I am now doing an ad hoc session at Northern Voice on ‘Big Media Strkies Back: BlufftonToday and the Future of Print’

The sexy title is necessary because I’m scheduled at the same time as Robert Scoble, who is previewing Windows Vista with Chris Pirillo.

Yeah, I haven’t posted in a long time.

But this isn’t a migraine blog….

Anyway, I’m gearing up to head to Vancouver for the OSCMS Summit followed by Northern Voice. Very much looking forward to the whole trip. Of course, it means I have to install WordPress 2 and Drupal 4.7 before I go…

But hey, it’s worth it.

The folks I work with are sending a small army to OSCMS, since we’ve been doing some very cool things in Drupal for a while now. So we’re introducing a bunch of new people to the platform. I’m also excited to see the WP changes. Much has changed since I met Matt at SXSW last year. (I think he had a better year than I did.)

Anyway, if you’re in Vancouver, look me up. I’m easy to spot in a crowd.

I saw the story on the Washington Post [rr], via Romenesko.

America Online Inc. yesterday agreed to buy Weblogs Inc., the publisher of 85 freelance online sites about cars, movies, parenting, travel and other subjects, the latest move by the Dulles-based Internet service to increase the size of its audience and profit from ads.

Officials of both companies declined to comment on the record about the price. A source familiar with the deal, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the transaction’s confidential terms, said that the base price was $15 million and that AOL could end up paying as much as $25 million if Weblogs hits every performance target in the future.

Jason Calcanis built the company, and had this to say to the Post:

“What makes this work is unfiltered citizens’ content,” Calacanis said of Weblogs. “My key question to America Online was, ‘Guys, you understand this is unfiltered and that is what makes this special?’ Traditional media companies are nervous about comments or opinions without editing. You don’t have that in this business. It is people talking to each other.”

“People talking to each other.” Sounds familiar. It is the future.

Two posts today that catch my eye.

Steve Yelvington talks up the community blogging move started by many newspapers.

Bob Cauthorn praises the Austin American-Statesman for its Austin360 blogs, saying, in part:

Instead of throwing up ever more ways of reading the same old voices, the newspaper invites anyone in the community to post their very own blogs to the site — words, pictures, viewpoints untainted by any interest other than those of the writer. This is proper. This is smart.

Problem is, they don’t.

In their blogging FAQ, they say:

“What’s a blogger?
Our bloggers are Austin American-Statesman reporters and columnists. They will update throughout the week with news and responses to some of your comments.”

This is quite different from the open blogging on Bluffton Today, or even the editorially-selected bloggers on Lawrence.com.

There are open opportunities to comment, and that’s a start, but it’s hardly a revolution.

Some crow-eating clarification: There are open community blogs at Austin360Blogs.com, but that site hasn’t been integrated to the main site yet.

Reading that last post while writing in WordPress, I realized that my love for Drupal might sound odd.

But my wife and I have a home-improvement mantra (learned after a few bad projects): Always use the right tool for the right job.

There’s a reason why a plumber’s wrench was invented.

WordPress is great, too, especially for lone bloggers. That’s why it runs the Goose.

It’s about time I got to writing on this thing. So here we go.

You might start here, with some notes about our hosts. The gaggle of geese at the top of the page.

Perhaps you know some of them?

I should, eventually, be writing posts about media (especially the Internet), with an eye towards (im)practical pieces of theory-in-progress.

What for, you ask? To try out ideas in a public forum, of course.

Susan Mernit has the tip.

First the launch of MLB.tv let you watch any game from any computer. Now MLB.com unveils MLBlogs, a service designed to increase fan interest by letting fans sound off.

One cool feature: ‘MLBlogs.com will reward selected contributors by adding their words of wisdom to highlight reels that millions of fans will have the chance to view online. Be a blogcaster!”

Hm. The conventional wisdom would now seem to be: if you don’t allow your customers to participate, then you’d better get out of the business.

Not crazy about the $4.95/month price tag; getting the fans mre involved in the game is ROI enough.

The site is running a flavor of TypePad for the blogs.