It’s a common complaint that the Web makes us more impatient, but most of us use it to track (or create) long-running stories and debates. I’ve been following the career of folk-rock star Roger McGuinn for more than 30 years, and now I use the Web for that. If anything, the essence of Web life is that we are impatient to discover the next installment in our planned programs of very patient long-term interest. That’s a kind of impatience we can be proud of, just as a mother might be impatient to receive a call from her teenage daughter away at college. It’s a sign of caring and commitment, not superficiality.
Showing posts with label the long tail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the long tail. Show all posts
6.29.2009
Roger McGuinn/Davidson basketball
Tyler Cowen:
2.18.2009
2.01.2009
Geeks
From Jon Katz’s interesting, very readable book, published nine years ago, Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho:
But life for geeks has been transformed. For one thing, they aren’t alone anymore. They probably still loathe school, but when they go home, their computers are passports to a vast, complex, and communicative world, one still largely invisible to many parents educators, and other adults.
High priests in journalism and culture are fond of fussing that the Internet is dislocating, isolating, dangerous. After spending so much time online, talking to so many kids like Jesse and Eric, I view it differently. It isn’t the Net that drives kids into isolation or creates lonely children; the Net attracts lonely and ignored kids, and puts them in touch with others just like them.
1.31.2009
1.29.2009
Some 3-pointer
The third sentence of the first AP story out of Chattanooga last night read like so:
Yes.
Right.
Suppose that’s true.
Then the video of said 3-pointer showed up today, oh, here, here, here and here. And here. Also here. Probably plenty of other places, too, but these’ll do for now.
I could be wrong, but seems to me the shot’s path to everywhere-ness started with local TV news in Chattanooga, then went to DavidsonCats.com, then to personal blogs, then to wider-audience blogs and YouTube ... and then to the Charlotte Observer’s charlotte.com and SportsCenter and ESPN.com.
I feel like all this says something important about media here in the early 21st century.
But give me till the weekend to mull that over.
Curry hit a 3-pointer as time expired to give the Wildcats a 41-28 halftime lead.
Yes.
Right.
Suppose that’s true.
Then the video of said 3-pointer showed up today, oh, here, here, here and here. And here. Also here. Probably plenty of other places, too, but these’ll do for now.
I could be wrong, but seems to me the shot’s path to everywhere-ness started with local TV news in Chattanooga, then went to DavidsonCats.com, then to personal blogs, then to wider-audience blogs and YouTube ... and then to the Charlotte Observer’s charlotte.com and SportsCenter and ESPN.com.
I feel like all this says something important about media here in the early 21st century.
But give me till the weekend to mull that over.
1.28.2009
Fans from Florida
Got an e-mail this week from a man named Ken who lives down here near St. Pete. He said nice things about the book and then told me his Davidson story.
Here, with his permission, is a piece of his note:
Here, with his permission, is a piece of his note:
As background, I played high school basketball in this area in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s and was moderately recruited by Davidson the last time they were really on the national sports stage. I remember watching them lose to UNC on TV on the Charlie Scott shot at the buzzer. I visited the school on a recruiting trip then, but Davidson ended up being my second choice for college. Nevertheless, I’ve looked at the school fondly and with a lot of respect ever since.
I have a middle school son who loves playing basketball. When I saw Davidson won in the first round of NCAAs last year, I told him about the school and we watched as much as we could of their remaining games. Obviously, we were cheering hard for them along with millions of others. Last summer, he went to the UNC basketball camp (this year he’ll probably go to Davidson’s). While driving there, we took him to Davidson to show him the campus. Who’d we meet working at the information desk in the gym but Andew Lovedale. He couldn’t have been nicer and his first words were “you need to do well with your studies, don’t just focus on basketball.” It was almost a scripted message you’d want a teenager to hear. Several people on campus also told us how the basketball players were also just normal students.
On a whim that day, I got the application for season tickets for this year -- which I ended up buying. I figured there isn't a better player for my son to watch and admire than Stephen Curry, and not a better program to follow in terms of what college athletics should be about. My son and I have been to three games so far this year and will be able to get to one more. At one game, we met Bob McKillop walking into the gym before the game (I assume from his home a few minutes away), and last Saturday my son was able to say hello to Stephen Curry as Stephen was chatting with family and friends outside after the game. Both the coach and Stephen were very nice and signed an autographed ball.
