave Slusher ’s Uplifter meme is one very compelling way to solve that problem. He’s been talking about bloggers and podcasters getting together and helping I’m-interested-but-don’t-know-where-to-start people. Blogging has fit into my life in a specific way, there are a handful of different ways I put together a podcast. This is the way that works for me – it might not be the way that works for you. Talking with 10 different bloggers – much like you’re doing with this series – you’ll find a way that works for you.

How has blogging affected your life?

At the most basic level, it’s given me a place to put ideas for fermentation. Outside of that, it’s allowed me to share what I find interesting and useful with others – when I’m real lucky, they find it interesting as well.

How can we educate the average user about blogging?

Get them a blog – and a reason to share. This reason can be as simple as family photos (what’s Flickr if not a massive photo blog), favorite bookmarks,  commentary on a subject important to their lives. There’s so much happening at a hyper-local level that isn’t being covered; kickball games, lunch conversations, city government issues.

How long ago did you start blogging and why did you start?

I started blogging in 1994 as a way to share my interests with friends. My first blog was about movie reviews and was powered by the FirstClass publishing system. I wanted more people to understand my jokes and movie quotes, and the blog allowed me to make recommendations and engage my readers.

When did you first hear the word blog and what was your first impression of the idea behind it?
I first heard the word “blog” in 1999 or 2000. It’s really just another word to describe what people have already been doing online or in a paper diary for years. The term “blog” to me relates a certain data format or layout, possibly powered by a specialized tool.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

Blogging lowers the barrier to entry for individuals to express their opinions and passions to a large group of people. Modern bloggers don’t have to know anything about HTML or markup; they simply type their thoughts into a browser window and send it off to the world. We all have something to say, and everyone wants to have at least one more person listen to their point of view, so blogging is a great worldwide connector. My blog is read in Ireland and in Japan by people I cannot reach in my everyday life, even if I knew how to reach them! I am able to publish my thoughts and have people of similar interests join in the conversation and build upon my ideas.

What is the most important aspect of a person’s blog to you? What keeps you coming back?

I like to see original reporting from a unique point of view. I like to learn something new every day and enjoy reading blogs that introduce me to new ideas and ways of thinking. I do most of my reading in a feed aggregator, so full feeds are important. I appreciate blogs that are free of conflicts of interest and who do not skew their content for sponsors or employers.

In the coming years and decades it will be increasingly hard to get a person’s attention. How can we as blogger and journalist help the consumer with this aspect?

I think variety is a good thing. The increased availability of content across various subject areas will allow each reader to choose their favorite topics. Someone may not subscribe to a general sports blog, but they will subscribe to a blog on the business of soccer for example.

A challenge developers and business leaders need to rise to is the management of all of these choices of information to allow end-users to discover and interact with the content they care about. If we know someone watched the season finale of Survivor last night, we might be able to suggest timely and topical content such as blog posts about the episodes, or reactions from the latest person booted off the island. You could also encourage the creation of content by helping the user create a list of the top 5 things they would bring with them to a deserted island or what food they might crave the most.

Journalists will produce more in-depth stories and analysis using the resources at their disposal and their reputation in the industry. The reputation of a publication or a reporter will have increased attention as individuals look to the wisdom of the crowds to help establish trust. Personalization and social network filters built-in to tools will help more bloggers and publications reach audiences not possible with today’s ranking methods.

Where do you see blogging in 5 years?

I think blogging will spread to multiple methods of input within the next 5 years. You might type a blog post on your laptop or mobile phone, write a message from a tablet device, or submit audio and video posts from a phone or home recording station. The same tools we use to connect people over long distances such as video conferencing, gaming devices, computers, and cell phones, will become better equipped for easy content creation such as blogging.

Network bandwidth and ubiquity will continue to increase, allowing blogging from more locations. Using a wireless data network you could upload your latest photograph with an audio annotation right when inspiration hits.

We will also see more collaboration in blogs as some features of wikis work their way into blog posts.

Who do you think some of the most influential bloggers are and why?

I think the most influential bloggers are acting as connectors and helping others get started with new blogs or a new approach to business. Also important and influential are the bloggers building the tools that help other people create new things. There are so many things people are interested in learning about that influence really varies by topic.

Jeffrey Zeldman is an influential blogger among the design community. Joel Spolsky and Paul Graham influence small business leaders. Tim Bray, Dave Winer, and Adam Bosworth influence the technology bloggers.

Why is ‘Conversation King’?

Conversation is king because anyone can contribute in a meritocracy of information and opinion. Conversations allow you to admit you might not have all the answers and you are willing to listen to what another person has to say. People like to be heard, and the best ideas don’t necessarily already exist within the confines of your company or your own mind.

What would you tell a blogger who is trying to figure out the journalism world?

I recommend finding a niche market to cover better than anyone else. Become the online expert on the latest MP3 players, baby strollers, or whatever you feel you are in a position to cover well. Seek out new stories in those areas and find other bloggers and journalists covering similar stories so you can learn from their work.

How has blogging affected your life?

Blogging has allowed me to connect with a larger group of people than I ever thought was possible. Last month I was sitting in a San Francisco cafe when someone visiting from South Africa recognized me from my blog and we started talking about the topics of my latest entries. My blog has led to new jobs, new conversations, and new reasons to seek out new information and explore emerging technologies.

How can we educate the average user about blogging?

The first step is to help remove the intimidation involved with publishing online. I ask people questions about things I know they are passionate about and then encourage them to share their opinions and insights with the world through a blog. Once people realize they have something to say and they are eager to share it with the world the rest is easy.

Blogging for the average user may not involve a broad worldwide audience. My mother’s instant messaging buddy list contains only family and relatives spread across the world. She might start a blog to deliver the latest news from home to my brother serving in Iraq or my relatives in Ireland and be very happy with informing that audience.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to blog and what do you the pros/cons of blogging are?

Blog for yourself. If you get caught up in expected posting volume, subscriber counts, and why no one is leaving comments on your blog you will never get anywhere.

Your blog will be a part of your personal online identity. Consider integrating your blog with a personal domain name instead of a generic service to build a better brand.

Download a desktop feed aggregator to stay on top of the latest news from around the Web. Start tracking your favorite sites and add your opinion to the conversation by commenting on those stories.

Content Syndication is an area that a lot of people tare talking about right now. Why do you think there is so much talk about it right now?

Content sydication is enabling more customized delivery of content to people in a variety of settings. Just as TiVo changed the way we watched TV, syndication allows us to keep track of more sources of information on a flexible schedule.

The standardization of syndication formats such as Atom (IETF RFC 4287) and RSS allow developers to build new applications using structured content in defined vocabularies. We’ve only just begun to discover what structured content in syndication is capable of.

What formats of content syndication do you see leading the way?

I think the Atom syndication format will be widely used throughout governments and their contractors, introducing a whole new world to the benefits of syndication. Microformats will introduce new ways of describing the content within a feed for interpretation by an intelligent agent such as a search engine or browser plugin. Syndication will disappear into the infrastructure of our applications and be even more simple to integrate with applications than we experience today.

In 5 years where do you see content syndication?

We will have many more rich media experience enabled through content syndication. Expect high-resolution images delivered to your HDTV, or the latest Netflix movie queue to your home entertainment center. Software updates may be pushed using digitally signed syndication technologies. E-mail will blend with syndication for items with a large distribution list or data that changes over time.

There will also be more syndicated data available in more places. Expect traditional offerings such as TV and print media to be made available in more customized formats unique to each user. We will gather some personalization smarts on the aggregator side and better be able to handle the increasing flow of inbound information.

How do you see marketing groups using content syndication?

Syndication is an opt-in method of communicating to end-users. Marketing groups should look at syndication as a way to keep people informed of the latest news around a company or product. If you produce a cell phone, consider reaching out to that potential market with a blog and/or video demonstrations. Enable users to subscribe to a product support page to receive the latest news and software updates for their phone. Show me the latest content and accessories all available via syndicated feeds and allow me to be excited about your products and give you more money.

Marketing groups can also use syndication to listen in on the conversations happening around their brands or products. Subscribe to watchlists on blog search engines such as Technorati so you can follow consumer sentiment and common questions about your product. The wisdom of the crowds may produce new features and clever ideas for your company and introduce new ways to create brand ambassadors.

What do you think is needed to take content syndication to the next level and what do you think the next level is?

The next level of content syndication is more personalization and better handling of rich media. We need to develop smarter feed aggregators that can suggest new sources of content, prioritize the items we read, and identify the people behind the feeds. We also need to develop new ways of understanding, describing, and subscribing to rich media content such as photos, audio, and video. Content consumers such as search engines and feed aggregators need to work together on the best ways to describe and format such data without overwhelming the content creators too much.

What affect will content syndication have on an individual’s perspective of the world?

Syndication will flatten the world a bit as we are more easily able to consume information from all over the globe. Bloggers may seek an edge by following the news in a far off place as it develops such as the latest Skype news from Estonia. We will be better able to follow how news from a far off place affects our lives and interests on a daily basis.

How can we educate the average user about content syndication?

