Boooooiiiiingg

The blog I was tasked to follow is Boing Boing, a multi-award winning publishing entity and one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. Run by up and coming writers and accomplished journalists, Boing Boing deals with technological and cultural curiosities, and exciting or funny stuff from the web.

Boing Boing started off as a small circulation self-published magazine by current co-editor Mark Frauenfelder and his wife in 1988. 15 issues were published with the maximum circulation of 17500. Common topics included sci-fi, technology, futurism and left wing politics. In 1995, Boing Boing was transformed into a web site and was relaunched as a weblog in 2000.

Over the years, the staff has been expanded with the addition of several editors who previously contributed to the likes of The New York Times, Wired magazine, The Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and The Guardian. In addition, Boing Boing often features guest bloggers including scientists, journalists and authors. I don’t know 99% of them.

Boing Boing is supported by advertising. In the first business quarter of 2010, they reportedly earned $27000 so it is safe to say that the editors can make a nice living without the worry of going to the poorhouse anytime soon.

I was curious to find out how they can make this money off of this blog, but I haven’t really come up with an answer. Personally, I have never heard of this weblog before and it seems to me that they don’t really care about marketing a lot. Surely, in accordance with the current trends, they are available on Facebook and Twitter, but these options are not exploited enough and the editors don’t really have many followers either. Considering the fact that Boing Boing is one of the most visited blogs, it was quite surprising to realize that there aren’t many user comments. I expected to see hundreds and hundreds of replies, but the post count didn’t even go above 10 sometimes.

The layout is quite simple and esthetic, you are definitely not going to get lost on this site. Most importantly, it is a pleasure to the eye due to its colorful display filled with large images. Also, there are different sections available from the header (?) such as features, books, reviews, science and geek stuff. I especially like the very clever archive. Of course, there is a monthly archive rooting back to 1999 and you can search recent articles listed by days. Moreover, there is a tag cloud which features hundreds of keywords with the most popular ones boldfaced and highlighted in different color.

The blog is updated quite frequently. Up until 4pm ET (Eastern Time Zone), 19 articles were published on April 2. In average, there are at least 30 posts daily. Today’s subjects included Autism Awareness Day, Tibet, Irish Catholic priests sharing gay porn, etc. The posts are usually written in an informal, casual style so visitors can perceive and understand everything easily. Also, the articles contain a lot of references such as links to other sites, quotations, excerpts from books, etc.

In addition, Boing Boing produces two weekly podcasts entitled “Boing Boing Boing” and “Get Illuminated” which are intended to cover actualities, the week’s posts and feature interviews with creative figures such as writers and artists. I don’t know 99% of these people either.

All in all, Boing Boing is quite a decent blog; however, it is not exactly my cup of tea. Surely, I’ve read many exciting stuff over the weeks, but vast majority of the subjects are not really enticing for me. Concerning their success, I’m quite clueless. Maybe I should keep following them and take some notes so one day I could get over 25 grand in a quarter. Git dat dinero, muchachos and chiquitas!

The notorious blogger - Dooce

The blog I had to check the last few weeks was Dooce.com, the website of Heather B. Armstrong, now officially earning her living as a professional blogger.

She lives in Salt Lake City with her husband and two daughters, her life dedicated entirely to her blog now: taking and editing photos, jotting down thoughts, writing posts, and answering to readers' replies without end. In the 'About' section of her site she tells us about herself, where she was raised and how she ended up in the blogging business, emphasising big time that it's not like hanging around all day in your PJ's doing nothing. What she does is basically the same thing any office worker spends his days with, only she has the advantage (or is it rather a nightmare?) of working from home.

The blog was launched in 2001 in Los Angeles as a rather personal one. The next year saw the incident when Armstrong was fired from her job as a graphic designer because she published satirical stories about her collegues and workplace. Nevertheless, she continued blogging, and, probably partly because of her being 'dooced' - a term born out of her misfortune - she started to gain hundreds of new followers. By 2005 she had enough income from the ads on the site that her husband could quit his job and join in with her, taking responsibility for the marketing part of the business.

The blog itself mainly consists of entries about Armstrong's family and dogs, little funny anecdotes from their lives; but she regularly posts some of her favourite tweets she encounters daily, and uploads nice pictures she finds while looking around.

So.. why so many followers? Firstly, because there's always something fresh to read. She posts at least once each day, and there are also these 'Daily Photo' and 'Daily Style' sections which she usually remembers to refresh about every other day as well. Her writing style is quite unique and funny, it's very easy to read, and although you may not get every little detail if you are not a regular reader, there is always something amusing and entertaining, even touching in her stories. She also posts all kinds of advice to the readers, be it about healthy diets, depression, or the kind of lamp you should buy from Ikea.

It's always nice to read about people you know and like, and it can also be fun to share your very thoughts with the world... but I'm not sure I could do it for a living. Working from home definitely can make you go mad, and after a time you can't not post when you know that thousands of people are waiting for your next story. Well, whatever our stance in this matter, it's a fact that Armstrong does a good job entertaining her audience. The only question is when (if at all) she'll get flipping bored with it and start something real with her life.

Blog-post

The website I chose to observe carefully for the last weeks is called TMZ. First of all, I would not really call it a blog, it is actually a celebrity news website. The letters stand for thirty-mile zone, referring to the most central area of movie making in Los Angeles. The website debuted in November 2005, and has provided the most fascinating details about our favourite celebrities’ life since.

That's the standard.

