And Then I Drank the Google Juice...
I thought I was coming to Blogs n Dogs to learn how to perfect my blog, and I did learn great tips for that. Authentic passion strikes me as the essential ingredient. If I write well about what drives me crazy with delight or any other emotion, including sometimes anger and indignation, then it won't matter what topics I address. This is a relief, since I had worried that I needed to corral my wildly eclectic interests into some kind of hierarchy and order. Instead, I leave Banff today with a Canadian license to blog on everything from Zen to XBox 360, French politics to puppy training, regional arts policy to Desperate Housewives, Emimen to Lord Byron, AA to Segways, poetry to porn. And I don't ever have to give a rat's ass about organized sports.
An even bigger payoff has been seeing how I and my little blog can connect to The New Web. The old web is a very large number of web sites that you can go to if you know their URLs. The New Web is more of a living being, with messages being sent like nerve pulses through the power of Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. Instead of just sitting there waiting for someone to click on them, web sites now can send blips all across the web when they are updated, so with a little setup work you can make the web organism bring anything you want to your screen, ready for you to read when you like. The New Web is also about new communities of interest and creative ways of finding your tribe. This part is still hazy to me, but I could sense it here in Banff. Like any good cult members, the people who have had their lives changed by the New Web are filled with purpose and connectedness. And the only juice we were invited to drink was Google Juice. If you have it, Google will find you and your blog more often than someone who is still drinking Kool-Aid.
You fill your cup with Google Juice by learning to how to operate spigots of the New Web such as Technorati, del.icio.us, Flickr, podcasting, the Creative Commons and 43 People, to name just a few. And then you pour in the magic ingredient: your own unique vision and voice. You don't have to wait for Hollywood or Random House to discover you. You discover yourself in the process of sharing yourself. Which, for artists and seekers of all times, has always been the royal road home.
An even bigger payoff has been seeing how I and my little blog can connect to The New Web. The old web is a very large number of web sites that you can go to if you know their URLs. The New Web is more of a living being, with messages being sent like nerve pulses through the power of Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. Instead of just sitting there waiting for someone to click on them, web sites now can send blips all across the web when they are updated, so with a little setup work you can make the web organism bring anything you want to your screen, ready for you to read when you like. The New Web is also about new communities of interest and creative ways of finding your tribe. This part is still hazy to me, but I could sense it here in Banff. Like any good cult members, the people who have had their lives changed by the New Web are filled with purpose and connectedness. And the only juice we were invited to drink was Google Juice. If you have it, Google will find you and your blog more often than someone who is still drinking Kool-Aid.
You fill your cup with Google Juice by learning to how to operate spigots of the New Web such as Technorati, del.icio.us, Flickr, podcasting, the Creative Commons and 43 People, to name just a few. And then you pour in the magic ingredient: your own unique vision and voice. You don't have to wait for Hollywood or Random House to discover you. You discover yourself in the process of sharing yourself. Which, for artists and seekers of all times, has always been the royal road home.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
