Here’s a pretty good blog post about Erik Hauser, one of the smartest dudes I know who happens to be involved in a ton of stuff of which you ought to be aware. Keep him, Swivel Media, IXMA and the EMF on your radar and you won’t be sorry.
Wired was just one of the gazillion Web sites and newspapers recently reporting on how the CIA, the Vatican, the Democratic Party and others have been, um, updating Wikipedia entries.
This is sorta old news, but the story has stronger-than-usual legs because of Wikipedia Scanner, a new tool that matches IP addresses with Wikipedia edits to more easily reveal who is making those edits.
Here’s a page that details some of the most interesting recent edits.
Ultimately, this story will reflect more poorly on those caught doing self-serving edits than it will on the veracity of Wikipedia. If you’ve done any Wikipedia writing or editing, you probably already know that scrutiny of Wikipedia itself is far more intense than most people realize. You may get away with something, but not for long. Which is more or less what this article in today’s Times is about.
Takeaway for marketers: If you’re editing your company’s Wikipedia entry, do it from home. Oh, and edit objectively … because people will notice.
According to this Bridge Ratings study, there are currently about 3 million regular listeners of podcasts in the United States. That number is projected to grow to about 10 million by 2020.
Whether those current and projected numbers are reasonably accurate, I have no idea. After all, back in early 2006, Arbitron estimated that there were 27 million podcasst listeners in the U.S. Go figure.
But: It’s interesting to take a look at the top podcasts downloaded via iTunes. As I write this, five of the top 20 podcasts are from NPR, and a sixth is from Chicago Public Radio: This American Life, which in fact ranks number one.
Also interesting (to me, anyway, since one of my college majors was philosophy) is that two of the top 20 podcasts are philosophical in nature: Philosophy Bites (I’ve listened to several of these, and it’s pretty good) and The Philosophy Podcast.
Given a media landscape where awful reality shows, celebrity “news,” the glorification of the shallow and mindless drivel are collectively relentless, I find this to be a hopeful sign.
“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.”
—Isaac Asimov
