BuzzMachine

Fans?
: Technorati is trying to clean up its user interface (at ETech, Dave Sifry was quite self-deprecating about it). So instead of unclear words like “cosmos” to get you to a site’s report of inbound links, there’s now an unclear blue, oval icon (but at least it’s cleaner). But here’s the odd thing: Instead of saying that you have so many inbound blogs, you now have so many “fans” and instead of so many inbound links, you now have “inbound references.”

But they’re not fans. Some of the people who link to me (and vice versa) are, instead enemies. And what’s wrong with the word “link?” It’s clear and short.

Cleaning up is a good thing. But sometimes you can try too hard.

: UPDATE: Nevermind. I caught them playing. Now it’s all back to normal. Life is a work in progress and I love watching it.

Good-bye, Iraq
: Adam Curry finishes his week on the air in Iraq and takes in local customs:

Lots of customs and traditions to follow during this high-level meeting.We all sat with our legs folded and never ever made the mistake of pointing our feet toward anyone in the room, a major insult. We were served tea in small shot glasses filled halfway with sugar, followed by tiny cups of coffee goop. Unless you politely tipped your cup from left to right the brew would keep on comin. I was able to stomach two cups. Hardcore stuff.

Citizens report… in Korea
: I’ve been waiting for this for a long time: OhMyNews, the amazing citizen-powered news site in South Korea, now has an English-language edition. From the welcome exactly four years ago:

Four years ago today, Oh Yeon Ho, CEO and the founder of OhmyNews logged on OhmyNews server and declared the birth of new journalism. It was the first step of saying a final goodbye to 20th century journalism….

Born in the spring of the new millennium, OhmyNews declares it is making a complete departure from the media culture of the 20th century. We are going to change the culture of how news is produced, distributed, and consumed, all at one time.

Every citizen’s a reporter. Journalists aren’t some exotic species, they’re everyone who seeks to take new developments, put them into writing, and share them with others….

Our weapon is the proposition that “every citizen is a reporter.” We intend to achieve a “news alliance of news guerillas.” We will be unfolding a second NGO (news guerilla organization) movement.

We have three main tactics.

-Abolish the threshold to being a reporter.

-Break down the set formula for news articles.

-Demolish all walls that separate media….

OhmyNews is changing the culture of news consumption. Readers will be able to add their views to each and every article. And for the first time anywhere, readers will have the authority to determine much about how much news guerillas are paid for their articles.

More than anything else, OhmyNews is changing the way people think about what’s newsworthy….

*OhmyNews currently has over 35 dedicated staff reporters. On any given day, more than 30,000 citizen reporters post their stories on regular basis.

Finally, with some of OhMy in English, we can learn from their remarkable success.

Here’s a NY Times story on OhMy. And here’s a Dan Gillmor column about it. [via SmartMobs]

Monsieur Dean
: Loic Le Meur helped a likely candidate for the presidency of France to start a blog.

A gathering of brains
: So as I mentioned below, I ran into David Isenberg today and he is getting his WTF (let it stand for what you want) nonconference conference together for April 2-4. He’s getting a good crowd of smart folks and wants more. The hotel rooms are running out (though you can stay at other local venues). I’m trying to wrangle a scheduling conflict to go. If you are interested in the future and the power of stupid networks (David’s expertise) and all the cool things they can and will do, then go.