If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard someone snicker when I say something about blogging, then you know that I could quit my day job and live a nice, wealthy life. That’s why the argument of blogging versus journalism tends to fall into areas of white noise to me, mostly because I’ve been taught, by journalism professors, to not care anymore.

Still, there are those days when it gets me thinking, and it is more to the fact when journalists are the ones who are raising a stink over the legitimacy of this new medium. Such is the case that you can get more details on from a post that Raul made a few days ago.

It takes me back to the short time where I was once a journalism student. Wavering in and out of studies that would give me a better grasp on an educational background in broadcasting, I found myself surrounded by professors who saw print as the only worthwhile medium that one should dedicate themselves to in the realm of media.

Now, before I start to say anything negative, there is absolute truth in the need to develop a solid background in writing, and working in radio for as long as I have, I can assure you that there are folks who have missed this step in their career ladder in broadcasting. Point number one in your journey into TV or radio should be to learn how to write, and then you can focus on looking or sounding good doing it. Some improv acting wouldn’t hurt as well, but I digress.

While knee deep in my college radio days, there was never any precedence given to our little station in relation to the school of journalism. In fact, the head of the department was once quoted as saying “radio is a waste of time” and KRUI was “just a place for kids to play radio.” No matter how much we asked them to do more in terms of developing a relationship between our organization and the school of journalism, the heads of the department always blew us off, pouring their crop of eager kids into the school paper.

In the world I find myself in today, this mentality still exists in some shape or form, except replace radio with blogging.

Average, everyday people now have the ability to publish content online to a worldwide audience and instantly have their material syndicated, archived, searchable, and shared. Their thoughts can be timely, thought provoking, or news breaking.

The other side of the coin is that a blogger’s integrity can be questionable. This can be due to a lack of fact checking, poor writing style, method of conveying the story properly, and so on.

However, it’s not out of the question for a journalist to have those same faults. Retractions get printed in the newspaper on a daily basis, admitting an error and correcting it, so no matter how well you were schooled in the methods of journalism, poor reporting methods are not rare in traditional media.

When it comes down to the question of blogging killing journalism, there is a point where you have to pull away from the concept of which one is better than the other. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but the final resting point is respectability.

If a newspaper prints consistently incorrect facts, you can’t trust that as a legitimate news source. The same can be said about any blog. If an author presents material that goes beyond something that you disagree with (i.e. erroneous facts or plagiarized content), then you probably will stray away from that website. Just as there is the concept of journalist integrity, blogs have the same responsibility to their audience.

The thing is, this is the Internet, so not everyone has to abide by these rules. Blogs have different flavors, and people will generate whatever they want, however they want. The same can be said about magazines or other various forms of print media. It’s up to the audience to find it and decide if it’s worth the consumption.

Bad bloggers hurt blogging. Bad journalists hurt journalism. Journalism would love nothing more than to kill blogging, but you can’t give someone a voice and then take it away.

The other day, I heard about a fellow with a rich career as a journalist say that “all blogs are bullshit.” It’s that statement that makes me flashback to those days of fighting to be recognized by that school of journalism. I also see this argument never having any conclusion.

I can’t say that blogging is killing journalism as much as journalism is trying to take down something that threatens the foundation it is built upon. Instead of trying to coexist, only one can be the better.

Like I said before, my thoughts on this topic have given away to about as much excitement as watching golf on TV. It’s not worth my time, and I’d rather focus on giving myself more voice about the world versus what I’m told to believe by a handful, in terms of the world’s population, journalists. I take satisfaction is hearing from the people who live where the news is happening, while it’s happening.

Blogathon 2008 has kicked off and it is in full swing. As I sit here right now, I’m watching Dances With Wolves with Duane as he prepares to make post number nine or ten. To be honest, I’m getting pretty sleepy that I’m not sure where he’s at in terms of numbers.

Rual is here as well, firing away like a rabbit, making post after post with ease. I guess that’s easy for a guy who has a mind wrapped around academia. I recall those days, but it’s more common to find myself wrapped up in computer network cables and a brain full of code due to the number of projects that I have going on.

That’s pretty much why I’m not doing Blogathon this year. I like being the moral support and supplier of caffeine to the troops, aside from the occasional guest post for various Blogathon folks.

Rebecca has been working hard to get this years Blogathon organized, and you can see a list of the participants here. Duane has taken things one step further and created a RSS feed for all the Vancouver bloggers that are participating in this year’s fund raiser.