We can make it a lot easier for average users to subscribe to a syndicated feed. XSLT rendering of a feed page provides part of the answer but if syndication is to become the behind-the-scenes plumbing then the average user needs to take an action to deliver “more things like this” types of content to their daily news experience.

Average users might be afraid to give out their e-mail address and confront the waves of spam in their inbox. Syndication is an opt-in process that can be easily cancelled at any time you no longer want to receive information from that source. Syndication puts the user in control.

What benefits does content syndication have for the average user?

The average syndication reader can track more information than ever before using feed readers or syndicated content consumers depending on the appropriate content. The average user might download the latest NPR news story from iTunes never realizing it is powered by content syndication technologies.

The average producer of syndicated content is able to reach more users wherever they may be and create a stronger relationship with that user. I can place my feed on someone’s personalized homepage and it will be displayed every time that person logs in or opens his or her browser. I can become an audio track for someone’s morning run or commute to work by creating a podcast. I can send the latest videos of a new baby across the world and have them show up on my relatives’ PCs.

How can Technorati help people with content syndication?

Technorati helps expand the reach of content producers by exposing their content to interested search and directory users. People can also track their favorite searches, links to a web page, or comments about a topic by subscribing to a syndicated feed delivered to them on a regular basis.

What else would you like to mention about content syndication that I might not have asked?

Syndication is still in the early stages of development. I think we can achieve a lot through standardization and cooperation as we look at building the publication and consumption systems of tomorrow.

How long has Simpy been around?

The Simpy idea is an old one. The timeline is roughly as follows:

I started thinking about it and tinkering with it in 2002.

After going through lists of neutral, easy to remember, and possibly interesting names and available domains, I decided to go with Simpy.

The simpy.com domain was registered in June 2002. In the beginning, I worked on Simpy slowly and part-time. Finally, I released the first version of Simpy to public in May 2004. Since then I’ve tried to make a new release every month or two. Here’s the full history of Simpy releases.

Why was Simpy Started?

It sounds like a cliche, but I started Simpy out of a personal need. I’ve always been interested in information gathering, analysis, extraction, and retrieval. I (and everyone else with a web browser) had this nice collection of bookmarks inside the browser, but no ability to find anything in that potentially rich collection of information. You may know that you once bookmarked a site about insert your topic here, but you couldn’t really find it in the haystack of folders and subfolders. There was no bookmark search inside the browser. There was no full-text search that everyone was already used to from daily Web search engine usage. There was no way to check which of the bookmarks have gone bad (404) or have changed their locations on the Web. When you found a web site at work that you wanted to bookmark in your browser at home, you had to resort to methods such as emailing yourself the URL. And then came the problem of filing. Which category, which folder or subfolder does each bookmark go into? What happens when you want to file a bookmark in more than one folder? And what happens when you want to find this bookmark later? You have to remember exactly which place in your folder hierarchy you saved the link. Impossible! Slow! Tedious! Welcome tags!

Where do you see Simpy in 5 years?

While I think I solved all of the problems that I initially saw with bookmarking, new problems and new ways of doing old things always come up. People who use services like Simpy quickly adopt the basic functionality, establish their usage patterns, learn that more can be done and had, and then they demand new features. I add the new features, and the whole cycle repeats indefinitely. When it comes to features and functionality, where Simpy goes in 2006 and beyond will largely be dictated by the community of Simpy users. Simpy is lucky to have a great group of loyal, smart, and advanced users who help push Simpy forward by suggesting new ways of improving it.

To communicate with the users, Simpy has 2 mailing lists: simpy-user, for regular Simpy users, and simpy-dev, for those who want to build tools around and on top of Simpy. In addition, there is the blog that accompanies the service .

Personally, I hope that Simpy remains a fun and exciting project for me, and as long as that is the case, I will continue running it, evolving it, and creating small revolutions here and there.

What do you think Simpy is doing better than other services of its kind and why?

As I already mentioned, I’m in love with information. This love is one of the reasons why I’m involved with Lucene, a very popular and high-quality open-source search engine library developed under the Apache Software Foundation brand, which led to Lucene in Action that I co-authored with Erik Hatcher. Naturally, I put a lot of value in search, and thus Simpy has always had the best search functionality compared to other similar services.

To make the long search story short(er), with Simpy you can enter all kinds of queries that let you really zoom in on the information you are after. Topics and Topic Filters are extremely powerful ways of watching others’ bookmarks, and discover new sites with minimal effort. All you need to do is find authorities on topics that interest you, subscribe to those people, and watch over their shoulders. Unlike other services’ single “Inbox” feature, with Simpy you can have any number of Topics and any number of Topic Filters. Topic Filters are simply saved searches with a scope of a Topic, which means you can use the same expressive power that you get with the regular search. The Notes feature is also very handy, as it lets you select a piece of text on any Web page, save it and tag it for later retrieval. Not many other bookmarking services have this features, if any. There are other features that put Simpy ahead of others, and some of them are mentioned in “Why Simpy over del.icio.us” blog entry. The entry is from August 2005, and since then Simpy has advanced through several releases.

My favorite new feature is the Group functionality, which, I think, makes Simpy truly social and different from other “social” bookmarking sites. One of my pet peeves is the common misconception that a service is “social” simply because its users have no choice but to make all their information (bookmarks in this case) public. I think”social” is the wrong adjective to use here. The analogy I often make in my head is this: Humans are social creatures. We have a circle of friends and acquaintances. We share some things with that group (or groups) of people. We chat with them more often than with strangers. We do not chat with just anyone and everyone on the street. Thus, I like to distinguish between making the information public and sharing information with a group of selected people. It is the sharing with a selected group that makes a service “social”. This is why Simpy has the Group functionality. I’m intrigued by human social behavior and much of what I do with Simpy are emulations of real life.

Where do you think Simpy needs work and why?

There are ways to make Simpy even more social and suitable for information discovery, and I plan on improving that facet of Simpy. Also, I’m not an UI expert, and while many people like Simpy’s UI, I have been told that it is too busy, so I hope to find a way to make it cleaner in the coming months. I will also be bringing forth some buried and therefore underutilized features, such as Topics, Topic Filters, and Notes. It was quite interesting to watch people leave del.icio.us to join Simpy when Yahoo! acquired del.icio.us. A few days after the initial wave of newcomers, I saw an emerging pattern in the type of feedback I was getting. A lot of ex-del.icio.us users were requesting the same 2-3 features that they were used to. Clearly, these features will be included in the upcoming release.

What have some of the mistakes been that Simpy has made and why do you think they are mistakes?

I’d like to think that I haven’t made a lot of mistakes with Simpy. However, I wish that I had had the ability to devote more time to Simpy during the initial phase in order to make it public sooner. On the other hand, during the same time, I was very involved with Lucene. Had I not been as involved with Lucene, I probably would not have had the opportunity to co-author Lucene in Action, which was a great experience that paid off in many direct and indirect ways, personally and professionally.

Why should people use Simpy over other services?

Simpy’s strength lies in its rich set of features, many of which other services do not have, such as powerful search functionality that includes full-text search, Groups, Notes, Topics, Topic Filters, etc.

Simpy is completely open, in the sense that that it provides an API that lets users and developers take their data out of Simpy, manipulate it, integrate it with other applications and services, remix it, back it up, etc. From day one, I provided the export feature, as I did not want Simpy to be one of those unfriendly services that keep users locked in. I want people to use Simpy by choice, because they find it useful, and not because they have no way to leave without losing all of their data and hard work. The door is wide open.

In addition, the smart users that I already mentioned make the social aspect of Simpy even more enticing and beneficial for everyone in the Simpy community.

Where do you see web based bookmarking in 5 years?

Five years is a long time in Internet terms. Currently, only a small fraction of regular Web users is aware of the Web-based bookmarking options, not to mention services with abilities beyond the core bookmarking functionality that’s been around since the Mosaic times. Until this fraction increases and moms and dads around the planet start bookmarking and tagging pages with the same ease they use email today, I would still consider Web-based bookmarking in its infancy.

As I said earlier, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the social aspect of bookmarking. I think people will increasingly find that they can benefit by sharing selected pieces of information with one another, the same way they share data in various file sharing networks (legally, of course). Similarly, I think people will realize that social bookmarking and similar services make for a great”micro-market”. I see a lot of exciting and innovative things that could happen within this “micro-market” ecosystem, for example, with individuals benefiting from sharing their content and expertise. I would like Simpy to be part of that evolution.

What hurdles do you and web bookmarking in general have to overcome?

The bookmarking services are still used mostly by more advanced users. While people and companies running bookmarking services can help speed up the adoption process by making things simpler, I believe that the process can be sped up by only so much. The rest will come naturally, as the space and its users mature and evolve. Just like everything else in life. As for me, I need a clone.

What else would you like to let people know about Simpy that I may not have asked?

I think we covered most of Simpy one way or the other, but it may help to summarize a few things:

Simpy offers a demo account (demo/demo), so people can try it out before signing up. When they sign up, they can sync their bookmarks from del.icio.us or upload their bookmarks (pretty much all browsers are supported). Bookmarks and tags are imported in real time and become full-text searchable shortly thereafter (think My Very Own Mini Google). Simpy has a unique set of tag management features that, I believe, cover all aspects of tag manipulation.

