Dave Winer considers the agenda of CEO confab Davos:

“‘Will Mainstream Media Co-opt Blogs and the Internet?’ Giggle. They asked the question backwards. ‘Have blogs and the Internet already replaced Mainstream Media?’ For many, the answer is yes. Seems like the WEF is trying to tell their membership (large corps) what they want to hear. It’s up to you to not co-opt those cute little blogs. Heheh.”

My favorite publisher and blogger Jeff Jarvis nominates himself to speak. I second that nomination and nominate Josh Marshall and –why not? — myself. Marshall is an independent journalist using his blog to break news and make money. I’m helping advertisers bypass traditional media and connect with blog audiences — media’s most influential. Who else should go?

A couple of years ago, we paid $9 for a Gram Parsons double CD: GP and Grievous Angel. We’ve listened to it on and off. This morning again. Incredible: A song for you, Hearts on fire, $1000 wedding. His bio. The “$1000 wedding” song is weird, mysterious and gorgeous. “And he swore the fiercest beasts could all be put to sleep the same silly way, and wear the flowers for the girl, she only knew she loved the world, and why ain’t there one lonely, only one sad note to play, supposed to be a funeral, it’s been a bad bad day.” How does Parsons’ singing make this word-wreck so soul-grabbing? Call me a sap, but I darn near cry every time I hear it.

Now I can keep an eye on Biz and buddies.

“Dear Mom, today I had a problem in school….” Unbelievable. Makes me want to vomit. (Via Volokh.)

Jeff Jarvis, vigorous blogger and president of Advance.net, writes “I’ll bet you’ll be seeing weblogs from The Times sooner than you think…. ”

Jeff is the smartest and best-wired publisher I know. But what the heck, I’ll take your bet Jeff, if you’ll accept some tweaking.

There are tremendous barriers, both psychic and fiscal, to NYT truly blogging.

NYT may allow journalists to publish some reverse-chronological, lite-edited, almost-real-time, time-stamped online news. But this is not really blogging and it won’t achieve the desired impact: more wattage and page impressions.

I’ll bet $20 that if or when NYT “blogs,” each new “blog” will omit at least five out of the following eight blog characteristics:

* strong opinions
* a sprinkle of personal details from the blogger’s life
* a blogroll
* an independent traffic counter
* a unique domain name
* the blogger’s photo
* some snark
* lots of links to other blogs and news sources

These are the ingredients that give blogs ten times more readers per keystroke than conventional journalism. Without the individualistic impulse that makes blogging great, NYT’s blogs will be Frankensteins… all the meat but none of the spirit.

OK, so those are the psychic barriers. Now the financial.

NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen says he’s “startled” to learn the NYT has more readers daily online than in print. He thinks this trend will impel NYT to start blogging.

Well, if Professor Rosen had been reading this very blog rather than the Times, he’d have learned about the traffic milestone in October of 2002. But, although other media repeated the news, the NYTimes still hasn’t written online or in print about the startling milestone or highlighted it to investors.

Like Professor Rosen, NYT shareholders will be startled too, I think. And concerned. Concerned that NYTimes.com reaches more people than the print journal, but, because of a vastly more competitive environment, achieves less than 3% of print’s revenues.

Which brings up the show-stopping question NYT shareholders will ask if management ever admits that 1/5 of a NYT journalist’s paid hours are devoted to blogging. “Why the h*ck are we dumping resources into such a low-margin business? How are we going to compete with passionate zero-overhead bloggers empowered by the blogosphere, the biggest traffic spinner since the cloverleaf?”

Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to see the NYTimes trying to sell blog impressions to advertisers. It will further legitimate blogs and reinforce the startling fact that blog advertising, unencumbered by publishing’s traditional cost structure, is 95% cheaper. I just don’t think NYT shareholders can stomach watching their company wade into a link-quagmire to battle 10,000 infopreneurs.

Steve Lohr’s recent NYT overview of “markets as conversations” failed to mention Cluetrain, but did mention an interesting document that I pursued further this morning.

MIT professor Eric von Hippel researches the ways that technology users may form de facto peer networks to innovate new functionalities and invent new dimensions of commerce and design. Von Hippel surveys fields ranging from pipe-hanging to windsurfing to open-source-software to mountain-biking and examines the conditions under which users rather than traditional manufacturers can lead the way via horizontal collaboration.

