USC Stays Connected

I really enjoy the different perspectives on technology and the blog phenomenon in these USC/Cisco shorts, although at times they reek of shameless plugging for the wireless router that's the common variable in each. I haven't figured out whether any or all of them are graduates of the university -- it's likely, but it wouldn't matter much either way. They're all at least adequately successful media- and corporate-bloggers and I guess that's all USC would really care about; whatever lassoes in some new partners/donors/lecturers/honorees. (Steven Spielberg never went to the school, but was offered an honorary degree before UCLA got a chance to so now he's all over the film program. Of course this means greater opportunities for me and others, but there's so much politics going on - especially in the rivalry between my school and that one across town - that it can often muddle the real issues.)

Seeing their adoration for blogging makes me want to blog. And it did, it worked: I've chalked this up as a response. Though I'm personally afraid of having to maintain close, strong ties to news of the day, of the hour, of the minute like these people seem to; I struggle to even coalesce all new tidbits into something that's coherent that I could possibly post about. And now, I also have to keep up with Twitter, and news of the second. My feed updates every hour or so on my BlackBerry, but in that hour there can be up to fifty new tweets to catch up on. Luckily, most of it is redundant, the same news coming from multiple outlets. I follow Anne Thompson, Jeff Wells, Kris Tapley and Cinematical the most (only the first and last being remotely reliable to make tweets throughout the week -- otherwise I just check the sites). [I also subscribe to Nikki Finke, Patrick Goldstein, Sharon Waxman and David Poland. But they all have such a harshness to their rhetoric and a tendency for self-inflation that I only ever go anymore if I have extra time and want something provocative - if that's the word for it. I'm aware there's a blog war going on, but I'm not going to link to it because it's only a battle of egos. And it hurts this discourse we're involved in online, makes us all look like babies.]

Tim Ferriss, author (4-Hour Workweek) and productivity guru:


Shira Lazar, media blogger and host of LXTV's 1st Look:


David and Amy Wenzel, online creative assets producers:



Do you keep a blog?
I'd really love to know, please comment your thoughts and leave a link! The value of blogs, aside from their spontaneity and instantaneity (also their pitfall), is in the ability to network.