I think that a few other special features are worth emphasizing:

* Simpy integrates nicely with web browsers through a plugin or a bookmarklet.
* The REST API allows for integration of Simpy data with other applications and services.
* In addition to Web pages, users can save, tag, and search any linkable type of data (an image, an audio or video file, any type of document be it PDF, Word, or plain text, etc.).
* Through the Notes feature, users can save, tag, and search any piece of text of any length from any source (Web page, Word document, email…)
* Users have a choice of making their bookmarks public, private, or share them with one or more Groups. Groups is a great feature that allows users to collaborate with colleagues, friends, or family.
* The Topics feature, on the other hand, lets users lurk and watch other people’s public links.
* Complementing the Topics feature, Topic Filters let users weed out uninteresting links and focus on links that truly interest them.

While I’m the lonesome warrior behind Simpy, and I only get to work on it during my free time, I have derived great pleasure from building it, watching it grow, and working with a great group of users. Their enthusiasm and insights have provided tremendous support. I hope that together we can push Simpy to where no tag has gone before.

How long ago did you start blogging and why did you start?

It been almost four years, i have been blogging in the “blogging format.” before that it was almost like write, and create html pages manually and upload them. I started way back in December 2001.

When did you first hear the word blog and what was your first impression of the idea behind it?

It was sometime in early 2001, when Nick Denton had introduced me to the concept with blogger, and well, it was clear, how much simpler it made things for writers like myself to write and publish.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

Why is it disruptive – i think it fosters conversations and adds a two way ability to a medium: writing, that has been largely static.

What is the most important aspect of a person’s blog to you? What keeps you coming back?

Personality, their ability to communicate clearly in a few lines and a fresh point of view are three things which make going back for more.

In the coming years and decades it will be increasingly hard to get a person’s attention. How can we as blogger and journalist help the consumer with this aspect? i am not sure how to answer thus question, perhaps you can rephrase.

Where do you see blogging and what is currently considered ‘mainstream media’ in 5 years?

I think when the internet publications started, people used to say where will it be versus traditional media. same questions are being asked again. i think it is all a big melting pot in the near future. I think many more of my colleagues in the mainstream media will be blogging.

Who do you think some of the most influential bloggers are and why? Also who do you think are some of the most influential journalist are and why?

Influential bloggers in my mind are people who have something smart to say about their areas of expertise. i would say david hornik, jeremy over at yahoo, russell beattie, pete rojas, the tao of mac is another one i love, i love daring fireball, paul kedrosky, and andy abramson. there are so many more… like the list is endless, i mean scoble, dave winer, james enck…. martin geddes, and stuart henshall at skype journal. journalists, well there are so many…. john markoff, lee gomes, rob guth, matt maier, michael kanellos, chris anderson, matt marshall.

Why is ‘Conversation King?’

No comment on this one….

What advice would you give a journalist who is trying to figure out the blogging world? And what would you tell a blogger who is trying to figure out the journalism world?

three words…. just do it. to bloggers, well, the rules of engadgement are pretty stringent in the mainstream media, so get ready for the grind. its a lot of work, digging up information, and checking and re-checking. and needs patience.

How has blogging affected your life?

helped me tap into the collective intelligence of my readers, who post comments, email and educate me all the time. i find their contributions make me a better informed journalist. that alone is a reason to be blogging. of course, there is the whole sense of community which lets you form one-to-one relationships with readers.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to blog and what do you think the pros/cons of blogging are?

cons…. blogging can be very addicitive and consume a lot of life-cycles. so buyer beware.

How long ago did you start blogging and why did you start?

Ten years ago I began a mailing list, a zine I called Entropy Gradient Reversals. Through word of mouth, EGR eventually grew to have over 5,000 subscribers. I was working for IBM at the time I started writing that way — in a very different mode from the stuff I’d published in technical and trade and mainstream business publications. I’d published quite a bit of what I’d written, and I’d written a lot. But IBM told me I couldn’t publish anything without their permission, and I knew that, for the kind of stuff I wanted to write, such permission would never be forthcoming. I also knew they were pretty dumb about the web, and I figured they’d never find me there, so I took a chance. As it turned out, they did discover my parodies of IBM chairman-at-the-time Lou Gerstner, but I quit before they could fire me for that. I recounted much of this in The Cluetrain Manifesto — the book, not the website.

In 2000, after Cluetrain hit — and hit it did — Jack Schofield, a pal at the UK Guardian and a long-time EGR reader, asked me to do a column about blogs, which were pretty new at that time, and about which I frankly knew very little, except that I’d started one, and that I didn’t really get it myself. I felt constrained by the form, so different than the long screeds I’d been sending out to the EGR list for five years. I never did write the article for Jack, but I did do some research for it — talked to some bloggers who were pioneers in all that. One was Dave Winer, and that exchange, as you can imagine, had a lot to do with technology.

But the guy who impressed me most in the early blogging scene was my friend and co-author Doc Searls. I felt that Doc had really found his voice in the blog format. It fit him perfectly, and he was great at it. Still is. Me, I never did quite get the hang of it. I’ve blogged a ton, but I think I’ve mostly gone against the grain. My stuff is not all that popular, as such things are measured, and I understand why. I sympathize. I suppose my real calling in life is to annoy and confound as many people as I can in the short time allotted to me on this earth.

When did you first hear the word blog and what was your first impression of the idea behind it?

I recall running across something about weblogs by Cameron Barrett. It seemed he was talking about something new and exciting, but I couldn’t make head nor tails of it. To me, weblogs were those files that collect statistics about site visits and so forth. So I was like… huh? Only later did I begin to tune in to what a weblog was, as we understand that term today. I was from Missouri on the issue of what good they were. In a way I still am. But I love to blog, so I try to keep my doubts in check. Mostly by ignoring them.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

I think writing is disruptive. I think democracy is disruptive. I suppose I take those inalienable truths so much for granted that I didn’t go into blogging thinking primarily about it’s disruptive aspects, though those are certainly part of the territory, part of the inevitable result. What gets disrupted, as with any writing worthy of the name, is the collective illusion that we’re all “the same” or that life is a certain way. I once blogged a one-liner that simply said: “There is no way things are.”

Mass media made us appear to ourselves like mass people. We aren’t. Blogging initially began to change that impression. However, one of the ironies today is how much of the blogging scene seems to have attempted to replicate the old regime. I suppose this always happens: here comes the New Boss — just like the Old Boss. So I get down on my knees and pray…

What is the most important aspect of a person’s blog to you? What keeps you coming back?

Hard to say. I don’t follow all that many blogs, and those I do, well… it’s pretty intermittent. I think many of us feel a little guilty in that respect. I know I do. But there it is. My personal style has never been to cover trends, topical news, current events. So I’m often well behind the curve of “what’s happening” on the net. I’m a very late adopter. And most of the time — with notable exceptions — I’m just not all that interested in the technology. Or the news. Or what’s happening in the so-called popular culture. Most of the time, I’m not interested in much of anything you could really put your finger on. So to stay alive, I have to work really hard at becoming curious about other sorts of things. I guess what I blog about tends to be a little weird and offbeat. Like what I’ve been up to at Mystic Bourgeoisie.

All that said, I often do run across blogs that knock me out. Where someone is really writing from the heart. With high humor or great pathos or that something strangely human that reminds me of my own humanity. I’m left cold by anyone trying to sound like the New Boss.

In the coming years and decades it will be increasingly hard to get a person’s attention. How can we as blogger and journalist help the consumer with this aspect?

This is essentially a question left over from the days of mainstream mass media. Personally, I don’t believe in consumers any more than I believe in the Tooth Fairy. You may not agree, but I bet that got your attention. I’m certainly not interested in “helping” bloggers or journalists or consumers to do anything in particular. Like I would know what they should do? I think it’s wonderful that so many people are writing. I think they should explore how to keep doing that and how deep they can take it. Natural language is infinite, it’s said, so the possibilities are literally endless. Who knows what will get people’s attention? Chaucer didn’t know. Shakespeare knew a little better, as he had the Globe theater as a test-bed. But he would have been surprised, I bet, at how well his stuff has fared. Ditto-and-then-some for Van Gogh, who died in poverty. What could Van Gogh have done back then to help some clueless bastard fork out millions of dollars for one of his paintings at Sotheby’s? I think if he knew, he would have done it while it still made a difference.

Where do you see blogging in 5 years?

Five years ago, blogging was just getting started. I doubt anyone grasped at that time how huge the phenomenon would become, though some of us certainly saw the potential early on. Blogging is a particular form, and that form has a lot to do with the state of the technology, which is constantly changing — and as we all know, changing with increasing speed. What I think lasts, and has lasted historically, is the human desire to communicate to other human beings, whether through writing or sound or images. Nineteenth century novelists would have had a very hard time imagining the possibilities of today’s cinema. As hard a time, perhaps — especially given the pace of change — as we have today imagining what form our communication will take in five years.

Whatever that form is (though there will always, as ever, be forms, plural), free and unencumbered access to the means of production will remain crucial. While the net is neither cost-free or totally free in the political sense, it has brought such visions closer into range. I hope we will fight to broaden those visions and more fully realize them. They are certainly endangered by both global communications conglomerates and increasingly fascistic governments.

