Category: shoes
Automated Tech News Site Goes Live
A nifty new web service went live tonight — Gabe Rivera’s tech.memeorandum.com. I’ve been testing Gabe’s handiwork since late June when he sent me a note suggesting "you might be interested in monitoring my still-in-development Tech news site. By "interested", I mean it actually might assist you in your work!"
He was right. I quickly became addicted to checking the site, often multiple times a day, to see what kind of buzz it was picking up in the tech world. The pages are built automatically, pulling from mentions across the tech blogosphere and news universe. Just posting may not be enough to make the page, as I quickly found out, but posts bubble up as links multiply. One link from a site weighted heavily in Gabe’s equation can push a post into view.
Gabe explains his goals here so I won’t go into detail. The highlights: Recognize the web as an editor; rapidly uncover new sources; relate the conversation. I like watching the conversation evolve as a story moves around the web, often in ways I would not have imagined.
He started the process with a politics/current events page that crosses political boundaries and cuts through some of the partisan kludge. I’ve given him a couple of ideas for future memeorandums — personally, I’d like one on journalism ethics — but these aren’t easy to build. I’m looking forward to whatever he puts his energy to next. Thanks for the head start on this one, Gabe.
Update: Just saw Robert Scoble’s rave review. He goes into enough detail for both of us.
Coda: That’s Gabe on the left — a picture he thought he wound up in by accident but I took very deliberately at the end of BlogNashville.
Commercial Interruption: My Dad On HSN
It’s 3:40 a.m. Eastern and I’m watching Marshall R. Kramer — aka my dad — suavely show off the shoe line named for his oldest grandaughter. (The younger grandaughters have their own line: Alexa Perri.) This is the premiere hour of Mikala Shoes & Handbags on the Home Shopping Network and I couldn’t be kvelling more. The collection features high-end handwoven shoes and bags made in Brazil, many in spectacular color combinations. The line is only two years old and is in finer department stores and shoe shops across the country.
It’s nothing short of surreal to sit in my living room in University City, Missouri, a few blocks from where we lived during the Kennedy administration when Dad was a traveling salesman driving around the Midwest selling other people’s shoes, and watch him put his a-list sales skills to work pitching his own line. He’s been in the shoe business 50 years and, at a time when most people are trying to leave work behind, he’s making one of the boldest moves of his career.
Adding to the excitement for me, I’ve been able to participate in some of it, starting with the acquisition of the UPC code and even arranging some of the shipments that had to be done by computer. The first time I saw the shoes in a department store (and knew I helped get them there) was as good as my first front-page byline.
Dad’s going to be on HSN again today and on companion network America’s Store. It’s a crazy schedule paced out over a day. They have all sorts of requirements but what a great opportunity. Meanwhile, back to my regularly scheduled sleep.
Trust But Verify 