I admire there efforts and determination to make one post every thirty minutes for 24 hours. Trust me, if you think blogging, or even writing for that matter, is hard, you haven’t experienced Blogathon.

Also, if you feel like you want to contribute, think about making a donation to any of the bloggers and their charity of choice. Comments are great, but the real reason these people are sacrificing their weekend to blog nearly nonstop is to raise money for a good cause. It’s not just for the sake of being geeky.

I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Lee LeFever at NorthernVoice last year, and he has since taken his endeavors with online communities to new levels along with his wife, Sachi. They’ve been producing a series of videos to help explain technologies of today’s internet for those who like simple explanations in plain english, such as wikis, social networking, and social bookmarking.

In the video below, CommonCraft looks to help explain what blogs are in plain english, helping those who have little to no knowledge about the medium. It’s a good watch for those who have a simple, basic idea about what blogs are, and the topic is a good one to follow my recent post about blogging as a medium in general.

I was having a conversation with a co-worker the other day about how new media and blogging interacts with today’s, traditional media. Fascinating topics for discussion, I know, but the interesting fact is that we are two people who currently work in the realms of radio broadcasting. Obviously, I’m a proponent of the medium, and the other person is one who is hesitant.

It broke down to the way bloggers and those who read blogs will hold such truth and validity with everything that is put into the blogosphere. I had to agree that it is concerning, if not scary, how this can be true is some circumstances. However, I also reminded her that there are those people who will do nothing but rely on mainstream media, paying attention to only certain outlets. Of course, the easy examples of this would be someone who only watches FoxNews opposed to the variety of TV news outlets that are available to most cable television subscribers.

They had a tough time disputing that, so I broke down my thought on this premise even further. I explained how it should be our job, as bloggers, to instill an element of checks and balances upon traditional media so that many viewpoints and aspects to a story can be examined, if not built upon.

Rebecca wrote about a post a few weeks ago about an article by Chris McCosky of The Detroit News when he said, “Bloggers just aren’t journalists“.

Bloggers and personal, non-journalistic Web sites are starting to tick me off. Look, I appreciate and respect that in America, everybody has an opinion, especially on sports. And I respect everybody’s right to share their thoughts with anybody who happens to own a computer via blogs.

But people, let’s not confuse what random fans and wanna-be pundits are tossing out there with legitimate reporting. The line is getting way too blurry now between Internet noise and actual journalism. It’s actually getting to the point now where some (too many) of the bloggers are using cyberspace to discredit the legitimate media.

Now I am not saying all legitimate media or every reporter is 100 percent credible. Nor am I saying every blogger is out to discredit legitimate media. But the distinction between the two must be clearer.

Journalism employs trained professionals. We actually have to go to school for this stuff. We take our jobs seriously. There are rules and standards that we are beholden to. There are ethics involved. We actually talk to, in person, the people we write about. [detnews]

For the record, I’ve studied a little bit in the ways of journalism school, and there are elements from that schooling that I maintain today. However, I’ve known people who have walked away with journalism degrees that whole heartedly scare me as to their journalistic integrity and the ability to do their jobs respectably. That doesn’t make me an expert, but it certainly gives me reason to question those who have the duty of telling me everything it is that I need to know.

I take my news from a variety of mainstream media sources, such as, but not limited to, the BBC, CNN, Guardian, Reuters, AP, New York Times, and, yes, even FoxNews. I like to see stories from multiple angles and derive my own conclusions, not just what “trained journalists” are trained, and told by their editors, to report on.

I’m also familiar with the structure that certain journalists use to report the news. There is your standard formula with the way you structure your intro, presented a certain set of information to setup your story. After that, you have to get your quote from someone close to the story. Toss in a deadline to a reporter and the number of people in the pool to get that needed quote gets a little slim. After that, there’s the extra back story at the tail end to give insight and let you know if there is more to tune into for next week.

Certainly there is need for delicate training for how one refines themselves to achieve this mastery, and I say that non-mockingly. However, in this era of big media where less means more, the small amount of journalists out there have a very large world to cover.

After that, blogs offer something deeper than the facts and figures of a story. They bring out qualitative information, as well as the quantitative, that provide various viewpoints that a journalist might not be able to provide. On top of that, bloggers can serve as way to watch journalists to make sure they are doing a worthwhile job in their reporting.

