Ted Kennedy's legacy: please don't tarnish it

After I learned of the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy I created my video blog on YouTube at around 1 AM today and later found a bunch of really nasty comments about Senator Kennedy on my YouTube channel's video page.

Comments referring to events of the past and assumptions about him based on reports of his battles with the bottle of long ago. I could go on about these, but I will not. I eliminated those comments and in some cases banned the people who wrote them. I ask you all to have respect for those who have passed on, even if one can't see you or know who you are online.

Show class.

Ted Kennedy has passed on to Heaven; let him rest on his journey.

Ted Kennedy did great deeds on earth and today many will remember those acts from one who was the third longest serving senator in our history. From the creation of the Violence Against Women Act to the Children's Health Care Act, Kennedy wrote 2,500 bills, 300 of which were made into law.

According to the Boston Globe, Kennedy specialized in the art of compromise, and learned that he would have to win small battles, in a process that for me recalls learning about "incremental planning" in college at Texas-Arlington and Berkeley.

Kennedy was 'relentless' here, introducing more legislation to achieve overall objectives than most any other U.S. Senator. And he managed to do this while not making enemies. Republican Senator John McCain just said on CNN that he "could do battle with you in the Senate, and then after all the speech-making was over, he could walk over, put his arm around you and let you all know we were friends."

Senator Kennedy was a great man.

For those of you who feel moved to write something nasty, I ask that you don't. Take at least one day, heck this whole week, to chill on your primal urge to be mean. Try being nice. What good does it do anyone, including yourself, to feel your negative energy, expressed in words, for all to see? None. So don't do it.

Please respect Senator Ted Kennedy in his passing. Please respect yourself and others today.

Senator Ted Kennedy dies - a great American in my life

I happened to wake up in the middle of the night, well, at around 1 AM, looked at my email, and saw the CNN news alert that Senator Ted Kennedy passed away of brain cancer at 77 years old. So I got out of bed and made this vlog.

I did so because Ted Kennedy was a big part of my life and generation. No. I never met him; always wanted to but I didn't place a high priority on making that happen. Frankly, the idea of Senator Kennedy passing on just wasn't one I could wrap my mind around.

But it happened.

Ted Kennedy is one of the greatest elected officials of our time. He's great because he cared and fought for people who did not have what he had. He's great for his staying power. And, yes, he's great because he was a Kennedy.

 

Senator Ted Kennedy

He's the last of "the brothers" to grace our time and my life. JFK was killed one year after I was born. Bobby Kennedy was murdered in 1968. JFK jr. - who I had high hopes would become, and really did achieve the level of, a force in "entrepreneurial politics" with the magazine "George" passed suddenly in a plane crash with his wife in 1999. Then there was Ted, the survivor.

Ted Kennedy for me will be remembered for a number of great acts and legislative works. One of them, The Violence Against Women Act that he co-wrote and worked to improve over the years.

But for me, Senator Kennedy will always be remembered for endorsing then-Senator Barack Obama as 44th President of The United States, when many believed he would back then-Senator Hillary Clinton. His move changed the course of the 2008 presidential primary and history, too. Barack Obama became the first African American president of the United States.

Ted Kennedy. A great American in my life. A sad day it is.

Why the UFL has a better shot at success then prior attempts at Professional Football Leagues.

Welcome to another session of Dr. Football's class called "Viewing Pro Football 421", a 4th year undergraduate class. Today's topic: Will the UFL be successful in todays market?

Sure it's been done before. Another Pro Football League, you laugh. No one can touch the NFL, you say. But what if The UFL isn't trying to "compete" with the NFL, but rather enhance the ability of people to watch live the greatest game ever played?
So you think I'm nuts too don't you?You must think I'm inhaling too much field chalk. But look at it this way: when was the last time you went to an NFL game? Do you remember how much you paid to get in? To buy your kid a pennant (or if you were lucky, a game program!) or a T-shirt? Don't even think about a jersey! Or NFL licensed Baby Booties! Forget it!! (before i obtained a press credential i was paying $70 per ticket, 5 dollars for a game program and 5 dollars for a 32oz. bottle of water. I hear it's $80-$85 now for the cheapest seat in the Meadowlands).