Who do you think some of the most influential bloggers are and why?

Well, if you mean influence as it’s usually measured, then the clear answer is the Top 100 hit magnets on Technorati. No one could say, and I wouldn’t suggest, that they’re not having a lot of influence on whomever is hitting their blogs. They must, right? And the more people who hit those sites, the more people will hit those sites. In this sense, we’ve replicated the mass media model. Which is inevitable in some sense. I mean, there will always be a top-10, a top-100, in anything you can measure. It’s like fashion. Beige is the new black. Chartreuse is the new black. Whatever.

Then there’s the very different phenomenon of going to x-random site and reading something, hearing something, seeing something that changes your mind, touches your heart. It could be someone you’ve never heard of. It could be someone whose voice is just emerging. His or her real voice. Real in the sense that it cuts through all the posturing and bullshit and reminds you what you are, what we are. That kind of influence can’t be measured the same way. And it’s possible that, by measuring things that can be easily measured, we miss entirely the things that can’t be measured at all.

Why is ‘Conversation King’?

Is it? I never said that. I don’t think I ever said that. Way back in the mid-80s, Esther Dyson said that “content is king.” I don’t know if that was original with her, or if she was quoting some meme that was prevalent at the time — I suspect it was her coinage. At any rate, that was an early perception of the rising value of what people have to say to each other. Once upon a time, such “content” could be wholly defined by advertisers. The net has changed that locus of control. And yeah, that’s important. That’s huge. We can now express ourselves on the experience of being human instead of solely on the thin and none too interesting experience of being “consumers.”

It was Doc Searls, once again, who wrote “markets are conversations.” In the Cluetrain book, I wrote a whole segment on ancient markets where everyone was haggling and sharing news and gossip and telling stories and like that. I think Doc and I were on the same page in that respect. I also think, though, that there are those who would turn the equation around and assume that “conversations are markets.” I think that’s not so true. To put it a different way: inasmuch as conversations are markets, they’re less conversations.

On the other hand, maybe I’m wrong about that. If one can trace them, the semantic trade routes certainly tell us a lot about who we’ve come to believe we are.

What would you tell a blogger who is trying to figure out the journalism world?

I guess the first thing I’d suggest would be to stop worrying about it so much. The second suggestion might be to study up a bit on how journalism has evolved. Look into what Hunter Thompson really meant by “gonzo journalism” — a story unpacked in my book, Gonzo Marketing (which really isn’t so much about marketing). Look into “public journalism” — which I also wrote about in Gonzo — and what Dan Gillmor is doing in that vein on Bayosphere.

Finally, I’d suggest that the reason to look at journalism — in the many ways it’s been practiced, past and present — is to explore how to write. Good journalism is good writing. Bad journalism is bad writing. Of course, there’s always going to be debate about these values. George W. Bush appears to have a very different idea of good and bad writing than did, say, Hunter S. Thompson. But then, GWB is a fool, and HST wasn’t.

How has blogging affected your life?

The main way that blogging has touched my life is via the many wonderful and surprising people I’ve encountered through it. I encouraged quite a few folks to start blogging, but then for a while, I didn’t know they’d actually done that. Later, I’d hear from them — “you started me doing this” — and only then would I begin to learn who they were. It’s a kind of ass-backwards phenomenon, isn’t it? But it’s been a trip. In the good way. Some of these people — they know who they are — saved my life when the going got tough and I couldn’t just “turn pro.” I’ll always be grateful to them.

How can we educate the average user about blogging?

I don’t believe in average users any more than I believe in consumers. Averages, like popularity, is a numbers racket. But I’d tell anyone who isn’t blogging already and who’s the slightest bit intrigued by what it’s all about to just start doing it. The challenges of writing will present themselves immediately. And the challenges are great. Are you a fool? Are you naive? Are you saying too much? Too little? Are you bold enough to say THAT in public? Are you stupid enough? All sorts of gremlins sit on your shoulder whispering in your ear. Some are encouragements. Some are seductions. Some groundless fears. Some dangerous delusions. How a writer responds to these whisperings will determine what kind of writer he or she will become. It’s a very personal thing. My own approach is to listen carefully, then ignore all of it.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to blog and what do you think the pros/cons of blogging are?

Write. Then write more. Write till it scares the crap out of you. If it doesn’t, press on; it will. Write till you get brave enough to keep writing in spite of how scared you are. In spite of what anyone thinks, including yourself.

The upside is that you’ll find out who you are. The downside is, well… that you’ll find out who you are.

How long ago did you start blogging and why did you start blogging?

Four years ago, now. I was writing professionally, but wanted somewhere to publish my own stuff: ideas, notes, whatever. Cory Doctorow calls the blog an ‘outboard brain’. I wanted one of those. Also, I was a technology journalist at the time, and blogging was the Next Big Thing. I guess there was a professional interest too.

What make a person’s blog a good read in your mind?

Good writing, interesting things to say, good links. The usual stuff, I guess. It’s rather like asking what makes a book a good read: it varies, naturally.

What is on your current blog reading list?

A whole mix of things at the moment, from Andrew Brown to Ben Saunders, and over to Ben Goldacre

Why do you think Blogging is so disruptive?

Well, the very low barrier to entry is the obvious answer, and the way the weblog form is, both technically and socially, perfectly adapted to the web. But I’m not sure we’ve seen whether blogging is truly disruptive as yet. Not in the same way as, say, spreadsheets were.

How long did it take you to build your base? And how did you build your base?

I’m not sure I have a base, to be honest.

Where do you see blogging in say 5 or 10 years?

Same old nonsense, really. People stay pretty much the same, and blogs are, at heart, just people.

How do you think Blog Networks will affect blogging in general?

I don’t think they will at all. In just the same way as Time Magazine doesn’t effect the way I write my diary. If you’re interested in making some money doing extremely-short-form freelance journalism, Blog Networks, are the way to go. But will they have any effect on blogging in general? Nah.

How do you think will blogging affect what people consider ‘Mainstream Media’ in the next 5 year?

The one big change blogging has made for Mainstream Media is the sudden availability of cheap, powerful, content management systems. I do a lot of work for Big Media organisations, working with them to use blogging tools to produce their sites, and it’s certainly transforming the way we work internally. Will blogging kill the old media? No, it will actually make it stronger. Or at least, make those who embrace the ideas and techniques. It’s an evolution, and many Mainstream Media companies are very well placed indeed to take advantage of it.

What has changed since you started blogging?

Pretty much everything, but then again nothing. Flickr and Del.icio.us are the two standouts, though. I think they’re by far the two biggest things to hit blogging, as such. It’ll be hard (and fun) to replicate their success.

Why did you start blogging?

I started in 1999, and didn’t call it blogging, although it was: comments, chronological posts, archives, etc. You can still pull it up on the Internet Archives Wayback Machine: search for “Message from Edge City”. The company folded, and I lost all my stuff. Grrrr.

How long have you been Blogging?

Since 1999.

What makes a blog a good read in your mind?

True Voice: authoritative and passionate expertise.

What blogs are you currently reading?

Yikes. The whole Web 2.0 Workgroup (Arrington, MacManus, Mernit, Chang, etc.), David Weinberger, Steve Rubel, Scoble, Doc Searls, and a lot of other tech people. But I wander around a lot. I don’t like to read the same things all the time.

What has changed since you started your blog?

Hmmm. Everything. Including the blog. I lost Message from Edge City, started Timing, shifted to Get Real in 2003.

Why do you think blogging is so disruptive?

Because its new, and new communication media destablize power structures as people shift their attention from the old to the new.

Where do you see blogs in 5 or even 10 years?

Mainstream: the most common mechanism to connect and collaborate in a public, many-to-many fashion.

What is the important aspect of a person’s blog?

The readers. Well, that’s too glib. The dynamic between the angle, the thread of the blogger’s discourse and the response in the readers.

How long did it take you to build your base?

Well, I’m 52, so about a half a century.

Is there anything else you would like to speak about when it comes to blogging in general that I might not have asked?

I think there are enormous changes coming, based on RSS, aggregation, and new paradigms of interaction and editorializing.

Email Interview:

How long have you known about blogs and how long have you been blogging?

I’ve known about blogs for about two years. Although it turns out I’ve been reading things that were probably “blogs” before the term existed: TVBarn.com is a blog written by a Kansas City media writer and the Wahoo Gazette is a behind the scenes look at the Letterman show. I wrote my first blog entry in February of this year.

When did WCCO start their blogs and what has the impact been for the station?

We started our blogs in January of 2005, and it’s been interesting. We started with Paul Douglas writing a daily weather notebook and some of our morning personalities writing. Karen Leigh wrote about being new in Minnesota. I went to the web people and asked if I could have a blog. A couple days later, I was online.

As a Reporter what has your experience been with Blogging?

I get way more e-mail now than I used to. And it’s all over the place. I believe I’ve connected with viewers in a personal way, and so they’re more comfortable sharing information with me. I also think it’s given me credibility as an entree into the digital world. I contribute to MNSpeak.com and get lots of story ideas from that community.

As a Reporter what do you think Blogging can do for Media in its current form?

