Prior to diving headfirst into the idea of taking back control over my content online, I held a number of reservations about the ongoing process of true ownership. I’m the kind of guy that likes to let other people worry about things when I can and, despite being a fully capable systems administrator, I generally avoid running my own personal servers, hosting accounts, or platforms. I have, traditionally, outsourced this job to hosted platforms like Blogger, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and countless others. Only MySpace has failed me so far, erasing much of my early adulthood from the internet. Why should I turn this control over to smaller teams of developers that may not remain motivated to maintain the projects I’ve, now, come to rely on?
I long for the day in which the web has become IndieWebified to the point that I don’t need to worry about my non-tech friends and family anymore either.
I feel like the walls will eventually come down with technology like Webmentions and I won’t need to spend as much time on machinations like syndication and backfeed to and from silos which can be a drain. This is the dream that gives me even greater hope for future generations living on the web the way I do.
Listened toGillmor Gang: Blank Check by Doc Searls, Keith Teare, Frank Radice, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor from TechCrunch
Doc checks AdTech’s pulse, Google poisons search with Fake News, and Social stews over trust.
AteLeftover pizza
Leftover pizza
DrankCoffee
Coffee
Here’s an excellent two part interview with my friend and brilliant actor Robert Catrini from London by reporter Thomas Anderson Fawkes in the Spotlight section of Film Curiosity.
Listened toGillmor Gang: Loose Change by Michael Arrington, Keith Teare, Doc Searls, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor from TechCrunch
Twitter ponders subscription services, Medium gets $5 from Steve and maybe Doc, Keith and Kevin offer their 2 cents from across the pond, and Mike holds down the fort from Crunchfund HQ.
I’ve been waiting months expecting more, but I just saw the first coyote roaming around in my neighborhood.
AteHomemade pizza: BBQ chicken with grilled onions, red peppers, fresh basil, mozerella, cheddar cheese, and Parmesan; Pepperoni with mozerella, cheddar cheese, and Parmesan; and Coca-cola zero sugar
Homemade pizza: BBQ chicken with grilled onions, red peppers, fresh basil, mozerella, cheddar cheese, and Parmesan; Pepperoni with mozerella, cheddar cheese, and Parmesan; and Coca-cola zero sugar
Homemade pizza: BBQ chicken with grilled onions, red peppers, fresh basil, mozerella, cheddar cheese, and Parmesan
Exclusive -- A young photographer told the comedian: ‘I want to make sure you're aware so maybe the next girl doesn't have to cry on the ride home’
Reading as follow up to the provocative article I read in The Atlanticyesterday. I’m a bit more interested in the cultural differences brought up by The Atlantic author and the millennial viewpoint in this article.
I’m often struck with people’s seeming lack of ability to communicate verbally, and this seems even more apparent with the millennial generations. Also striking is “Grace’s” even more dramatic reaction to the encounter after she’d had time to discuss it more with friends. It almost reads as if she didn’t know what to think of things by herself without the filter of her friends’ comments and thoughts. I’m curious if this phenomenon is generational and what role the texting/sharing/social media environment of the past decade has or hasn’t done to impact this viewpoint.
Some thoughts about the journalistic perspective
I spent a few minutes looking into babe as a source and I’m even more curious how to take the story given the photo I found at the bottom of their article and the text from their “about page” which is given the permalink path “/manifesto”. Their top menu rail includes the topics: “news, lust, fads, looks, IRL, pop” which makes me even more suspicious.
Given these and their apparent size and exuberant youth and lack of experience, I have to wonder about their journalistic integrity a bit. While they did seemingly go to some lengths to verify Grace’s story with friends and back it up with apparent photos and texts, it almost plays as journalistic theater copying work and stories they’ve likely recently read out of The Washington Post and The New York Times. How does such a small publication get a story and choose to push it right after the Golden Globes in such a way? Are the editors or writer friends with the subject or even the subject herself? If so this should be mentioned for full disclosure in the article. Especially in the case where they may be trying to press such an article into the mainstream and thereby have some significant exposure and financial upside for themselves.
Page header on babe’s “manifesto” and found at the bottom of the story.
We publish our own voices, uncensored and unfiltered
babe started in May 2016 as an experiment by a group of editors in our early twenties. We now reach more than 3 million readers a month, and a million girls follow us on Facebook. And because we aren’t owned by a magazine empire which needs cover stars, we can say what we like.
We know our readers like we know our friends. On babe we put out the kind of media we want to read – stories and videos and memes that are as spontaneous and savage as what goes down our group chats. And then on Fridays we get drunk together.
babe is into good news reporting, trash trends, personal stories, industry-leading analysis of fuckboys and the pettiest celebrity drama.
And we’re cool with admitting that we are full of contradictions, because all girls are. We care about safe sex and access to birth control, but know sometimes you just need to pop some Plan B. Find us in the gap between our image of ourselves and how we actually behave.
Hang with us here, read our top stories here, tell us where we’ve fucked up here.
Michael Singletary (Michael Singletary)
