Pot, Kettle; Kettle, Pot

Rolling through the post-event comments, one of note was a pretty strong shot at Spencer Hall for sitting at the dias and blogging while the session went on.

Well, he's a blogger. What did you expect?

Here's the hook. The comment on Spencer's blog started with, "You're so unprofessional for blogging . . . ."

A) I think Spencer made it very clear, he gets paid for blogging -- ie, he is a professional -- but by no stretch of the imagination did he claim to be a professional journalist.

B) Um, why are you sitting in the audience reading a blog while we're at the podium making a presentation that your institution is paying for you to attend. And posting on it.

One of the very interesting side notes -- there were at least four persons in the room, fellow SIDs, that were posting to Spencer's blog during the event. In a way, that speaks to the coming change in events.

In answer to the worries about the transactional blogger violating the rights agreements of our various companies, ponder that exchange. I know it is almost impossible during time outs at Razorback football games to send or receive texts. In large part, its friends commenting to each other about the last plays. Once again, a digital community within the real one.

As we see broader roll-out of 3G and Edge devices, more and more text becomes descriptions of the events. Instead of worrying about whether this undercuts the rights holders, maybe the rights holders could sponsor community groups to engage that discussion. And sell ads.

One of the running comments during the week on other panels went something like this: I don't know who those people are who are playing along with TV on their laptops . . . or I don't know who those people are answering the surveys during the commercials on TV.

Entertainment networks wouldn't take the time to create those interactives if they weren't capturing time and views for ads on those pages.

It's something to think about. Hello, Stat Crew? Yes, could you rebuild the media view with a chat window and port it to Windows Media 6.0 and iPhone SDK . . . .

By the way, my intellectual property attorney would like you to know that by that statement I have claimed initial patent on the concept of any statistical presentation of college sports linked with the idea of chat windows for interactive fan communities at the games, and those mated with targeted advertising based on existing profiles, cell phone number and SNW harvested data.

No. Seriously. I mean that.