Everyone is a journalist

 

 

In 2005 when I was working at MSN Search (which became “Live Search” and is now called “bing”) I was sent to a conference in New York City called “Search Engine Strategies,” organized by public Internet Search consultants and “spammers” (Search Engine Optimization companies).  I worked the booth during my shift, demonstrating both Microsoft desktop search which was part of “MSN Toolbar” at that time and also MSN search.  It is very enlightening, eye-opening, and motivating to have plumbers and jewelry store merchants walk up to your booth, open a check book and start trying to negotiate an advertising deal with you on the spot, especially when you are not associated with Sales.  The standard line we were trained to parrot back is that you need to commit to a $30K per month spend to become “managed” (have a human talk to you); otherwise you should sign up with a credit card at our web site.  The sales guys behind the curtain were backed up and three people with whom I spoke did not blink when I told them I needed $30K/mo.  Search is a big business and many advertisers are looking for alternatives to the evil search giant. That trip was a great introduction to the business side of public Internet search and advertising.

 

The main reason I was prompted to write this anecdote, though, is that a friend recently directed my attention to this blog entry from a casual lunch table conversation from that conference about five years ago.

 

“Mitch Wyle, the Engineering Manager at MSN and a pretty nice guy, gave me the example of his son’s Runescape Online Gaming blog. Apparently Mitch’s son’s Runescape army is the third largest on the Internet and his son’s blog has become extremely popular. We all agreed that BlogAds (Henry Copeland’s Blog Advertising Network) would be more useful for his son’s blog than Google AdSense for selling advertising – mainly because he wanted control of what advertisements would be served on his son’s blog and Google AdSense shows the most relevant advertising results for a blog entry’s content, and not always the blog itself.”

 

In 2005, my oldest son was very active in RuneScape and his character had done fairly well in the game.  In fact, he convinced a few of the other leaders in the game to join his army; they conquered the castle and most of the rest of world-10 (Seattle) under his leadership; after that adventure he retired from the game.  My son used a forum site (not really a blog) to communicate with his lieutenants and friends about RuneScape and to socialize. The blog entry above was published on the public Internet without my knowledge or permission and is now one of those pages people discover about me when they search for my name in a search engine.

 

Now imagine all of the casual, informal conversations you have every day with strangers and people you don’t really know but with whom you interact.  Any of them could be a blogger or youtube video producer and your casual interaction could suddenly become “news,” published for the entire world to view.   Now imagine that this stranger (the blogger) was having a bad day, misunderstood a part of your interaction, and decided to vent about it.  There are no release forms; there is no edit cycle to check facts or screen for malice.  There are no journalistic standards.  You can be defamed, libeled, and vilified.  Your career and future relationships can be severely damaged.  Since there is no penalty or disincentive to the blogger, there is no recourse or remedy available to you.

 

More than a few friends of mine are either professional or serious amateur photographers and a few of them publish casual photos of strangers they see during their commute to work or when they go somewhere to take pictures.  Again: there are no model release forms.  There is no way to know if a photo of you or your child will be published.

 

I have read about how wonderful it is that we have amateur bloggers keeping the traditional journalists “honest” by publishing other points of view, more facts sooner, and how these individuals have debunked or exposed lies in the older “mainstream” media.  I celebrated and supported the spirit of their work and was thrilled to see our freedoms amplified by blogging.  Now I realize how important the older journalistic standards (two independent sources, absence of malice, full disclosure) are.  Enabling everyone in the world to become a journalist now pushes the huge ethical responsibility on to anyone who tweets or blogs.  How can we educate everyone about journalistic ethics?  How can we socialize civics and notions of respect?

 

 

Mitch in California 26-28 Feb – Part 3: the party

Sunday 2/28/2010 was the “main event” – Robert’s 50^th birthday at the Willow Tree Chinese restaurant in Pleasanton.

The Willow Tree

Restaurant entrance.  Elisheva: can you translate the Chinese over the entrance?

Inside the restaurant is a comedy/music room called “Bunjo’s that can seat 40 people.  Robert is friends with the proprietor who hosted the party there.

The theme was Hawaiian and we all got Leys and name badges.  Each name badge has the year you met Robert.

Robert and Naomi greet another guest from Seattle.  There were four of us from Seattle and we car pooled.

David and Naomi.

A comedienne was hired to “roast” (insult) Robert on stage.

She brought a guitar

The Peaveys were there and it was great to catch up.  All the kids are doing very well and excelling in soccer.  Susan rarely strikes such dramatic poses but I caught her on camera.

Susan and Laura

Laura greets more guests.

And they pose for the camera.

The proprietor warms up with the comedienne.

Robert and Rita.

There was an awesome slide show with photos of Robert from baby pictures through his teenage years and into adulthood.

Guests mingle.

It’s odd how our careers twist and turn through the decades and shape our lives.  Here we have a  retired entrepreneur, a professional poker player, and a tax attorney for Honda Motors (USA) -- we had no idea when we were 18 where our lives would take us.

