Technically Speaking

Congratulations are in order for Matt Marshall and VentureBeat for being recognized for content worthy enough to be syndicated in the New York Times. Along with GigaOm and RWW as well, congrats! This proves that old media is a dying breed, hanging on to what readership is left. Taking over the perceived mainstream media will not be an easy task.

Along with blogs being syndicated to mainstream media, we have places that offer video content by the buckets now. Why do we need a mainstream news show that only comes on at 5pm or 10pm at night anymore? We don’t. News, entertainment, and good writing is all available sans mainstream media. It’s about the people dictating to the media, and no longer the reverse. This is what democracy is about.

The change today only signals a small battle being won. More like a concession by the mainstream that bloggers are doing it better. Blogs like VentureBeat now employ writers that are even better than what the mainstream offers. While many may disagree with me on that last statement, I can speak from personal experience - Matt Marshall knows the news and reporting.

Technically Speaking, my very short run at VB last year was only the tip of the iceberg for both of us, and I like seeing how that moment in time led us both in directions that worked out for the best.

Well, well, well… isn’t this just a bit contradicting? The NY Times, is reporting for what appears to be published May 8th, 2007 article, that the deal isn’t done yet. That MySpace / FIM are still in negotiations.

The deal is not yet complete, but the parties have ironed out major issues and are focusing on finer points, according to this person, who said the price could be as high as $300 million. The person asked not to be further identified because of the sensitivity of the talks.

To make things even more of a head scratcher, we also see it dated today May 7th:

SAN FRANCISCO, May 7 — Photobucket, a four-year-old, rapidly growing Web company, is in advanced talks to be acquired by Fox Interactive Media,

But that bring us back to the top where it clearly states May 8th:

By BRAD STONE
Published: May 8, 2007

This bring us to the blogger vs the mainstream media article that I wrote about earlier today. I wonder how this will all play out? Will the NY Times be correct? Will TechCrunch just have squashed the NY Times?

Technically Speaking, this should be interesting to see in the morning. As in interesting to see who was right, and who was a little wrong.

I was wondering if I was going to let the Rivals - Yahoo snafu go. I know that the Rivals person is a bit pissed off now. I guess he has a right to be if he is being totally honest and upfront this time. The only thing here is that he was not forthcoming the previous two times.

What is that saying? You know it - “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me” - I really believe that even though the article was a bit edgy, I think that it also is protected by freedom of speech. I do not quite believe that any CEO in the world is exactly clean.

Now I left these both alone yesterday, as I had no idea how to approach it. Good thing here is that Everyone is a little bit DIRTY. What I mean is exactly what I said above. You do not get to the top of the rock on talent alone. I have worked for many CEO’s in my life, and some were quite talented, while others you basically scratched your head and wondered aloud with your co-workers “Who’s a$$ did he ki$$!?”

Come on readers, you know you have done that! It’s no secret. Talent and hard work does not always lead you getting to the top of the rock. There is a certain amount of a$$ ki$$ing you must do in most situations. Let me state clearly now - I am NOT talking about the honest, forthcoming, hardworking and talented CEO’s. If you fit in that group, you know who you are and you also know the people I refer to as being DIRTY.

Case in point time. The NY Times are always a great savior when it comes to proving what I am saying. It is quite apparent that everyone is a little bit DIRTY. Do you believe what I am stating now? I mean come on people, the article that caused the lawyer to get technical on a blogger now seems a little silly doesn’t it? If you go back and read what was stated over there, there is enough words to make it one of those “get this lawsuit out of my courtroom” type of deals.

Read it. It does state “Rumors“, “sources say“, and it ends with “My guess“. Now let me ask you readers something, if someone were to state “My guess is the Raiders are a Super Bowl team this year.”, do you take that as FACT?

Of course not. Along the way, there are links to the SEC site, and another business online resource. Another question is “Did he or did he not pay a $828,000 fine?” Period. Yes or No. Don’t waddle around and make statements of how it was stated, the question is - “Did he or did he not pay a $828,000 fine?” Period.

How it was put in the article was more then likely to make good reading, or what I have termed “flowing reading”. If it doesn’t flow, it’s hard to read. Here is what I mean by that, as I will quote the exact phrase:

Shannon, who reportedly “cooperated” with authorities, got off with a $828,000 fine

Now what is the good of typing this:

Shannon cooperated. He paid a $828,000 fine.

For one, it sounds like something you would find in some boring and tired old world news source. The second thing is, it doesn’t flow. It’s robotic as anything I have ever written. Finally, this blogosphere is meant to be fun and exciting. It is not meant to bore you to fall asleep at your keyboard. It is not a court of law. Also, there would really need to be a third and even more boring sentence added to the above to come out totally correct. Why bother? It was stated in a manner that flowed well.

What was written might have been a bit more flowing then necessary, but once again the point of this states that this was all false. Fine and dandy sherlock, but then what is the issue of the original statement that was made (shown above)?

The bottom line, there is no issue. Basically the lawyer ripping the article apart is doing exactly the same thing I am doing. You are making things “fit” your agenda of filing a possible lawsuit for your client. Now let’s get to reality for a second.

The first part of the paragraph, while it did seem like the person was a part of the scheme with the other two, the sentence in question more or less vindicates that person from any dishonest actions. The part about the fine, why don’t you tell me? The only answer is either “Yes, he paid that fine.” or “No, that is a lie.” You can’t have that part both ways.

Technically Speaking, is there really a need for a lawsuit? Seriously, do you believe that Yahoo didn’t know all this information before dealing with Rivals? Who was really clean and who was dirty?