The UFL changes all of that. Tickets for 20 Bucks a game, in quality venues! Affordable prices(for today at least) at the concessions. No Kid, you're not dreaming, this is the real UFL and if you Live in NY it's coming to your house soon.

Ok so it's in the middle of the week, but didn't you say you were football starved? You just can't watch another season of the local college teams. You don't think you can put up with the team in Green and White that can't seam to make up their minds about who the QB is. The team in Blue with the shortage of starters even though they had a great draft and did well in free agency already missing too many players in training camp. Not that I'm saying "don't follow your favorite team anymore," hardly that. I'm just saying open yourself up to the possibility of another pro football league being able to entertain you this fall.

Let's step away from NY for a moment. Did you ever think Las Vegas would get an NFL franchise? For years the NFL wanted no part of the Sodom and Gomorrah that is the gambling culture of Vegas, yet now they allow teams to back state run sports themed lottery tickets(that is for discussion in another article). Give the UFL head honchos credit for jumping all over the Vegas market, as well as Orlando. The Vegas team will attract fans from parts of California, Arizona, and Utah as well. As for Florida, a former co-blogging partner of mine who spent a good deal of time growing up there once told me "you can never have too much football in Florida."
Although Orlando is only 105 minutes from the greater Tampa area, there is a huge void to be filled there and in other parts of the country with the loss of the Arena Football League as we knew it.

Let's sum it up for today shall we: More pro football is good, not bad, as some would suggest. It doesn't "water down" or "short change" the great game, as a few suggest. It gives the fan(and Player and Coach!) more options on more days of the week to watch the game, as well as for you young folks to learn about the game. Why would anyone argue with me about that? Class dismissed, now go watch some football!

Vlogger Saran Austin's back in SF Poken party

Vlogger Sarah Austin - who looks like a (she's gonna kill me for this) kind of cross between Britney Spears, Chelsea Clinton, and Heidi Montag - invited me to her coming back to San Francisco party Monday evening. (Yes, yesterday!)

Now, you may be saying "Who's Sarah Austin" - good question. She's a micro-celebrity tech vlogger who gained her fame from appearing first on Justin.tv and now has a livecasting show on Mogulus. The difference between what I do and what she does is she's not a political commentator and focuses more on tech. To that end, she started her own site Pop17.com and has drawn a range of guests from the tech industry and has Ford Motor Company (she's an "agent" of The Ford Fiesta Movement), Virgin America, Perkett PR and TechCrunch news blog as sponsors.

Sarah is a study in how to make vlogging a business and her party was no exception to her example. Held at the office of ZaudHouse Design Group in Portrero Hill, it attracted a group of about 50 friends and family members, and almost all of the friends were in tech. There were the usual suspects like my friend Cathy Brooks, who manages to turn up at every single tech event in the Bay Area. And there were folks I didn't expect to see like my friend digital video producer "Turbo Ted" - Theodore Terbolizard - who must be Oakland's only Republican!

But what was fun for me was to see this new product called Poken. I'm going to feature it in another blog post, but the idea is to exchange information with someone else as you would switch business cards. In this case, let's say you and someone has this small device called Poken. It's designed like a tiny plastic four-finger hand. When you and the other person touch the hands - "Hi Four!" - green LEDs in both light up, meaning you've exchanged information. When you go back to your home or office and plug into the USB port of your computer, the site is called up where you can sign up and if the other person signs up or is already there, you have their business contact information.

Sweet.

The party became a kind of "Hi Four" fest for a time, until we got to the part where the raffle was held (I won another Poken), and then we had an auction to take Sarah out on a date. The winning bid of $375 was made by a man, but he was almost beaten by a dog named Truman, who barked his bid during the proceedings. (Ok, he was coaxed by Cathy Brooks, but Ted counted it anyway!)

The party was also to benefit Summer Search, a national leadership development program. They gained $500 from the event.

In all, a fun time, and a learning experience too. The party was the perfect mix of business and fun. Here's an example: most parties have a host or no host bar - this one had a wine sponsor Gary Vaynerchuk, who's doing his live USTREAM.tv show as I type this, and the winery was Titus Vineyards near St. Helena. So, the wine gains not just the exposure from the party, but from this video-blog too. And that's true for Poken as well. What we have is the first stage of a kind of marketing model that should cause more to discover vlogging.

