05/09/25 Blogging and marketing, links
05/09/18 Links
05/09/11 Current affairs, links
05/09/06 Katrina, links
05/09/25 Blogging and marketing, links
05/09/18 Links
05/09/11 Current affairs, links
05/09/06 Katrina, links
It all started when 'blogvertising' consultant and blogger Hugh MacLeod decided to do a friend a favour by taking on the marketing for Stormhoek wine.
Gaping void: Stormhoek - my latest gig
MacLeod decides to do something new and original: he's giving away bottles of the wine to any blogger who asks for them, with no strings attached. Recipients have to be over 18 years old and their blogs need to be over three months old and regularly updated. They're under no obligation to blog about the wine, but quite a lot of them do. Stormhoek's also sponsoring geek dinners (whatever those are, I probably need to get out more) with free wine.
Gaping void: Blogger's wine freebie 2345
Hugh MacLeod: "Stormhoek wine freebie" blog entries
Some bloggers feel the campaign goes against the cultural norms of the blogosphere, and criticism ensues.
Ben Metcalfe: London geek dinner with Scoble, 10th Dec 2005
Gaping void: Crappy wine
Plastic bag: A response to the rhetoric of weblog marketing
My take on this?
First of all, in the discussion the analogy has been made between MacLeod's blogger freebies and the free samples that get sent to people who review wine for a living, and I don't think that analogy works. Most of the recipients of MacLeod's wine are not going to be wine reviewers with a reputation to lose in their field; they're bloggers who may have never written about wine, and who may not even have anything useful to say about wine. That's alright, MacLeod doesn't care about their opinion anyway. What he wants is the free publicity.
Providing free publicity is one thing that blogs, or at least those blogs that carry links, do extremely well. Bloggers feel honour-bound to limit this free publicity to things that they consider worthwhile. In many cases these things will be free as well - an interesting post by another blogger, a well-made university website on a specialized subject, or a Flash movie by an unknown internet artist. Publicizing for-pay products is considered acceptable as long as the blogger makes clear that they genuinely like the product and have no ulterior motive in writing about it. Seen from this perspective MacLeod's campaign seems manipulative - using the free wine to buy attention that he might not have been able to earn just by being interesting or original.
Collaborative art.
Look at book (requires Flash)
(via Signal vs noise)
What?
Signal vs noise: Explain "information architecture" in 10 words or less
What?!
The Guardian: The question - is it OK for a public figure to say arse?
(via Plastic bag)
Mostly-tech weblog.
Technovia
Tailored blog.
English cut
(via Plastic bag)
A follow-up on the DNA affair: it turned out that both the police and the public prosecutor's office have made a series of grave errors and there'll be further enquiries, but the justice minister's position is safe. One complicating factor is that, at the time of the original investigation, the techniques that were used to analyse the DNA traces were still in the experimental stage. This means that, in addition to the pressure to "score", there was also the pressure to come up with definite answers when, in fact, there were none.
More Dutch politics and current events:
Dutch politics in 2005
Bush behind the scenes.
Newsweek: How Bush blew it
(via Metafilter)
Books by bloggers.
Blogrevolt: Will blog for book deals
Writer's blog.
Scalzi
Political blogging.
Bagnews
Stray cat blogging.
Strayer
Two affairs that were all over the news over here in the past week.
Dutch agriculture minister Cees Veerman turned out to be a recipient of European Union farm subsidies. There was an emergency debate in the Second Chamber of parliament, but in the end the minister was allowed to stay.
Related linkage.
The Observer: Dutch minister urged to resign in CAP row
IHT: Dutch minister got farm subsidy
Truth about trade and technology: Farm aid haunts Dutch politician
Expatica: More ministers 'double-jobbing'
It all started in June 2000, when 10-year-old Nienke and her 11-year-old friend Maikel were attacked in a park in Schiedam. Nienke was raped and murdered, Maikel was severely injured and only escaped getting killed by pretending he was dead. A witness, Cees B., soon became a suspect and was convicted to an 18-year sentence to be followed by mandatory treatment. He remained in prison until January of this year when the real killer, convicted for another sex crime, confessed to having committed the assault.
And here's where things get complicated. It turned out that, in the investigation that was carried out at the time, the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI) found seven traces of DNA on Nienke's body. Two of these were reasonably complete and could possibly have been left by a then unknown male. The usual procedure is that the NFI makes a written report of its findings for the public prosecutor's office. It's not clear what the NFI did or didn't include in their written report but they did, however, discuss their doubts about B.'s guilt with the prosecutor who was handling the case. The prosecutor chose not to share these doubts, or the information they were based on, with the judges.
This has led to intense debate in parliament about the role of the public prosecutor's office, and about whether the pressure to 'score', especially in cases where the victims are young children, gets in the way of justice being done.
Related linkage.
Expatica: Prosecution denies hiding evidence in murder case
Expetica: Leaked memo is not a confession, prosecutors insist
Expatica: Faith in justice system shaken by DNA revelations
More Dutch politics and current events:
Dutch politics in 2005
Making things safer.
NYT: Can design prepare for disaster?
(via Signal vs Noise)
Letter from a Shell whistle blower.
ShellNews: Forbidden words of a Shell whistle blower Dr John Huong - a Shell geologist for almost 30 years
Towards a new earth religion.
The Guardian: Karen Armstrong - Old world order
The end of motherhood as we know it?
BBC News: Embryo with two mothers approved
Anthropology blog
Savage minds
Life after Katrina.
Nola view weblog
(via Metafilter)
MGNO
Crisis Katrina
Poverty and the chance of survival.
Washington Post: Living paycheck to paycheck made leaving impossible
(via Metafilter)
Times online: From the murky waters of doubt emerges an uncomfortable truth
(via Metafilter)
The beauty that was lost.
New York Times: Do you know what it means to lose New Orleans?
(via Metafilter)
New York Times: A sad day, too, for architecture
(via Metafilter)
The authorities' response.
Common Dreams: Federal government wasn't ready for Katrina, disaster experts say
BBC News: Bush to lead inquiry into Katrina
The media.
Slate: the rebellion of the talking heads - newscasters, sick of official lies and stonewalling, finally start snarling
(via Metafilter)
BBC News: World press berates US over Katrina
Help.
BBC News: Hurricane Katrina - how to help
A truth about programming.
Google blogoscoped: Why good programmers are lazy and dumb
(via Hiveminds)
First-hand history.
Alexander Street Press: In the first person
(via Metafilter)
Self-defense in perspective.
No-nonsense self-defense: A different perspective on self-defense training
No-nonsense self-defense: What do you want out of this training?
No-nonsense self-defense: Five stages of violent crime
Silly stuff.
BBC News: Nazis' exploding chocolate plans
Please, shoot me now.
BBC News: Tartan designed for Dutch kilts
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