Pride (R Laurels)

Written by on March 25, 2007 to home economics

Today I cleaned my bathroom. Look at how shiny and beautiful my toilet is. Worthy of the champ of bathroom-cleaners!

information overload and burnout

Written by on March 25, 2007 to economics of attention

In the nineteenth century, continuous partial attention was a burning problem: Until the 1820s (when candle technology started to improve markedly), both wax and tallow candles needed frequent “snuffing.” We commonly misunderstand the term snuffing today — it did not mean to put a candle flame out; instead, it meant to trim the candle’s wick. [...]

government communications

Written by on March 25, 2007 to industry structure

Government printing jobs have contributed significantly to the development of the printing industry. In North America from 1640 to 1790, printed government documents probably accounted for about 30% of printed documents considered to have enduring significance. In the U.S. at the end of the twentieth century, the number of titles that the Government Printing Office [...]

voice in virtual worlds

Written by on March 18, 2007 to sensory ecology

Nothing heats up passions like voice communication in virtual worlds. Linden Labs’ recent blog post announcing that it’s bringing integrated voice communication to Second Life generated 527 comments. The next day Terra Nova had a post entitled “The inevitability of voice.” That post has generated 132 comments. Those comments include a debate about whether more [...]


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novel content creation

Written by on March 18, 2007 to industry structure

In the middle of the eighteenth century, a new form of content creation grew rapidly in Britain. The new popular content was long, realistic but fictional narratives of ordinary individuals whose lives nonetheless were put forward as significant for everyone. These works were called “novels.” Novels were YouTube in the eighteenth century. Authors of novels [...]


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watch a film or read a novel?

Written by on March 12, 2007 to sensory ecology

Irving Wladawsky-Berger observes that watching a film, compared to reading a novel, seems to deliver similar goods at less cost: Given my utter inability to keep up with all the work and general interest material I’d like to read, I find it very satisfying to be able to enjoy a film in a couple of [...]


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ski 'n surf in Vermont

Written by on March 11, 2007 to citizen journalism,industry structure

At the excellent Freedom to Connect 2007 conference, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas spoke about his e-state initiative. Gov. Douglas wants everyone everywhere in Vermont to have cellular and broadband coverage. Some quantitative goals are a minimum of 3 Mb symmetric bandwidth (upload and download) by 2010 and 20 Mb by 2013. This initiative, if supported [...]


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leading analysis

Written by on March 4, 2007 to industry structure

Once again far ahead of other communications industry blogs, purple motes reports that Galbi Think! is the most profound economics website of 2007.

COB-8: the importance of editing

Written by on March 4, 2007 to carnival of bureaucrats

As part of our new program of continual innovation here at the Carnival of the Bureaucrats, we’ve tentatively established a new form for carnival post titles. Each carnival post will now begin with a Document Identification Code (DIC). The DIC Manager (DICMAN) has assigned DIC COB-8 to this carnival, the Carnival of the Bureaucrats #8. [...]