King Robert holds court on stage, ready for the “roast.”

The roast begins.

Dave Peavey continued the proctologic jokes with a garden hose.

With axel grease and a very long garden hose.

Robert’s college roommate from Champagne Urbana told embarrassing stories of Robert’s late teenage years.

Even Susan got up and told of their first few dates.  They were quite romantic.  She did not mention the tennis dates, though.

Susan held the audience in awe (she was better than the professional comedienne and the host).

I lit the 51 birthday candles on Robert A David (RAD’s) cupcakes (on a photo of pebble beach, his favorite golf course).

I had a great time and met some really cool people with whom I intend to stay in touch.

After the party we toured Robert’s house and met Cocoa the puppy.

The puppy missed Laura Beth and Emily Anne.

Susan in front of her kitchen / dining nook.  The house is decorated with French wine posters.

We visited the guest house in the back yard where Emily lived for a while.

Robert’s huge motorcycle.

Sunken exercise hot tub.  There is also a Boole (baci) court, a putting green, and a mini dog run (for the mini dog).  It’s a nice house.

We piled into the car and drove the airport.  My flight home was completely uneventful.  The food in first class was fantastic.  Gab and Eitana picked me up from the airport – I called when we taxied to the gate and they were there as I walked out the door.  I almost finished Gladwell’s _What_the_dog_saw_ and loved every word (highly recommended).

Mitch in California 26-28 Feb 2010 – Part 2

There is apparently a heater built into the air conditioner in my hotel room and I did not suss out how to use it so I was a  bit cool Friday (and Saturday) night in the room.  But it was no cooler than our house in Bellevue so I felt fine.

Saturday morning was clear, cool, bright, sunshine and I jogged before breakfast.

The pool looked very inviting in the bright sunshine.

Breakfast at the Tri-Valley Inn Pleasanton consisted of coffee, corn flakes, orange juice, milk. . .

Toast, muffins, donuts, and margarine.  Kumar was cheerful and helpful.

Robert topped by after my jog and first breakfast and we went to “Zorn’s” for second breakfast.  I bought Robert his favorites and I had eggs with hashbrowns.

The birthday boy gets treated to breakfast at Zorn’s.

Mitch in front of Zorn’s: Pleasanton’s original family restaurant.

Robert dropped me in front of the BART stop and I pumped about $10 into a ticket.  I accidentally left my laptop in Robert’s car so my pack was lighter but I could not blog.

The machines are fast, simple, and efficient.

The BART station was empty on a Saturday morning.

Changing trains at Merit for the Fremont line.

Eventually I arrived in Fremont.

. . . at the foothills of Mission Peak, with

. . . green fields, parks, and Lake Elisabeth in the middle of town.

I approached the lake trail from the library.

a squirrel

.

Lake Elisabeth

The lighting was very high-contrast and the sun was warm.

There were very few Canadian Geese because Fremont hires doggies to chase them away.

Willow tree along the lake

Walk in the park

I finally arrived at the Fullers’ house and was greeted by Jon, Bryneth, and one of their three cats.

Jon looks very well

Ian is 6’7” tall now and is destined to grow to 7’ tall.  Bryneth is also tall but not nearly as big as Jon.

Here is the biggest (fattest) and the shyest of the three cats.

. . . And here is their third cat.

I had a delicious lunch at the Fullers and caught up on what everyone is doing.  Debbie is getting produce from “Full Belly Farms” and it tastes great!

Arnold picked me up from the Fullers’ house and we drove to Berkeley.

Berkeley is such a great tourist town.

If you set off a nuclear bomb in Berkeley you will be fined by the city.

The people who live in Berkeley are so wonderful.  It is always very entertaining and fun to walk or drive through the city.

Eventually the GPS navigated us to the Lawrence Hall of science and we had a great time touring inside.  The DNA molecule outside did not have as many kids crawling on it as I expected.

They have converted some of the 1960’s sound-proof phone booths to cell phone booths (no phone inside).

Others still have a phone in them but I don’t know if they work.

It was a “contrasty” day; the golden gate and bay bridges are offset against the bright sky.

Golden Gate

Berkeley Mastodon fossil.

Largest lizard I have seen live up close for many years.

The nano-tech exhibit was for very young children.

I am one billion, seven hundred fifty-two million, six hundred thousand nanometers tall.

Amelia and Mitch

We played variations of Nim and Kalah.

We built really cool buildings with the wood slats.

Eventually the museum closed and the de Leons drove me to Simeon’s house on their way to the gymnastics competition in Petaluma.

Simeon lives in a tiny little room in a nice apartment. He seems well-adjusted, contented, in good health.

He has a tiny little desk and keeps his books under his bed because the room is so small.

Eventually I BART’d home (changed trains in Oakland) and went to sleep.  It was a very long, wonderful day.  Robert brought my laptop back to my room but I was too tired to do email.