Wednesday
10Feb2010

Frustrating Technorati Listing Requirements

36X78895FMNX

Sorry everyone. I realize that this is a completely useless post here in the Bloggish Observations world.  The Technorati blog listing service requires that a post with that lovely little numerical code appear here in the blog portion of the site so that their web crawler can verify my existance.

While I appreciate that they are trying to keep spam sites out of the Technorati database, they seem to have come up with an amazingly complex and user-unfriedly process for dealing with getting people into their lists.  And of course this is one of the areas I'm frequently called upon to deal with: Helping others clarify their message and communicate it in some creative way.  So if a real person from Technorati shows up here instead of the automated web crawler, feel free to contact us and we'll put together a needs analysis and produce a really simple video to explain to users how the process works (for a fee, or course).

UPDATE: Actually, I'm kind of impressed that Tchnorati has improved their operation so that the trawler came through in less than 12 hours, unlike the times several months back when I couldn't get them to look at my site at all (I host with Squarespace because I like their tech support, rather than the more typical WordPress kind of blogs). 

Tuesday
12Jan2010

Wish I'd made this: Did You Know 4.0

This promo for the third annual Media Convergence Forum last October in New York produced by XPLANE (I don't know them, but like their work) is a great piece on the changing medie landscape. The scary thing is that just four months later, a lot of the stats have already been blown away (remember when there were only 65,000 iPhone apps?).

No wonder it seems hard to keep up with all this stuff these days even after 30 years in media.

 

Friday
11Dec2009

Producers as entrepreneurs

One of the questions I get asked more often than anything else is "So what does a producer do, anyway?"

That's a good question, actually, since there are myriad definitions throughout the industry.  My favorite definition is "somebody who's got a friend with a script," though that's mostly a joke (though not always).

I'm currently involved in the largest non-media project I've worked on (even though there is a media and advertising component in it that I'd be overseeing), and I'm fascinated by how the skill-set required to be a successful producer in film, television, or media, is exactly that of the entrepreneur: Defining the business, seeking out investors, clarifying the market, finding top talent for the key department heads.

And probably the biggest advantages producers have when heading into the regular business arena: We're used to working under intense budgetary and time pressures, and we're used to rejection along the way and never letting it stop us.

So right now, I'm enjoying the entrepreneurship as much as the producing.  And finding it just as creatively rewarding.  I might just have to revise my business card.

Monday
14Sep2009

You're a liar whether or not Beyonce had the best video!

Civil discourse is dead in most circles. People with opposing views stop conversing with people who would otherwise be close friends, focusing on the 10 percent of things on which they disagree instead of the 90 percent where they do.

Click to read more ...

Friday
14Aug2009

Okay, I no longer hate Twitter

This is very difficult for me. I have enjoyed bashing Twitter as mostly useless babble, a platform designed to turn Ashton Kutcher into a pundit (which in modern times I guess he's as qualified to be as the next person). I tend to prefer to read people who are thoughtful, quality prose writers, and the 140 character thing just didn't quite click-in for me (honestly, neither did haiku, and plenty of people enjoy that)

Click to read more ...