🖋️ LongForm
Want to reduce the noice and just focus on things with a little more meat - the this category is for you. Like so much on this site we have a ‘WIP’ as i take some out - and put some in - but safe for at least starting in 2026.
Data Connection People ... CONNECTION - NOT Collection.
Just read What Is The Data-Driven Organization? - a great collection of interesting acronyms for how organization think about how they COLLECT MY DATA.
Personally, I would much rather organizations think more about data CONNECTION, rather than COLLECTION. That is so much more in keeping with the future – it is after all my data – not the corporations.
I would also be more than happy for on organization to connect to my data – if we can first agree mutually beneficial terms that I am privy to in advance.
Digi.Me is one example of an organization that thinks this way. There are many more.
1999 ... meet IFTTT and DayONE - I think you will love each other.
One of the challenges (for me) with 1999 is the inability for me to easily search for content txt I posted (say) two months ago. TO be fair - this is one of my does on Facebook - and contributed to my leaving. (But not the prime reason.)
I use DayONE as my daily journal. It runs happily across pad, phone and mac. It is pretty powerful and allows me to search and tag and add pictures and links and .... pretty much whatever you like.
IFTTT - is a rules based system.
Here's the rule I have in IFTTT .... every time I post an entry into 1999, IFTTT posts a synopsis and a link to the original post into DayONE.
I can now search DayONE for what I am looking for - and voila - there;s the link back to the post.
#Easy
How To Write A Good Blog Post - Om Malik
I have been clearing out my cupboards and found a great post from Om Malik, who in turn was clearing out his cupboards ….
I have been frustrated by the vanishing quality of blog posts, which either are nothing more than marketing drivel, self promotion passing as intelligence. I can understand that, but I can't seem to comprehend the laziness of news posts which seems to have the nutritional value of a TacoBell meal. It seems no one remembers or knows what makes a great blog post and how to write them.
I don't think what makes a great post has changed. And when cleaning out an old folder on Google Drive, I came across the draft of this email I would send to all new writers and reporters who came to work for us at GigaOm. I thought I would share this it isn't doing anyone any good sitting there in a drive.
And Here It Is …. with the conclusion of
The 3Cs of a good blog post
- Coherent
- Clever thought, analysis or just the quote.
- Cryptic
Settling The Debate On 'The Most Famous' Band.
If you like music, this is a fascinating flip on how we usually think about bands.
Click through and for any year it will tell you who the most famous band that was formed in that year. Interesting because why?
Well - though I am not a fan of (say) OASIS - I had kind of expected them to be on the list. But they're not, because the same year that they were founded a little band from the South also got going ... Radiohead. a LOT more famous.
I was also surprised to see that Pink Floyd was not only the most famous band to have formed in 1965 - but actually to be the most famous band form the 60s .... really? The Beatles? Zeppelin?
And then you think ... The Beatles were formed in 1957 - and yes they were the most famous band formed in 19657 - and indeed there 50s - and of course Zeppelin formed in 1970.
So how do we measure 'famous'? Turns out it isn't really that rigorous - but it's a start ...
'PrettyFamous' created a customized Band Score on a scale of 1 to 100 based on a weighted average of a band's Wikipedia page views in the last 30 days, page views of album releases and total number of Spotify followers.
BTW - The Beatles most popular song on Spotify ?
Here Comes The Sun.
Take that Lennon / McCartney.
Criminal Justice Reform
I wrote this piece on Criminal Justice Reform a couple of weeks ago.
Delighted to see this from The Marshall Project just published today … The Overlooked Promise in Hillary Clinton’s Speech - A call for criminal justice reform.
In a single brief sentence, Clinton broke one of America's oldest political taboos, pledging to "reform our criminal justice system from end-to-end, and rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve."
This might seem like an offhand mention, or just another Democratic candidate embracing the latest civil rights issue.
But past candidates, when they talked about criminal justice at all, were quick to declare a 'war on crime' and slow to acknowledge any real problems in the system. Clinton's speech represents a real break with that legacy and voters are entitled to demand real solutions to match her call to action.
Somethings Never Change
A post, including a video, from John Gushe 4 years ago - and every bit as relevant today ... filed in the "if you operated in the real world like you do in the online world" bucket.
Paper53 Is A Stunning Piece Of Software In The Right Hands
The art that is possible with something as seemingly simple as Paper53 is really extraordinary.
It's Hillary Goddamn Clinton
It opens with
I’m Hillary goddamn Clinton. I’m a political prodigy, have been since I was 16. I have an insane network of powerful friends. I’m willing to spend the next eight years catching shit on all sides, all so I can fix this fucking country for you. And all you little bitches need to do is get off your asses one goddamn day in November.
... and then it gets better. Absolutely brilliant piece.
Uber Hoodwinks Regulators Again
Cheap settlement to sort it out this week - wonder what the demand will be next week
The records Uber and Lyft are touting have been hard-won, expensive and occasionally bumpy. To reach the truce, Uber paid $350,000 into a trust to settle charges by the Philadelphia Parking Authority that the company had been operating in the city without regulation. To meet demand this week, both companies offered some drivers guaranteed minimum pay at peak times — $21 to $27 an hour for Uber after drivers in Cleveland complained of low earnings,4 $20 for Lyft — and neither company would say if they’re turning a profit. Riders had to wait an hour or more for an Uber from the convention on Monday night. And road disruptions have made the companies’ sometimes optimistic wait-time estimates particularly unreliable.
Idiots - So Many Idiots
It never ceases to amaze me that people are so stupid that they have to be protected my this kind of warning. NEVER!
Bulgarian state railway company BDZ is urging players of Pokemon GO to keep off the railway tracks.
Hello
Posting from my iPad - and simultaneously using IFTTT to drop my posts into DayOne - which (BTW) is rather a neat app for journaling.
'T' In Mediation Helps Keep Balance
Just realized that having some 't' in the middle of a 'mediation' will result in 'meditation'.
Larry Just Used Oracle To Pay Himself $3.5 Billion
Oracle just bought a company Larry Ellison mostly owns, entitling him to $3.5 billion in cash - #STUNNED
well - actually not. Is anyone?
Laszlo Bock Moves On ....
This is big news …. be interesting to see what he does next.
A lot of unemployment evolves from information asymmetry, meaning I have a taxonomy of skills and abilities that are hard to articulate, and resumes don’t do a good job of capturing them. Employers have a set of jobs, but are terrible at both articulating what they need, and actually filtering candidates.
If you can somehow bridge that information gap, and better match people with jobs, in the short term you can get a lot of people jobs that don’t have them. But in the medium term, you can do really interesting things. If you’re a welder in Detroit, we can say you should go to nursing school and move to Atlanta, and this is the program you should go to, because this nursing school is correlated with people getting jobs. And Atlanta has the most growth in that area.
It’s very interesting stuff. But that’s all a little in the future.
BB Shows How It Is Done
It is extraordinary to listen to this. But then when you watch it and realize for half the song he is changing a string on his guitar - no beat missed ... well, I sit in awe.