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

As a blogger, I am a source, but I’m hardly the source. Journalists are exactly the same thing. If you argue your viewpoint on an event, you have to consider where you got your information. it’s no different than a game of telephone where the facts and details can change as they are relayed and published.

Trust me, I’ve been there and seen it so many times on a personal level. Last spring when The Crazy Canucks got a lot of press coverage, the information that I would provide to journalists were stretched or mistaken for half-truths or something completely opposite. It’s human nature to make errors, and I believe that as a collective group, feedback can help put the information back together into something that is much more factual than what a very select, few people can tell you.

It’s not as much about discredit as it is making sure that what is said is a valid statement. Even more so, it’s about having a voice, and I’ll be damned if I or anyone should have to go to school to be able to have that.

Josh Wolf made a post on CNet titled, “Like television, radio and print, blogs are just a medium“. The whole read is a good summary of the things I tell people when I start talking about blogs and podcasting in relation to what traditional media does in the time of new media.

When radio was first pioneered, print journalists were quick to dismiss it as inferior. This same scenario repeated itself with the advent of television and again with the rise of technologies that allowed solo journalists to produce their own stories single-handedly. As blogs and other community media become more popular and more relevant, the assault on this new medium continues to grow.

Michael Skube’s recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times provides a reasonable critique on the blogosphere but neglects to look at the larger picture. He points out that many blogs are nothing more than commentary and suggests that many of these blogs are “noisy with disputation, manifesto-like postings and an unbecoming hatred of enemies real and imagined.” While I can’t argue with this conclusion, his analysis misses the fact that blogs have broken a number of important stories in recent years and fails to mention the non-news that the establishment media finds itself focusing on with alarming frequency. [cnet]

In the last few years, I’ve had a lot of discussions on this topic. It’s really difficult for some people to grasp onto the notion of there being worthwhile content that can be derived and coexist with what traditional media does, if not enhance it. What pains me more is the dismissal of new media as being not worthwhile. To that, it really becomes a matter of not knocking it until you try it.

Be sure to read the rest of the post. Wolf takes on the old with the new, explaining strengths and weaknesses to both sides of the coin.

A real trooper. She raised just over $400 in about 36 hours during Blogathon 2007, and there were many followers throughout the whole experience. I wasn’t able to be around for most of it, nor could I stay awake till the bitter end like she did. Still, way to go, babe.

I wanted to make a point to let everyone know about Blogathon 2007. Not only is it a good cause to take apart in, but Rebecca is stepping up to the challenge this year. We watched Alanah and Yvonne go for it the last time around, so we know what it takes. Unfortunately, I have to work that day, otherwise I’d probably be taking part as well.

The goal of blogathon is to blog every 30 minutes for 24 hours (this year being July 28th). The most validating part of the concept is to get people to sponsor your marathon of bloggery. Each blogathon site will have a donate/sponsor button and a charity of choice selected. As you read and enjoy the plethora of content hopefully you will be inspired to donate. Last year I donated to Canuck Place and received a tax receipt along with warm fuzzies. The blogger never processes your money or sees your transaction, it all goes directly through the charity.

This year I’ll be blogging from 6:00 am Saturday July 28th until 6:00 am Sunday July 29th. I will be awake (because that’s a part of the challenge) and fully interactive with commenters and sponsors. My charity will be the Surrey Food Bank, and I’ll put up a nice little badge and link when the fun begins. Until then, stay tuned, the post category will be ‘blogathon’. Who knows how silly things will get at 4:00 am Sunday morning with me running on no sleep, tethered to my laptop. [miss604]

You can follow this link to make a pledge to her efforts.

It should be an interesting experience. I know that if I were to be doing this, I would be supporting the Angelman Syndrome Foundation for my nephew Zach, probably the sweetest little boy that you’ll ever meet. If anything, I’ll be popping in on Rebecca’s effort with more information on the condition.

The simple matter of fact is that some people get blogging and others don’t. When you start point the finger at generation gaps, that gets even more sticky.

This comes in reference to a series of posts that Arpit Jacob wrote about in this post.

