Chat with Dan COLLINS

12:09 AM aside from my collaboration with Johnson, wanted to get your thoughts and suggestions on how best to approach the project I've proposed

12:10 AM will be making a more formal announcement with further details soon, but am still in the process of determining the best approach to this, one that will provide for best results

obviously, there are going to be difficulties in terms of keeping this from turning into some partisan struggle

is to do something about the media structure that has allowed people like Thomas Friedman to rise to the top in terms of influence

12:12 AM as well as to take better advantage of what the blogosphere produces in terms of value

is as a means to get a great number of bloggers to from time to time focus

12:13 AM on a particular item of information that folks of all ideologies are aware of due to the particular advantages of the internet medium

and thus force the traditional outlets to cover and address such items of information

you probably agree that people who read and write blogs are better informed than those who get their info from TV news and whatnot

me: we should thus ask the question, "Why?" and the answer

12:16 AM involves the medium itself, to some extent - hyperlinks to primary sources provide for verification, and the competition of the blogosphere provides for a sort of free market whereby important info rises to the top

some minor blogger makes an important observation

and then a bigger blogger like Glenn Reynolds picks it up

Dan: Yeah, and a recursive process of self-selection.

12:17 AM me: which is quite different from the manner in which the MSM operates

12:18 AM me: the blogosphere must collectively collaborate to at least a small extent in order to

me: anyway, I'll be able to provide more details soon

12:19 AM Dan: The only model out there that really interests me much, though I don't read it a lot, is The Examiner.

me: the project will launch in earnest this April

12:20 AM and there's been a lot of interest already

clearly, whether one is conservative or liberal or whatever, one is most likely to be better informed than their MSM-dependent counterparts

and I'm rather good at that, which means I can arrange for people who otherwise hate each other to understand that some degree of collaboration is in everyone's best interest

12:22 AM you're among the conservatives that at least recognize that I mean well

and so I'd like to talk to you further next week

Dan: Sure, I'm always up for talking. Happyfeet is a star commenter, and likes you.

12:23 AM me: which would be a sort of interface point by which conservatives and liberals could discuss those issues on which they agree and act in such a way as to get the MSM to cover those issues properly

Dan: But if you're looking for a business model, and you want to take it apart and see how it operates, the one that has the most potential is The Examiner.

12:24 AM me: I'm not really out for a business model as this isn't a profit-making pursuit; the capital is for Andrew Stein so that he can concentrate on the project full-time

12:25 AM the project will be self-perpetuating, as the software itself will be in charge, essentially

Dan: Yeah, but the point is that that's the sine qua non.

12:26 AM me: it's more of a constitution defined by software incorporating the collective human input

suffice to say that Stein is brilliant and what he's developing will solve many of the problems inherent to ensuring that human input does not corrupt the efforts

12:27 AM going to write a piece which I will run at both Daily Kos and Red State, aside from my usual outlets

12:28 AM Dan: Well, that is bestriding the web like a colossus.

me: and will otherwise keep you up to date on the ongoing developments before they are announced, as I'd like to get your ideas on how some of these matters could be best implemented

but every great undertaking is flamboyant and crazy

12:29 AM Charles Johnson's involvement is clearly a concern to many on the conservative side

Dan: Let's just say that Charles is not Mr. Politic.

me: let others know that Johnson is not integral to the project, but rather is being used as a means by which to bring initial attention to it

original idea was to have Goldstein serve as Johnson's role

12:32 AM me: I feel bad for him, but at any rate he simply would have been incapable of doing what needs to be done regarding this effort, as he is neurotic and has learned the hard way that one's outbursts exist forever on the internet

me: anyway, I'll let you get back to work, but just to summarize

12:33 AM I've tried to get him to write for True/Slant and thus make good money and have content he'd own and could sell elsewhere

but he lacks discipline and is overtaken by emotive nonsense

Dan: He thinks that because he's good, people will beat a path to his doorstep.

12:36 AM me: this project is something to which I am extraordinarily dedicated, have been planning for several years, have determined to be entirely viable if approached correctly, and is absolutely necessary for reasons I'll explain further

Dan: Okay. I'm helping on a translation, so may not hear from me till tomorrow afternoon.

Dan: Also, one key element is the holographic/conspectus aspect.

Dan: Yeah, sort of everything grokable at a look.

12:38 AM Better than Tucker Carlson's layout, which isn't bad.

me: one is a paper on the transition from orality to literacy among classical Greeks - the implications regarding our own age should be clear to you

Dan: LOL, I know that stuff pretty well. Ong and all.

12:39 AM me: the second is related, a paper written by my uncle, who is one of the world's foremost professors of rhetoric, ethics, and media theory, and who is in this case expanding on McLuhan's work

me: okay, thanks for giving me your time, I'll talk to you soon