1.26.2009
‘… but to hear it together …’
From Seth Godin’s new book Tribes:
“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”
“Geography used to be important. A tribe might be everyone in a certain village, or it might be model-car enthusiasts in Sacramento, or it might be the Democrats in Springfield. Corporations and other organizations have always created their own tribes around their offices or their markets -- tribes of employees or customers or parishioners. Now, the Internet eliminates geography.”
“In addition to the messages that go from the marketer or the leader to the tribe, there are the messages that go sideways, from member to member, and back to the leader as well. The Grateful Dead understood this. They created concerts to allow people not just to hear their music, but to hear it together. That’s where the tribe part comes in.”
“Too many organizations care about numbers, not fans. They care about hits or turnstile clicks or media mentions. What they’re missing is the depth of commitment and interconnection that true fans deliver. Instead of always being on the hunt for one more set of eyeballs, true leaders have figured out that the real win is in turning a casual fan into a true one.”
“Kellogg’s owns hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cereal factories. They have a well-trained sales force, miles of shelf space, and tons of advertising. So why was Bear Naked able to build a significant business right under their nose? Without expensive factories or a huge sales force, Bear Naked took a very simple, very traditional product and changed the way many people buy their breakfast.”
“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”
“Geography used to be important. A tribe might be everyone in a certain village, or it might be model-car enthusiasts in Sacramento, or it might be the Democrats in Springfield. Corporations and other organizations have always created their own tribes around their offices or their markets -- tribes of employees or customers or parishioners. Now, the Internet eliminates geography.”
“In addition to the messages that go from the marketer or the leader to the tribe, there are the messages that go sideways, from member to member, and back to the leader as well. The Grateful Dead understood this. They created concerts to allow people not just to hear their music, but to hear it together. That’s where the tribe part comes in.”
“Too many organizations care about numbers, not fans. They care about hits or turnstile clicks or media mentions. What they’re missing is the depth of commitment and interconnection that true fans deliver. Instead of always being on the hunt for one more set of eyeballs, true leaders have figured out that the real win is in turning a casual fan into a true one.”
“Kellogg’s owns hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cereal factories. They have a well-trained sales force, miles of shelf space, and tons of advertising. So why was Bear Naked able to build a significant business right under their nose? Without expensive factories or a huge sales force, Bear Naked took a very simple, very traditional product and changed the way many people buy their breakfast.”
Ricky and Kyle
Ricky Price and Kyle Mattson are students at Michigan State, which is in East Lansing, which is nowhere near Davidson, and yet the two of them drove all the way down in Ricky’s red Hyundai for Saturday night’s game at sold-out Belk.
Why?
This is something I’ve been interested in since last March. I know why I’m interested in Davidson basketball. I know why people like Cobb and Sink are interested. They went to Davidson and the place helped make them who they are. And I know why people like Meg and Chip are interested. They didn’t go to Davidson but they live in Davidson and they know the people who make Davidson basketball go.
But why do Ricky and Kyle from Michigan watch Davidson games whenever they can on TV or the Internet?
Why did Ricky do a Google search to find DavidsonCats.com and then register and then start posting?
And why were the two of them in Davidson, on Saturday, early in the evening, sitting at a table in the Brickhouse with William and Sink and Sink’s wife and daughter? The two of them even were wearing matching black homemade screen-printed shirts that said DAVIDSON and had the cat head logo on the front and a CURRY and a 30 on the back.
Davidson seems different. That’s what Ricky said. Ever since March, when he watched the Gonzaga game, he’s followed the team. He stressed that last word. Team. At Michigan State, he said, it feels like the guys are there more to try to go pro as fast as they can.
And also Stephen.
Of course Stephen.
They like watching No. 30.
“There’s just something about him,” Ricky said.
The story of Ricky and Kyle I think says something important about what Davidson basketball is at this remarkable moment in its history. The program right now is big enough to draw them in but still small enough to take them in.
On Saturday at the Brickhouse before the game William bought the boys’ pizza. For the game Eddie donated a ticket, and Reed Jackson donated another, and they sat in Eddie’s seats, Section 103, Row C, Seats 5 and 6. Wells gave them some gas money. David Rorie gave them some more. Big John Harper the hot dog man at the Wildcat Den gave them nachos and Cokes.
After the game Sink took their homemade shirts down to Rossiter. Rossiter took them back to the locker room to Stephen. Stephen signed them in silver Sharpie. Later, back at the Brickhouse, Ricky and Kyle showed them off.