Check this post here by the so called usability Guru Jakob Nielsen on his website (I refuse to call it a blog, if you can’t comment then its not a blog) were he is typically saying blogging sucks. Lately he’s either been out of touch or he is getting too old. My dad can’t understand what a blog is or why I spend so much time after coming back home from work even though I am tired. My mom once saw my Orkut profile and she asked me if it was my Website. I think Jakob Nielsen belongs to the same generation. Sure he was once a respected usability guru. But if he writes any more silly articles like the one above I might have to label him an old Grandpa. [clazh]

I can say first hand that some of this is true. It’s tough for some people to grasp on to new techniques or methods while holding on to the roots that have been instilled via education and experience. Even though one person can stand to gain so much with the world literally at their doorstep, there is hesitation to step out of what is known. You can only spend so much time learning new things as well, but here is where folks like us, in the trenches, come in to help out.

Blogging gets a bad rap because it being so equated to spilling our personal guts out onto the Internet. While some of that is true for some, it’s far from that for others. It’s a presentation of what you want out there, professional, personal, hobbies, sports related, cat related, etc. It’s whatever you want it to be.

Still, helping anyone see the light in all the tools that are out there is tough. I’m fortunate to have a family that understands some of this, but there are some days that you want to pull your hair out when it comes to others, especially when it’s a fresh college graduate who equates blogging to email. Eh… What can you do?

Going back to my post about attending the state of the Canucks franchise with J.J., I thought I would hit a few points that stuck out to me. More so, it’s something that a lot of hockey minded folks, from broadcasters to fans, have been talking about. It was the opening panel that inspires me to mention a few of the following topics.

I can’t remember who said it, but the basic jest was that we, the fans, need to speak up about what we want from the things we enjoy and love. Truly, that can go for anything you follow, sports related or not, and the truth is that fans make things like the NHL exist.

Speaking of a lack of fans making things not exist, look at the Nashville Predators. Great team, horrible fan base, and a relocation of the franchise is constant soap opera. There are about four locations being tossed around: Las Vegas, NV, Kansas City, MO, Hamilton, ON, and Winnipeg, MB. Basically, the southwest desert, midwest U.S., hockey saturated Ontario, and a return of the NHL to the Canadian prairie.

I’ve stated my feelings about KC before, even though that was about the Penguins who are staying in Pittsburgh, and I still stand by what I said. However, I will add that if the Predators are going to relocate within the U.S., then it should be to KC, not Las Vegas. Another Canadian team is something I am all in support of, but not in Ontario. Return it to Winnipeg where people are hockey lovers, and it’s a well known fact that all the Canadian teams in the NHL are making a large bulk of profits for the entire league. It just makes better business sense to move the team where hockey is loved and will make a hell of a lot more money than the desert.

If you move a team to Las Vegas, you’ll have to spend a lot of marketing dollars on teaching fans that the team exists on top of teaching the game. At least if you move the team to Kansas City, the team will be closer to the 49th parallel where hockey is more prevalent. Another team in the desert, where there is never enough ice to even skate on, is a ridiculous move.

Speaking of ridiculous, kill the television contract with Versus. Nuke it. Rip it up. There are way too many people who have a hard enough time getting NHL coverage in the U.S. with the way it stands, so something needs to change. There are those who can’t even get the network, so why would you invest in something that has lackluster exposure?

A little side note, but an interesting one, the annual Iowa vs. Iowa State football game will be on Versus this year, opposed to one of the major broadcast networks or ESPN. That even has a few people asking questions about what a Versus actually is. Being the good Hawkeye fan that I am, that article made me laugh as well as sad.

Anyway, I have liked the NBC deal thus far, and it’s even better with Brett Hull leaving to take a job with the Dallas Stars. I don’t like them leaving a game early because a game runs long, especially for a horse race that has one hour pre-show for a two minute event. I can’t think of a better way to turn off a new fan who discovers hockey in the midst of the Stanley Cup playoffs, much like I did in my early teens.

Lastly (because I know you’re listening, NHL), take a long, hard look at what the New York Islanders are doing with allowing bloggers access to their franchise. Not only am I a huge fan of this, but this is a remarkable step in allowing those who love their team to report on their team. It’s true that this has its good and bad qualities to it, but there is a lot of difference between sports reporting (i.e. radio or newspaper) and sports blogging.

