Category: Weblogging

Categories
Weblogging

You’re here today because…

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Today is May first, and the reason why you’re here now (other than I hope you like what I write, my photos, or that the Google search that brought you here isn’t too weird) is because generous and sharing people answered a call from another good friend and contributed to keep this weblog and my web sites alive.

As a thank you, I wanted to give all of you shares in Burningbird in Blogshares, but I haven’t been able to figure out how this works. So I thought I would give you all virtual shares, and to let you know that you’re all now a part of the Burningbird Shareholder’s Association.

I’d like to say that membership gets you special privileges, but you already have access to my writing, my photographs, my technology, my RSS feed, and my return regard.

I don’t want to get maudlin and mushy and teary, because the water will put out the flame and it’s a bitch to get going again. But I did want to say that the support I received from all of you went way beyond just the monetary help. I’m not sure if you’ll all ever know how much this meant to me. All I can say is, thank you. Thank you for your support online, in my comments, helping me keep Burningbird running, and most of all, for stopping by, spending some time with me.

Thank you.

AKMA

Allan Moult

Andrew Barnett

Dan Ehrlich

David Weinberger

Dorothea Salo

Doug Alder

Elaine of Kalilily

Eric Grevstad

Gary Turner

George Kelly

Greg Valiga

Greg Webster

Jeff Ward

Jeneane Sessum

Jonathon Delacour

Joey deVilla

Karin Kross

Karl Martino

Kevin Marks

Laura Melton

Lee Harris

Lisa Firke

Liz Lawley

Loren Webster

Language Hat

Mark Wallace

Michael Himsolt

Michelle Goodrich

Norm Jenson

Pem

Paul Freeman

Robert Brown

Scott Hanson

Shannon Campbell

Sheila Lennon

Steve Himmer

The Happy Tutor

Tom Shugart

And to the others who asked to remain anonymous…

Thanks gang. You’re the best.

seat.jpg

Categories
Weblogging

Bloggers unlimited

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Bloggers Unlimited — now twenty-five members strong.

Because webloggers can never have too many places to write…

 

Categories
Weblogging

Sappy Woof!

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I am more than a little fuzzy tonight — way too much technology. However, in between tarring, gzipping, ftping, installing, testing, breaking, and re-installing, I’ve had time to keep up with all the linguistics discussions and I have to say how much I’ve enjoyed these.

It started with the now legendary Linguistic Relativism and Korean essay by Stavros, which Tom calls the …Stavrosian linguistic relativism thread. Then Jonathon sat down, joined the discussion, excusing himself momentarily for a quick cuppa, before returning to the talk. Language Hat, a very welcome addition to my blogroll, joins in, not surprising because he is a linguist after all. A New York linguist at that.

Is that an oxymoron?

Jeff joins with Tom in defending Chomsky, who must be tickled pink to be discussed within a linguistic context, rather than the usual “Let’s string the commie Arab loving bastard up” context he’s normally discussed within weblogs. Norm teaches us how to say ‘shit’ in Danish, which will come in handy some day. He also introduces his youngest son to weblogging. Since his son is a chip off the old Jenson liberal block, the conservatives in the audience are probably practicing their Danish right now.

My evil twin’s lover, Happy Tutor joins in, but people still come around.

Dorothea provides a wonderful discussion of Cave linguistics. Now you all know why she was the perfect editor for a book on RDF. Correction: David contributed this gem.

And these are just the more formalized writings. You have to read the comments associated with each to get the full, rich flavor of this discussion. Altogether, grand.

Og like.

I want to go back to school.

Categories
Weblogging

The Blues and Bourbon Mississippi Social

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Howdy. Burningbird’s evil twin here.

I wanted to send out a hail and hie thee well greeting to Liz and the new Many to Many (M2M) weblog at Corante. Especially since this drags Clay Shirky into the murky, strange sea-green depths of the weblogging world. Damn glad to have you here Clay. And with comments, too.

This is a good move. I’ve been out and about reading and one issue that seems to be coming up frequently is that folks feel there is an elitist as well as exclusionary aura to the whole social software milieu. While some of this feeling is warranted, some is not.

Dave, in a rather breathless and impressive display of seeing how many people he can offend in one week, on topics ranging from RSS to Moveable Type to social software, wrote:

 

It’s wrong. We don’t need this. Weblogs are about punching through the hype machine of idiot analysts and reporters who go for their BS. Social software has existed for years. What’s the big news? A few people are looking for a pole to fly their flag on. Pfui!

While I also dislike the we’ve found the ultimate solution hype that goes with too many “new” things today, seems to me that Liz and Clay and the gang are actually trying to bust the hype surrounding social software, as well as making it accessible with their new effort. And considering it’s a weblog, which should automatically make it holy and free from harm, like the cows in certain parts of India and oil companies in Washington DC, I’m surprised to see such vehement pushback in response to Liz’s gentle introduction at the blogrollers interest group and elsewhere. Boys and, well, urh, boys — if this ain’t your thing you don’t have to go to the party. I’m sure that M2M folks will find someone else to play “pin the tale on the donkey” with.

I’ll have to admit after this discussion, BloggerCon holds little hope for being a venue of open and honest discussion from differing viewpoints and interests.

Instead, I hereby invite all folks who would rather just chat and smile and talk and have fun, join me in St. Louis at that time. We’ll hitch a ride on the river boat, plug in our laptops, and blog the waterways while sipping bourbon and listening to the Blues. We’ll call it the “Blues and Bourbon” Bloggers Anti-Conference Mississippi Social. Leaves are right pretty that time of year here. Right pretty. Why they even match my tasteful, warm weblog decor.

Categories
People Weblogging

Winer Number?

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I missed all sorts of fun being on the road. For instance, there’s this Winer number thing that Mark Pilgrim came up with. According to Mark:

 

Here’s how you can determine your Winer Number:

Dave Winer has Winer Number 0.
If you have been personally abused by Dave Winer, your Winer Number is 1.
If you have been abused by someone who has been abused by Dave Winer, your Winer Number is 2.

 

Mark also lists criteria for ‘personally abused’, such as in an email or forum, or in Dave’s weblog. However, for those who have been multiply zinged by Dave, the number is modified, and your count becomes 1/n, n being the number of times zinged. So, the more you get zinged, the smaller the number.

Well, I used to mix it up with Dave fairly regularly but haven’t since I reached a surfeit on discussing RSS and RDF’s evil influence on it. According to Mark’s criteria, I’ve been ‘personally abused’ in group and personal emails, in my comments, in online forums including the RSS Development forum, and in his weblog, though the entries are usually pulled. I don’t beat out Bill Kearney for number of times hit by The Man, but I probably am the top rated, or should I say lowest Winer number, woman.

My evil twin says have fun with this, but then there’s this part of me that remembered the times when Dave pointed to something I said and made nice comments. And the times that Dave has pointed out people who’ve needed help. And I remember how much Dave has done for weblogging. There’s even been a few times when Dave’s joked rather than zinged, which he should do more often because we all win when he does. So my evil twin’s nasty but deliciously fun inclinations were suppressed in this instance.

However, I’m about to rejoin the RDF/RSS fandango again, because, well, girls just want to have fun. So I imagine that my evil twin will get her way eventually.