I hope.

Michael Jackson was killed

Sadly, and it's hard to escape what happened to Michael Jackson as even today I was listening to "Thriller" with a friend while working out at the gym, it's reported that Michael Jackson death was a homicide. The L.A. County Coroner reports that Jackson was given a lethal combination of drugs by his doctor Conrad Murray, but also that another doctor Arnie Klein may be involved, too.

Terrible.

'Skank' Blogger v. Google and "The Violence Against Women Act"

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YouTube, Metacafe and DailyMotion

Rosemary Port is the blogger (and fashion model student) who for some reason believed it was ok to call fashion model Liskula Cohen a "psychotic, lying, whoring...Skank," under the blog post title, "Skanks of NYC" and from under the cover of a name not her own. On Wednesday August 19th, a U.S. Federal Judge ordered Google to identify the name of the person who we now know as Ms. Port.

 

Rosemary Port

But for some weird reason I can only attribute to a lawyer with a super large ego, Rosemary Port thinks she can win a lawsuit against Google for $15 million.

No way.

And it's not because she's suing Google; it's because in using her blog to make malicious fun of Cohen, Rosemary Port unknowingly violated a provision of "Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act" that was passed in 2006.

 

Liskula Cohen 

The little-talked-about law has three sections that specifically concern cyberstalking Sections 113 (Preventing Cyberstalking), Section 114, and Section 2261 A . This is what is posted at GovTrak.com for the purpose of this discussion. The entire bill section reads in summary:

Section 113. Preventing Cyberstalking ... Whoever ... utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet ... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person ... who receives the communications ... shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

The punishment for this is not less than a year in jail and the charges can be brought forth by the Department of Justice. This, then, is the law Ms. Port has ran up against. Given what she was doing against Ms. Cohen, Rosemary Port is in clear violation of this law and could see jail time if Ms. Cohen or the Department of Justice, or for that matter Google, pressed the issue.

I really think Ms. Port's lawyer is giving her some terrible counsel.

Cyberstalking is not free speech

Some are under the impression that the kind of blogging Port was doing is free speech. Nothing could be further from the truth. Classic free speech is standing on a corner and talking about something using your mouth to blast your voice into public airspace.

A blog is not really public to start with: everything from the web page to the internet service provider is privately owned, so they can control the content that gets out there - it's not the place for free expression. I think what's happened is that the relative ease of blogging has seduced some into thinking that they can write whatever they want, whenever they want, thus believing they have the right to free speech.  Not so.

People are jailed for cyberstalking

Something else Ms. Port must consider is the timing of her actions could not have been worse.  They not only come after 2006 and the laws against cyberstalking, but at a time when there's a war against the act and the people who do it.  In England, a teenager by the name of Keeley Houghton is facing three months in the juvenile detention system for harassing and threatening Emily Moore, eventually writing that she was going to kill her.

And law enforcement has been active in America, too.  In Southwest Florida in 2008 a teenager was arrested for the act.  In Louisiana a pastor recently turned himself in after an arrest for cyberstalking.  In that case, he was accused of "sending several anonymous, sexually-explicit e-mail messages" to a 21-year old woman who attended his church. 

And more and more states and cities are installing their own versions of the law, and police departments are adding cyber crime units, so the infrastructure to stop this behavior is being created.  It's about time. 



I'm cyberstalked on a daily basis, as I have several blogs and video channels (10 channels with an average of 200 videos on each one, and over 600 on YouTube)  and am on SFGate.com and the Examiner and CNN's iReport.  I get racist emails, and comments that lie about me, insult me, or threaten me every day. 

To say I'm tired of it is an understatement but I'm not going away.  In 2008 I was twice the subject of a death message (and got such a comment on SFGate.com this year), leading me to make this video:




And vloggers like MelissaJenn (who I referred to in my video) have been treated terribly, with people stalking her and taking photos not just of her but of her dwelling then sending the photo to her writing "I know where you live."  That's sick.  Just plain ill.  She stopped making vlogs for a few months after that, then came back to her normal schedule of vlogging.  But the bottom line is we're tired of this and fighting back. 

