Article of the Day: The world of blogging according to TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld

1 April 2008

Article of the DayEveryday I highlight an article worth reading for bloggers and web-savvies, have look at the archive here

Six Months In, And 600 Posts Later . . . The Worlds Of Blogging and Journalism Collide (In My Brain)

Today’s article is written by Erick Schonfeld, co-editor of world’s largest tech blog TechCrunch. Erick has one impressive track record, since he has been covering startups and technology news for 14 years. He ran the main blog of Business 2.0 (50,000 RSS readers), won several prizes, made it to the TJFR Business News Reporter’s list of the “best and brightest financial journalists under the age of 30” twice and graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University in 1993.

He has been blogging for TechCrunch for six monhts now, and celebrated that fact with an insightful post about TechCrunch and his blogging experiences:

The journalist in me has been avoiding this post (too navel-gazing, too self-absorbed), but the blogger in me can’t help it. Media is changing—how it is produced and how it is consumed. The worlds of blogging and journalism are colliding and I want to get some thoughts down on this transition before I forget what the old world was like or feel too comfortable in the new one.

He then continues describing the growing influence of blogs, his 24/7 addiction to blogging, and the mantra of the TechCrunch crew: “We live or die by how fast we can post after a story breaks, if we can’t break it ourselves”. A must-read for every (tech)blogger.

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New category, Article of the Day: skills for journalists

31 March 2008

Article of the DayI use Fleck, Google Reader, Twitter, and Delicious. So that basically means I’m sharing loads of articles everyday. Yet I have the feeling, no, I’m sure, that most of these links get lost in the overwhelming amount of social bookmarks and Twitter updates. And yes, that fine. Except when it comes to those posts that have a little something extra. Posts every blogger or web-savvy should read. From now on I’ll highlight these posts on a daily basis. Here we go, no. 1, tipped by Edial Dekker.

Ten Basic New Media Skills Journalists Need To Know

Tom Foremski, a former IT journalist and and Silicon Valley columnist for the Financial Times, blogs on the Silicon Valley Watcher about the business and culture of the Valley. Besides the post I’m highlighting here, his about page is also worth your attention.

Foremski sums up ten basic skills for journalists, because ‘most traditional journalists can barely type (..) but they know how to create compelling media and are able to do it consistently’. The striking thing about this list is that the skills are really basic for experienced bloggers. Yet we – the bloggers – tend to forget that. So next time we complain about the lack of journalists in the blogosphere, we might think about improving accessibility. What about a New Media Skills Volunteer Group?

Update: Tim Overdiek, correspondent in London for the NOS Dutch public broadcasting posted two interesting updates on Twitter in reply to this post:

overdiek @dutchproblogger Don’t fully agree w/him. I prefer a journalist who can’t type but can tell a good story. Let others help the poor bastard. (about 18 hours ago)

overdiek @dutchproblogger But of course I love the top ten. (Although confession: Can’t do them all.) (about 18 hours ago)

Overdiek is a blog evangelist and even convinced some famous Dutch news anchors to start blogging. I admire his work yet I don’t agree with him on this. Shouldn’t we redefine the definition of a journalist? Just like a chiropractor has to learn new techniques, journalists should as well.

Times are changing, people have less attention and ask for a different kind of reporting (with deeplinking and all), so journalists have to adapt to these new needs. What do you think?

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First time on stage with my band Christina Five

30 March 2008

After a rather impressing Rolling Stones concert in Budapest during the summer of 2007, me and four friends decided to start a band ourselves as well. Not with the ambition to become as good as The Rolling Stones of course, yet we felt like it would be fun to practice every now and then and have some beers afterwards. I mean, every guy should at least play in a sports team or a band, we have chosen the latter. The band is named after a boat we used to party on, the Christina (Five).

We're ready to rock with our sle...Now, six months later, we were offered the opportunity to play on an open stage in the Verkadefabriek (old chocolate factory in Zaandam). We couldn’t think of a reason not to. It’s all about fun after all. And the crowd would mainly consist of friends, so the quality of the music wouldn’t be all that important. And so it happened. After three hours of jazz, we were called to the stage. As you can imagine, we were pretty frustrated by that time. Which is good, if you’re in a rock band.

So watch the video to see the manic performance of Jerry Houtman (key-guitar), Ridzert Beetstra (bass), Peter Evers (drums), Sander Ritman (guitar) and me (singer front man):

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Conference blogging made easy: a few tips

25 March 2008

The last couple of months I’ve covered three conferences for The Next Web: Le Web 3 in Paris, LIFT08 in Geneva and Plugg in Brussels. Before that, I didn’t really supplied my readers with live coverage. So when I opened my macbook in Paris, I was pretty surprised by the energy and the attention conference blogging asks. You have to listen, write and think about what the speaker is saying at the same time. Moreover, people expect you to post soon pretty fast after the speaker has left the stage.

Bloggers at LIFT08During Le Web 3, the whole act of live blogging was pretty overwhelming for me. After that, I started thinking how I could make conference blogging more easy. So I started working on a list of tips. Yet also during LIFT08 and Plugg I sometimes thought I was losing control. So I guess it really is a learning process, and this list is still just a start. I decided to publish it now, since The Next Web conference is on its way, so some preparation doesn’t hurt anybody.

Oh and by the way, I’ve left out the obvious ones like ‘charge all the batteries of your devices’. I assume you’ve thought about them already. If you have any advices to add, please drop them in the comments. Continue reading →

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This is one proud editor in chief!