Recording a podcast episode of The Crazy Canucks from the press box in GM Place.
(Photo credit: Miss604 on Flickr)

In blogging, and podcasting for that matter, we brew a community. We have comments, interaction, and other people blog what someone else blogs about. It’s a world wide conversation, and we’re talking hockey on a scale that is much different than what sports reporters do in press or behind the desk or mic. We’re not bound by deadlines or schedules, but there is precedence on being honest about what you love, which is your hockey team. True that this can be biased, but people write what they are passionate about. That’s blogging, and they post views about the team they are the fans of, expanding and strengthening the team and league around the world.

The NHL should make more of an effort to expand this concept throughout the league. Want examples of how much blogging benefits a team like the Canucks? Check out J.J., Alanah, or Zanstorm. They are fans, but they offer news, viewpoints, and a unique voice that speak to people more than a sports reporter might. At least I know that I can count on all of those folks to translate league news into something I can readily understand.

Those are the big issues for me right now, and I know that there are more that will creep up later. I’ll try to post about them when I think of them. If you have something to say, then post it in the comments. Better yet, get your voice out there, too. Who knows if we can change anything in the end, but speaking up is a start.

I’m trying to fulfill a bit of a promise to my buddy Andy about the things I have learned from blogging. I think that anyone who does blog learns something, and that all makes us a slice of an expert in whatever it is that we are launching out into the world of the Internet. That can be kinda scary because it is the whole world, and there are moments that, when you get into the depths of blogging, you need to take a step back and examine where you are with this whole thing.

I guess this comes from looking at the total number of posts that I have made last night, and it surprised me.

After 3.5 years and 66 entries ago, I passed the 1000 post mark.

No need to bust out the champagne or give me any pats on the back, but the significance is worth noting. When I did start blogging in January 2004, I kept things pretty low profile. For a few years before that, I journaled by hand, and a college course in nonfiction writing gave me some inspiration for wanting to do more of something I’ve found to enjoy. Not saying I was or am great at it, but it was the kick starter for developing my own style and voice for what I wanted to my writing outlets to become.

My family picked up on the blog first, and after moving to Vancouver, it’s a great way for them to keep tabs on my adventures, not to mention the same thing about some of my friends. However, not all of them are as tech savvy or hip to the whole social media/networking/web2.0 thing.

Photo credit: duanestorey on Flickr

Then there is that fact that I moved to Vancouver and knew only Rebecca. There’s a handful of other people that I knew through her and are still good friends with, but making new ties would be a lot tougher if it wasn’t for blogging. In fact, blogging is what led to the camping trip from the past weekend, and that is a real unique thing in my mind.

I equate it to my first year in college because I got stuck in temporary housing for almost the whole fall semester, living in a dorm lounge with six other guys. The awkwardness wore off in a few weeks, and pretty soon you all start hanging out together, taking road trips, and being good pals (of which we all stay in contact, for the most part).

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

Blogging, for me, has turned into that, but on a much different level. I have been able to meet some really great people and develop friendships that are building into a community like I have never experienced before. We all do our own thing, and when you actually meetup, you already have something to talk about and expand the back story on. In turn, those experiences can lead to more material to write about later. It’s an intriguing circle, if not tons of fun.

When I think about it, I hate the idea of defining what we do as blogging as much as it is actual writing. Those who write for a living, in the literal sense, will disagree, but there is merit to the things we post about. It might not get published in a hard cover book or The New Yorker, but there are things that we say and do that can affect the world, even if it is just one person, on a variety of levels. Within that, you breed a community that establishes a variety of friendships.

Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

Whether it’s tech, podcasting, hockey, tv, movies, or whatever, the things I write about allow me to share my thoughts, opinions, and loves. Then, I’m able to become apart of so many communities and make some really amazing friendships.

Matthew Good made a guest contribution to the Tyee today and mentioned Rebecca as being one of his top five, favorite blogs that he reads. As cool as that is, I also got mentioned and linked in the post, riding on the coattails that is Miss604. Of course, I say that sarcastically, but if you read both of our respective blogs, I’m just as much of a fan of hers as you are.

Very cool stuff and many thanks to Mr. Good for the link love.

Awhile back, I made a post about how I couldn’t believe that students at a small college in the U.K. protested against a rock show by the band Clinic so they could focus on their studies instead. You can read my post and get more background information here.

The beauty of the internet is that someone who was actually there found my post and left a comment on it, four months after the whole ordeal. Additionally, “Sue” was one of those students who opposed the show and gave her account of what happened and why. I find this incredibly fascinating that I’m posting her comment here to make an update to my previous post in this topic.

