Not really blogging

SFGate says that SF mayor Gavin Newsom's press secretary is in hot water for his blogging. You'd think a newspaper which actually has bloggers would understand what one is. Peter Ragone left comments about news stories about the mayor on blogs using other people's names. I don't think that makes him a blogger. Maybe a blog reader, maybe an anonymous commenter, but not a blogger. He'd need a blog to be a blogger. Maybe they just don't have the language to describe what he did:

Although the timing worked momentarily for Ragone, the incident left him with a mark on his record that no press secretary would want: For whatever reason, when first questioned by reporters about his blogging, he was less than truthful.

He was dishonest, but he wasn't blogging.

Talk of the Nation - life logging

NPR's Talk of the Nation had a program today called life logging and the generation gap over privacy. I only caught a couple of portions of the show, but it seemed to be about how younger people who use MySpace, Facebook and blogs to document what they are doing are often exposing things about themselves that their parents might not think should be put online. Of course, this includes blog entries about personal things as well as photos of activities that might best be kept private. One of the points made by one of the guests was that standards in this area may change and what's considered bad taste today might not be in ten years. I think that is probably true, but I still think there are some things which don't need to be shared with anybody who can get online.

Talk of the Nation does not seem to have a podcast, so you have to listen to the show using RealPlayer online.

Time Goes By

I'm starting to think about resources for a one day class on blogging that I'll be teaching in February. The course is open to anyone, but should have a good number of "older" people because it's being offered at a location which has a number of programs targeted at people over 50. I'm not sure that over 50 is really old any more, but that's what it is.

One resource I think is a good one for this class is Ronni Bennett's blog, Time Goes By. She talks about aging and ageism at work and in the media, among other topics.

CW Nevius blog

People sometimes say that sportswriters are some of the best journalists. Jim Murray of the LA Times was one sportswriter like that, and CW Nevius, although not a sportswriter any longer, does a really excellent job on non-sports topics. I really liked his commentary on overbearing parents at children's sporting events a few months back, and today he has a great piece on the James Kim story. While he addresses the complaints that some people have about the story, he gets to the heart of why it was so compelling and sad for most people.