DefinitiveInk

links for 2009-06-30

• Dear Malcolm: Why So Threatened? | Epicenter | Wired.com
  Chris Anderson responds to Malcolm Gladwell
• On a Mission to Mark Places of Long-Forgotten Historic Moments - NYTimes.com
  NYT article about the Here is Where project.
• Here Is Where
  A quirky and brilliant project to document forgotten US places of historical interest.

links for 2009-06-29

• Malcolm Gladwell: Chris Anderson Is Wrong About "Free"
• Self-Service Nation: Why Targeting Small Business Is Good Business

links for 2009-06-25

• All About Blog Design: Customizing colors for the Journal theme
  I love the new default Journal Black theme in Typepad. I als love the fact that you can customize it without switching to Advanced templates. Here is a post by the themes designer that explains how to change things in the custom CSS. My only wish is that he had outlined the entire CSS this way. Since I want to tweak some alignments and get rid of the dingbat that sits on each post and (annoyingly each page)
  (tags: typepad)
• ColorSchemer - Online Color Scheme Generator
  I'm making a few author sites right now and just found this awesome palette maker. Great for thinking about color sets.
  (tags: tools design)
• Informed Comment: Washington and the Iran Protests: <br> Would they be Allowed in the US?
  Juan Cole has some very good and sadly true observations thinking post, ...Moreover, very unfortunately, US politicians are no longer in a position to lecture other countries about their human rights. The kind of unlicensed, city-wide demonstrations being held in Tehran last week would not be allowed to be held in the United States...

HuffingtonPost launches NY edition

Katharine Zaleski: HuffPost New York: A Plan For Showcasing The City's Local News Sources

"When we decided to launch HuffPost New York we decided that if we were going to cover the city it was not only crucial to reach out to the best local sources, but to also explore ways that HuffPost could partner with these sites."

This is going to be really interesting. Collaborating with the Gotham Gazette, The Brooklyn Rail etc.

Tips for cooking in a small kitchen - Melissa is FINALLY going to start blogging!

Earlier today, one of my closest friends was on Leonard Lopate talking about how to cook in a small kitchen and the team at WNYC shot the video below. I built Melissa's site several years ago and it has been a place for her to post her articles, her books, and her contact info. For years now I've been saying blog this, blog that but she wasn't interested. Nor was she alone among my more established author friends in saying - "why should I write for free?" I would respond with things about brand, online presence, broaden her following, etc. Well she's decided it is finally time, or it will be once I get off my ass and update her site, for her to start blogging

Melissa has sold a book based on her fantastic New York Times Good Appetite columns, and we are going to set up a blog that shares the creation of the book. The blog will let people follow along in the making of the book; from testing and photos to fun little videos. Melissa is also one of the leading co-writers for cookbooks, by which she helps transform a chef's vision into something usable for the home cook. She also lives a far more glamorous life than you or I. Perhaps my standards have been lowered a bit lately as the mere act of leaving the house to eat in a restaurant mid-day or after 6:30 qualifies, but she does eat well, and she eats everything, so the blog will have some things to keep an eye out for. It may even have some kitchen disasters. I'm so pleased and I think I've even gotten her to try twitter to broadcast new posts. So watch out there is a new food blog on the block - um or there will be by next week.

links for 2009-06-22

• funny image of page layouts - online journalism from a few year's ago, online journailsm today.
• Online Ads: To Build Display, Yahoo Joins Self-Serve Fray - Advertising Age - Digital
• Informed Comment: Chatham House Study Definitively Shows Massive Ballot Fraud in Iran's Reported Results

Sometimes in NYC you buy a car to fit the spot

We spotted the car of one of our favorite restaurants parked in this seemingly custom parking spot on Third Avenue. Until some of the SMART car owners up in the Slope decide to risk parking their little bright cars down the hill, the owner of the ChipShop should be able to park his tricycle here on a regular basis.

We love the ChipShop, because of the food and not just because it is around the corner, and we've recently discovered a great trick for ordering there. Get a child's size portion; plenty big, you'll have room for a pudding, and it won't send you off hungry or feeling ill. If you go before 6:30 there is also a discount.

links for 2009-06-20

• Why I Hate Social Media
  provocative title, not really a hater just someone who likes good ideas and not labels. worth a read.
• Informed Comment: "I'm Listening to all my Favorite Music; <br> Maybe Tomorrow I will be Among those Killed"
  moving translation of a post from an Iranian student on the eve of her participating in the demonstration tomorrow

A great CSA grows in Brookyn

I'm a member of the Park Slope Coop which is its own kind of local food animal in itself so I have a bit of a problem joining a CSA, but if it weren't for the fact that I'm already working 2.5 hours a month for my food I would seriously consider joining and supporting the Upper Meadows Farm CSA. Members of the CSA pick up their shares at the Farmer's Market at the Old Stone House Park on 3-5th Street & 5th Avenue. In fact if they keep sending me newsletters with links to the haul of the week that includes things like; cardoons, nettles, onions, kale, and amaranth, I may break down and just join. Their rates seem very reasonable and the folks at their booth are very nice. Their site has a photo of the farmer playing a trombone to some happy looking geese so what's not to like? If you don't want to join you can buy most of these things at their booth.

