Brilliant And Inevitable

thebestofyoutube.com

(Or, if you prefer, a more massively collaborative work.)

Glad That's Settled

Think I've decided what to do on Vox: have fun.

Top 5 Material

A strong contender for a spot in the top 5 unanswered legal questions of the Live Web is the price "independent" creators (video producers, writers, podcasters, photographers, programmers, etc.) are willing (or not willing) to pay in the "user generated content" boom for the privilege of participation in a structured community, achieving wider distribution and visibility, the ability to quit (or augment) their day job, or any combination of the above. Ze Frank touches on these issues in Part II of his interview on Business Week — The Cutting Edge ("Copyright & Control").

Frank Barnako highlights the commercial demand for (and increasing market clout of) such creators: "If Starbucks REALLY wants to re-bond, it should be using real people with something real to say."

Among The Many Reasons I'm Glad I Passed The Bar Exam 16 Years Ago

PMBR can no longer mirror questions from the MultiState to help you study. Ouch. If bar passage rates drop precipitously next year? This is why.

Other items of recent interest:

• Techmeme has the Google Office Suite news aggregated to within an inch of its life. See particularly: Dan Farber, Dan Farber — you do know I'm working for him, right? But hopefully you also know I'd link to these regardless — and Steve Gillmor ("Remember Saigon, when everybody started running for the helicopters...").


• This week's Blawg Review is hosted by one of the 'Net's oldest hands at blawg reviewing.


• Cory Doctorow: "The 32-bit-compatible version of Vista, the next version of Windows, won't play back high-def video because they can't get the DRM right. However, it will play back high-def video if, instead of buying HD DVDs, you just download copies of them off the Internet — talk about a perverse incentive."


• Blogger & Podcaster Magazine is coming, and it's free.


• Imke Ratschko, commenting on Kevin O'Keefe's None of top five law firms using blogs & RSS: "Is it just plain ignorance or what?"


• Finally, mark your calendars: August 31 is Love Litigating Lawyers Day. (What, that doesn't qualify for "ON THE LIGHTER SIDE..."?)

Vox Unpopulated

I've been wondering what to do with the Vox blog I recently set up. Link blog? Idea incubator? Mommy blog? Blog-where-no-one-knows-it's-me? (Oops.) Suggestions welcome. It's a cool blogging tool in the way it integrates social networking and other services, I'm enjoying playing with it. I have some invitations if you'd like to give it a try.

Joe Gratz is using his to document what looks to be a very exciting trip. Safe travels, Joe, I'll look forward to following along.