Blogging gives the media access to a bunch of “experts” who aren’t your traditional “experts.” I know there’s a guy in Minnesota with the definitive Vikings blog. And the people with media blogs and political blogs. It gives ordinary people a voice. And smart members of the MSM know, that those people have good stories to tell. They also are an immediate check on us. If I do a terrible story, I hear about it right away.

Does the local, national, or global blogging community have an effect on what stories you or WCCO are picking or is the blogosphere not part of that decision yet? If it is not part of the decision why?

As a reporter, I will bring story ideas to the table from things I’ve seen on blogs. I will note things that tend to get a lot of attention, a lot of “buzz.” Most people aren’t quite hip to it yet, but I do bring that into our newsroom. To me, blogs are a little like talk radio, and you can’t always translate that into a good TV news story. An example was the buzz about the mysterious blimp floating over the Twin Cities (a viral advertising effort). It got huge play in blogs, and that’s part of why we did a TV story about it.

What effect do you see bloggers having on current media in the next 5 years?

Bloggers will continue to provide a check on media… but I fear that people will go too far. Bloggers love to attack the mainstream media. But if we shut down CBS, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN, what would the bloggers link to? What would they talk about? We need each other. They feed on us. I expect to see blogging transform itself from personal diaries and rants by radicals, to collaborative journalism. I expect to see hyper-local blogs dealing with neighborhoods. And I expect the media will cull those sources for stories, much like we read community newspapers for ideas.

What do you hope readers of your blog will get out of it?

I hope my readers get an insight into how we do things at WCCO. People like to think of the media as the evil people in the movies…. chasing down people who don’t want to do interviews. But we are very thoughtful about what we do. I try to explain some of that thought process. I also hope people get a laugh out of the blog. The best blogs have a tight focus, a niche. I don’t have that. So I have to count on people making a connection with me, and coming back to see what I have to say.

What do you think is lacking with the WCCO blogs if anything?

I wish we had comments. CBS’s public eye blog has moderated comments, we simply don’t have the staff on the local level to keep an eye on comments. I think people would behave and submit thoughtful comments, but the reality is, some people would abuse it. So we don’t have a space for comments. That bugs me.

What blogs are on your current reading list?

I read MNSpeak, Girl Friday , Ironic Teachings, Slanderous Minneapolis, and MNSpeak Aggregator daily. The aggregator at MNSpeak gets me to 200 local blogs/news sources. I like that a lot.

What else would you like to say about blogging and the media that I might not have asked?

I’m enjoying blogging. It’s a lot of work, and I feel an obligation to update at least once a day, but it’s fun to have a connection with viewers. And I know I’m talking to a lot of people who don’t watch WCCO. Hopefully, my writing will inspire them to check us out on TV.

Castingwords Transcript for, David Newberger interviews Jason Derusha:

David: Go ahead and introduce yourself first, just so I have a little bit. ‘Cause I’m actually gonna do this as a Podcast, so

Jason: All right, I’m Jason Derusha. I’m a reporter at WCCO TV and I suppose I’m a blogger as well. I have a blog that I’ve been doing for, it’s getting close to a year now, so

David: Pretty interesting

Jason: It’s kind of a blog. It’s not, I mean, I know a lot of people in the blogosphere have a very specific definition of what a blog is

David: What would your definition of a blog be?

Jason: To me it’s anyone who’s keeping any sort of diary that gets updated kind of in a chronological manner. To me I update sometimes several times a day, sometimes once a day. I think it’s a blog but I think some people believe that a blog has to have comments and trackbacks and all of that other stuff. And I do not have comments or trackbacks

David: Okay. How long ago did WCCO start blogs, and what was the impact of the station when you started the blogs?

Jason: We started just this year, so in early 2005 we started blogging, and we had Paul Douglas, our weather guy doing, like a weather notebook, and Karen Leigh, our anchor, is new to this area, so she started blogging about her experiences as being new to Minnesota, someone who’s never lived in cold weather before. So we started doing those two and I thought, I’m really into kind of the online world and digital media. So I went and said “I’d like to do one of these” and a coupla days later I had it. So I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with it, but there it was

David: How long have you been following the online world, digital media, podcasts, blogging, video logging even, now?

Jason: I guess when I was in college, which wasn’t that long ago, I’m only thirty years old. But when I was in college I remember using the text‑based Web, the Internet which, you know, there was no, like, I remember when we started getting the pictures and the World Wide Web and the full graphical interface, but I remember using, like, newsgroups on the old, I think it was called Lynx or something like that, the old, old system. So in a way that was a precursor, I think, to what blogs are doing now, and there is one blogger that I read today who started out just as‑‑he’s now a media critic for a newspaper in Kansas City. When I was in college in 1994 he was just a guy in Chicago who was writing, he was a Letterman, a Dave Letterman expert. And so he had this kind of daily update about what was going to be coming up on the Letterman show and what happened. It was called Late Show News or Late Night News. And now he’s got a blog called TVbarn.com. Which is a really great media. He’s a great critic, a really good writer

David: That’s actually one I haven’t heard of. So I’m gonna‑‑

Jason: It’s good

David: I saw that when you did your e‑mail interview here, and I was like, hmm, I’m gonna have to check that one out

Jason: So I’ve been into that for a while, I’ve been knowing about blogs for about two years though, so

David: Okay. As a reporter what do you think blogging can do for the media in general and yourself specifically?

Jason: Well to me specifically, I get lots of story ideas from blogs. When you see that there’s a critical mass of people out there talking about something that isn’t getting coverage in the media, to me, I start to think, ‑oh, we need to check into this. People are talking about this, they’re interested in this, they’re linking to it. We need to connect to that as a mainstream media operation. So I use blogging for story ideas. I also think it gives the mainstream media, if you use it correctly, it gives you access to this whole network of people who are experts in various niches. And you can go out there and before blogs I might just randomly call people up out of the phone book. Not just random people, but all right, I’m looking for a doctor, so I might call a big health company and say “can you hook me up with a doctor”. Now I mean a lot of doctors have blogs and you can go read it, and you can go and check, all right, I know where this guy’s coming from, I know what their expertise is. Plus I think it gives me access to kind of citizen experts. People who would never be interviewed by a TV station, but now I know about these people because they have their little corners of the Web. The other thing it’s doing, there are kind of two‑‑I see blogging splitting into two directions. On the one side you have people who really have an agenda, and people will come to those blogs because they identify with that viewpoint, and you can come to that blog and read someone that probably you agree with their general thinking, and then be enlightened to their thinking over various news issues. I see another side of the blogosphere, if you will, splitting off and becoming more like citizen journalists. I see on the other side people, communities of people, coming together and posting their news tidbits, opening up to comments, it’s a great organic thing where people can tell about news in their neighborhood and their community. Someone else can link and say “oh did you know about this, and oh did you know about that, and oh I disagree with this”. And it gets this great organic kind of‑‑to me that is, that’s, like, the ideal of news. What we do right now at Channel 4, at WCCO, is we sit in our little studio and tell you people what we think the news of the day is. But it’s not gonna take long before you are telling us what the news is. And we’re getting that from people. And what we need to do is a mainstream media operation is figure out how to tap into that, that organic kind of citizen journalism and how do we tell those stories in a way that is true to the spirit of that, without us just sucking up these ideas and then just spitting them out just the same way we’ve been doing news for forty years?

David: Do you know a approximate percentage of how many blog stories or blog ideas may actually get aired?

Jason: I mean, I’ve had, it’s starting to heat up more, I’m doing more. I did a story, about two stories that I shot last week actually, were interactive with my blog. One was a story about a woman locally who has a blog called Girl Friday, who does a personal errands service. And I wouldn’t have known about this if it wasn’t for reading her blog. So that was one idea. There’s a story I’m gonna pitch tonight that’s been getting a lot of talk in blogs today, the Walker has an exhibit tonight that’s opening a discussion on contemporary prefab houses. So it’s like, it’s not your, prefabricated houses, it’s not the perception of the mobile home. These are gorgeous contemporary homes that are being assembled in warehouses. And that’s been getting some talk on some real estate blogs, and some other places, art blogs. So I’m gonna pitch that, who knows if it’ll go or not, but I’m gonna pitch it, and that’s had a lot of talk. So I get ideas like that. I would say it’s still a very small percentage

David: Do you give credit to the blogs when you get an idea from a blog, or‑‑?

Jason: I do. I did a story… there’s a blog called Behind the Mortgage. A blogger who broke the story that the FBI was looking into mortgage fraud in the Twin Cities. He broke it on his blog. And when I did the story I did credit, and in my blog, I’m like, you know, “credit where credit’s do, here’s where the story idea came from, here’s the link, go at it”. For my story I interviewed him, for the TV story I went and interviewed him. For the companion piece on my blog I specifically said “hey, you broke this story.”

