The Diamond Report

Like dolphins thanking the humans for their daily meals, I'd like to thank VOX for a great year of blogging in style. There has never been a more design and network centered blogging service nor has their been such a feature rich product that people can enjoy through and through. As I've stated before, there are some very appealing things about self-hosting via WordPress. So today, I bid VOX a fond farewell. I'll keep this up but don't expect much to be posted here. 

I'm contemplating leaving Vox, or at least drastically diminishing the role it plays in my online world (even though I use it sparingly already). There are several things about Vox that have begun to jump out at me recently that I make a Wordpress blog seem very preferable. For one, I can run ads. Even if they only bring in a few dollars a month, it's better than nothing. Also, I can be taken more seriously content wise with my own blog. Vox is a much more personal blog. I'm not sure if I always want my blog to remain that way entirely. Given the incredible functionality of Vox, I'm starting to notice how difficult and bogged down the interface is. It's very slow on my system. I just think something simpler and cleaner is called for too. I'm not sure what to do. Should I dump Vox completely, should I keep everything here or should I split the blog and blog personal life here and professional content on my own?

Not much blogging lately. Since finals have ended, I've gone through a lot. My grandma has died. I've launched a new show for MacApper.com (along with the summer season of TechNight). I attended a summer journalism workshop at the University of Georgia. I turned down an opportunity to sing in Nova-Scotia. Yeah...and it's not even July yet. Hopefully, I'll have more time to blog now so look for more from me soon.

So I'm rushing to finish FireRed so I can start Pokemon Diamond before the school year ends; I search around for an online Pokedex worth using, and I find zero! Some are weakly composed, others are populated well but designed horribly, and others are just plain nightmares. In desperation, I'm going to start work on putting together a comprehensive and well designed Pokemon encyclopedia (think Pokedex 2.0). It shouldn't be too hard considering it's a pretty static database and I've already drawn up a few design plans. If you can code, I can't pay you since this is a pet project, but anyone is free to help on this.

I had an idea today during a school presentation. Let's see where it goes.

    Earlier this year, my friend, Chris Lee's, Leoville Town Square Podcast got a lot of publicity becuase of a statement former TV/current podcast star Leo Laporte made that he was still bitter about ZD selling their TV operation to Paul Allen and Vulcan Ventures. In addition, this was the grounds for Laporte not appearing on his former co-host's own ZD program, DL.TV. Later debate on TWiT between Patrick and Leo defined lines between the two (Leo all but chastising Patrick and John C. Dvorak for going back to ZD). Many believed Laporte was just being stubborn with these statements. Well, no more.

    CrunchGear's John Biggs is reporting that ZD is (once again) trying to sell one of it's own. Reportedly, Ziff's "Consumer Small Business Group" is up for sale which includes 1UP.com (my favorite gaming site), but also PC Magazine (of which former TechTVers Jim Louderback, Patrick Norton, Robert Heron and John C Dvorak are all featured in), and also presumably ZD's podcasting operation and Patrick's own DL.TV video podcast.
    So, what does this mean for the operation. Pat should have listened to Leo here. Even if a buyer is found, nobody can tell what they would do. Many remember the violent consequences when Comcast purchased TechTV. Either way, it would seem independent is the way to go.

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
Submitted by sami711.

As school wraps up in Atlanta, I'm prepping for our twice annual trip to Freehold, NJ, with a few trips to NYC within. We'll spend some time with the family and I'll also be bringing the show with me. We'll be broadcasting a few TechNight's up there as well. Brad is clearing his schedule and we'll probably do our second annual holiday show on the Saturday right before Christmas at 9 PM. Should be lots of fun for all. I hope you join us at differentdistrict.com/technight. and on talkshoe.com!

    It always scares me a bit when podcasts get sponsors. Sure, it "could" be fine. Many podcasters (ie. Leo Laporte) are very firm that sponsors don't have any editorial precedence on their shows. But some netcasts are either already halfway in someone's pocket, or are so mum on the issue that you don't know where they stand; something that really stains a show's credibility.

    That's why I was very concerned when Kevin Rose (of Rev3 Studios and Diggnation fame) announced that his online TV and audio podcast: Diggnation, would be sponsored by Microsoft's Zune and HD-DVD! Now normally, a sponsorship announcement would be fine with me. You have to pay the bills somehow. But this situation is very different for three key reasons.

    First, Diggnation is in many ways a tech show. A large portion of their weekly stories are technology related. Now it's not that I don't trust Kevin or his co-host Alex, but they've played things so casually on their show that I've never heard them mention their stance on sponsors in an editorial context. In-fact, a number of companies (like Apple and Falcon Northwest) have been largely featured on the show because they have either given in advance, or just plain given products to the dynamic hosting duo. For example, Alex needed a new laptop a number of months ago. A rep with Falcon Northwest contacted him and sent him a PC with "Diggnation" etched on the lid.

    With Zune and HD-DVD sponsoring, this mix of tech sponsors with tech show content (much of which features the two products) makes me suspicious of how future shows will treat these sponsors on-air. Will stories involving Zune or HD-DVD always get a pro stance from Kevin and Alex, or will these stories just be avoided completely.

    Second, Diggnation is so popular among the tech community that anything featured on the show is provided with a huge amount of grassroots publicity. This sponsorship is a somewhat divisive move by Microsoft and HD-DVD to play off of an audience that waits with open ears to hear what Kevin or Alex think of a product. I'm scared the show hosts have already been bought off.

    Third and finally, Kevin Rose not only hosts Diggnation, but he is also the CTA and founder of Digg.com. The Revision3 studios that Diggnation is produced under is run by CEO Jay Adelson, who is also the CEO of Digg.com. Digg is a social news website with a large technologically literate audince and article base. Since the success of both Digg and Rev3 Studios is in the best interest for both Adelson and Rose, than what is to say that highly algorithmic story selection process on Digg won't be "aided" by the interests of Microsoft and HD-DVD?

    Now I'm blowing much of this out of proportion. Kevin is a good guy and I doubt he'd let any of what I've proposed above actually happen. Still, it's a scary thought that could be mirrored in many other podcasts to come. As far as Diggnation goes, Kevin either needs to speak up about this issue, or face endless retribution from the devoted fan-base that put him where he is now. It just scares me a bit, that's all.

In honor of Vox's launch tomorrow, what's your favorite feature or aspect of Vox?

Finally, I thought this thing would never actually make it to press time. Well, bravo Vox folks (I always forget your company name) for a pretty bang-up job on the service. It's fun, colorful, exciting, and...did I mention fun (oh yeah). A few flaws have crept into the site due to bad design advice and advertisements, but in general, Vox blows the pants off other social blogging services out there. Eat it MySpace!