WuzzaDem: Studio B: Don't Blink

February 20, 2007

Studio B: Don't Blink

[John]

Welcome back! Shepard Smith here with you on Studio B.

Is the blogging craze about to peak? There are literally millions of weblogs, or blogs on the Internet, covering everything from politics to pop culture, and thousands more come online every day.

But some analysts, including my next guest, say the public's appetite for blogs is waning. Joining me here in the studio is David Weber, technology guru and editor of e-Life magazine. Welcome to the show, David.

Thanks for having me, Shepard.

So, you know this market - is the popularity of blogs really going to level off any time soon?

Our research says it is, Shepard.

You know, we all have our own blogs here at Fox, so I like to think I'm pretty much in tune with what's happening as far as technology is concerned, but I have to tell you, I don't see how blogging could peak any time in the foreseeable future.

It already has, Shep.

What?

Yeah, it just peaked while you were talking.

How could it peak while I was talking?

Now it's declining rapidly.

I don't understand how....

Aaaaand...it's over. Nobody's blogging any more.

Nobody?

Nobody. It's all about podcasting now.

OK, um...so, a podcast is basically an online audio recording that you can download to an MP3 player, right?

That's a pretty simplistic explanation. See, podcasting is all about overcoming the limitations of what we used to call "blogging". Podcasting lets the author's emotions come through. You just can't do that when you're working with text.

Right. So if I wanted to start doing this podcasting, what would I need? I'm assuming there's some kind of special software that let's me record my thoughts and then get that recording online, so where would I find that?

You can get podcasting software just about anywhere, but why would you bother?

Well...how would I put together a podcast unless I had the software?

Come on - podcasting is dead.

Dead? But you just said...

Get over it, already. Do you want to sit in front of a pair of "speakers" listening to someone blabbing about what they had for lunch? V-Logging is what's hot now.

V-Logging. That's like video blogging, right?

It is primarily video, but I really hate to use outdated terms like "blogging" to describe this technology.

I gotta tell you, I'm a little confused, David, and I'm not alone. We're already getting e-mail from viewers asking why...

E-mail? Did you say e-mail? Careful, Shepard, or you'll end up like this guy.

That looks like a guy working on a laptop.

Exactly. It's like, Hello, grandpa? You need some coal to keep that thing going?

Why is there a monitor in your chair?

I'm back in my office. Nobody's doing the "in-studio" thing anymore.

OK, whatever. Look, I almost hate to ask this, but is V-logging...

$Studiobfractal$
Out. You need to be looking into social netwoking - MySpace, Facebook, Live Spaces. It combines elements of all the technologies we've talked about.

Um...I think there's a problem with the video on your monitor.

$Studiobfractal$
No problem, I'm operating as a fractal now so I can multi-task. I'd explain, but I doubt a guy who's still using "e-mail" would understand.

Yeah...uh, so you mentioned MySpace, Facebook, Live Spaces - which one would you recommend?

$Studiobfractal$
It doesn't matter, they've just merged - besides...

Let me guess - social networking is out.

$Studiobfractal$
Three words: Massively distributed collaboration. It ties together wikis, e-conferences, blogs, virtual communities.

Yeah. OK. So, where can our viewers learn more about massively distributed collaboration?

OK, I'm really not sure what's happening, but it looks like we lost David, or at least his audio...

Audio? You're still using Audio?

We'll be back after a short break to continue this...actually, I think we'll just talk about something else.

John on February 20, 2007 at 09:15 PM | Permalink

Comments

HAL: I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

'2001 A Space Odyssey' by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke

Posted by: T1 | February 21, 2007 at 12:13 AM

Words fail me.

V good.

Posted by: Simon | February 21, 2007 at 03:01 AM

My problem exactly, particularly with Windows (yeah, I'm still using Windows). Got XP back in '03, have finally achieved a relatively stable platform with it (no problems for the last year or so), and it'll probably be dinosaur droppings by the end of '07 as far as MS is concerned. And big fat Ballmer is already talking about their next OS (yeah, they're still using OSes) and promising it won't take 5 years like Vista did. So expect yet another forced OS "upgrade" around '10 or '11.

BTW, when will I be getting my flying car?

Posted by: Jeff H | February 21, 2007 at 06:04 AM