20 March 2008

Yesterday was hectic day. First I went to the Web 2.0 conference PLUGG in Brussels, to do some hard conference blogging. It was a fairly interesting and well-organized conference. However I did find out that I hate panels. See the Next Web for more coverage.

I had to leave kinda early, to show up at the Dutch Bloggies – The Dutch Oscars for blogs – in The Hague. The Next Web was nominated three times (ICT, Technology and Marketing) and Spotlight Effect managed to get a nomination (Marketing) as well. I was happily greeted by my dear fellow Spotlight bloggers. After a few beers, the time for the ceremony had come.

Unfortunately The Next Web didn’t make it, since the jury thought the blog was too young. However, they did say that it’s a ‘very promising concept’. But the good news is, Spotlight Effect DID win! We celebrated and cheered so loud that the audience was really surprised. We stormed to the stage with 8 guys, where Jeroen Mirck handed us the award.

eroen Mirck congratulates Spotlight Effect, photo by Anne Helmond
Jeroen Mirck congratulates Spotlight Effect, photo by Anne Helmond

Standing there with my team was awesome, and I’m really proud what these guys have done. As I said during the ceremony: they’re one inspiring group of people. And yes, this is one proud editor in chief.

If you’re Dutch I recommend reading Philip Rouwenhorst’s post on Spotlight Effect. It’s really funny.

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Ask a Blogger Part 1: How do I get attention?

17 March 2008

Ask a BloggerLast month I was reading Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers by Micheal A. Banks. One of the thirty bloggers featured in this book is Dave Taylor. On Askdavetaylor.com he answers tech questions of his visitors. He inspired me to start a blog version of this concept. So, do send me your blog questions and I’ll give you my answer. You can reach me by sending a line to ejpfauth@gmail.com or @dutchproblogger on Twitter.

How do I get attention for my blog?

Two weeks ago, Corné Kox asked me on Twitter how he could get some traffic to his blog. Of course there’s a lot to read on this subject. Australian problogger Darren Rowse has written a zillion posts about original, dirty, simple and beautiful ways of driving traffic to your site. So I gladly refer to his posts if you want to know the basics.

My personal advice is short and sweet: do something extraordinary (and nice). In a blogosphere where everybody does the same: “The 10 best …” or “How to…”, the perfect way to gain attention is to do something completely different. Continue reading →

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An intense evening with Eels in Enschede

15 March 2008

When Mark Everett performs these days, he only needs one man besides him on stage: ‘the Chad’. Together with Edial Dekker and Peter Evers I drove 2,5 hours – which is a really long drive for Dutch standards – to see these two men playing the beautiful music of Eels in the theater of Enschede (Try to pronounce that if you don’t speak Dutch, The Chad came up with enchiladas).

My first thought was: how can only two men capture the rich sound of Eels? Yet after four songs, these doubts disappeared: I was blown away by the version of My Beloved Monster. Imagine Everett on just his white Holloway, singing the first lines, and then The Chad hitting the drums – to later switch to a guitar. Oh well, why don’t you just watch the video. (Recorded in Vicenza)

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So both guys mastered all the instruments on stage – although I didn’t see Everett playing the saw – and they knew exactly how to show that off. During a raw version of the infamous Flyswatter – due to Desperate Housewives – The Chad and Everett switched piano and drums twice, without stopping the music. Impressive and exhilarating! Everett managed to get the whole theater in some sort of euphoric state (which is hard in the Eastern part of Holland, trust me) and then threw us back in his misery again by suddenly starting one of his sad songs. Continue reading →

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Let’s get you started with Web 2.0 news

11 March 2008

On a daily bases, I have to at least explain twice what Web 2.0 is and what it means for us. Unfortunately too many people shrug their shoulders after my lyric and slightly persuasive story about this revolution. Sometimes however, a somewhat smarter person does get excited about the new developments. He or she wants to learn more! Debuzzing the buzzword Web 2.0! From now on, I can refer to this blog post, since I’ll list some blogs to get you and others started with keeping up to date on the Web 2.0 news. I’ve also included a link to all the RSS feeds. newsgraffiti

First of all, this is a selection of the blogs I keep track of for The Next Web Blog. This blog is all about international start-ups, so not just news from Silicon Valley, and also discusses the personal side of being an Internet entrepreneur. Next to keeping you up to date, we strive to inspire you as well. So that’s tip no. 1! Let’s get started with other great Web 2.0 blogs. Here we go! Continue reading →

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A weekend full of photography

3 March 2008

This weekend was all about photography for me. Let’s start with the most interesting part: I’ve visited the MAGNUM exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in my hometown Amsterdam. The independent photo agency celebrates its 60th birthday, thus the extra attention. Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour founded MAGNUM in 1947. They were convinced that photography was the best medium to document world events and raise public awareness. Yet to be able to tell their stories they way they wanted to, they had to be independent. So from the start, the agency was distinguished by its complete independence.

Magnum now is a legendary photo alliance and over the years they’ve published some photos most of you will never forget. The photographers are celebrated for their courage and many of them died during their work. Robert Capa’s D-Day pictures are the best example I can think of, also because this famous photographer died during the first Indochina war.

capa_beach.jpg (JPEG-afbeelding, 611x404 pixels)“If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Robert Capa

I’ve always been interested in photography. As a kid, I spent hours watching my father’s photography books and now no month goes by without visiting an exhibition. Some photos fascinate me, others are horrifying and there are even pictures that simply seduce me. One of the most striking remarks I’ve ever heard about photography was made by Natalie Portman in the movie Closer. Continue reading →

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