Posts by Steven Hodson

Louis Gray saves the blogosphere from disclosure hell

crying For those of you in the blogosphere who have been hiding under a rock the time has come to start getting all your disclosures ready for all those millions of times when you sell you soul – or at least write a post or two – for crap goodies sent to you by companies.

The only problem is that we have to write so many of them and for all different types of incredibly useful goods that it’s hard to keep track of which disclosure to use for which ass-kissing sucking up useful post.

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CobWEBs Daily Edition podcast: $31 billion equals a dead network plus a date with Congress

cbn1-podpost Now that his moving experience is drawing to a close Mark picked up his hosting duties and joined Sean for tonight’s show.

The subject of the conversation tonight was once again the Comcast and NBC deal that still has a lot of people shaking their heads wondering why. Mark takes up the position that this really could end up being one of the dumbest business mergers of all time given that NBC is a company that can’t even make money from the Super Bowel broadcast.

In all it was an interesting difference of viewpoint from the conversation that Sean and I had on it at the time the merger was first announced.

Enjoy the show.

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CobWEBs Daily Edition podcast: The Pollyanna landscape of blogs and brand protection

cbn1-podpost In tonight’s show Sean and I take a bit of a look back on the world of blogging and how, regardless of what some might think, that the growth of blogging may not be the good thing some would like to believe, nor has it grown in the way others would like it to have.

From webtribution, the Web 2.0 version of the age old act of retribution, to the stiflingly of voices of truth blogging has changed. Changed enough that it has good bloggers like Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins, or third host here, looking back and wonder where it all changed. For Sean and myself it seems to have become more a matter of protecting one’s brand rather than speaking from the heart.

Posts referred to in the show

The Dark Side of ‘Webtribution’ – The Wall Street Journal
What Caused the Blogosphere to Grow Up? – SiliconANGLE
Are People Just Fatigued of Your Brand? – Michelle’s Blog

Enjoy the show

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I’m such a lucky guy in the most important ways

Kim 200x112 One thing about being a professional blogger is that it can take up a lot of time – sometimes too much time – out of one’s day. We get all wrapped up in trying to write the latest post, research the next and just try to keep up with the never-ending flow of information.

Sometimes we become oblivious to those around us and our families sometimes begin to feel like fifth wheels and we need to be reminded that there is a world beyond our monitors and Internet connections. Having a family that understands this is a rare treasure and I must admit I am one of those lucky guys.

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CobWEBs Daily Edition podcast: Comcast & NBC now confirmed lovers – consumers screwed

cbn1-podpost How the screw turns in increasing shorter cycles of news. Only yesterday the word of Comcast reaching a deal to buy NBC was strong possibilities that over today became confirmations that the deal was done. For Sean and myself there is a sense of trepidation that neither of us can seem to shake when it comes to this deal.

While Mark, our third host, wasn’t in on the podcast he was an integral part of it due to the conversation I have with him on IM last night after I wrote my post at The Inquisitr about the deal. Mark being the smart person he is did have some valid points which Sean and I talked about but when it all came down to it neither one of us think this is going to end well – especially for the consumer.

One side topic that we started out the night with was the fact that someone (who is an assistant editor at Splashpress Media) decided that I didn’t have a clue when it came to my post about the Apple and Psystar deal that was cut today. Of course he had to broadcast this all over Twitter instead of coming up with a valid counter argument. Oh well.

Posts referred to in the show

2010 could be the biggest disaster in the making for consumers and media – The Inquisitr
Too Big to Block? Why Obama Must Stop the Comcast-NBC Merger – Huffington Post
Could Apple use Psystar as a backdoor to a wider consumer marketplace – The Inquisitr

Enjoy the show.

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Media Time

television First off in the spirit in of the new draconian regulations courtesy of the US FTC I must disclose that the material being quoted came from a book that no-one gave me a free copy or promised me great sex if I wrote about it. I am doing this because I think that Alvin Toffler is an incredibly brilliant man and I love to share some of the things he says because I think they are important.

In this case the quote is from his, and his wife Heidi, 2006 book Revolutionary Wealth and specifically refers to the one thing we seem to be spending much of our attention on – Media.

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CobWEBs Daily Edition podcast: It’s FTC Eve, have you put out milk, cookies & disclosures?

cbn1-podpost Yes folks it’s Monday and there for the start of another week of the most excellent podcast starring Sean P. Aune and myself in tonight’s show. In light of tomorrow being the first of the month we figured that what better topic to start the week with than the impending implementation of the FTC witch hunt regulations for bloggers.

For those that don’t know tomorrow is the first day where you are going to be required to plainly disclose your relationship in every single post that has to to with review products. Doesn’t matter if the items are hardware, software, or books you have to inform your otherwise brain dead (at least this is the FTC’s opinion) readers who can’t tell that they are being shilled to.

There’s still a whole bunch of questions that the FTC has failed to answer about this whole thing. Like – where are the disclosures suppose to go? Do we have to go back through all our archives and add disclosures? Does this apply to only American bloggers whose blogs are hosted on American servers? Does this apply to bloggers who live in other countries but host their blogs on servers in the US.

In other words we know squat but can still get screwed for $11,000 if the FTC decides we messed up somehow. And a Merry Christmas to you to.

Oh and ya we also spend a minute or two on the sad heart-breaking story of the Crunchpad.

Posts referred to in the show.

Get Ready for Blogger Shameless Tuesday (And Help Us, Too) – Valleywag
Disclose This: I Can’t Disclose Everything Everywhere!Louis Gray
Why the CrunchPad mattered – CrunchGear

Enjoy the show.

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Ode to the ReTweet that was

funeral

If there is one thing you can say about the people who use Twitter it is that they are a pretty resourceful bunch. When Twitter first started becoming popular – pre Aston and Oprah – Twitter was a pretty barebones service devoid of many features beyond a simple text box to type your message in.

But people wanted to be able to direct replies to other people and thus the ‘@reply’ taxonomy was created and has now spread far and wide beyond Twitter. People wanted to be able to create conversation thread and once again the community came up with the #hashtag idea.

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