So I’m in San Francisco right now, chilling in a house we rented with Patrick and a certain girl. The next few days involve recording a podcast and general vacationing, getting together with some Podshow peeps and listeners to the show. Yesterday was Flickr’s 3rd anniversary party, which was super fun.

The Podcamp Toronto thing thatweall organized was seriously awesome. Here’s a few things I learned:

1) Mitch said one thing that I suspect will ring true for us a number of years from now– that social networks and dating sites will soon cause a drastic drop in the divorce rate.

2) Twitter is all over the place! Chris Brogan had it on his slides; Chris Penn did too. Scoble just added his 700+ fans to his friends list, as a radical listening experiment. This may be the coolest thing I’ve seen someone do in 2007.

3) Podcasting may finally be ready to move beyond the simple monetization methods that have long held the medium hostage. Through ourTrust Economies session I feel that some momentum is pushing the idea of networks-as-ROI forward. Take a look at the video here (it requires Quicktime), and please leave your comments if you’re so inclined– I’d love to hear them.

Filed by Julien at 9:23 pm under projects, travel, community, podcamp toronto, trends, podcasting
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The ‘viral’ YouTube video that Bill took of me at Podcamp Toronto is up to 65 views. The day before it went up, Bob asked: “Are you sure you want me to put this online?” To which I said, sure.

Before I had a podcast, I used to be scared of people seeing me look stupid. I couldn’t have anyone know about a fight with my girlfriend, say something utterly dumb, or have embarrassing stories told about me. I went to great lengths to prevent people from seeing that I made mistakes.

The reality, of course, is that we all look stupid from time to time. The freedom to do so is something that we rarely allow ourselves, but living online has given me the ability to be comfortable with it like never before. Now, I would never go back to the shame of things remaining private.

These days, I live my life as if a camera is always on me. It means honesty is always on my mind, because anything could potentially come back later. And when a camera actually does show up, I really couldn’t care less what it records– after all, what people see really will be me. I’ve mostly gotten over shame, so how could that be a bad thing?

Over time, we’re going to see more and more people do this and, as they do, the level of trust people will have in them will increase. If you’re an online personality, the best thing you could do is open this gate. Take a look at the results; they may surprise you.

Filed by Julien at 12:47 am under video, trends
11 Comments

Bold Statement of the Day: Stumble Upon’s traffic will be displacing the power of Boing Boing in a year. Possibly even less.

The amount of posts I have seen in the past week talking about the power of Stumble Upon is shocking. Last year, I talked about how Stumble Upon was sending traffic to my site like crazy. Now, everyone is realizing how the power of a crowd of bored internet users can send your site unbelievable amounts of traffic.

Why does this matter? Because the power of moderation is slipping. Like Google, a mathematical algorithm with no one at the helm, displaced Yahoo’s human edited directory, StumbleUpon’s algorithms are now taking control, and are able to more regularly send you, the user, to a site you enjoy– it no longer depends upon the high-ups in blogging, bless their heart.

If I were you, I would start considering how you can participate in a community that is realizing this. It means you no longer depend upon your friends to send you a link of the day by email, or upon those with an ear to the ground like Scoble or whomever– and you know, I really do like those dudes. But no one can compete with the power of a million robots, cooperating with a million web users.

If I were you, I would be looking out for it, and planning. It’ll put you in a great position when the time comes– whether you’re a blogger, podcaster, or just a casual user. But it is coming.

Brief update: The irony of this all is that Stumble Upon has made this my most popular post, ever, in less than 24 hours. Stumblers, if you liked this, please consider subscribing to my blog.

Filed by Julien at 2:41 pm under trends
44 Comments

Yeah, I know– talking about web ecology one day and then dance music the next. I’m not sure what’s going on with Julien, either… but listen up.

(Thanks Pitchfork, thanks Véro!)

Filed by Julien at 7:19 pm under download, music, trends
2 Comments

(Due credit: I first saw the phrase social currency on Aaron Wall’s blog, SEO Book, which is really worth a visit.)

First, listen to the audio. That’s where the meat is.