David: What effect do you see bloggers having on what we currently call mainstream media, in, say, the next five or even ten years

Jason: It’s hard to tell. Right now, you know, just like people lump the media together, people are lumping blogs together. And on one end of blogs you have these kind of rabid right or rabid left wing Web sites, that are just, they nitpick every single word the big networks say on every story. And everything has an agenda. And you’ll see different blogs taking the same story and saying “this was horribly tilted in favor of the Bush White House” and “this was, ” same story. “This was horribly biased.” To me, I don’t know how productive that is. It’s kind of like talk radio. And, I think a lot of blogs, that’s kind of like what they are. They share the opinions of their readers and so it’s kind of this mutual admiration society where people come and read it because they agree with it. It’s like, most people who listen to Rush Limbaugh are not listening because they disagree with him. Most are listening because they agree. I think the same thing is happening in the blogosphere where you have the right‑wing and the left‑wing sites. I think right now the blogosphere probably has a disproportionate impact because the mainstream media is so desperate to look like we’re in touch with what is going on in the cutting‑edge world, and I wonder if, as a percentage of society, I would say probably blogs are getting, have more influence than necessarily they deserve, based on the percentage of people who are reading and participating and that kind of stuff. As for where it goes in the future, I have no idea. I love that you can have people out there acting as a check of the media. Like the Dan Rather situation on 60 Minutes, you had blogs out there who just started going to work. And basically what these blogs were doing was journalism. And these were just people with a computer who just started doing research, asking questions, making phone calls. And they said, “y’know, it looks like you guys at CBS got this thing wrong.” And CBS ended up retracting it and the whole thing. I see that as a positive development. The more we can get viewers involved, y’know, the better. I would prefer, I wish, that people were doing it because they cared about the journalism, because they really wanted the truth to get out and had a passion about getting the truth to people. The reality is, I think, most of what’s going on is that people have an agenda and it’s this whole game of gotcha. You as a blogger get attention if you can have a big controversial gotcha kind of thing. It’s like talk radio, the loudest host gets the most attention. I think there’s a danger in the blogosphere of that continuing to happen. And the thing that excites me about blogs is you have this space and this organic thing where people have thoughtful discussions. I get 90 seconds to tell a story on the air, you can’t have much of a thoughtful discussion in 90 seconds. But online people are having these great discussions and really getting deeper into stories and taking it off and having different tentacles out of stories. We can’t do that in the linear format of a television newscast where you have a finite amount of time. But if blogs only become people screaming the loudest so they can get the most links so they can be on the top 100 on Technorati’s list, then I don’t know what that’s serving as far as the loftier service of journalism, I guess

David: How do you find blogs that interest you? What’s on your reading list?

Jason: Well, there are a coupla blogs that I’ve read before they were given the title ‘blog’. One is TVbarn.com, that I’ve been reading quite a long time. And I think that would be defined as a blog now. There’s also a great blog that’s hidden on the CBS Web site called the Wahoo Gazette that does this whole behind‑the‑scenes rundown of every night’s David Letterman Show. And it’s great. The guy who writes it is an assistant producer or something on the Letterman Show, and it’s just a great site. Most of the other blogs that I read I’ve found on mnspeak.com, I think what Rex has done with mnspeak is phenomenal. And I daily, several times a day, go to the mnspeak aggregator and see what people are saying and read what people are talking about, and read the front page‑‑I think that the front page of that Web site is a very interesting model for what kind of community journalism could be, in that people need to have no credentials, they just sign up and register on that site for free, and you can post a story, and it gets put up on the front page and people can comment and off they go. I think that is really exciting, and I can see that, right now that’s mnspeak, I can see different neighborhoods, I can see Maple Grove, I can see different, y’know, block clubs or whatever having a different model, where certainly it’ll be‑‑I think most people define news in such a broader way than typical mainstream journalists do. I mean, if you lived, where do you live?

David: Woodbury

Jason: You live in Woodbury. If your town is having a parade that’s going to shut down Main Street, is that news to you?

David: Yeah

Jason: Yeah, that’s news, you need to know how to drive around. Is that gonna be on the Channel 4 news? No, of course not. If there’s someone breaking into houses on your block, is that news to you? Yeah, that’s important news. Is that important news to us on Channel 4? Probably not. But I could see a hyperlocal kind of blog where you as a neighborhood could contribute and pop on and read about stuff. I think that is really exciting. And of course we’re seeing in industries, I mean, you call yourself a geek on your site, that’s where some very exciting stuff is happening. I think the best blog is focused like a laser beam on a specific topic, be it PR or marketing or computers or‑‑not computers, that’s way too broad. But, you know, specific‑‑branding. Different things like that. There’s a value add that someone to come back every day and see what you have to say. I think in that regard my blog is a total failure in that it does not have a laser beam focus, and for people to come back they have to kind of buy into me as a person who they connect to. Otherwise why would you check it every day? I mean, yesterday maybe my entry is about a story I did on mortgage fraud and maybe the next day it’s about a story I did on people breakin’ into cars in front of day care centers. The stories keep changing all the time. I thread throughout it stuff about me and my personal life and behind‑the‑scenes stuff about the station. Instead of just blogging about a story, I try to blog about why we did it or how did we discuss it, or what were some of the technical obstacles we had to getting it on the air. And I think that gets people to come back every day

David: When you’re focusing on, say, mnspeak and that. Do you focus outside of mnspeak, do you use a feed aggregator such as RSSbandit or Feedlounge or Technorati as just a search engine?

Jason: I use, on my Firefox browser at home, I use a RSS feed that’s automated into my toolbar favorites

David: So live bookmarks

Jason: Yeah, the live bookmarks. I like that a lot. Typically I will go to the, I’ll actually go to the site instead of going to an RSS feed. And partially that’s just laziness on my part, not setting up a good RSS reader. And partially I think some of those sites are a little confusing still for‑‑I’m not a computer expert. And for me sometimes I don’t wanna go through the trouble to set that up

David: And actually that brings up sort of an interesting question. For somebody like yourself who might not be a geek‑‑

Jason: Although I do code my own blog! I do have to do the coding!

David: And that’s good! But for someone like you or an average Joe citizen or whatever, what would be ideal for them to be able to subscribe to RSS?

Jason: Man, I think live bookmarks are so easy, it’s great, you just click on the thing at the bottom of the page and you’re in. I think it’s way even before RSS, most people I talk to, most people, my in‑laws, they don’t even know what a blog is. They hear the word and they’re like “what is it?” And the other thing people don’t know is “how do I find the blog?” Back when the bombings happened in London we did a story on some guys here who have a site, it’s like for expatriates, and he’s got a Web site. And we have people asking us, “how do you find a blog that’s talking about the bombing?” And to most people who use the Internet regularly or use blogs regularly, you’re shocked that people would really have that question. You go to Google Blog Search or go to Technorati or just go to Google and type it in. But you know, if you went to Google and typed in ‘London bombing’, well, you’d get a bazillion sites. But if you went in and typed ‘London bombing blog’, you’d still probably, it would still be unusable to people. I think that for blogs to get huge penetration, huge readership, you’re gonna have to have some rating system somehow. You’re gonna have to have some easy way for people to figure out where to go. And in a way that makes you just another newspaper. Or just another TV station. Why do people watch the networks, still? All the research on cable TV shows that people watch fewer than 20 channels. You may have 200 channels at home but people regularly, I think it’s like 12 channels is what people actually watch. People like to have someone doing the work for them. This is where mnspeak, I think, is genius, here’s this one site that every day I can log on and the guy that runs the site has provided ten or fifteen links for me, and if I wanna go in‑depth I go click on ‘aggregator’ and there’s two hundred news sources or blogs that I can just look at from this site. That’s what we need I think, more portals for people to go to to kind of get, to find stuff that I’m interested in

David: I did an e‑mail interview with you, and that’s what made me decide to do this actual Podcast, this is my first generation of Podcast

Jason: Well, I hope you edit this down, we’re at 19 minutes and 45 seconds. People are going to fall asleep at this point!

David: To be honest, they won’t

Jason: Really, all right, good

David: In your e‑mail interview, what really caught my attention was, what really caught my attention was, what effect do you see the blogosphere having on the current media in the next five years. In the e‑mail you mentioned, actually, lemme find it here: “Bloggers love to attack the mainstream media, but if we shut down CBS, The New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN, what would bloggers link to?” What’s your thought process behind that?

Jason: I think right now what most bloggers are doing are taking stories in the news and commenting on them. Most blogs are not generating original stories. There are a handful, there’s a coupla really good political blogs in Minnesota that do generate their own stories. But most bloggers, when you go to Technorati and see what the most linked‑to story is or blog, oftentimes it’s a story from the BBC or it’s a story from the New York Times and that’s what people are linking to. Maybe that will change. Maybe. But I think right now people have lives. Most bloggers have a real job. So they can’t be generating their own stories. So people are always criticizing, on the blogs, the mainstream media. We are a great punching bag and largely we deserve it. I mean, I interned at ABC News in New York when I was in college, and they are out of touch, they are‑‑I don’t think they’re biased in a‑‑well, they’re biased, for sure, their bias is East Coast and their bias is against whoever is in power because that makes for good television. Typically that was my observation when I was there. New York City is overwhelmingly Democratic. You look how they vote, it’s overwhelmingly Democratic, I mean, what do you think the media is going to be when they’re based in New York City? All their friends think a certain way. You hang out in social circles, I mean, it’s not surprising that that is the bias. But the blogs attack, they attack constantly, and often they’re right. But the source material is still from the mainstream media. And so I really believe if you shut us all down, I really don’t know what the bloggers would talk about. Or people would have to quit their jobs and go out and start digging up stuff to be able to comment on. I still think the mainstream media does a decent job of telling people what’s going on in the world. Are we perfect, no, but it sure is great, it’s great to have all these bloggers out there bringing up other things that we’re not thinking about. We’re a finite number of people, we can’t think of everything or do everything. So, I wonder sometimes, if you did shut down the networks and shut off‑‑like if all the newspapers folded up their Web sites…

Jason: …I mean, we’re a finite number of people; we can’t think of everything or do everything, so, but I do, I wonder sometimes if you, like, shut down the networks, shut off, like if all the newspapers folded up their websites, which of course they wouldn’t do because the web sites, I mean, no one’s buying papers anymore, people are reading the web. But, if all the newspapers for a day shut down their web sites, it would be very interesting to see what the bloggers would do. I suppose they’d all be writing about the newspapers shutting down their websites, right?

