"Blooks" Are In Bloom

An Artcle in Business Week Online: "'I am now more open to blogs than I would have been [before],' says Judy Clain, executive editor at Little, Brown. And a dozen new businesses, such as Blog-based Books have sprung up with the intent of helping scribes turn their blogs into books.

Blurb.com has raised $2 million so far and is expected to announce another round of venture funding shortly. It's working on software it calls Slurper, designed to make converting blogs into books a snap. Due out this summer, Slurper will help writers strip blog entries of hyperlinks, comments, or pingbacks, saving hours in manual editing. Blurb.com will then invite bloggers to place their blooks into one of a half-dozen professionally designed templates, such as for a cookbook or a book of poetry. More than 500 people have already signed up for a test version of Slurper, says Gittins, a serial Web entrepreneur.

"Sign me up," says dave.

Carbondale Wireless

Carbondale Wireless: "The plan is for a municipally owned wireless network for the public. Public access for public service.

[Carbondale Wireless (James Throgmorton)] will be documenting the stories as they are presented by the people of Carbondale, and how they would like to use the wireless internet service that is hosted by the city.

This will also act as an information gateway for the use of the service. "

The Weekly Google: Walter Wendler, Professional Job Applicant

This week’s featured search is a local public individual best known for regularly appearing in regional and national searches for some of the top positions in academe. Based on the places looking at him, I assume that his current job – whatever it is – involves teaching or managing or organizing stuff and things of diverse sizes and shapes in new and exciting ways for varied and sundry arcane and mysterious purposes. This man is working harder looking for a new job than Michael Brown. (Who became, after his recent awkward appearance on The Daily Show, the first individual ever to be officially declared a national disaster area. When asked to respond about whether “resigning amid criticism” from FEMA had a role in creating the shame-spiral in which he currently found himself, Brown reportedly replied, “What’s FEMA?”)

Most recently, Wendler has been attached to a posting at Mississippi State University. Insiders in the search process have heaped compliments on Wendler as a “name” that has “surfaced in the MSU presidential search”. If that isn’t enough, this insider - in an almost obscene display of bootlicking - goes on to applaud Wendler as a “candidate” who “is said” by some to be “in the hunt”. High praise indeed.

Last year, Mr. Wendler unsuccessfully sought the presidency of Louisiana State University. In an often contentious final debate, the board of supervisors came to a closely divided “unanimous recommendation” to hire Sean O'Keefe. Former NASA director O’Keefe backed into the position on a technicality, impressing no one with his “exemplary record of public service.”

However, if Neil Steinberg has taught us anything, it is that most of us, like Wendler, are doomed to fail, miserably, bitterly, and unashamedly. So we, like he, must find our rewards on the road to failure, in the search if not the result. Rewards like sitting in a really nice car.

Wendler beats us to it: “Walter Wendler sunk into the driver's seat of the sleek automotive machine that was the 2006 Pontiac Solstice and admitted it felt good - much more stylish than the Ford Crown Victoria provided to him as a perk of his job.”

They gave him a Crown Vic? Who knew he was a cop?

Pass on the Corn, Please

While working on various things this afternoon, I was also listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross streaming on the Internet (from WBUR in Boston). Terry's main guest was Michael Pollan, journalism professor at UC-Berkeley and recent author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. Pollan's book tracks the lifecycle of "industrial food" from seed to plate. Of note: his discussion of how corn -- in the guise of high fructose corn syrup -- has infiltrated almost every area of our diet. Pollan calls the syrup a "marker" for highly processed food. If you are into avoiding such food, look for ones that don't have it on their labels and you've made a good start. When I heard about corn's overwhelming hold upon our diet, I nearly dropped my Hot Pocket.

Environmental damage, industrial farming, food processing, fossil fuels, over-fertilization: the list of Pollen's complaints is nothing new. What I did find interesting and new from his discussion was his methodical approach to tracking the sources of these complaints, his nuanced attitudes towards the producers of the food and his critical examination of the alternatives to the typical methods of production. Whole Foods Markets, for example (a chain of natural foods supermarkets that he sometimes frequents) are described as a good thing in some respects -- their food does come from sources that make pains to produce them in a more environmentally sustainable way -- but he also criticizes them when they get their products for sale from geographically remote sources -- like grass-feed beef from New Zealand. In the case of the New Zealand beef, Pollen points out that the fossil fuels required to bring it from there to here tend to negate the environmental benefits accrued through the circumstances in which it was raised and slaughtered.

