Is Godin coming or going?

've been a fan of marketing guru Seth Godin ever since I first downloaded his free "Spreading the Idea Virus" e-book onto my Palm V a decade ago. I've also read hardcover versions of "Tribes" and "Purple Cow," listened to an audio version of "Small is the New Big," and subscribe to his daily blog posts.

His work often leaves me energized and spurs me to bursts of creativity.

"Linchpin," Seth Godin's last traditional bookHis latest major title is "Linchpin," (whose Kindle version came bundled with a bonus e-book titled "Insubordinate"). Like many of Godin's recent books, there's little new content, just some fresh content weaved through a curated collection of previous blog posts. It's an M.O. that has worked well his past few books.

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Challenging traditional journalism

Updated on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 11:00 PM by Logan Molen

"Rebooting the News" is among the better-known podcasts devoted to the convergence of journalism, technology and the reshaping of communication.

I listen weekly, but it's a love-hate affair. Hosts Jay Rosen and Dave Winer can be variously intriguing and grating throughout a 45-minute podcast. Rosen is a journalism professor at NYU and Winer is a programmer best known as editor of Scripting News.

They're intriguing because they bring fresh thinking to journalism and communication. But they can be incredibly ignorant of basic business requirements to fund or maintain even bare-bones journalism efforts so the concept of "rebooting the news" sometimes comes across as a hollow promise. And for people highlighting new forms of communication, they've made absolutely no effort to figure out how to control audio levels after 66 episodes (I'm constantly adjusting the volume control because their levels are rarely in sync).

But to the good news:

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Listening vs. hearing

I've been thinking a lot recently about how the brain can absorb what seems like endless streams of information in this age of 24-7, particularly sound, so I found Julian Treasure's TED presentation on hearing fascinating.

That's in part because it's my business to figure how to deliver news and information to busy people who more than ever need filters on that media faucet. But there's also some selfish interest at play.

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