If it’s not linked, does it exist?
: Terry Teachout has a good piece on the necessary ethics of linking. But he first makes an important point about the future of media and the necessity of links: We depend on our blog friends to find the good stuff for us and if they don’t, we aren’t likely to read it.
BloggerCon, the sequel
: Dave Winer tells us in the comments below (to the post about conference panels) that the next BloggerCon will be on April 10. I’ll be there. And maybe I’ll finally have a meal with Joi Ito!
Microsoft wish list
: Dave Winer spoke at Microsoft a week ago and he was asked what he wants the IE group to do. From Joshua Allen’s notes:
A: Two main things: 1) Make it easy to subscribe to a feed with a single click, regardless of users choice of aggregator. Needs browser support, cooperation of aggegator vendors. 2) Also make it easier to create posts from within browser, regardless of choice of blog server.
Anen to that.
Introductions to Iranian bloggers…
: I have a few introductions to make to Iranian bloggers (the world is fascinated by what you’re doing and wants to meet you).
: First, meet Stuart Hughes, a BBC journalist and a nice guy, is in Tehran covering the “elections.” I’ve urged him to do the story of the Iranian blog community; he wants to if he has time before his visa runs out.
If you’re interested in meeting Stuart, please email me and I will pass it onto Stuart.
I’ve also made an email introduction between Stuart and Hoder. Hoder linked to Stuart; Stuart saw that and tried to read Hoder’s blog but it was being blocked in Iran. (That’s why I’m posting all this here, since I know some of you read this blog.)
: Second, meet Claire Berlinski. Claire is the first person I know who wrote a novel and put it online, where it was discovered by a big publisher and now her book is in bookstores.
Claire is working on a new novel called Lion Eyes about a mysterious Persian blogger who may be real or may be a plant — that’s the mystery. Claire is also very interested in Iran. She wrote to me in email:
The novel will, I hope, illustrate some of the ways that the Internet and weblogging are changing Iranian political culture. I want to make this book as realistic as possible, and to that end, was hoping to consult with Persian bloggers about some of the problems and constraints they face. To give the character maximum versimillitude, I’m hoping to ask them about some of the textural details of their lives. I’d like to be in regular contact with Iranians who can answer questions like these: What can you see from your window? What are they selling in the markets near your home? What do you eat for breakfast? What newspapers do you read? How much do you pay for a quart of milk? What do you do for fun on the weekends? What Internet sites do you visit? How does your family feel about your blog? How has blogging changed your life? The point of this would be to garner realistic details for the novel and to create a convincing character who thinks and behaves like a young, Western-educated Iranian blogger….
I think in the end it will — at least I hope it will — raise interest among non-Iranians about these issues.
If you would like to help Claire — from Iran or from safer climes as expats — please email her at lioneyesproject@hotmail.com or you can email me and I’ll pass it on.
: If a kind Persian speaker would be good enough to translate all this into Persian, I’ll put it up on the blog here.
Video from Tehran
: Stuart Hughes of the BBC got into Tehran to cover the election. He filed a video report for us on his blog. (Which only makes me wish that more bloggers from Iran and Iraq and elsewhere in the world could and would put up video on their blogs).
: UPDATE: Lady Sun was interviewed for the AP story on Iranian blogs and here’s her reaction.
: And here’s a new English-language Iranian blog from a friend of Lady Sun’s.