MySpace and the New York Times will be launching a contest today that will send someone to Africa on a expedition. This could be the chance of a lifetime for one lucky student that would like to see what Africa is all about. I think that those that have made the jump to Facebook just recently may come back just to get the chance to win this contest.

Technically Speaking, I’ve already been to North Africa a long time ago. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of the wilds though, as in real lions, and animals in their surroundings. That might be cool.

The newspaper that I use to read back in the 1980’s is now going social. I use to love picking up a copy of the USA Today when I was in the military, as well as when I started first working outside of there as a government contractor. I can distinctly remember going down to get my Chinese at the hole in the wall restaurant behind our office, and then hitting up the 7-Eleven to get a pack of smokes (only $1.25!), a USA Today, and soda. I’d head back to the office, and devour the Chinese, read all the good sections, and what was going on around the country since at that time I was out east in the Washington DC area working.

Today, we find out that USA Today has revamped itself and gone social. Now some blogs are saying it’s not enough. I say, it’s a start. I mean, what do you want - a MySpace built on top of a national newspaper? The fact remains, they are still a newspaper, who is adapting to the internet in the best way possible.

I suppose if the NY Times and the LA Times wanted to beat USA Today up, they could just form a MySpace like social network later this week. Heck, throw in the STLToday here in my town. Call it YourSpaceForNotGettingBlackInkOnYourHands.com. Something like that. Basically, they are a newspaper. All of them. All of the papers online from the three mentioned above, to the San Diego Union and the Ventura County Star. They are first and foremost a paper. Speaking of the VC Star, they were online back in in like 1994-1995 or something. I was there and knew one of the people working on the very first versions of the online VC Star.

Technically Speaking, newspapers are newspapers. Social networks are social networks. If you want to mix the two, fine. Just don’t expect them to be all of everything.

What power is that? To use the internet to make more money at your job. The sites the NY Times are mentioning today are great sites when you go in for that next annual review. Now if you are like most people, there are good chances your company will refuse to pay the market rate for your job. Most companies are like that. In fact, most companies will tell you how much money they made last year, and then slap you in the face with a standard 3-4% raise.

When you think about it, that barely covers the cost of the rising gasoline prices in this country. How do you stop the madness that companies have over your earnings? Well as most of us have discovered, the way to go is of course right here, online.

There are millions of dollars available here. Right here, right now. My advice is to take the advice of the article above and to try to negotiate a better salary. Once your boss squirms and says,”Well yes, the company made $10 gazillion last year, but…. ” But what? You can’t afford to pay the loyal slave a living wage? You can’t afford to read the news that shows we are in the midst of recession, which won’t be admitted until months from now? You don’t care that your workers show up to make that $10 gazillion for your company, and would rather just fire you then pay you what you deserve?

Yes folks, come online and start your way to money. This can be through services such as Agloco which use to be the old AllAdvantage dot com. They are getting to release the viewbar this month, and if you click the link above you can sign up and start making money that way. Entrepreneur John Chow made money with AllAdvantage dot com. Rex Dixon also did, but not quite as much as John did back in the day.

I’ll be honest, when I first heard about Agloco and realized it was the AllAdvantage, I was thinking, “Been there, done that… ” That article was a sort of hasty one I put together, and to be quite honest, I’m now after further review thinking - “I’m going to give Agloco a shot again just like I did with AllAdvantage.” As much as I am online these days, I stand to make a pretty decent size check from them. I made decent money with the old AllAdvantage, can’t remember exactly how much, but it was like around $100 something a month. Not too shabby for surfing the internet right? I say go sign up, and what do you have to lose?

Now with that all being said, be sure to give some Sunday love to all my sponsors here. Collarity, DigitalRon, askitonline, yourminis, HTPBG the book, and Planypus. You can also of course help this blog out by providing a donation via one of the three “Make A Donation” buttons you see on the right. Another way to help out this blog is to buy one of the T-Shirts to help spread the word by just going about your business and wearing one.

Most of you readers are probably glad that GMAFB has it’s own blog now. I did a slight cosmetic update over there on Friday night. I just looked at this morning, and there are like close to 47 items out there that need a FRIGGIN’ BREAK. You should really considering joining the site, as signing up will open up your ability to vote, comment, participate, etc. Close to 500 people viewed the site the other day; think it was Friday. I wish I had my changes in before that, but nevertheless, it’s pretty self explanatory how to use.

I understand that some people are a bit slow on the uptake, and for those, Second Mule will be hopefully be creating a podcast explaining how to use and utilize GMAFB. I think it’s a simple concept, but there are others out there that have expressed a “WTF?” as far as how to use the site. I am not at all making fun of them, but more like am very happy that SM will be creating a podcast for the site later today. We are trying as a team to spread the word over there on GMAFB, and once it catches on, I still truly believe that it will be a lot of fun.

Speaking of podcasts, I hope our good online friend Paul from the Coffee show #6 is okay. You can listen to that podcast right here on the blog; right side bar - the SplashCast widget for the podcast. Paul has also become quite the podcaster! If you have not heard, it appears that there is a bit of unrest going on over in Denmark. I want to make a plea now to the rioters - “Chill out man, Denmark ROCKS, and they are like Technically Speaking’s biggest readers!”

The Denmark comment above is according to Alexa, but who believes those stats? I do however notice that my Technorati stats are creeping up slowly, nothing like my good friend Kittymama though. She has even left the hottest tech blog in the dust. Sorry Allen, but she passed you standing just like she left me on the charts. Way, way back. At least you have a shot of passing Kittymama up!

Technically Speaking, it is like a bloggers nightmare out there today. There is really hardly anything that grabs me to write. I have already Link Blog Locked N’ Loaded!