Seven answers on 7Q (also known as the FAQs of life.)				Interviewed by Tom Mangan Jason Kottke, weblogger, online designer His weblog is here.		AUTHORS Michael Fuchs Elizabeth Hilts Paul Riddell Gary Rivlin Jim Motavalli Barbara Shafferman Jules Siegel Keith Snyder ARTISTS/POETS/ PHILOSOPHERS Jon C. Allen Will Baker Mike Leung Jon Sarkin COOL SITE KEEPERS Mike Cash Scott O'Neal Colf Godfrey Daniels Cliff Davis, DDS Tammy Hocking Wes Modes Frank Rogan DIARISTS Ralph Becker J. D. Bruns Linda DeVault Mike Reed Moira Richardson Jessamyn West FILMMAKERS Ben Kufrin Dean Mermell JOURNALISTS Bernie Mary Cooley-Jones Lindsay Crysler Jamie Dupree M.O.A.T.M.A.I. David Moll Robert Niles John Orr Steven Ovadia Pierce Presley Mack Reed Rip Rense Curtis Ross Neal Ross John Scalzi Catherine Seipp David Sheets Dwight Silverman Matt Welch MOVIE MAVENS MaryAnn Johanson Brian Koller HUMORISTS Debbie Farmer Mike Jasper Madeleine Begun Kane Patrick Keller Bob Sassone Valerie Sprague Ken Swarmer Ian Wolff SOLDIERS Maj. Jon Anderson, USAF TEACHERS John Warner TECHIES Chris Adamson Mike Gunderloy Michael Ivey Greg Knauss Floyd Maxwell Ellen McDonough Mike Pingleton Wayne Thume John Worth TEENS Gary Baum Marty Beckerman UNDECLARED Bev Gibbs Beth Reid WEBLOGGERS Jason Kottke Jish Mukerji
ONE				Weblogs have been popping up all over in the past year. What's the appeal for keeping a weblog, vs. any of the other online options available? As a publishing format, the weblog offers at least three advantages: flexibility, speed, and readily available content. A typical weblog entry can be pretty much anything the 'logger wants, from a link to a diary-type entry to a two page commentary on monster truck rallies. Often (but not always), writers of zines, online diaries, and the like are locked into one format of entry ... either they post a 500-page essay or they don't, there's no middle ground there. Weblogs, I guess, are all middle ground. Weblogs are cake to update. Most of the time, it takes me no more than 15 minutes a day to update my site. Sometimes it might take a little longer if I'm adding some context or commentary to a link or a thought, but it generally takes up very little of my time. And with tools like Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), Pitas (http://www.pitas.com), and Manila (http://www.editthispage.com), you can update a weblog anywhere you've got access to a Web browser. As for content, the Internet is full of it. Links come into my mailbox via mailing lists, from co-workers, magazines, friends, and other Web sites, journals, and weblogs. A lot of the content on my site originates from what I read or experience offline and then I use the Web as a research tool to add context.
TWO				With so many loggers out there, some people are saying "enough's enough." How do you respond to that? They're probably right. One of the knocks on weblogs is that they offer no substance, much like what a magazine like, say, Seventeen offers compared with what a book like 1984 has to offer. They're all links, no content, wholly masturbatory in nature, too much navelgazing, all commentary and no actual thought put into them. On the whole, I'd say that's a pretty accurate statement. But as with both magazines and books, there's a wide range of weblog offerings out there. Some weblogs have more substance than others ... there are even a few exceptional ones if you take the time to look.
THREE				What's a link gotta have to merit an appearance on your page? I have no idea. I guess a link has to have that certain, as the French say, "I don't know what."
FOUR				A lot of logs have specific themes. Think up theme you haven't seen that would be a good candidate for logging. Well, take pretty much any hobby and you have yourself a weblog topic. The key is the right person finding the right topic. A weblog I would personally like to see is a typography-only weblog that is run by someone who is well-versed in and has a passion for type, someone who can offer links plus insightful commentary.
FIVE				What's one of the misconceptions people have about what you do for a living? I always use my family as a barometer with stuff like this. My dad knows more about what I do than most of my relatives, but I don't think even he knows how much I'm involved with design, typography and such. My mom, along with the rest of my family, knows that I do "something with computers." Then again, my role varies so much from project to project that I have a hard time understanding what I do myself.
SIX				What's one of your latest pet peeves that's been showing up in professionally designed sites? Tabs! A year ago, the Yahoo!-style interface was copied by all the portal sites, and now the Amazon-style tab navigation is being copied by all of the e-commerce sites out there (Barnes & Noble, CDNow, eToys, Buy.com, etc). Some might argue that's just the Web adopting the best interface for the job, but I say it's just laziness.
SEVEN				Say I've been dabbling in Web design and developed a certain confidence in my abilities. What's the most important thing I need to know before I start trying to hunt down clients and make money at it? "Don't hunt down clients all by yourself." Well, unless that's your thing. My thing is most definitely not dealing with clients. That's why I like being part of a team where the client-relations people and project managers deal with the client on a day to day basis, leaving me free to design Web sites which is where my passion and expertise lies.
				THE BIG INDEX... Who they are, what they do, how they think. Go there now. A TO Z ARCHIVE... Everybody here, with quickie bios. Go there now. Return to the main Seven Questions page See the original Newsies 7Q project Contact info@sevenquestions.com Copyright 1999-2002, Thomas L. Mangan