To Ricky
God Bless
Stephen Curry
To Kyle
God Bless
Stephen Curry
They stood in the lobby and told me how much fun they had had and how awesome it was to watch Stephen have 23 at the half and how it was a smaller but louder crowd than at Michigan State and how much they liked Sweet Caroline. They said it seemed like everybody knew each other. They said they were shocked at how many people seemed to know them.
When I was talking to them, and I swear I wasn’t in on this, Sink and Eddie were out in the parking lot up to no good. Which is why when Ricky and Kyle got back in their little red Hyundai and drove all the way back to East Lansing, all hopped up on Mountain Dew and 5-hour energy shots, they did it with a brand-new Davidson license plate bolted to the front of that car.
Why?
This is something I’ve been interested in since last March. I know why I’m interested in Davidson basketball. I know why people like Cobb and Sink are interested. They went to Davidson and the place helped make them who they are. And I know why people like Meg and Chip are interested. They didn’t go to Davidson but they live in Davidson and they know the people who make Davidson basketball go.
But why do Ricky and Kyle from Michigan watch Davidson games whenever they can on TV or the Internet?
Why did Ricky do a Google search to find DavidsonCats.com and then register and then start posting?
And why were the two of them in Davidson, on Saturday, early in the evening, sitting at a table in the Brickhouse with William and Sink and Sink’s wife and daughter? The two of them even were wearing matching black homemade screen-printed shirts that said DAVIDSON and had the cat head logo on the front and a CURRY and a 30 on the back.
Davidson seems different. That’s what Ricky said. Ever since March, when he watched the Gonzaga game, he’s followed the team. He stressed that last word. Team. At Michigan State, he said, it feels like the guys are there more to try to go pro as fast as they can.
And also Stephen.
Of course Stephen.
They like watching No. 30.
“There’s just something about him,” Ricky said.
The story of Ricky and Kyle I think says something important about what Davidson basketball is at this remarkable moment in its history. The program right now is big enough to draw them in but still small enough to take them in.
On Saturday at the Brickhouse before the game William bought the boys’ pizza. For the game Eddie donated a ticket, and Reed Jackson donated another, and they sat in Eddie’s seats, Section 103, Row C, Seats 5 and 6. Wells gave them some gas money. David Rorie gave them some more. Big John Harper the hot dog man at the Wildcat Den gave them nachos and Cokes.
After the game Sink took their homemade shirts down to Rossiter. Rossiter took them back to the locker room to Stephen. Stephen signed them in silver Sharpie. Later, back at the Brickhouse, Ricky and Kyle showed them off.
To Ricky
God Bless
Stephen Curry
To Kyle
God Bless
Stephen Curry
They stood in the lobby and told me how much fun they had had and how awesome it was to watch Stephen have 23 at the half and how it was a smaller but louder crowd than at Michigan State and how much they liked Sweet Caroline. They said it seemed like everybody knew each other. They said they were shocked at how many people seemed to know them.
When I was talking to them, and I swear I wasn’t in on this, Sink and Eddie were out in the parking lot up to no good. Which is why when Ricky and Kyle got back in their little red Hyundai and drove all the way back to East Lansing, all hopped up on Mountain Dew and 5-hour energy shots, they did it with a brand-new Davidson license plate bolted to the front of that car.
1.23.2009
Our New Tribes
Howard Fineman in this week’s Newsweek:
But such groupings -- what might be called “voluntary tribes” -- are assuming a new importance in America. As neighborhoods and schools become more diverse, marriages become more mixed and social hierarchies break down, old lines are getting blurry. Voluntary tribes are a way of recreating a sense of community.
More than “associations” -- the kind Tocqueville noticed were so numerous in America -- these are emotionally intense affinity groups based on shared aims, obsessions or political crusades, not on DNA. Fueled by the Internet, according to Princeton historian Julian E. Zelizer, they’re “filling the gap of the neighborhood institutions of the 20th century.”
1.18.2009
What it means
Butch Beard ’77: “I am sitting outside of Charleston with two good friends from my class. One of which I maybe have seen one other time in 35 years. We did a spur of the moment golf weekend in 40 degree and bloody mary weather. We are here because we ran into each other at the State game. These last two years mean more to all of us than we could ever imagine.”
1.15.2009
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