This is such an old story if feels odd posting a comment, but I only came across all the internet ranting on the issue today. I was one of the students that protested about the gig, to be honest we were told it had moved venue and thought nothing more of the matter. However now I feel that I should set the record straight(although probably no-one will even read this).

The gig that was to “last a couple of hours” demanded that we destroy our sculptures in order to move out of the performance space; our studios. We were given one weeks notice. A couple of weeks after the scheduled gig we had a very important assessment that lead directly into our degree show. After three years of studying our result is determined by the degree show. This assesment was CRUCIAL. However we were told to remove everything from the studio(which demanded destroying many of the works). We would have less than 1 week to build new work before our 3 year degree began to be assessed on the basis on what was being presented.

Also in response to the endless record company lies, It wasn’t the first gig to be played there since the sex pistol. A year prior to the clinic scheduled gig a big promotional gig with the paddingtons had happened to mark the 30th anniversary of the sex pistol’s first gig. Central Saint Martins has used this fact to establish itself as a venue to whore band, making false connection with rock’s history, to create artifical connections between the music industry and art students, when infact its just the old money making men pushing promotional bullshit. It was a disguting act of record label PR/branding. Yuk!!!

And finally, not to be rude but St Martins is not a “small” school, it is internationally reknowned for its on going contribution to our creative environment. Its just a shame that the reality of this reputation (you see really the sex pistols played for 5 minutes before college heads unplugged them and chucked them out)is perpetuated by vulgar marketing, where the dean ignores his students in order to contrive PR stunts with money hungry record companies.

Thanks for the clarification, and I certainly stand corrected on the details. I am very much against having anything destroyed when it comes to art, so you officially have my support, Sue. This shows a real beauty in the reach that blogging has, and your comment certainly reached me.

I’ve heard this term being tossed around in light of the Kathy Sierra situation. For those not in the know, trackback to what Scoble wrote about taking the week off because of the personal attacks towards his wife and the effects of threats on Sierra has had on him. That saves me time explaining it, but the basic lowdown is that bloggers are finding themselves in the line of fire. Thus, a “blogging code of conduct” has been mentioned to help the situation.

To me, this already exist, but on a very unspoken level. There are some things that you do and don’t do if you want your online presence to be respectable. For some, having that level of respect is the last thing they want, and this is not about respect in terms of popularity. It’s about not being an ass, plain and simple.

Death threats, defamation, slander, and everything else negative that is going on in relation to the already mentioned situation is simple human behavior. It’s an elementary school playground.

As kids, we defame each other all the time. Call each other names, make fun of the kid who peed himself during lunchtime, and brag to the other kickball team to the point of tears because your team won the game at recess.

As adults, this is supposed to change, but it’s not that far off from being of the same thing. The way it happens does. The way we act and feel changes as well, but as a grown-up, in which we’re all trained and aiming to be as a kid, the world is larger from that of the world you knew at the age of about eight.

I’m not saying that what has been done isn’t right, nor am I supporting it. However, making a code of conduct or law to the way things are done in the world of blogging is something that I am not a supporter of. Why? It’s not going to solve a whole lot. You can argue the ethics of doing so all you want, but will it fix anything? I doubt it.

Matthew Good is another blogger in the midst of affairs much like this. While no death threats have been lofted in this round of events (but he’s had his fair share from his openly public views on political issues), there is a matter of concern for one’s public image. The thing is, he’s a long time recording artist, and these same issues happen outside of just blogging. Musicians, politicians, movie stars, and authors face these exact problems every single day, and truly it is nothing new.

When you put yourself into the realm of the public, or in this case the world, you have to be prepared for what you are doing. Blogging, a professional website for your business, newspapers, radio, TV, or whatever it is, there is something that can always trigger someone to say, “I don’t like you.” Making laws prohibiting someone from saying that puts us in the thralls of an Orwellian society[wiki], in terms of controlling conduct, and no one wants that.

The greatest asset we have in the community known as bloggers is the networks of support. It’s like journalistic integrity on steroids. When something happens, we can turn to others for verification. We can loft it out there for discussion, and if you are valid in what you promote, the community can rally in support to tackle the problem. And in the matter of threats or defamation, there are laws in place that can be used, especially to protect your personal safety.

Adam Curry spoke about this on a recent episode of the Daily Source Code, and I have to agree with what he concluded. We really have no clue as to what it is that we are doing with this mass of new communication tools, aka the Internet. We like to call ourselves experts and say we understand it all, but the truth is that we don’t. And before anything gets better, it’s only bound to get worse.

