July 2008 Archives

So. My babies got nominated for three Black Web Awards!

• Best Blog
• Best Relationship Advice Site
• Best Site for Brothas

Mind you, I have never even heard of the Black Web Awards, but apparently they've been doing this for three years. Now you can cite me on being late to something web-related (it happens rarely). Thanks to everyone who nominated us!

Don't feel like you can't go on over and vote for us. We will love you for forever.

It's been a rough few weeks here at lizbdotscom. I've been everywhere doing everything, yet nowhere doing nothing. All at the same time. So, let me give an update to the few people who keep up with me on my pitiful little piece of cyberspace:

1. I've been consulting on the side. Yes, cheating on all of you! I am a web/social media/technology consultant. It's been fun so far, I have some super awesome great clients, and I have been learning so much. I love it. I will at some point launch a website for my consulting company. Right now, I am too busy doing the actual consulting work though.
2. I am working with a startup. Those in the inner circle already got my e-mail telling them what I am up to. I will announce more details here, shortly. I promise!
3. I went on "vacation"!! I put vacation in  quotes because it wasn't a true vacation, I was so busy! I was in DC,  for my dear sorority's 100 year anniversary celebration. Alpha Kappa Alpha worked it out in DC, ya'll! This was my second national convention since I was initiated six years ago. It was lovely--the little piece I saw of it. Truthfully, I couldn't take off enough vacation days to spend the whole time there, and I was in the middle of launching a site into beta while I was away. I did get some time to catch up with some of my prophytes, had a chapter reunion, saw some of my sands I haven't seen in years, met and hung out with a soror  who is an avid reader of VerySmartBrothas (I'll have to write a post on the experience of meeting your readers). I also spent some a lot of money on paraphernalia, and had the opportunity to spend some time with the BFF and his main squeeze. I still missed seeing some important people on this first round, but I think I am going to be back in DC in January, so hopefully I can finish the rounds then.
   
4. I snuck a quick trip (24 hours) to NYC while I was on "vacation."  Spent some time with some of my favorite people :) New York loves me, I tell you! I was in BK exiting a restaurant, when I heard somebody call out to me by my government name. Turns out one of my friends I hadn't seen in years was walking by and saw me. Crazy. I thought he was in LA this whole time, but turns out he had moved to NYC since we lost contact. An iPhone restore gone bad has erased his number from my phone tho! LOL.*sigh*
   
5. Let me not even go there with Apple right now. They deserve an entire entry over this whole new iPhone fiasco.
6. I've been in a grouchy mood lately, and I realized it's because I hadn't heard any new music (I haven't had time to look in my usual spots). I am back on the bandwagon though. Amanda Blank and The Cool Kids have revived me out of my funk. Check Amanda out on Santogold's "I'm A Lady," and take The Cool Kids' Bake Sale for a spin.
7. I recently gave a presentation called Blogging 101 for the local chapter of the NABJ. It was a great experience. Even though I have been blogging here and everywhere for the past five years, when you sit down to articulate your experiences and best practices to a new audience you realize there is an art to this whole blogging thing.

Now that everyone is thoroughly all up in my business, I think I'll shut up now. New blog tagline courtesy of The Cool Kids. 

Another week, another Exchange drop from the crew. This week our theme is JORGE!, because today is George's birthday!

The Playlist:

The fine folks over at Black Web 2.0 invited me to do some guest writing for their blog, and my first post is up! I've had this under my hat for some time now, but clearing some things off of my plate took longer than I expected. I'll be discussing my usual social media/web/tech thoughts and analysis. I probably won't stop writing about that here, I will just start writing...more...in both places.

I am very excited to be writing for them. Add Black Web 2.0 to your RSS feed if you haven't already!

The new Exchange is up for the week. Let's pretend we were out on holiday last week. The theme is Summertime: tracks that make you think of summer.
Sam | ATLiens - Outkast

Listen Here:
Stream it on Muxtape
Download from Zshare

The Story Behind My Pick:
For the record, George and I must be separated at musical birth because I was going to pick the track he chose for this release (this keeps happening with us). I pretty much grew up in a household where secular music was never allowed, so my earliest favorite song was 1991's Summertime.