links for 2009-06-19

• New York City Homicides Map - The New York Times
  another great map from the NYT data visualization group. Looks like living in Park Slope is a good bet for not getting shot. Would love it if they could devote some time to laying in some other eras. As a child of the Upper West Side in the 70's I'd like to see if it was a blissful as I remember it to be or as much of a badlands as some say.
• Do-It-Yourself SEO Advice For SMBs
  really good article laying it all out
  (tags: seo search business)

Knight News Challenge winners for 2009 announced, I'm not one of them :(

The list of winners for the Knight News Challenge were just announced. They look really interesting. Gotham Gazette, one of my daily reads for NYC, got one to form a wiki on the City Council. A big grant went to ProPulbica and the NYT for a db of public records, a really interesting one went to create tools to make community news data visualizations.

Jake Dobkin of Gothamist and I were finalists for this contest for a project we collaborated on. We wanted to create a site for placebloggers to collaborate and share stories. The project also gave them access to tools like Reuters, and Lexis Nexis so they could compete with professional journalists. Looking at this list I see that we asked for much to much money. I'm sure there were other reasons we didn't win too but that really stands out. I don't see an everyblock in this group but who knows.

Josh Marshall (TalkingPointsMemo) on The Colbert Report

One of my favorite editors appears on Colbert. "If you are a blogger why aren't you wearing a bathrobe.." Fun interview.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Joshua Micah Marshall
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

links for 2009-06-16

• More Verticals from Citysearch « Screenwerk
  really interesting. Sugarbomber collection of deserts eventually leads to listings.
  (tags: local directory)
• Lisa Petrides: Digital Textbooks, Real Gains for Education
  a great Huffington Post blog entry about Gov Schwarzenegger's plan to make California the first state to provide schools with FREE DIGITAL Textbooks. Exciting to read about and excited to see Lisa's post.
  (tags: education e-books publishing)
• NYCityMap • DoITT • City-Wide GIS
  NYC.gov new version of their NYC map (via ManhattanUsersGuide.com)
  (tags: maps newyork opensource)
• Visiting Building 43 - transcript of an impromptu interview of Fred Wilson by Robert Scoble
  Robert: They explain times in the web, you know, the 1994 Web was about getting a web page. In 2001, it was about adding people and interactivity to those pages. And the 2010 Web is… Fred: Well, I think, it's real time, for sure. I think it's distributed in the sense that things are going to happen outside of where they start, the whole concept of sort of apps on the iPhone or apps on Facebook or Twitter apps, big part of what's going on now that's going to go mainstream. You know, the way you experience Twitter is through FriendFeed and that's not an entirely obvious thing to most people that, you know, they can use one service through another service and then maybe another service on top of that. And I think that's all part of the 2010 Web. I think games, not so much playing games because we all play games on the Web but, it started to take the notion of what is playing a game and bring it in to more Web services, the notions of virtual currencies and establishing status...
  (tags: internet technology trends)
• New York Observer Owner Buys IAC's Very Short List, Fires Everybody (IACI)
  i like(ed) VSL at least the promise of it. I blogged about it and thought it could have achieved more of its original promise. they were moving vertically etc. sad ending. i'll be unsubscribing tomorrow.
  (tags: media)
• Updated: HuffPo Changes CEOs: Betsy Morgan Being Replaced By SoftBank's Eric Hippeau | Industries | Reuters
  (tags: media)
• New Glimpses of Life’s Puzzling Origins - NYTimes.com
  scientists getting closer to finding life's origins. neat movie too.
  (tags: science)
• Putting Strategy Comes Up Short, Study Finds - NYTimes.com
  risk aversion and golf - with the annual father-son debacle coming up I have to remind myself that putts are all the same. “"Par putts just seem to be more critical because if you miss you drop a shot — if you miss a birdie putt, it doesn’t seem to have the same effect,” said Jim Furyk, one of the Tour’s best putters." given that I haven't played since last October I might just be thankful for the chance to putt period

"please keep your hands in this moment at all times", my accidental discovery of Sprint's now campaign

I rarely, if ever, click through banners. In fact I was going to post something making fun of the banner below I found it annoying as the GPS usage only went up and there were no postings of celebrity sightings it had a pseudo real feel. I'm not entirely sure why I clicked through maybe I thought there was something local going on but I'm really glad I did as I happened upon a nice piece of art.