Scary thought, but the saving grace is that you maintain a good face when you are out there. Opinions are opinions, and we all have them. When you cross that line to the point of doing something truly unethical, such as making threats or just flat out doing something that is insanely dumb, be prepared.

It’s what my dad always told me. You can do anything you want in life, but the consequences, short or long term, is what you have to deal with in the end. I’m sure that those people involved with making the threats against Kathy Sierra will have that cloud following them for a long time to come. Or at least as the community that we are, we have the ability to hold those people accountable.

Running into David Drucker at the Massive Tech Show on Wednesday, he clued me into the March Vancouver Blogger Meetup that was taking place that night. I gathered Rebecca kind of last minute and we made our way out to The Whip for our first venture with this group, but this isn’t the first time that we’ve heard of these meetups. It was about time that we crashed the party though.

Photo credit: Rebecca on Flickr

There were a number of familiar faces, and this will completely sound like a Wizard of Oz moment. There was David and MJ, who we met at our first meetup ever in Vancouver, but that was for podcasting. And Pete was there, Tanya from NetChick.ca, Nancy, Jonathon, and Jan was there, too!

It’s always fun to bridge that gap between people you know through their postings, and this meetup allowed me to do that a little bit more. Rebecca has a nice follow-up on this, and Jan did the same in as well as posting a review of The Whip itself. I’ll echo his thoughts and say that it was a pretty swanky place, being my first time there. I hear it has changed, and they might see me there again if I’m ever in the area. Yam fries are tasty, and the beer selection is… Well, it’s good, but I just hadn’t heard of nearly all the things they had on tap. Don’t think anyone complained though.

All in all, a really good time with lots of great conversation. I think it’s natural when people of the like mind get together like that, it’s hard to not talk, especially at great lengths, about the things you are passionate about. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be there, right? It’s those reasons that encourages me to go to meetups like this.

Instead of tacking on an update to my original posts here and here about Bum Rush The Charts, I thought I would throw a few more thoughts into the aftermath that was. After all, I helped promote this event/movement, and you probably assume thoughts that I have on it. Yes, I liked the concept, but the discussion in the spheres of blogging and podcasting urges me to think out loud a little bit more.

GZExpat is a long time, non-supporter of all things iTunes, and The Reverend Don Deeley has presented me with numerous theories of everything that is wrong with DRM[wiki], which is what every single thing you can buy from the iTunes Music Store is laced with. It’s that thing that prevents you from duplicating, copying, or moving the file in which you purchased within certain parameters.

Some people are unaffected by this, but that’s like saying you can drive the car that you bought here and here, but you can’t drive it here, park it there, or you have to give up your car after you drove it for six months. So let me be in agreement, I am all for opening up DRM across the board, just like what Steve Jobs proposed in his little white paper that he lofted at the music industry nearly two months ago.

In a slight manner of speaking, that is what BRTC was about, except it goes a little further than this. The ultimate goal was to push an independent artist to the top of the iTunes charts. It fell short, but the results still showed an effect. Will major music executives care? Probably not, but it shows that independent media can push independent music in a user driven capacity.

Don’t think for a minute that Billboard Music Charts[wiki] work this way. The only reason someone sits on top of that chart is because of the millions of dollars that is spent on marketing that artist. It’s a funneling of big music pushing their focused, narrowed down product to big radio networks who only play a certain amount of artists in their regular rotation on the hot hits stations. It’s what they want to sell and make the maximum amount of profit, not necessarily what you should or want to hear. And if you find that hard to believe, remember when ska was hot? Don’t hear that much on the radio these days because some marketing trend guru says the most amount of profit potential lies in some other genre.

Dave Slusher made a post as to why he was abstaining from BRTC, and I completely respect the idea he presented. However, the aspect of getting respect from traditional or mainstream media is not the reason I bought into this. If anything, I saw this as a really great experiment of what is possible through the combination of blogging, podcasting, and combining that with independent music.

In the end, it proved that it has the potential of being very effective. You can argue all you want about the over all method, but science works the same way. You run an experiment, test the results, and then look another way to test the hypothesis in order to validate your data. That’s not to say that this will happen again anytime soon, but no one can say with complete sincerity that this trial produced some results that are worth raising an eyebrow at.