I just deleted a post of mine, something I don’t think I’ve done before. I deleted it because it was substantially and completely wrong, as a commenter quickly pointed out. (Thanks, Max!) It was only up for about 15 mins, so it’s highly unlikely that it was indexed or that anyone else pointed to it, so I don’t think my deleting the post will break anyone’s links.

I posted on the basis of a friend sending me big chunks of a column by Fox commentator John Gibson that made it sound as if he wished PAris had been attacked instead of London. In fact, he says that he wished Paris had been chosen for the Olympics rather than London…granted that he wishes this because he would rather see the French have to deal with the security worries and hassles. I don’t like that sort of anti-French stupidity, but it’s not in the same class as what I thought he was saying at first.

So, since I was way wrong, and irresponsibly didn’t do more than glance at the original article, and because deleting the post is unlikely to break any links, I’ve just pulled it.

FWIW, here’s the original Gibson article. (It’s a no-follow link since Gibson undoubtedly gets off on “being controversial” and I don’t want to add to his pleasure.) His latest confirms he’s a heartless asshole. An “I told you so” in these circumstances is not just bad taste; it reduces the tragedy to the size of Gibson’s ego, which, while massive, is outweighed in the scales that matter by a single London tear.

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My British friends, we are all thinking of you today, even though many of us, like me, are not finding the words.

Some sources:

WikiNews

Flickr feeds here and here.

WSJ roundup of blog coverage

Technorati London tag

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Bob Katz, my friend and speaking manager, has a book out called Elaine’s Circle: A Teacher, A Student, A Classroom and One Unforgettable Year, “a true story of an inspiring fourth grade teacher in Eagle River, Alaska and a 10 year old boy diagnosed with a terminal brain cancer.” Here’s my favorite blurb of it, among many from the likes of Daniel Goleman and Marc Brown (“Arthur”):

There is an enormous library of books on education — the theory, the practice. But Bob Katz here gives us a book that gets to the heart and soul of teaching, of learning, by telling an unforgettable story of one teacher, one class, one year, one fourth grade child. — Howard Zinn

I haven’t read it yet, but it got a good review in Publishers Weekly and Bob is a good writer. [Technorati tags: BobKatz ElainesCircle books] [Technorati tags: BobKatz ElainesCircle books education]

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Andrew Rasiej will be a force for progressive values in NYC — not to mention all the free wifi you can eat — if he’s elected to the llittle-noticed office of Public Advocate. If you’re a NYC resident, the city will match any contribution up to $250 with a 4x donation — so your $250 gets the campaign $1250 — but only if you act by Monday, July 11th; by then the campaign has to have raised $125,000 to be eligible for the matching funds. Donate here. (Andrew was featured in the NYer recently.) [Technorati tags: rasiej politics nyc]

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Dan muses that the new media are actually tools, unlike the old media which were and are media. You could quibble with Dan that blogging software is to blogs and wiki software is to wikis as studios are to TV, i.e., that there are tools involved in all these cases. But then you’d be missing Dan’s point, which is not a quibble but quite a big one. To me, Dan is presenting the analog to the argument that the Internet is primarily about voices and conversations. Of course, I would think that since it fits nicely with the “argument” I made at all three presentations I gave over the past two days that blogs are not media.

In the course of this post, Dan writes:

In an interview with Larry Magid on ITConversations, RealNetwork’s Rob Glaser said [at minute 2:45] that in a given month over 90% of Rhapsody’s one million songs are played at least once and the top 100 songs make up only 1% of the listens.

Wow. [Technorati tags: DanBricklin media rhapsody]

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This morning I was part of a two-hour panel discussion sponsored by Edelman PR on the effect of blogging on business. Also on the panel: Fiona McDonnell of Forrester Research, Peter Olsthoorn, a journalist, and Richard Edelman, CEO of guess what company. About 50 business people and journalists showed up.

I went first and talked for about 15 mins on what blogs aren’t: Bloggers are not journalists (by and large). Blogs aren’t a medium any more than conversations are a medium. The long tail isn’t straight; it’s knotted with links and conversations. We don’t just talk about our cats, but if our cats are interesting to us, then why wouldn’t we write about them? There is no one definition of blogs, but I find it useful to pay attention to: 1. The way blogs are our selves in the new public of the Web; 2. The way the fallibility of blogs creates intimacy; 3. The fact that blogs are conversational in ways that the mass media simply can’t be. Finally, blogging is not a fad.

Fiona presented the result of Forrester’s studies showing that the influence of the Net is continuing to increase and that we trust other people like ourselves more than we trust authorities. (This finding is consonant with Edelman’s “trust index.”) Then Peter gave a journalist’s view, worrying about the unreliability of blogs as they gain influence. We hadn’t seen each other’s slides beforehand, and his final one flat out disagreed with my final one; his said “Journalism is for real. Blogging is hype.” (That’s a paraphrase.) What can I say? Peter is a very smart guy with a lot of experience as a journalist, and we disagree. Then Richard talked about how the rise of blogging in particular and the Web in general is changing the practice of PR. He is encouraging clients to blog, and writes his own here. (Disclosure: I am a consultant to Edelman PR.)

Afterwards Richard and I flew to Paris where tomorrow we have a similar session, moderated by no less than Loic Le Meur. Immediately after that, I fly home. I love Paris and wish I had more than an hour of free time here, but I am very ready to be home for a looong time…

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Glenn Fleishman writes in the NY Times about a Seattle cafe that gives free wifi on weekdays but is wifi-free on weekends in order to encourage conversation…

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First, on the plane ride here I read an article in The Times of London that cites John Palfrey, and tonight I come back from the Reboot social event, flip on CNN and there’s Rebecca MacKinnon on a panel about news and bloogging. What next? Ethan Zuckerman Brand soap in my hotel room?

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I read The Times of London this morning on my flight from London to Copenhagen for Reboot. There was an article about a squabble over who owns the “sandwich” domain name. And who gets quoted as a legal authority but John Palfrey of The Berkman. How far do I have to go before I can escape his evil influence? [Disclosure: In some sense, JP is my boss.] [Technorati tags: berkman JohnPalfrey]

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Intrade, an opinion market, now reports that the money has moved to a guilty verdict for intoxicating the kid but acquittal on the charge of molesting him.

My own bet: Michael Jackson will moonwalk to Vegas and phone in a report that he’s been kidnapped, thus creating the Mother of All Media Non-stories. The only thing that could make it bigger would be if he were a pretty, white woman.

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