I remember I was at my grandparent's farm in New Mexico for the summer (as usual), and four of my cousins from Texas were also staying there for the summer. [Sidenote: don't ask me why my grandparents took in five grandkids for three months, but we were on a farm with lots of animals so there was tons of space--and work--to do.] I was introduced to secular music by my cousins, and Summertime happened to be the jam of the summer. I remember we spent a lot of time collectively listening to this track, memorizing the lyrics (knowing all the lyrics to a song was the ultimate form of freshness) by writing them down and arguing about what the Fresh Prince really said in that one line in the middle of the third verse.

However, since George took my first pick, my second pick is Motownphilly by Boyz II Men. Both tracks were released that summer, so Philly was reppin hard. I don't think we had satellite television, but I distinctly remember sweating the music videos for these songs. All five of us would crowd around the TV and study every move and scene, especially Motownphilly. I am pretty sure we put together a dance routine to Motownphilly as well. We used to do shows all the time for my grandparents, haha.

Those were the days. 

It appears as though yesterday was the day the rest of the human world caught wind of 1938 Media's TechN*gga video. Verizon signed a video distribution deal with 1938 Media (Loren Feldman) last week.While the insular Web 2.0 geek world obsessed over the TechN*gga controversy last summer, grassroots and civil rights groups spoke up and issued statements asking for Verizon  to pull 1938 Media's content from their VCast offering on Monday. The story even made the evening news here in Los Angeles.

I'd been silently watching this whole thing unfold as the day went by. I first thought something was fishy when one of my friends (who is not tech savvy whatsoever) instant messaged me the link to the video early this morning. My response to him was, "You are (literally) about a year late on this." He said a friend of his e-mailed him the video that morning. It turns out HipHopDX was running the story, as well as many other non-tech African-American blogs, forums, and websites. Some are also reporting this was a topic on some talk radio stations today.

While I don't want to beat the dead horse that is TechN*gga (a summary in 10 seconds: 1) Black Tech Bloggers do exist, 2) Loren was foul for what he said and did 3) He's apologized and subjected himself to the SXSW panel about the issue--we get it!) I am amazed at three things:

1) how quickly the outrage appears to have spread--in one day--on the web, radio and television
2) how insular the Web 2.0 crowd can be, so much that nobody outside of the bubble caught wind of it the first time around (last year), or even weeks ago with the CNET announcement
3) how insular the web 2.0 crowd is to have not noticed the protests until late Monday/Tuesday. TechMeme didn't get wind of it until later on Monday evening.

It seemed like for weeks on end last summer, all I heard inside the echo chamber was TechN*gga this, 1938 Media that, PodTech this, Scoble, Huffington, yadda yadda. Yet mainstream interests didn't pick up the issue until 11 months later. Dare I say the echo chamber really doesn't matter to the outside world? Granted the Verizon deal put a new spin on the story, but it did take a solid week in this Twitter-happy information age for someone to take note of the dirty little secret.

TechCrunch is suggesting there is a conspiracy against Feldman and his success as of late. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the idea, but I wouldn't rule it out. On the other hand, I definitely thought about the controversial video as soon as CNET signed Feldman. Had anybody at CNET or Verizon seen the TechN*gga video? In a world of Don Imus stories did CNET and Verizon want this on their hands?

Now that everyone is officially late to the party (CP Time, anyone?), I ask where were all these civil rights groups when Loren Feldman wasn't catching a check from Verizon or CNET? The video was first released in August 2007. It had a good long run as controversial fodder at least until the SXSW panel in March 2008. The video wasn't any less controversial before he signed a deal with CNET or Verizon. Was he just a silly man with a camera and a voice back then? Is the business angle the real issue at hand? Why didn't the Black internet world (myself included) support itself earlier with more outrage and protesting when the story was fresh?

I guess nobody cares until you try to be somebody.