These pieces were not written by the late British poet, Ken Smith (1938-2003), nor the other Ken Smiths who make bass guitars, study marine biology, sell cars, teach card counting, paint war scenes in oils, guide bear hunters in Idaho, teach forest management, study immunology, do war reporting, sell real estate, photograph nature, teach cryptology, provide legal counsel to the gay and lesbian community, realign the spines of athletes, listen for seismic faults in the Sierra Nevadas, operate a 4-axis milling machine, work for sustainable development in Alberta, play blackjack, or criticize Junk English. Nor were the pieces written by the Ken Smith who is “the Elvis Costello of Landscape Architecture” nor the one who serves in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives nor the one who hit a home run for the Atlanta Braves in 1983. I only wish.
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Dave Winer’s book, revisited
I am still thinking about Dave Winer’s book, even though it’s none of my business. I wonder if there are models that suit a serious blogger’s writing methods and style to be discovered in the field of natural history. Chapters with small sub-chapters in a loose progression and grouped somewhat informally, each one focusing on…
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The @McCallSmith mini-essay on Twitter
I think novelist Alexander McCall Smith has invented a mini-essay form suitable for Twitter, and he has been publishing these little essays for some time. He launches a topic over a course of 3-6 tweets, all posted in the space of perhaps a half hour. Presumably he’s been gathering thoughts for awhile in preparation, since…
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A question about tweet style
Is this a strong tweet? @maddow: Brilliant visualization of a hard-to-grasp, important thing: http://is.gd/hX6sQd Well, as a reader I have no idea what the link offers, and I resist that in a blog posting or a tweet. But if this next tweet’s link is correct… The promise you make and keep: a brief theory of…
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Ethics of tool creation
Of the ethical circumstance of people who create and sell tools in our digital age, Dave Winer says: I always go with the philosophy that if you produce a tool that is good at reading or listening or watching that you almost have an ethical obligation to make that tool also capable of creating. [DaveCast,…
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Alexander McCall Smith on wild and curated spaces
On Twitter, novelist Alexander McCall Smith (@McCallSmith) reports briefly on a conversation about curated spaces with someone from the art world. First this: Spoke to curator. He made interesting distinction between paintings in gallery (zoo) and those “in the wild” (eg. in churches, houses, etc.). [June 16 2011] That caught my eye as a useful…
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How adulthood actually works
David Brooks on the way adulthood works: “Most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life…. Most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their…
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Engaging the paper’s site
I would engage much more deeply with our city paper’s website if 1) a long-time subscriber like me didn’t have to pay again to use the archive, which feels unfriendly to one’s best customers, and 2) the writers of the most thoughtful and well-written letters to the editor were given guest blog spots for a…
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Links for the May 2011 FACET presentation on radio essays
Michiana Chronicles archive with 465 essays in full text and two years of audio. WVPE Listener Commentary audio archive. [Or, at the WVPE home page: Click on Programs > Audio Archive] Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations directory with links. Six radio essays by Eileen Bender: Political Pin — Lame Duck Citizens — Fillibuster — Petition —…
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Taxonomy of linking
Needed: a taxonomy of the many kinds of links that could then help us explore their differing value for users and their various roles in civic and other collaborative work. For example, in his article on Matt Drudge’s linking skills, David Carr links to sites with a stake in the practice of linking rather than,…
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Link logic
Send them away, send them all away… The logic of sending people away from your site, as practiced by the Drudge Report. David Carr explains their success this way: A big part of the reason he is such an effective aggregator for both audiences and news sites is that he actually acts like one. Behemoth aggregators…