Day: July 1, 2003

From a quick visit yesterday afternoon to the San Francisco Zoo, two giraffes (click thumbnail for full-size image). About time I added an image here, although it will be rare. When family goes home, I won’t have time for so much noodling around here.

Was pointed to this Amazon blog via Scripting News. Made me realize that Amazon, like Google, really is anonymous to outsiders. I don’t know if this is deliberate, and it is common at big companies, in general (including my own, to some extent), but it’s refreshing to get any look ‘inside the curtain’ at companies that everyone knows and uses. EBay would fit the same category. As Microsoft blogs spring up like wildflowers (or so Scoble’s linking would make one think, at least… maybe they’ve been there all along), the lack of voices at other companies — at least, internet/software companies — becomes more and more noticeable.

What’s hard for companies is that voices do not always match brand. While authentic personalities and voices can forge stronger connections between readers/consumers and the company in question, those same voices can annoy/offend. I expect for most companies the risk of opening up does not overcome the rewards of turning away potential customers. Bland = safe. And, to be fair, blogs, like the people who write them, are not necessarily consistent. Consistency is a good company attribute, especially for younger companies, which have not yet earned the lifelong trust of their customers.

I still don’t know if blogs strengthen businesses or not, but they do make life more interesting for us corporate voyeurs. 😉

Mark Johnson opines that Stephen Ambrose is the “Michael Jordan of historians“.

Since his comment system appears to be broken (but isn’t, I’ve learned, so my initial post is there twice — Mark, fyi), I’ll post my response right here:

Doesn’t the fact that Ambrose has done a bit of plagiarizing bother you? (one report of details)

Greatest historian of all time is not only too strong for Ambrose, but a travesty to many stronger writers, storytellers, and scholars given his penchant for borrowing the words of others. I’ve read only one Ambrose history, Nothing like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869, and it was a decent story, but it didn’t sing. It was a good survey that made me want to read the originals, but nothing more.

By not doing work work, I’ve caught up some with home stuff. At least, the stuff that was on my list, like updating the kids’ websites and finally upgrading to NetNewsWire from the Lite version. I’m on vacation, in name, anyway, so it should be more like this — although newborn != vacation. My sister Laura has now joined (briefly) the family visitors, which is great.

Chris Sells talks about Learning to Learn
I recently had to teach a tool I don’t use every day to others, and it was illuminating. (first post via NetNewsWire)
[Sells link found via The Scobleizer Weblog]