Blogs, news outlets and other online information outlets must beware of this war, because it they're not policing their sites, they too could be the focus of a huge lawsuit by someone who's life was threatened or just plain made to suffer emotionally.  It's not right.  


And now we have the legal tools to use, and will do so. 



Rosemark Port should appologize to Liskula Cohen rather than going through a legal path that will only do her more harm than good.   Port's not the victim here; she's her own worst enemy.  She's not going to beat Google and moreover, she's not going to overturn that provision of  "The Violence Against Women Act".   Ironic that a woman would run up against that law, eh?

Still, I think it's time for some healthy and civil talk about where we go from here.  I don't think teenagers should be jailed for these acts, and I do believe that more training is needed to save people, well, from themselves.   Stay tuned.

Message to YouTube's Renetto - less is more

Even though vlogging - video blogging - can be considered a self-indulgent practice, vloggers are fans of others who vlog. In my case, I'm a fan of several - Paul Robinett, or "Renetto" is one of them. Renetto's YouTube's first big vlog star just from the simple practice of posting videos consistently of him talking into a camcorder about something. But after developing a great following - 41,000 subscribers on YouTube - and a "name", Renetto's concerned that he's not serving his fan base, so my idea is that he shorten his video time.



What makes Renetto popular is he talks to you through the camera. It's not so much lifecasting as leaving a message for the World. But they tend to go on for seven or eight minutes, where I've found that people tend to drop out of a video after about 2.15 minutes. I don't always like making such short videos, but I've slowly adopted this rule: me talking should be up to four minutes or so, me interviewing a person can be as long as 20 minutes for my video and TV show, me filming an event can be up to an hour. (My TechCrunch video at the 2008 August Capital Party was over 40 minutes.)

But for me, I try to say it in two to four minutes. Lately, I've clocked in around just a hair over 3 minutes or so average. I can't say I've seen such a short video from Renetto, but I'll check back with him.

Some of Renetto's fans like the long conversational format he brings; I do too. But he started the whole thing by complaining so I thought I'd help out.

We do get paid for vlogging

Some people think we vlog for free - in other words we don't get paid for our vlogging. Every time I hear that or see it written I wonder why some people insist on being so blind. I tell everyone I know about the YouTube Partner program and generally if I talk to 30 people, I'll get one person who's really interested and then it's a coin flp probability that they'll do anything. For example, at the recent blogger meetup at the Berkeley J School, I was the only one of two vloggers in the room.

And while there may be 175 bloggers in Oakland, I can think of one other vlogger than myself and that person's not consistently at it. Terrible. In San Francisco, I know of five - Irina Slutsky, Sarah Austin (back from New York), Tracy Swedlow, Josh Wolf (who just moved to Berkeley), Schlomo Rabinowitz, Justin Kan (who's not as visible of late). (If I've left someone out, sorry. But also I'm thinking of consistent vloggers, not one and done vloggers.)

You can make money creating videos and having an audience - living wage level revenue that doesn't take all of your day to earn. It's all eyeballs folks. I'm up to 7.7 million total viewers on my YouTube channel Zennie62 since 2006 and of that, drew 5 million viewers in the last year, and over 2 million of them in the last five months. That's not a lot compared to vloggers like Renetto or Phil DeFranco, but I'm headed in the right direction: up.

Vlogging is the future of marketing and communications and is at the heart of New Media, and is a powerful tool for social change, but let's face it: it's a test of your self-esteem. The more comfortable you are with who you are the easier it is to get a camcorder, make a video, and post it, and not give a care what people think about your looks. (Well, except the racism and cyberharassment part; that's sick, I have zero tolerance for it, and fortunately a number of people do too. People who do it get cut from my channels or in a few cases reported to the authorities. Period.)

There are only about 600 YouTube Partners out of the thousands of people who upload something daily worldwide. That means we're out there doing this as a business where I have no idea what anyone else is doing.

Hmm. Just 600 YouTube Partners? On second thought, maybe I should stop telling the rest of you about the program! More money for Renetto and me!