Day: April 20, 2004

Jeff Jarvis is leading the charge to develop a “trade association” for bloggers and other citizen’s media types, tentatively called (what else), the Media Association. In Jeff’s proposal, the Association would:
> Gather and disseminate statistics on the size and success of citizens’ media in terms of both audience and revenue: total audience; total traffic; audience demographics; author demographics; audience behavior online; audience buying behavior; categorization of interest areas; census of languages and national origins of sites; total projected ad revenue; total projected commerce revenue; collection of success stories.
> Set standards for the means of gathering audience, traffic, and demographic data and for advertising units and measurements.
> Protect citizens media practitioners by seeking libel and liability insurance and by seeking, through courts and lobbying, to assure that the rights of a free press extend to citizens who create media online.
> Promote the medium with advertisers, marketers, media, and newsmakers.
Jeff’s seeking comment and discussion, so drop by his place and share your thoughts.
I think this is a good and necessary idea; part of the natural evolution of weblogs. But one question comes to my mind: how, exactly, do we define “citizen’s media” to distinguish it from the rest of the media?
This is a real issue, given that the ultimate goal of some Association members is to make money blogging. If they prove successful, do they stop being “citizen’s media” at some point because they are making a lot of money?
I have to chew on this myself a bit; I don’t have even a suggested answer at this point. But defining clear requirements for membership seems a necessary first step for developing the Association…

So the Apprentice is done, and Bill is The Donald’s guy.
Expecting some great philosophical discussion of the significance of The Apprentice in our culture or the impact of reality television on civilization? Nah. It entertained me, and that was enough.
But I did have one closing thought. As expected, last Thursday Trump finally said the words “You’re hired”. But the interesting thing is that he did not say the words “You’re fired” to Kwame Jackson, the runner-up.
So, I claim that by the Strict Laws of The Apprentice Universe, Kwame is now existing in some odd state of limbo. Not fired — but not hired! It’s like he’s some kind of undead reality show zombie, doomed to walk the earth eternally unresolved.
‘Course, being an undead reality show zombie seems to be a good gig for Kwame, so hats off to him…