User innovation networks can function entirely independently of manufacturers when (1) at least some users have sufficient incentive to innovate, (2) at least some users have an incentive to voluntarily reveal their innovations, and (3) diffusion of innovations by users is low cost and can compete with commercial production and distribution. When only the first two conditions hold, a pattern of user innovation and trial and improvement will occur within user networks, followed by commercial manufacture and distribution of innovations that prove to be of general interest.

…

These user innovation networks have a great advantage over the manufacturer-centric innovation development systems that have been the mainstay of commerce for hundreds of years: they enable each using entity, whether an individual or a corporation, to develop exactly what it wants rather than being restricted to available marketplace choices or relying on a specific manufacturer to act as its (often very imperfect) agent. Moreover, individual users do not have to develop everything they need on their own: they can benefit from innovations developed by others and freely shared within and beyond the user network.

Cool stuff.

He’ll need to add blogging to his list of subjects to study. This whole view of horizontal user innovation networks becomes particularly interesting (and recursive) when you start to think about users innovating in the creation of technology that drives the networking/innovation process itself. Think about it this way:

Anonymous blogger Atrios is now selling clever t-shirts saying “I am Atrios.”

Rick Bruner explains what the holidays look like for someone unburdened by child or dog. Scroll down to the November 24 entry on this page.

Pleased with the results from the first go-round, John Kerry’s campaign has re-ordered ads on Talkingpointsmemo, Atrios, PoliticalWire and Agonist. New ads ordered on Oliver Willis, Talkleft, Pandagon and NathanNewman.

Having gone nine months without a cold, I spent the night with that grating feeling in my nose and throat. Ugg. I guess I’ll drive over to Raleigh Thursday to see Virginia Postrel speak. 12:00-2:00 pm, Speech, Brownstone Hotel 1707 Hillsborough Ave.

Amy Langfield makes Christmas gift recommendations, then warns “In case you’re my mom and you read this list and start thinking you’re going to buy me stuff listed above – stop now. It’s listed because I own it and think it’s great.”

Matt Welch heaps scorn Vaclav Klaus and those who buy his PR.

This morning, we’ve added per blog click/view granularity for advertisers who buy on multiple blogs with one payment.

I’m going to be on the road for the next few days. I’ll check e-mail, but if you need anything urgently, please write info at blogads.com rather than me personally.

Democratic blog giant DailyKos is now running blogads. He took a poll a couple of weeks ago: Should DailyKos run blogads? 417 of his readers voted yes, 143 voted no and 175 voted “don’t care.” And there were 195 comments. A sampling below.

Pro:

Since there are ads in nearly every opinion journal in print now, having ads in an online journal that reflect your editorial point of view should neither be unexpected nor unwelcome.
(Saying that confident that none of us will see publisher ads referring to the latest from knuckleheads like Coulter, Cavuto, O’Reilly et al. except as a matter of hilarious biting satire…)

Go for it as far as I am concerned, for what that’s worth.
Superskepticalman

Go for it. Far be it from me to let some namby-pamby librul thinkin stand in the way of American Entrepreneurship creating millions of jobs. Just don’t outsource your comments to New Delhi.

See if you can get some Bush ads that pay by the click. I’ll sit here clicking for two hour a day, just helping you suck up as much of his $200 million as possible.
TX Dem in TX

Do it bro
ten nights

A blogad on Atrios led me to a terrific site on preserving our oceans. I was able to alert some friends to pending legislation nonsense from that bastard, Ted Stevens. I vote yes and hope that the ads are topical like that.
opus

Very Dean-esque to ask us, Kos. I say go for it, because I’ve always wanted you to devote more of the site to fundraising for worthy causes anyway.
leftist

Hm. I voted No, and I was going to go drop another donation in the jar. But after reading what people have to say here, I think if I could change my vote, I would. It’s not really practical for Kos to depend on forgetful people like me, when the expenses of running the blog are constant. He needs some sort of slow and steady income stream, and I’m afraid I’m not it.
So, Kos — when you’re looking at the votes, could you please mentally add one to Yes, subtract one from No?
Canadian reader

There is a white space running down the entire left margin of the page. It’s crazy not to use it for everyone’s benefit. Kos, I say go for it if you need to.
FLDoubleBushed

