"Blog" Losing Its Meaning

So the word "blog" is losing its meaning, eh? I agree. The same thing is happening to the word "podcast."

To me, though, the issue is that marketers are really starting to dive headlong into blogs and podcasts without really knowing what the heck they're doing. That's what results in situations where marketers are calling something a blog that has no interactivity whatsoever but looks blog-like because it has a bunch of press releases posted in reverse chronological order. There are a ton of marketers who think that "podcast" is synonymous with "audio downloaded to an iPod" too.

In attempts to understand blogs and podcasts, marketers will try to force it into a mold they understand - the broadcast model. Thus, unless folks are vigilant, "podcast" will unfortunately become synonymous with "downloaded audio" and things that don't have comments enabled will be erroneously called blogs.

An End to the Bleacher Creatures?

Link Good article on the Disneyfication of ballparks.

I can understand the introduction of family sections. That makes sense to me. But eliminating the rowdy fans entirely? Nah. Sometimes we like to be drunken idiots.

Some of us grew up that way. I was used to sitting in the cheap seats until I got my first job in advertising. I often tell a story about when Mark Westlake worked for The Sporting News and gave me and my friends the four best seats in Yankee Stadium. They were so close you could reach out and touch the field. And I forgot just how close I was, to the point that when I heckled Derek Jeter for making a rare error, he shot me the dirtiest of looks.

The truth is, sometimes we like to sit away from the people with young children and the suited business executives taking clients out. We want to drink beer, yell like hell and carry on like neanderthals. Sometimes. That ability should be preserved and occasionally celebrated, not marginalized.

Today's Meaningless Phrase: "User Generated Content"

So folks are starting to learn that the phrase "Consumer Generated Content" is moronic, offensive and meaningless, as it defines folks who create stuff in terms of how marketers see them - consumers of products. And they're trying to replace it with something only slightly less offensive but equally meaningless and just as stupid: "User Generated Content." Why is this meaningless?

• What producer of content isn't a user of something?
• "Generated" is just a fancy-sounding word for "made."
• It's really a surrogate for "stuff made by somebody who isn't thought of as a pro at making content, like The New York Times or AOL or somebody like that."

Why is this moronic?

• The assumption is that there's a need to belittle folks who create and release content on the same playing field that CNN, The Washington Post and Yahoo play on.
• That's a silly assumption, considering that so many stories have come out of the blogosphere, that so many entertaining animations have come from independent producers and that so much of our entertainment and news bubbles up from independent sources before it hits the mainstream media.
• It's an artificial construct, and the people who use it should freaking know better.

If you do need to distinguish between established and new content producers, why not just refer to them by name?

BTW, I'll be the first to admit to making the "CGC" mistake. But I think it's time that we stop thinking that people creating things and interacting online is some sort of freakish thing that can't be explained without defining it in terms of what came before it.

Theory: They're Not Listening

I've noticed something about the line at Chipotle. The first time they ask you for your order, they're not really paying any attention to your response. I've come to this conclusion after watching the mechanics of the burrito assembly line several dozen times. No, the first query is designed solely as a stall tactic - really to fill dead air while the burrito guy finishes off the order of the person immediately ahead of you. You'll be asked what you would like to order and whatever your response is, it will be met with a knowing nod. Ten seconds later, they'll ask you again.

So it really doesn't matter what you say the first time they ask you. For laughs, respond the first time with an order for a twice-baked dogshit panini with rainbow sprinkles. You'll get a knowing nod and 10 seconds later, a second request for your order.