Wi-fly: Airlines finally connect. Kinda.

Just when you vowed never to set foot in a commercial airplane again, the carriers go ahead and do something like this. First, fifteen bucks for a checked bag. Then, $7 for a pillow or blankie. Now $9.95 for Wi-Fi on flights of three hours or shorter, $12.95 for longer flights, sometime in the foreseeable […]

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Memo to ESPN: Take out the trash in baseball telecasts

To: ESPN broadcasters and producers: So I’m watching bonus coverage of the Yankees-Rangers game. There’s all this annoying stuff on the screen as Michael Young comes to the plate with two men on and Rangers trailing by two runs. In an instant, Young crushes a Joba Chamberlain fastball for a three-run homer. The Rangers take […]

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The future of good is way cool

Last night’s Teen Choice Awards on Fox — okay, you caught me doing research– provided a glimpse into an activist generation that just may be remarkable. The Do Something Awards (formerly the BRICK Awards) recognized ten teens— or, like, seriously amazing young people, you know —  who identified and tackled big problems in their small […]

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Failure is an option

Sometimes Internet startups have a business model. Sometimes they don’t – and the story typically boils down to “we’ll figure it out” or “we’ll sell.” For consumer media and information services, more often than not “figure it out” means build a large enough audience to sell advertising around it. For platforms and tools, founders aspire […]

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Social networking’s bubble grows. How to capitalize.

Social networking is the fastest-growing activity on the user-centric Internet. The idea is that most anyone can join a large, loosely connected network of “friends” to share personal or professional information, establish contacts, communicate, align social activities, establish a personality or brand, and vicariously act-out life online. You pass your profile to your friends, who […]

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Why wemedia.com? Why now? Why us? The eggs

A long time ago we helped give We Media its name, so a lot of people ask why it’s taken so long to launch a blog about it. Others ask a more relevant question: Ah, why? I was thinking about those questions and the arrogance of blogging when the old joke, told by Woody Allen […]

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Help Wanted: WeMedia Correspondents

WeMedia.com is the new home for the We Media conference, awards and community – and for news, analysis and community-organizing around the global We Media movement. We’re seeking to build a corps of correspondents and editors to provide reports, links and analysis on innovations and current events in media and communications around the world. Correspondents […]

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Chutzpah: Why Craig can’t save classifieds

In an open letter to craigslist, Steve Outing asks its founders and operators to help save the newspaper industry from itself. My response: Steve, It takes real chutzpah to ask Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster of craigslist to help newspapers salvage their classifieds businesses and thus save democracy, or at least the part of it […]

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Amazing

Last night Mary and I attended an outdoor concert at the Wolf Trap Center for Performing Arts with friends. On a perfect summer night, we claimed a patch of grass on the hillside, uncorked a couple bottles of wine with a gourmet picnic dinner, and talked about the things that friends talk about as we […]

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