It was almost impossible to read through all the articles because first, they have about one million new articles a day, second, I don’t know half of the celebs presented on the blog. It’s a shame but I’m quite undereducated in this topic and honestly, I don’t really want to extend my knowledge.

I would compare this blog to the Hungarian Blikk which is not exactly a compliment and although you can find a few almost interesting posts, it is rather meaningless and sometimes even vicious gossiping all the time. I know that peeking into famous people’s life can be fascinating for millions, but come on, why would anybody read a whole article about how sweaty Mila Kunis was when she came out from the gym (okay, I know the boys would disagree here) or how American reality show participants beat up their exes?!

All in all, it was not the best choice for me and I did not fall in love with it but TMZ definitely does a good job with digging up the dirt and if you want to stop thinking and just relax your mind for an hour, this is the perfect website to read but be careful not to be stuck there longer, it can be dangerous for your brain.

Sleepy morning...

No matter how rare it is, I overslept this morning. I just got up, and realised that I missed my train. Anyway, here is a must see movie for the lot of ya!

Dead blog - Blog P.I.

I chose to follow Blog P.I. Wait, following it is quite a strong word, considering its more than one year long post-draught. Still, let’s see what I could find out.

Blog P.I. is (was?) a fairly exciting blog about the uses of Internet in U.S. politics, with Web 2.0 in its main focus. The blog is mainly written by William Beutler, an Internet analyst, and as it is said on the ‘about’ page, he tries to base his posts on observation and reason instead of opinion.

The last couple of posts weren’t really commented, that might have been the reason for the stop. Also, Beutler has now a blog on Wikipedia, apparently still running. Actually, the last post of Blog P.I. (January 2011) is about his new blog’s TV appearance; one of the intentions with this post was probably to inform his former followers where they can read from him now.

By having a look at the posts before the above mentioned last one, we can probably sense the style of the blog. One post is about Austan Goolsbee, who has videos on YouTube about Obama’s economic policies and other possibilities. Goolsbee became successful immediately with his videos, and had a recent one uploaded not long before the post was written. The post contains two Goolsbee-videos, so the reader can see who is he/she reading about. The post before this is about Sean Parker and how he’s defended by whom, while the one before that is about social media.

I haven’t gone too many posts back, but the most recent post were written irregularly and with a long time passing between them. That’s definitely not the way to keep a blog successful. There are no problems with the design or the content in my opinion, but there wasn’t enough attention paid to the blog by the contributor(s)… And that’s how a blog can just fade away.

Homework post: Kottke.org

The blog I had to follow in the past week or so is Jason Kottke's kottke.org, a site that a guy living in New York City uses to share all the funny and/or interesting things he finds online.

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Sounds so soulful, don't you agree?

In 2010, American Express launched “UNSTAGED: An Original Series from American Express” in partnership with VEVO and YouTube with the aim to bring concert and home entertainment experiences to new heights.

UNSTAGED features some of the most respected artists of the music industry playing at legendary venues across the United States, employs iconic figures of the film industry to direct the live streams and uses digital and social media such as twitter and YouTube to connect the audience to the live shows in order to create an unforgettable concert experience. Users are able to control and influence their viewing experience by sending in song requests or choosing between the director’s cam and alternative cameras from the backstage or the audience’s point of view.

In September, the 4 time Grammy Award winning hip hop and soul band The Roots and 9 time Grammy Award recipient singer-songwriter John Legend started off the UNSTAGED experience by taking the stage in Hell’s Kitchen’s infamous music venue, the Terminal 5 and giving a special one-off live-streamed performance directed by none other than the legendary Spike Lee.

The show was put on the same week when The Roots’ and Legend’s joint collaboration R&B/soul record, Wake Up! was released. Heavily inspired by the US presidential election of 2008, John Legend, one of the classiest male singers of our time and future Hall of Fame The Roots revive the politically engaged soul music of the 1960s and 70s. Mind you, this record is not just a simple imitation, it attempts to capture the spirit of change and raise awareness to social issues which are still relevant as of today. Timeless soul, suave, raw raps, stomping bass and drums. Magnificent.

In addition to the excerpts from Wake Up!, songs from John Legend’s own work and The Roots’ previous record entitled How I Got Over were played as well. Astonishingly, of course.

I am probably not as much of a concert-buff as most of you are, but this was one of the greatest music experiences of my life. Without a doubt, The Roots and Mr. Legend put on a hell of a show.

The whole performance was available on YouTube for quite a long time, but it has been deleted or made private for no logical reason. Fortunately, the clips are still there so I created a PLAYLIST for you guys. It is definitely worth watching.

Perhaps, you wonder why I am writing about a concert from 2 years ago on a Monday night. I have a legitimate explanation. Right now, my man Shawn Corey Carter better known as Jay-Z a.k.a. Jigga, a.k.a. The Greates of All Time, a.k.a. Young Hov is about to go on stage at SXSW, in Austin, TX and put on a show which will be aired live on YouTube in the very same format. I had this idea that while I am waiting for Hov, I’m going to write this post about this UNSTAGED concert presented in the very same format. Meanwhile I'm listening to Wake Up! and some Jay-Z tunes of course.

P.S.: Unfortunately, the show is streamed in the US only. Middle finger up. Too bad I asked him to perform Can't Knock the Hustle via twitter. Viewers can decide which songs shall be performed. Alright, NY Knicks @ Chicago Bulls then.

P.S.: My beloved Knicks lost. Two middle fingers up.