BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Meet the future

3 comments on Meet the future

Meet the future
: Len Apcar, editor-in-chief of NYTimes.com (and, it so happens, a college classmate of mine for a year) came to Bloggercon “to get an idea how we can do this.” Jay Rosen chronicles his education by panel. I take my hat off to Len and the Time for coming and learning from real bloggers.

On the other hand, my current whipping boy, the Online News Association, invited known editors who happen to blog to its upcoming funfest when, instead, they should have invited the bloggers who never worked in the business, who hold the business in disdain and say so; they should have invited the “enemy” — no, they should have invited the future. (That’s just one of the obnoxious things I plan to say when I’m on a blogging panel there). Or more of them could have shown up at Bloggercon; we should have seen people there from TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers.

I’ll admit to the sin of pride in my personal relationship to big media and nanomedia; I happen to live in both worlds, wear both hats; I am a media bigamist. It’s a wonderful perch from which to watch the revolution in populist media.

Usually, when I show up at such gatherings, I’m there as big media boy. Here, I was nanoman; few knew my other life and fewer cared. I was there as a blogger.

3 responses to “Meet the future”

  1. Ken Sands Avatar
    Ken Sands

    Jeff:
    Sounds like it was a great conference. I wish I had known about its existence before last week… it’s exactly the kind of gathering I need to attend. Lack of big-media types is a definite attraction.
    Meanwhile, the organizers of the ONA conference seem to have a different mission. Because ONA conference attendees seem to be mostly big-media types, the thinking is that the conference should include more helpful instruction on how to get blogging going, as opposed to philosophical discussions about where blogging is headed.
    Different audience, different mission?
    Still, I don’t think your intended messages to ONA are obnoxious at all… heck, maybe that’s why you’re invited! You can provoke thought, and provocative thought is what’s needed to encourage change.
    I look forward to seeing you there. It will be my first ONA conference, and my first chance to meet most people there for the first time face to face.
    So when’s the next Blogger.con conference? I wonder if they would have one of the West Coast…

  2. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    This could also apply to blogging:
    Someone once asked a famous jazz musician ( I think Dizzy Gillespie, but I can’t remember for sure), “Where do you think jazz is going?”
    To which the jazzman replied, “If I knew where it was going, I’d be there by now.”
    Sounds like you had a good ol’ time, Jeff. Sorry to have missed it. Thanks for doing such a great job keeping us all up-to-date :)

  3. Jeff Jarvis Avatar
    Jeff Jarvis

    Ken:
    Thanks for the comment; you’re already putting on the moderator hat.
    But I would argue that the first task in a blogger how-to for newspaper online sites is not starting blogs: Priority one is reading them, for this is our readers’ medium, not ours; priority two is linking to them, for this is our chance to make the former audience the star; priority three is creating blogs — but only if you can do it well and not get your knickers in knots as some have done. Blogging is not about us, the editors, doing it. Blogging is about everybody else finally getting the chance to do it. We’re not the only ones with printing presses (and power) anymore. That is the real lesson!