David: Probably on the first day, but if you give it a week or two weeks, I guarantee that you’d be surprised

Jason: I think that some people, I think that there would be some people. But like, look at Powerline, which is hugely powerful, and locally based here in Minnesota. But almost every entry in Powerline is a link to a newspaper article or a TV story. And those guys have real jobs. I mean everybody has real jobs. If there was money to be made in blogging, then maybe we would see people go out and do their own digging, do their own story

David: That actually brings up interesting question. Money to be made in blogging. That’s a lot of what people are actually trying to figure out right now. Why do you see that as… or what do you see that can take us over that hurdle… that can take bloggers over that hurdle?

Jason: Well, I would pay right now for a… if [xx] charged a couple of bucks a months, I would pay for that in a heartbeat. There are, I think there are some blogs that probably could charge. I think the hardcore readers of Powerline probably wouldn’t mind chipping in a buck a month for that. Or some of the other… Power Liberal, or some of the other strong sites that get huge readership. I don’t know what would take it over the edge. We’re trying to make money on our own website. We’re a big operation with a lot of page view, and I still think, I don’t know, but I don’t think we’re making money on it. We have a pretty big staff dedicated to updating our website with news around the clock and I don’t think it’s making money

David: Is that staff actually local here?

Jason: Yeah, in our building. We have a pretty big staff, I think we have five people, five web producers who do rewriting of stories. They do generate some original content, slideshows, things like that. They’ll go out and shoot. We’re trying to move towards them developing more web exclusive journalism stories that you only read on the web. But it’s not a money maker, it’s an investment into the future, when people are, you know, when I go out to cover a story we bring it back, we edit it, and we immediately publish it online so people can get it right awayt 10:00 to watch the news is, I mean, people are slow to change, so it’s going to be around for a while, but I don’t think it’ll be around forever. I have a TiVo, I don’t ever watch anything when it’s supposedly on. And I think the same thing will happen with news n is: will people choose to watch us? I think we get a lot of viewers out of habit. We’re on at ten, at ten we watch the news. That’s what reasonable people do in society. Well, if your time‑shifting everything, are you going to actively make the choice to download through your broadband link, are you going to download the news? I don’t know. I hope… god, I hope so, or I’m out of a gig, but I don’t know

David: If somebody said to you which is king, distribution, content, or conversation? What would you pick and why?

Jason: That’s a very interesting question. Well, without distribution, none of the other things matter. You’re screaming in an empty forest. But I think, wow, that is an excellent question. [pause]

David: You can think all you want because I can edit out the dead air, just so you know

Jason: I think content is king. You can have distribution, but if you have nothing interesting as far as content, people aren’t going to tune into you. They’re not going to dial you up. Conversation is important, but you need content to have a conversation. So if you’re just conversing, then you’re just a social network, and I don’t think that’s where we’re moving here. I think content is king. I think that the blog that continues to prosper will be blogs that have, that reward their viewers, that reward their visitors with compelling content. Then everybody else is going to bring the conversation to the table. But without that compelling content to start with you really aren’t, what are you talking about

David: In an age now where content… there’s a lot of great content out there, it’s basically becoming a commodity. What happens when content becomes secondary to the conversation for news organizations such as WCCO?

Jason: What do you mean by that, give me an example of what you mean by that

David: OKd be: I maybe publish a smart little question to somebody on my blog, and I ask for feedback. All I’ve done is I’ve asked a question, and everything in there is part of that community of comments now which is now the conversation

Jason: Wow, interesting… Yeah, well that’s a real interesting point. I think you could make a real case that the quality of the conversation… Well, let me give you an example. I read several industry bulletin boards, web sites, where people post comments and you have a conversation. And the ones I keep going back to are the ones with the good conversation. As far as content, these web sites are just web sites out of nowhere that have people posting questions or comments or observations. I read some of those religiously. So I suppose that really the conversation is important. It may be more important than the content, because you can have a conversation that’s just totally out of nothing. You don’t need any… these web sites I go to have no content, they’re all conversation

David: So with an organization such as WCCO how does it affect what WCCO does for the future of WCCO or how it’s set up?

Jason: Yeah, well I think right now we are very much a one way street when it comes to communication. I mean, we talk on the television, we talk out of the TV and talk to people and no one’s communicating back. Emails changed that a lot. I get… the amount of feedback I get on my work is unbelievable because the anonymity of email I think people are more than willing to send their comments in, and more than willing to send nasty comments in, because they don’t actually have to talk to me on the phone. They’re always shocked when I respond to their nasty email. Which I always do. Sometimes I even change people’s mind. Not always, but sometimes. I think that as an organization we are lacking in conversation. I try to do it on my blog by having people email me, and I post those emails and answer them on the site. I answer the emails individually and I answer them on the site. To make up for the fact that we do not have comments on our website. I’ve gone around and around with our management on this. They do not want to have comments on our blog because they fear, I think they fear lawsuits, I think they fear that people could hijack our website with hate speech or whatever. And to have someone moderate the comments, you would need almost a full time person to do that, and we don’t have the staff to do it. At least that’s the answer they’ve given me. I disagree. I think you could put comments up and I think you would get responsible comments. I think people would not take advantage of it. We agree to disagree

David: What do you think is so powerful behind those comments, both positive or negative? Actually let’s put it this way: what type of power does a negative type comment on wcco.com, on your blog, how much weight does it have behind it, in a conversation?

Jason: Well, right now, a negative comment has a lot of weight because… I think what happens is someone is emboldened to put a negative comment, it gives people even more… it can be kind of a domino effect, where people will start piling on, like “Yeah, I agree. That’s, you know, you guys screwed up.” I posted negative comments on my blog before

David: But with an email system itself, there’s that added layer of ‘Oh, great, we got to get over the hurdle now’ that may be impeding in some sense, and I’m wondering

Jason: Yeah, cause you could immediately, on a comment link, you just push it, put in your negative comment, there it is. To me, I think it would have no impact. I think if I get a story and on the blog I got 50 negative comments about it, I think it would probably make all of us say, maybe we screwed this up. Like I think it would be positive influence. I don’t think we get people out there just attacking on us just because they could. I think they would attack us when we deserved it. There are times when I screw up and I will admit I am like ‘You know what, that was not the best story I’ve done’, or ‘we could have done that better.’ I get 8 hours to do my work and so sometimes, well often times less than that, and sometimes you make a mistake and sometimes the ‘first draft of history’ we call it, so sometimes you’re going to get it wrong. I wish… I would love to have that conversation. I guess, to me, I’m really confident in my ability. I’m confident as to where my heart is and what my intent is. I am more than welcome to have anybody challenge anything I do. Sometimes they’re going to be right and sometimes I’m going to be right and I think that the dialog actually makes everybody better. It provides for a more educated news consumer and it provides for a better newscast. I would like to see… open it up, let’s go. Here’s my thing: if we’re not going to allow that conversation at wcco.com, it’s going to go somewhere else. That kind of conversation is going to happen. You can’t stop the conversation from happening. I know the American Lung Association has a blog here. They don’t allow comments, and some other blogger found a very interesting article by the people who run the Lung Association site talking about whey they didn’t want comments, because they didn’t want their site hijacked by the pro‑smoking forces. I could see that from a site like that, I could understand that, but for us, I don’t know what we have to be afraid of

David: Is that really what it is, that sense of maybe being afraid of what may come out of it or what changes may be brought about by comments

Jason: It’s not changes. I think we’re worried about the FCC climate we live in right now. As an arm of the television station, our website, that people could say that there’s profanity that shows up, that the FCC could then somehow go and fine us. Our corporate structure is very very sensitive right now about anything that would get an FCC complaint. We have been told that in the field, when it comes to live shots, that if there’s a situation where if there’s something that could happen on the air that would be in violation of FCC rules, that we should just kill the live shot. I think that same atmosphere spills over to the website. It’s not about… people are going to say negative things about what we’re doing, and then it’s going to throw the whole trust of our viewers off, I don’t think that’s the fear at all. I think it’s more the fear of inappropriate, racist, profane, sexist, pornographic, all of those kind of comments that happen on the internet, and we just don’t, we barely have the staff to get all the content that we’re getting on our website, to have someoneelse dedicated to policing comments. They just don’t want to deal with it. I’m hoping to wear them down. I’m ready to take it on. But I have a job too. I have a full time job, and my full time job is doing stories for the TV station. The blog is something I do in my spare time. So I don’t have time to police comments either. What happens if a comment is posted and I’m out in the field for 8 hours and don’t have time to check in. I think that’s their fear. And as a TV station, we have a broad audience and we’ll have people coming to my blog who maybe don’t understand blogs and don’t understand that it’s a little more freewheeling there. So I think we as a television station have to be sensitive to all of those things. That’s where the managers are coming from. I think they’re wrong, but they know I think that

