Speakers: John C. Dvorak and Om Malik
This discussion touches on the similarity and differences of blogging and journalism. The talk spread over a number of topics, touching on: journalism’s view on blogging; comment moderation; libel suits and how to avoid them; layouts and perception. Overall, a great session.
Some interesting nuggets that the speakers have left with us (paraphrased when I couldn’t keep up) are as follows:
“[Blogging creates an independent force that causes other media to be affected.]” -Dvorak
“[Bloggers are susceptible as much as mainstream media to trivial things like the loss of Paris Hilton’s PDA]” -Dvorak
“Bloggers present themselves as bloggers. This has to change [if you want to be credible.]” -Dvorak
“Institutionalized ankle biting…essentially ridiculing mainstream media by their incompetence […] which is driving the mainstream media nuts.” -Dvorak
“The blogging world will be rejected out of hand by mainstream media as they are annoyances.” -Dvorak
“Blogging has a special aspect[, comments. … Respect the comments, good and bad. Read them. Respond to them.]” -Malik
“Comments make many blogs.” -Dvorak
“Collected intelligence is the biggest difference and benefit of blogging. You have to read every comment and respond appropriately.” -Malik
“Moderate comments. […] Moderating is the key to success, really.” -Dvorak
“It is the writer’s job to read the comments and moderate them.” -Dvorak
“‘You Suck and here’s why.’ comments are ok…” -Dvorak
On permanence of articles: “If I write an article and someone finds an error…I fix it.” -Dvorak
“When you write a post, write it. Then step away for 15 minutes. Then come back. [Problems are found much easier.]” -Malik
“Read your post outloud before you post. You’ll find stupid errors.” -Dvorak
“[Neo blog layouts, even though it is a blog, gains credibility through an advanced design.] First impressions are everything.” -Dvorak (see: XXLMag.com)
“Use ‘douchebag’ to cut down people…not crook to let people know that someone is shady.” -Dvorak
Comments
One response to “WordCamp 2007: Day 1: Blogs vs. Journalism”
[…] is a reasonable summation of the session and here. More importantly to me a number of issues came up at the meeting which I may have to address in an […]