It is local food -- no surprise here -- that apparently has Pollen most excited. Here you can have the environmental benefits of (potentially) sustainable farming practices AND of the lesser amounts of energy required to get the foods to market -- and to your plate. [Begin gratuitous -- and irrelevant! -- Japanimation allusion disguised as a plug for locally-grown produce] Carbondale Farmer's Market Hyper Robot Happy Fun Rocket Team Go! [End allusion]

I presume there are sources of local eating (and I don't mean eating in local restaurants) in Carbondale and the surrounding, but what are they? The farmer's market (Hyper Robot Happy...oh, forget it) of course, but where else? How much local food is at the Coop?

None of this is meant as a criticism of the practices of local food producers and produce eaters -- I'm hardly a poster boy for good eating -- rather more out of a simple sense of curiousity and of keeping an open mind about improving myself and my family.

Of course, the question that should be on all of our minds is, and you all are sure to agree with me here, "Can I select, gather and prepare a meal cooked entirely from local foodstuffs without ever leaving my house to select, gather and prepare it?" Let's find out.

The Neighborhood Coop is a logical place to start. Apparently, they do carry locally-grown foods. Can I find out from their website? No. Do they deliver? Can't tell. They do have all their newsletters in PDF -- these could be a potential goldmine of information about their products and services. When the documents finish loading on my computer later this month, I'll let you know what I find out. Strike one.

The Carbondale Farmer's Market is a local summer institution. Many awesome venders awesomely share the awesomeness of their awesome goods and produce. It is, you will be surprised to discover, unlikely that delivery is available. Also, you can't place orders over the Internet. Or even get online at the market. Strike two. (Bythewayit'sawesomedidImentionthat?)

Von Jakob Vineyard has -- according to their website -- 20 different wines. Again, ixnay on the nternetiay rderingoay. But...if I used skype to place the call, technically I'd still be online! Base hit.

For dessert, I'll order some fudge from Arndt's Fudgery in Newton. 75 flavors of fudge made fresh and delivered to my door? Can you say "sampler"? Sacrifice bunt.

Ok, so I couldn't find any local produce, but I did find some local food/beverage type products. Although if I am broadening my definition of local food to include these, I might as well just order a pizza from Quatros and be done with it. AndI will right after I finish this case of Honey Blush. And this last. piece. of. fudge.

In addition to the letter, I think I may have lost sight of the spirit of my original proposal. Getting drunk and wired on excessive sugar can still only be considered healthy in the future world of Woody Allen's Sleeper.

The moral? It's good to pause to consider the impact that the industrial production of our food has on our environment. And its good to realize we can't have a healthier diet without making some effort to seek out alternatives. Points to ponder. Right after I finish this awesome bowl of High Fructose Corn Syrup O's.

Junk on a Map

Living in a small to medium sized town like Carbondale, it's easy to get used to getting wherever you want to go in town in at most ten minutes. So, unless your job causes you to travel to other towns or the kinds of things you want to do require you to go far afield you probably don't have a lot of use for Google's maps feature (aka "Google local"). That is unless you are someone who must time-wastingly play with any new technology because doing so is hard wired into our nerd DNA.

It is also nerd DNA that makes us applaud people who find actual practical uses for this technology. One such applause-worthy venture is Garbagescout. Garbagescout is basically just a website where people can post pictures of street trash. The wrinkle that makes this cool is that these pictures (that people take with their camera phones and then email to the garbagescout website) are linked to specific addresses on a locally embed-able version of Google maps. Garbagescout is mainly in NYC right now, but this simple concept seems like it might catch on -- in other large cities, at least.

It is the downloadable Google Maps API that makes this site possible, because by using it you can create a google map for your interests and your local area to go on your website. It does take a bit of coding skill to make it work, but nothing that is beyond someone with knowledge of some basic html (because Google gives you lots of sample code you can use and modify).

Your local google map can have as much functionality as the original - including the ability to "tag" items of interest to a specific address with a marker and a little popup description. Sound interesting?

Just think of the uses! How about a map that continually updates the locations of (and provides an image of the merchandise from) all the garage sales in the Carbondale? Why not create a map that displays the addresses (and images) of all the most derilict buildings in the area. (I know someone was making such a list...who was that?...hmm, if I could only remember...) Or for fun, how about a geocaching-esque city-wide treasure hunt? (You are given the address and an image of what you must find, but not its exact hiding place at that address. The person who collects the most items is declared the winner.)