I don’t think it’s a secret that, over the past several months, my traffic has increased tremendously, and that my income has been increasingly earned online. So I wanted to take advantage of what I have learned to help others build trust, or social currency, online.

Social currency is the raw essence of relationships. In an economy of abundance (aka, a post scarcity economy) such as the web (aka, “there’s always enough to go around”), none of us are playing a zero-sum game; if I send some visitors to you, it doesn’t mean I’m losing traffic, links, or listeners. In fact, it’s often quite the contrary.

The idea that, once you have placed a significant amount of your reputation and resources online, it is no longer necessary for you to deal in real dollars– that dealing in relationships is now the key to your success.

Honestly, this was a very difficult subject to write about, so I ended up having no choice but to record audio to express it, which I suggest you check out (just click the link to download or listen).

So what’s the lesson, what’s the point of this post? As I see it, one thing, and one thing only. I invite you, dear reader, to stop thinking in terms of earnings through your blog or podcast– stop thinking about sponsorships, AdSense, or anything else, and start thinking in terms of relationships. I believe the rest will take care of itself.

Other relevant links: Social capital, Post scarcity economy, Google economy, Content as a medium for interaction. Additional: Anji recommends Why Paris Hilton Is Famous.

Filed by Julien at 12:56 am under trends, podcast
14 Comments

We see them every day. We type them in when we comment. Now, this idea for combining captchas with advertising. Loic seems to like it, but personally, I am repulsed by the idea. In fact, let me phrase it as straight up as I can:

Filed by Julien at 11:49 am under trends
6 Comments

Holy crap, this is nuts. Talib Kweli, a conscious rapper best known for his work in Black Star with Mos Def (but also his albums Quality and The Beautiful Struggle), just joined Second Life.

Go read it on his website. This is nuts. Here’s his island.

Filed by Julien at 12:23 am under community, trends, hip hop
1 Comment

Power moves and how to make them.

• Howard Lloyd - Various
• Canibus - ‘Master Thesis
• I Am The World Trade Center - ‘The Postcard’

Filed by Julien at 4:16 pm under political, download, trends, hip hop, podcast
6 Comments

Ok, I’ve got a podcast coming out with this guy’s music, but I seriously couldn’t wait to get you guys in touch with Howard Lloyd, the Brooklyn emcee who just sent me his Quickie EP. Go check out his site and download the stuff there - and I’ve got a new track from him which I’ll assault you guys with in a bit. Now go friend his ass on MySpace. Peace.

Filed by Julien at 4:09 pm under download, trends, hip hop
No Comments

Stephen Levitt of Freakanomics talks today about the difference in viewing habits between blacks and whites in modern day America. There is some subtext in the entry that needs to be discussed:

If this one week of data is a good indicator (and I think it is), there has been a remarkable convergence in television viewing habits. A few years ago almost all the top black shows featured predominately black characters and most were not even on the big four networks. Now, there is almost a perfect match between what blacks and whites are watching and while many of these shows have black characters, none feature a predominately black cast.

He mentions previously that, while Seinfeld was very popular among white viewers, it never hit the top 50 for blacks. What does this homogenization of viewing habits mean?

To make an analogy, it had long been theorized in capoeira, a Brazilian martial art I practice founded in the culture of African slavery, that certain deviations, notably capoeira regional, were no longer truly African in their movements. They incorporated Asian martial arts movements in the 1930s, making the game more outwardly aggressive, with ’squarer’ attacks in order to ‘whiten’ the art, and therefore attract more middle-class Brazilians to the game (who tended to be paler in skin tone). Guess what? It worked out great. Capoeira is now practiced almost exclusively by white people, and most of those who practice it practice the ‘white’ form of the art.

(See two examples of capoeira play for a demonstration of this: Regional (’white’), Angola (’black’).)

The same could perhaps be said of hip hop. Do we feel that hip hop is becoming whiter by appealing to the majority of their audience (aka, white people)? Hip hop has changed a great deal since the 70s. What happened? Does 50 Cent appeal to white listeners, or black ones?

Filed by Julien at 2:12 pm under trends, hip hop, capoeira
1 Comment