You would also be helping out the guys/gals who are coming up with the imaginative products like the BushCards and “Bush-Orwell 2004” bumper sticker I have.
BobNJ

Take advertising. Use it for any use you deem appropriate (ie rent, food, lavish vacations, etc) Blogsphere is our answer to Rush Limbaugh and the yahoos on the radio. You have played a critical role in helping build something important. We need to blogsphere into a mechanism that can help us combat the Fox News orgs of the world. In that effort, the idea that you should not take easy money seems really silly to me. This is a marketplace of ideas. To win in this marketplace, we need capital – don’t be shy about taking it.
fladem

Kos, please change my ‘I don’t care’ to a ‘Yes’.
Thanks!
mwjeepster

Tongue in cheek:

Are you kidding me? Do what you have to do! Atrios has already opted out, and he’ll kick your ass if you don’t do the same!
Frankly, when I see such a vast array of fine products and services being made available to me, I feel immeasureably empowered as a consumer.

Let me tell you, I grew up in a household of deeply committed shoppers, but I’ve never seen an advertising medium quite so powerful, so capable of reaching new consumers with new sources of disposable income as the ‘net. It’s flat out revolutionary. …
Kagro X

This is just a cover! You already decided in a boiler room 2 weeks ago that you would forgo ads, and now you’re just trying to get cover for your decision! What kind of image does it portray to ask for your supporters opinion on something? What’s next, a poll on whether you should support abortion or your stance on our relationship with Israel?
You and Howard Dean both suck for asking your supporters whether they’re actually willing to give you money! Blablabla!

[End anti-dean parody]
Asak

Can you get that “Friendsurfer” ad that atrios had?
mmmmmmmm…. friendsurfergirl
mdhatter

Ambivalent:

I’ll take the polution in order to be sure that this site does not take food of the plate of the new addition to the Kos family.

Hate blogads, personally, but let’s be realistic:
It ain’t THAT big of a deal if he runs some ads down the left side of the page. If it helps keep this site going, which is one of about 3 sites I can’t do without, then I’m all for it.

Not to mention the fact that Kos is a new dad…any time-saver is a bonus.

In other words, Kos, do it and get some sleep.
Malthus

Because I see advertising as part of the cancer in general, I would vote no, but born and raised into ad culture, I tune them all out anyway. So if you can scam them into paying you to show their stuff, in some deluded belief that they are going to profit by it, go for it, dude.
OTOH, I have no problem giving to my local NPR station, and I’m sure your operation costs less than a radio station to operate. I’d feel inclined to help you if you needed, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed to ask. What does it cost you, anyway? You got some kind of budget you try to follow?
claude

Competitive:

I’m a bit biased here, as I work for Google, specifically on their AdSense contextual advertising product….
Maxwell

No:

Can’t you get some of that Soros money instead? Just ask him nice. I’m sure after he checked out the fine work you do he’d put up some loot. MoveOn.org should set up a blog fund to support independent progressive bloggers. No ads. They’s ugggggly. I like you a lot more than Atrios, Kos. And it’s not because I’m all that fond of orange.
Jumbo

I’d give $10 month….
cat

I feel pretty strongly that you should avoid ads. The problem is you need to make some money. I think ads should be a last resort and you haven’t begun to exhaust other ideas that would probably generate more revenue anyways. …
Tropicana

I agree 100% with Tropicana. I would most likely spend less time here if there were ads. It starts out with just a few and next thing you know it’s Salon (which is used to read religiously each morning until the ad pollution completely overwhelmed the content).
However, since prevailing sentiment seems to favor ads, please consider an ad free subscription option if at all possible.

Sigh, I hate change…
Valkyrie

A few posts mentioned that blogads look ugly on Atrios. We’ve looked into this and concluded that Atrios’ HTML is a little tangled. When we have a spare moment, we will help him fix it.

Look at the following chart, showing a report just released by the Pew Foundation.

With many of America’s most influential consumers so Internet-biased, why does the Internet get only $7 billion in advertising every year when television pulls $50 billion?

I was just talking with a contact inside one of the Democratic presidential campaigns. He reminded me: television advertising is a giant and lucrative value-chain (read: “gravy train”) with numerous players each taking a slice. These TV careerists are fighting tooth and nail to keep the online players from getting their share.

Evolution will make sure this changes, of course. The gene for buying television ads will slowly get weeded out. (Via Buzzmachine.)