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What is this “broadcasting” of which you speak?

What is this “broadcasting” of which you speak? published on No Comments on What is this “broadcasting” of which you speak?

My kids do not understand the idea of broadcast TV. The idea that you’d let someone else choose when your favourite shows will be on is utterly alien to them (to the point that when one of them saw it in a department store a few years ago, they gushed to their mom about this amazing new feature. Shows that change by themselves at the top of the hour without you having to pick a new one? What will they think of next?)

Years from now, as I enter my doddering years, I plan to go on at length about how you used to have to wait a week to find out what happened next, and what reruns were, and how you if you missed an episode of something with a long arc, boy, were you screwed. And how we couldn’t rewind or fast-forward. And how we all basically lived like bonobos, flinging feces at each other and picking fleas out of our fur while we watched Barney Miller. (Which is still one of the best effing sitcoms in history, kid — here, let me see if I can find an episode on YouFlix or whatever they’re calling it these days. Maybe the one with Dietrich and the conspiracy guy.)

Aside: If YouTube acquired Hulu, could they please call it YouHooLu?

But do tell my agent

But do tell my agent published on No Comments on But do tell my agent

First published on ReadWriteWeb

So it’s happened again: another Twitter feed is making its way to network television. And props to Steve Roommate for getting the green light for Shh, Don’t Tell Steve.

And yet I can’t be the only one who’s starting to feel a little inadequate. If the social web has a shortage of anything, it sure isn’t ways to keep score – from site metrics to Alexa to PageRank to Facebook likes to Feedburner subscribers to the gazillion Web apps offering to measure your influence. (Say, have you tried mine lately?)

But once you add And just how many book deals did your site close today? to Google Analytics, it gets a little demoralizing.

If this keeps up, I may have to go back to blogging for the sheer pleasure of it.