Or one could simple follow the Garbagescout example and post the images and locations of interesting bits of detritus -- I mean, there's always someone out there for whom this trash will be treasure, right?

I won't need to post mine because every time we leave something out by the street, it's gone in like 20 minutes. I just need to remember not to park my car too close to the garbage cans with the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition. Again.

Pay to Play

As bloggers, the staff of the Cyberdale often finds itself writing stories of stories of stories of stories of stories of items that originated from events and narratives that began their existence outside the net. This means news articles from traditional media, as well as public events that predate the Web but that now find new life and new spin from this generation of wired observers to name two kinds. But not today. Today, we bring you a story of a story of a story of a story that came to life because its creator is a blogger who thought to tap the power of his readers for more than ego support.

This is about Joshua Ellis who wrote a proposal in his blog that he would travel to the atomic bomb test site in Los Alamos and write a story about it if his readers would fund him to the tune of $500. He raised the money, set off on his trip, and posted the results.

It's definitely a good bit of blog-style writing - blog writing tends to be heavier on intimate personal observations juxtaposed with - sometimes questionable - sweeping pronouncements. Witness, for example, Ellis' observations on the city of Los Alamos: "It is an odd little place -- beautiful, to be sure, but it seems devoid of the sort of small-town closeness that other small American cities like it possess, where everybody knows everybody else. There seem to be a lot of strangers living next to one another in Los Alamos."

I'm not sure how much credibility we should grant a tourist on such a brief sojourn in reaching such a conclusion. Like most tourists, even especially sensitive ones, I suspect Ellis is merely finding what he expects to find. Or perhaps because he is himself a stranger, he sees strangers everywhere. Its also at least a little bit difficult to take completely seriously someone who posts a list of "ninja skills" on his bio page next to - and with no ironic separation from - his traditional professional accomplishments.

Having said that, we still enjoyed his essay and will leave it to the professional journalists, historians and physicists to say whether the information and observations in his essay have any lasting merit. We here at the Cyberdale are more interested in the very real merits suggested by the success of Ellis' project for how readers can now help determine the content they want to support and can use the power of the purse to raise the standards of the stories they get from the net.

And perhaps also raise the standards of their existing media. This might be a way for more traditional outlets to pick up a bit more of the investigative report they used to do but have gotten away from because of the effort and expense involved. I wonder if the Southern would be willing to propose multi-layered stories on local and regional topics to its readers with the understanding that in order to do them, those readers would have to make special monetary contributions above their regular subscriptive responsibilities? How about offering us a menu of special subjects that we can choose from with the editorial greenlight going to the one (or ones) that find greatest financial favor?

Or is this too much baggage to pack on such an unique, personal project? Its certainly easier to ask for a small amount of money to support something unexpected than it is to raise larger sums in an ongoing fashion for things we already pay for. Perhaps local bloggers might benefit more from this approach than institutional information outlets? Prefunding could certainly help those bloggers to raise their eyes and standards in reaching for stories of greater complexity than that which can be settled with a laptop at Panera fueled by coffee and a multigrain bagel.

The weekly google: Mayor Brad Cole

Each week, the staff of the Cyberdale uses Google's wildly popular search engine to learn more about local public figures. The search itself takes approximately 5.72 second on average (including typing time). But because we are all about creating an enriching informational experience, we put the items we find from that search into the kind of context you just can't create for yourself without wasting another 33.2 seconds of your valuable time. This week's subject is Carbondale's Mayor, Brad Cole.

The first listing on Google for "Mayor Brad Cole" is the mayor's own website @ www.teambrad.com. The site's alternate address is www.bradcole.org. Put them together and you've got one good source of information on the public activities of our mayor. After the revelation that his site straddles the worlds of commerce (.com) and public service (.org), one wonders if he is seeing the beginnings of a blooming political colossus (Dave would surely write, "Cole-ossus". We are not Dave.). A single internet domain containeth him not.

Mayor Cole is restless for new challenges. He has been- I think we're only scratching the surface here - both a mandala artist and a beverage label designer. His web listings stretch to a healthy 13 pages. And as a sign that Cole's political career is still in its infancy, it seems possible that some of these listings may not be composed exclusively from press releases!

A quick peek under Google's "news" tab and we get two more pages of mayoral insight. Not surprisingly, most of the news items are links to articles in the Southern. More suprisingly, there's only one item from the DE. This descrepancy is likely due at least in part to the Egyptian's policy of referring to Mayor Cole as "That Dude".