Please stop calling Bum Rush the Charts mine

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Oct 23, 2007 in Marketing, New media | 2 comments

I’m thrilled to see so many people running with flash mob ideas, like Joseph Jaffe and his new book, Join the Conversation; Joseph’s campaign was called Bum Rush the Amazon Charts, inspired by Scott Sigler and the original Bum Rush the Charts. That said, I want to reiterate something – the inspiration behind, the creator of Bum Rush the Charts is not me. Never was, never will be. That honor, and the ideas that went along with it, belong to Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff and Michael Yusi, when they announced it on February 16, 2007.

These two gentlemen did a fine job of creating and launching the idea, and bringing in lots of people to participate in it, making it one of the biggest flash mob events in podcasting. I was glad to help and be a part of that team, but please understand that it was not my creation, and any credit, praise, etc. belongs to them, not me.

The Horseradish of Julien Smith

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Oct 22, 2007 in Buddhism | 2 comments

“To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish.”
- Yiddish idiom

Julien Smith writes about the implied violence in rap music and real violence:

when this implied (though explicit) violence turns to real violence, we all of a sudden switch from being really impressed to being horrified.

Why?

This is an important question, because there’s a serious disconnect between media and reality – in both mainstream media and new media. The disconnect is even more powerful in new media because of its intimate nature.

Why are people impressed with media violence? Media violence feeds on human flaws, human weaknesses. Male egos – and I fully and wholly admit to being an American guy with an American guy ego – have been trained since birth to believe that manliness and masculinity requires physical domination of someone else. That may even be hardwired into us, as evidenced by ten thousand years of nearly constant war. We believe that to be a man has violent implications, and the media, in its perfectly rational quest to sell more stuff (ads, merchandise, etc.) serves up things that reinforce our existing views.

Think about it for a second. Why do newspapers serve up bad news? Why are so many forms of media infused with sex and violence? Because they sell. They sell, sell, sell, and if you’re the recipient of the money machine, you want it to keep cranking out money for you, even at the expense of the society you live in.

Here’s the catch. Violence begets violence. Yes, it’s trite, it’s cliche, but it’s also very true. If you surround yourself with violent images and sounds, if you immerse yourself in violence ideas, words, and actions, you will act violently. You program your mind every time you pop the earbuds in, every time you turn on the TV or fire up the browser or boot up iTunes. When you need to solve a problem, your mind draws upon its knowledge like a carpenter opening up a toolbox. If the majority of your mind’s resources are based in violence, it should be no surprise to anyone that you resort to violent solutions to problems. As the expression goes, the world is horseradish to you.

It’s amusing, in a dark sort of way, that our culture will spend billions of dollars and countless, obsessive hours on what we put in our mouths, but we give no thought to what we put in our minds.

New media is doubly important in this respect. When you produce a podcast, a blog, or another form of consumable media, you have an intimate relationship with your audience. The earbuds and the iPod-sized screen require focus. I know lots of people who leave the TV on in the background but comparatively few who turn YouTube on in the background. New media asks and receives focus from the people who enjoy it – and because they’re focused on it, their minds are automatically more receptive to what they’re listening to, reading, or watching than traditional media. This means that new media producers have that much more influence over their audiences and that much more influence in the audience’s lives.

If you produce new media, think carefully about what you produce. When you turn on the mic or uncap the lens, how are you going to change lives?

Did you know?

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Oct 18, 2007 in Video | 6 comments

One of my favorite videos, redone by XPLANE, originally by Karl Fisch of Arapahoe High School. Watch it. Think about it. The implications are enormous and potentially devastating or liberating.

A quick rant about PodCamp co-organizers

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Oct 15, 2007 in PodCamp | 8 comments

A quick rant about PodCamp co-organizers

Just a quickie, two things I want to get off of my plate.

1. Just because it doesn’t come from Chris Penn or Chris Brogan doesn’t mean you should ignore it.

Chris Brogan and I founded PodCamp, true. However, our co-organizers are every bit as important, if not MORE important, than we are, because an event like PodCamp Boston is a HUGE team effort. If you get messages from other organizers like Steve Garfield, Michelle Wolverton, Whitney Hoffman, etc., please give them as much attention and importance as a message from Mr. Brogan or me.

Our co-organizers are legitimately our equals, not our lieutenants.

2. If one organizer says no, do not ask others to say yes.

We’re a team. Yes, we can be uncoordinated at times, and yes, we can occasionally get mixed up, but by and large, if an organizer has stepped up and taken responsibility for a part of PodCamp, they own that piece. If someone is unhappy with a PR piece, you need to talk to Doug Haslam. Chris Brogan and I will NOT override the authority and responsibility that our co-organizers have willingly taken on. If someone is unhappy with the music arrangements, Michelle Wolverton is the final word on that. If someone doesn’t like that registration is a certain way, that’s Susan Kaup’s authority to change or not.

I wholly and fully endorse our co-organizers, and gratefully acknowledge that despite day jobs, families, and to-do lists that are legendary, they can still find the time to make PodCamp Boston 2 a great event. Please do not ask Chris Brogan or me to treat them with disrespect or dishonor their commitment to the new media community by overriding decisions in areas of responsibility they have willingly shouldered.

Thanks.

Google Personals?

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Oct 14, 2007 in Technology | 6 comments

I must have missed the memo on Google’s new service. I typed in “Buddhist Temple near 01702″ and got some VERY different results than I was looking for.

Clicking on the link gave me this result:

Did I miss the memo? I didn’t see it anywhere on Google Labs.