Look at it, other than the Sprint promos which as is my usual practice I'm ignoring, there is some amazing fun stuff going on. In fact I don't even know what the page is trying to sell me. What I do know is that it is full of odd factoids, little cranes, pong, music, moving numbers, and music. There is some ambient music in the background as a women's voice says things like, "13,600 letters are being mailed each now, Your body just made 50 million new cells....your heart is beating now, and now, and now". Plus it seems to come in different flavors. The link above is to the page I clicked through. Going to http://now.sprint.com takes you to a different version of the site and a widget. It also led me to discover the wonderful Atlas Obscura, which is a kind of geographical Ripley's Believe it or Not (and probably already a book too),  from the Boing Boing link on the top left which I think is some kind of rotating RSS feed.

links for 2009-06-13

• Why I went on "The O'Reilly Factor" - Joan Walsh - Salon.com
  Joan Walsh appeared on O'Reilly to talk about the murder of Dr. Tiller. I watched the video on the Huffington Post. Rather surreal watcing her hold her own, talk while he was yelling. She wrote a great post about the experience.
  (tags: politics)
• Vital Voices Blog » London Premiere of SEVEN
  A post about the London premiere of my mother's project SEVEN; 7 interwoven monologues by different female playwrights of interviews with 7 amazing female civil rights leaders.
  (tags: theater politics)

links for 2009-06-12

• Ten Ideas That (Might) Save Local Newspapers | paidContent.org
  two areas I am all over right now - ask if you are interested.

  8. Readers like database projects: It’s all about getting local; readers want anything that focuses on their particular world. Mapping and database initiatives are pretty novel ways of attracting readers.

  9. You’re in the directory business: Newspapers missed out early on by not broadening their advertiser mix to include plumbers and pizza places. Online directories snapped up those dollars when the space was still growing substantially. Still, better late than ever, a number of newspapers have been turning to local businesses they previously ignored. And given newspapers’ continued brand advantage, they can set up their own local directories and beat the interlopers at their own game.

  
  
  (tags: newspapers journalism local)
  
  
• 
  
  Web startups compete on 'hyperlocal' level - Mass High Tech Business News
  
  
  Hyperlocal startups may have trouble differentiating themselves to web users at large, but to local merchants, the value proposition is clear, said Gaurav Tewari, a principal at Highland Capital Partners who focuses on consumer Internet investments. “They’re acting on a pay-per-performance basis. You get paid when you demonstrate some real flow of leads.”
  
  
  (tags: hyperlocal)
  
  
• 
  
  Recovering Journalist: That Loud Yelp You Hear is Newspapers Being Squeezed—Again
  
  
  The last really defensible franchise for newspapers is local news and information, and local entertainment, dining and business listings and guides are a critical part of that franchise—especially in the ways they can attract advertisers. But if Yelp is providing a better, easier to use mousetrap, just as craigslist did with classifieds, newspapers are going to lose big. Yet again.
  
  
  (tags: yelp journalism newspapers)
  
  
• 
  
  AOL Buys Tim Armstrong's Local News Startup Patch, Events Startup Going (TWX)
  
  
  i got a press release about this but i'l just link to this article as the comments are interesting as of right now (5:40) there are only 10 and all are negative. too bad as both services are really interesting and have lots of potential to expand under a larger umbrella.
  
  
  

links for 2009-06-11

• Hulu - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Wed, Jun 10, 2009 - Watch the full episode now.
  around 5 minutes in The Daily Show visits the NY Times
  (tags: journalism)

A kids book the Emanuel brothers shouldn't read out loud, or what kind of household did they grow up in?

Hey look, a duck!
It's a $%$%ing rabbit!
No, it's a duck you $#%%&*!!
It's a rabbit ^%^&&&!!!

I'm probably not alone in wondering about who the parents of the Emanuel brothers (and sister) are, so here is a link to an article in the Washingtonian from May 2008 that paints a picture and is worth reading. Take from it what you will but I think I have a better understanding now and can appreciate them even more. Before reading the article I didn't know that a third brother was so accomplished and is probably a loud voice on the healthcare plan.

In any case despite their accomplishments Duck Rabbit while a fine read isn't something I think they should tackle, nor is Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. "Let me drive the #@$@$@$ bus or I'll $%$%^ you!"

Brooklyn Based interviews Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy

BrooklynBased a great newsletter about Brooklyn happenings has a nice getting-to-know-you interview with Daniel Goldstein, the founder of Develop Don't Destroy the leading organization fighting the development of the Atlantic Yards project. Last week Frank Gehry's plan for a new arena and tower was dropped by the developer who is now planning a much more airplane-like hanger. Hopefully this will empower DDDB and others in their fight against the plan.

announcing decisionads self-serve real estate listings widgets

For the past several weeks I've been working with an old friend to roll out some products focused on local markets. The first one we are launching is called decisionads it is a service for realtors and publishers that creates very fast self-serve listings widgets/ads. I made one below. The ads contain automatic filters, photo slideshows, lead generation with a built-in CRM system, inventory management (this one is loaded with some sample data) and an embed code (optional). Our idea is that real estate agents could create them and add them to their blogs, fb pages etc. They can also be displayed via openx, ad sense and other ad networks, and publishers can offer the units to their local real estate advertisers. Real estate is just the first focus and quickly alter the form factor and sorting options for other verticals. They lie somewhere between classifieds and display very easy and inexpensive to make and maintain.  Next up are other verticals, a directory product with great detail pages which have a lot of functionality and seo which could be used for listings on a local, national, or subject specific focus. If you want to know more please get in touch.