This Week In Blogs
So, our News Editor decided we should have a small portion of the paper dedicated to technology, and, knowing how obsessed I am with this stuff, asked if I was interested in contributing, even just a sidebar. I came up with "This Week In The Blogosphere". Surprisingly, the whole thing took only fourty minutes to put together, and I'm quite happy with the way it looked in print. Here's the original column, before she butchered it (just kidding, Amy).

Blogger In Major Jeopardy
Blogger Jason Kottke [kottke.org] was hit by the threat of a lawsuit from Sony this week for posting a scoop about Ken Jennings Jeopardy loss. Kottke had been the first to report that the record-setting Jeopardy champion was going to lose way back in July, but early last week Jason posted an audio clip of Jennings losing on a question about H&R Block. Even though many news organizations reported the news, Kottke was hit with suit, in his opinion, because as "an individual weblogger with relatively limited financial and legal resources", he cannot afford to fight this in court, and has made him question his willingness to continue blogging.

Voting Begins In 2004 Weblog Awards
Voting has opened in the 2004 Weblog Awards. With this being the "Year of the Blogger" (see [related article about Webster's declaring "blog" word of the year]), the awards represent a significant step towards recognition of the top bloggers. Leading the vote for the title of "Best Overall Blog" is Markos Zuniga, writer of Daily Kos [dailykos.com], with 24.6% of the votes. Kos is known for, when discussing the killings of four American contractors in Fallujah, saying, "I feel nothing... Screw them". Behind Kos is right-wing blogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs [littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog], Media Matters for America fellow Duncan Black of Eschaton [atrios.blogspot.com], National Review's John Derbyshire [nationalreview.com/thecorner], University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit [instapundit.com], and Powerline [powerlineblog.com], which is written by three attorneys. Voting continues through December 15.

Blogging For Bucks
Content Management System company Marqui, in an effort to increase visibility of their company, began a first-ever pay-for-blogging program. Bloggers receive $800 a month for simply mentioning the company at least once per week, and placing a link to their website. Marqui is attempting to circumvent traditional advertising and market directly to consumers by joining the blog conversation, with product placement on 17 blogs, including this author’s own.

New York Times Begins Blogging
New York Times tech guru David Pogue, who has written a weekly column for the Old Gray Lady’s Circuits section since 2000, has become the newspaper’s first blogger, posting every weekday at Pogue’s Posts [http://www.nytimes.com/technology/poguesposts/]. Pogue posts about technology that catches his eye, like the Toyota Prius hybrid and Netflix, and media coverage of the same. It is part of an expanded online strategy by the Times, which includes making the entire archive of the Circuits section free of the $3/article fee the rest of the paper charges, and weekly videos showing the latest gadgets in action.

Microsoft Launches Blog Service
MSN this week launched Spaces, a free service that allows users to write their own blogs. The service, called MSN Spaces [spaces.msn.com], is designed to compete with Google’s Blogger, Typepad, LiveJournal, and Xanga. Spaces, besides posting their thoughts, can share music playlists which friends can download and personal photos. Spaces integrates with other Microsoft services, including Hotmail and MSN Messenger, to allow posting from anywhere, and to update readers when their favorite blogs have new posts. Microsoft is hoping to capture the vast amounts of people who are interested in starting blogs, but have neither the technical expertise nor the time required for more established blog services.

Obviously, I added the formatting now, since there are no URLs in print (what is the preferred way to print URLs without breaking up a column?). Anyway, I enjoyed breaking a little of the wall between my blogging life and my professional life, and I might see this become a regular feature in a few weeks, if it goes over well. I'll be soliciting you guys for ideas if and when it does happen, so don't let me down.

Oh, and I hope Marqui feels like its getting its money's worth. I'm only obligated to mention them in my blog, and here I gave them some real-world press. For those that have forgotten, Marqui is paying me to mention them here once a week. There, that wasn't so hard, was it?
- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 12/08/2004 05:28:00 PM