2006 February 14

Gnomedex 6.0 is in full swing. We've already sold about half of the available seats in the main hall – without having announced a single speaker or sponsor. Our friend (and past Gnomedexer) Derek K. Miller has offered to compile an official song for this year's Gnomedex, and I thought it'd be cool if we could get a few of you past attendees to phone-in an audio blurb for the mix. Pick up your phone, dial 1-888-472-0604, then “leave a message” with your thoughts on past Gnomedexes – or your general feeling about the conference. I can't promise you'll make it into the final cut, but be sure you speak clearly and loudly. Okay, even if you've never been to Gnomedex before – call in and explain why you might have wanted to go (unless you still want to go).

Read more on Your Voice in the Gnomedex Song…

Chris leads off this second hour with Jeff Sandquist asking why there aren’t more companies blogging as openly as Microsoft. Do people really get fired for blogging? The looming Xbox 360 addiction is on everyone’s mind including the acquisition of the much coveted marketing piece, an Xbox Live Diamond Card, which requires a small trade of personal information for a card adorned with gamer tag and free sandwiches from select locations. Technorati, Bloglines and tracking the conversation proves to be an elusive piece in attempting to get solid information no matter how you slice it; Chris hints at a possible solution. Chris relates a minor hardware snafu with his Vonage service and more.

Read more on Conversation with Jeff Sandquist Hour 2…

We're all sitting there, at the Northern Voice conference this weekend, listening to a few speeches on Citizen Media and the new forms of Journalism, when… I look across the room and witness someone knitting socks. Oh boy. Have we officially jumped the shark?

Read more on Knitting Bloggers…

Well, not specifically – but read what he's wisely ranting about:

Even more troubling? I keep seeing my posts reposted all over the place on other blogs without attribution. Often on blogs that are trying to make a little money from Google advertising and/or are mixing my content in with links to their own sites to try to spam Google and MSN and Yahoo’s search engines into thinking their pages are more important than they really are.

Heh. Yeah. That's what happens when you give 'em full RSS feeds, dude. Can't have it both ways, and I think you're finally seeing the frustration that many of us realized well over a year ago. I told you that full RSS feeds are idealistic, and that partial feeds are the easiest way to protect yourself from scraping and whatnot. The blogosphere is being used because some of us allow it to be used. You don't like what I have to say, and you don't like partial RSS feeds – but that's exactly what you're asking for, indirectly and completely. Love ya, but it seems I'm winning this argument. ;)

Read more on Scoble Asks for Partial RSS!…