David: How do you think WCCO can educate your broad face as to the power of blogs

Jason: I’m excited about that. I’ve pitched a couple of different stories that they seem interested in. I would like to do as story in the people behind the blogs. I think right now on CNN there’s a couple of bimbos who are reading headlines off of blogs. It’s nice eye candy, and I appreciate the effort by CNN to acknowledge that blogs exist, but how boring is that, sitting there reading blogs to people on television. It’s ridiculous. But boy, I think people would be fascinated to know about, you know, there’s a guy who’s a teacher who has a great blog. He’s like a teacher at a high school in Robbinsdale. It’s called ‘Ironic Teaching’, it’s his website. There’s interesting people doing interesting things on blogs that would be compelling stories and maybe would give our viewers an insight into the fact that this isn’t just people screaming back and forth, the typical political stuff. There’s all sorts of fascinating resources out there for people, if they just knew where to look. So I’m hoping that in the new year we’ll start doing some of those stories. I wanted to do one a week. Like here’s the blog of the week, like have it a stripped kind of thing. Here’s somebody in our community doing this. So that’s one idea we’re tossing around

David: What do you think it would take to get somebody like Don Shelby talking?

Jason: We’re moving in that direction. I know they’ve been trying real hard to get Pat Kessler and Mark Rosen blogging, because I think there would be interest in a political blog and interest in a sports blog from our station. There’s typical contract, union, workload kind of things to work out with that, but I expect more people to be blogging. We’re going to keep trying them to see what sticks, see what works, see what people are interested in. I think people would be interested in what Don has to say and I wouldn’t be surprised in the new year if Don has a little corner of the web site too. Those people are, I think our staff is pretty receptive and interested in it, and most people are familiar with blogs, so that’s at least a step in the right direction. I don’t get made fun of anymore. They used to make fun of me all the time. ‘Oh, just plugging your blog again on the air, talking about… Oh, I guess we’ll read about that in the blog.’ People were worried about if they said something in the newsroom it was going to show up on the blog. I think people now kind of understand more of the potential that having a more direct conversation with the viewers has. Something that we can’t do in the confines of our television newscast

David: That actually brings up a pretty good question. From when WCCO started their blog in January, I believe it was, to now, how has the atmosphere in the newsroom and at WCCO in general changed? Or has it?

Jason: I don’t think it’s really changed. I think what’s really happened is that people’s perception of the blog… I get a lot of feedback on my blog. People like reading my blog quite a bit. I think it’s because mine, because I use humor in my blog and talk about funny things and entertaining things, and it’s not just all about ‘the news’, or ‘I did this very important story today’. I try to be more freewheeling with it and just kind of let my personality through and I trust that the blog readers understand that that’s what we’re doing and they don’t feel like when they watch me on TV they’re going to think, ‘Oh, well, he’s biased because on his blog he said blah, blah, blah..’ I try to be careful to stay away from… I mean, I’ll talk about anything on my blog, but I don’t really go into my own personal opinions on controversial things. I think I’ve come down firmly against people who pop their collars. I’ve taken that controversial position on my blog. And in favor or real Christmas trees as opposed to the artificial Christmas tree. I am a journalist, so you have to be sensitive about making sure your own personal opinions don’t come through. I think people in the newsroom are now excited about blogs. I think they see it as another way… in the past our only way of having a conversation with the viewers was with personal appearances. We go to talk at the Rotary Club. We go shake hands at the State Fair. I’m doing that every day with people who may or may not ever watch channel 4. I don’t know. But I’m having a conversation with viewers, and I’m hoping that I’m having a conversation with viewers who are in their 20’s and 30’s who don’t watch TV news. Maybe they’ll think, ‘This guy, he seems alright. Maybe we should check out and see what he’s doing.’ I figure if maybe I can get them to watch some of my stories in the video viewer next to my blog, then maybe that will follow with them at some point when they come to make their choice. People get older and they tend to decide ‘Oh, I got to watch the news now’. Maybe then they’ll say ‘I got to watch channel 4, that Jason guy that has that blog I’ve been reading for a year.’ That’s the hope

David: Why do you think your personal opinion on certain areas, controversial areas, maybe not so controversial areas, may affect your reputation or your trustworthiness?

Jason: I this is an issue where news is in one place now and will be in a different place in ten years from now

David: How so?

Jason: I think for years people have tried to put forth the image on the news that they are unbiased. I would rather know where somebody’s coming from. If I know where someone’s coming from… I think the most important thing is to be fair on the air. I think in this whole idea of being biased, sometimes we give equal time to things that are ridiculous. Things that any person would be like ‘This is crazy.’ If we’re doing a story on racism, do we need to give equal time to the KKK? ‘Well, some people believe that black people are inferior.’ Well of course they do, but those people are idiots. So should that be part of our story? No! So I think that in this drive to be unbiased, I think it’s somewhat misguided and I think Fox news has done an outstanding job as… they have proven, I think, their regular news organization is pretty good. Their shows are clearly very right‑wing but their news I think is pretty good. People watch it and know where they’re coming from so they can make their judgements one way or another. I don’t know that local news will change. I still think local news viewers would have a hard time knowing… ‘is Channel 4 liberal, is Channel 4 conservative?’ I don’t know. I don’t know if Don Shelby is liberal or conservative or [xx]. And Pat Kessler, who’s our political reporter, I couldn’t tell you if he’s a Democrat or a Republican. I have no idea. Which is pretty cool. That’s good, for him. As a television journalist, I don’t want anything to interfere with the message, the story. So if people have preconceived notions of my political affiliation, or my opinions on issues, than they might find it hard to listen to the people in my story. They’ll think that I’m just filtering it through my own personal opinions. So that’s, I think, why we try to keep it out

David: Alright, well thank you very much for this interview, it’s been great. It’s a lot of content, and a lot of conversation…

How long have you been blogging and how long have you been podcasting?

I started blogging back in July of 2002 and podcasting in October of 2004.

Why did you start your blog and then why did you start your podcast?

At the time I started my blog, I was a one-man-IT-Department and thus didn’t have the benefit of a team of Systems Administrators to bounce things off of. My blog bacame that team whereby I could share my experiences and obtain feedback from others in the same situation as I.

The decision to start the podcast came as sort of an extension of the blog. I was fascinated with how easy it was for ANYONE to create and publish their own audio and distribute it so easily.

What do you hope your listeners will get out of your podcast?

It’s the typical long-tail scenario. When I launched In the Trenches, there was no other audio production targeted towards the SysAdmins. All radio shows were targeted at the end user and thus never really dove in to the content and covered it at the depths that I wanted to hear. I figured, “why not me?” I always figured that if it was something that I’d like to hear, chances are pretty good there are others out there just like me.

What is In the Trenches all about?

It’s pretty much about life as a Systems Administrator. The different issues faced on a daily basis and how they’re addressed.

What has doing the podcast or blogging done for you in the last few years?

For me, it’s flattened the world. I’ve met so many cool people from everywhere. Learned a LOT of things, and essentially established my own “team” if administrators with which I can now bounce technical questions off of — a community.

How do you see podcasting affecting the current idea of mainstream media?

I think it’s going to keep mainstream media on its toes. Mainstream media is going to have to be flexible enough to keep up, or it’s going to be dealt quite a blow.

I understand you started a podcast network called ‘Friends in Tech’ could you tell us a bit about it?

I prefer to call it more of a community, or perhaps even more accurately, a neighborhood. Friends in Tech (FiT) is just a small group of podcasters who each do tech-related podcasts and enjoy collaborating together. This collaboration has allowed each of our individual podcasts to expand in depth and technical expertise and most especially, it’s allowed us to all work together on FiT-specific projects that would be too large for any individual cast. Two specific instances are the special productions that we’ve done to date, “The Server Room of Horrors” for Halloween, and “A Geek Christmas Carol” for Christmas.

Where do you see In the Trenches or Friends in Tech in the next 2 years?

In two years I’d like to see ITT to be self-supporting, but most importantly, still able to provide content that folks find worthy of listening to.

As for FiT, I’d like to see if grow a little bit, but not too much. I truly believe that it being as small of a group as it is allows us to remain flexible and dynamic enough to cover as many areas of tech as possible. We all thoroughly enjoy the production of the FiT specials and I would LOVE to see those continue and of course, be enjoyed by geeks all over.

What podcasts and blogs are you listening or reading to currently?

Blogs, I currently loosly monitor about 120 blogs, and approximately 30 podcasts. I have a handful of regulars that I read and listen to and the rest I scan for content that catches my eye/ear.

Is there anything else you would like the readers to know about Friends in Tech or In the Trenches?

Sure… go subscribe! If you’re already subscribed, STAY subscribed!