'Our society is very much media-dominated, for good and for ill,'' Chicago Cardinal Francis George told journalists after arriving in Rome for the Pope's funeral on Friday. ''So if you're going to be part of the conversation, you have to use the media, for good or for ill. That's where we live.''
An interesting story from Reuters about how Pope John Paul II was a brilliant communicator and the Church's best PR man. Pope John Paul II: The PR Man
The Blog, The Press, The Media: Gillmor Gang: Watching the Digital River Flow
Jon Udell and I were talking the other day about the Blog Drain
Thus Bloglines captured my attention. If I could shift my magazine (read information) collection from my hard drive to a free service, I was essentially bartering my attention metadata for ubiquitous access to "my" subscriptions. This is the network effect lauded in the Whither Technorati meme. But Bloglines also enabled Jon and others to streamline their information capture to the point that they could get their arms around the cumulative impact of the Syndisphere. I liken this to the feeling I get when I eat too much at Fresh Choice–where I push back from the table and just don’t feel too good. Everything I sample is good and mostly good for me, but in toto, bleh.
Google and Overture have already made the new rules clear: advertising will only work if it is perceived as information ...
In the Sydneyrellasphere (sic), is the link the fundamental coin of the realm. If not, what is?
• Cherrypicking Lists: Vote with your feed [Xeni Jardin arrives fashionably late, her platinum curls bobbing above the crowd as she sheds a floor-length faux fur to reveal a white silk, backless gown that so effectively evokes Marilyn Monroe, it nearly stops cocktail chatter cold. I imagine she was a child of secret agents in Eastern Europe Behold, the wizard of blogs ; Jacek Rutkowski, Stalker ; The art of persuasion, going once ... Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side to Everything - Steven Levitt has been lauded by the American Economic Association as the most promising US economist under the age of 40 There's more to a house sale than meets the eye - don't believe all you're told ]
• · To put it gently, some top-notch academics have not completely mastered the art of the blog. "Why Blog?" Abject loneliness, a crushing sense of inadequacy, and a hunger for existential validation Can Academics Be Bloggers? ; If Kafka Only Knew About The Lit-blog Coop ; Blogging links - Way Path
• · · I consider it my mission in value-added echoing to alert people to the hidden gems deep within and hiding under headings such as "The Library Stuff" Longest Library Tail ;
• · · · Mobile Tracker ; The whirlwind advance of seamless communications technology could allow individuals to be monitored constantly within the next 15 years Big Brother is watching as you struggle to stay tuned
• · · · · This hack on Craigslist and GoogleMaps is amazing: the service places all the houses/apartments for rent/sale on Craigslist as waypoints on a Google Map, color-coded by price, with links to the Craigslist ads. Wow Craigslist for-rent ads scraped and placed on Google Maps ; Every experienced blogger has, at one time or another, endured what some refer to as writer's block The blogging revolution
• · · · · · Reporters Without Iron Curtains Awards ; Committee to Protect Bloggers; Antony Loewenstein: Alternative media is the only way forward Gorilla in the News Room