The End of the Private Life

The unexamined life, said Socrates, is not worth living. For a new generation of Americans and more, the unexposed life is not worth living. Digital diaries, online posts, life loggers and bloggers and Facebook and bed cams are increasingly making the very idea of a "private life" sound antique, retro, pointless.

Today, millions of people are pouring out their deepest intimacies, digitally, for perfect strangers. Ten years from now, says one, we will all have seen each other in our underwear. And maybe sooner.

This hour On Point: when all our kimonos are open - the end of the private life.

Aren't we already aware of this?

The Amazon.com blog wants parents to "Get excited" because it's potty training awareness month. Really is potty training is something we need to be made aware of? (BTW, isn't Elmo a little overdressed in this photo?)

Interesting quote about blogs

(Unfortunately, I don't remember where I heard it or who said it.)

"If you blog as an afterthought, your readers will read it as an afterthought.

Blogging 101, take 3

And this morning 13 more Nebraska librarians are writing their first posts to their new Blogger blogs. No mutiny in sight.

Blogging 101, Take 2

10 more Nebraska librarians are now writing their first blog post. (Whoops, make that nine.)

Blogging 101

Right now I have 10 Nebraska librarians writing their first blog post. Pretty soon they'll be writing their second one.

Spammers, and proud of it

Seth Godin takes on Reed Elsevier's recent "marketing". It's worth blogging as I wonder if an LIS blogs out there have experienced this?

"Over the last few weeks, I've received several meails [sic], all the same, all from real people at Reed. They baldly (and boldly) ask me to swap links with them as part of a scheme to move up the Google rankings. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I don't do that, nor does any reputable blog I know of."

Visualize the blogosphere

The recently released Twingly Screensaver displays live blog headlines from around the world, with the source location visualized on an interactive 3D globe. The video below shows it in motion but be aware of two things. First, the video is sped up, your copy will not work this fast. Second, it takes a while to download the data a first so you won't see actual headlines for a little while. Third, some of the headlines may by NSFW. Fourth, it doesn't seem to totally like Vista. It'll run for a while then Vista will inform you that it has stopped working, despite it seeming to still work.