Collaboration

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In this inaugural edition of the be global podcast, Lee Schneider interviews David Cohn, founder of Spot.Us,  a nonprofit that is pioneering community funded reporting. David has written for Wired, Seed, Columbia Journalism Review and The New York Times, among other publications.

While working toward his master’s degree at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, David worked with Jay Rosen as the editor at the groundbreaking Newassignment.net in 2006, which focused on citizen journalism and ways news organizations could explore the social web. David also worked with Jeff Jarvis from Buzzmachine.com to organize the first Networked Journalism Summits. Those collaborations led to Spot.Us.

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What is the be global podcast?

Global collaboration is transforming the way we work and think. Making information transparent is more than just a technological task or a challenge to be met with more and better machines – it’s a very human responsibility. We’ve heard the expression ‘knowledge is power.’ Let’s consider an expansion on that: Global knowledge means power for everyone, opening the way to social change. There are visionaries who have found new ways to share knowledge and create more connection online. This is a podcast devoted to them, and also to showing you the best ways to connect online. Why will that help? We are all moving energy and information around on the web, so let’s discover the best ways to connect with each other. This will not only make us more efficient and better at what we do, but it will also generate more transparency, foster a sense of global responsibility, and offer more opportunities for equality.

Lindsay Lohan misbehaves. TMZ and Radar Online cover it and collect wheelbarrows full of advertising dollars. Arnold Schwarzenegger acts like an idiot and TMZ and Radar Online are all over it. More wheelbarrows of cash. Anybody catching on yet?

Did you know that TMZ is owned by Time Warner and that Radar Online is owned by the National Enquirer? There’s sweet money to be made in the business of trashy behavior. We have a lot of airtime to fill and a lot of media to create and a lot of platforms to satisfy, and well, that’s a whole lot of Charlie Sheen. Yet, in the interest of providing an unlimited stream of foolishness, some celebrities have actually caught on. They’re not avoiding the bad news. They are courting it.

There’s no such thing as bad publicity.
-Muammar Gaddafi

Actually, Gaddafi didn’t say that. It was Irish playwright Brendan Behan, and he didn’t know he was giving good advice to Michael Lohan, Lindsay’s father, master of the art of monetizing bad behavior using reality shows, clips leaked to TMZ, and general hell-raising for the camera. The tabloid economy is robust, and fool/tools like Arnold Schwarzenegger pump it up with a potent mix of adultery and real estate deals.

Thing is, I’ve grown hoarse from shouting at Access Hollywood on TV, so I’m switching my personal economy to the Inspiration Economy. There’s as much money to be made as in the other one, but with better costumes and choreography.

All individuals have a natural right to self-expression by any means, even if such means were insane and meant to prove a person’s insanity.
-Lady Gaga

Actually, Lady Gaga didn’t say that. It was Muammar Gaddafi. But we know that Gaga, like Gaddafi, is about self-expression, sometimes to extremes. And we know they share the same stylist. There is no “offstage” for Gaga or for Gaddafi. Gaga’s a show without an intermission, so she has said, and that sounds pretty terrifying. Truth is, I worry about her. She says she lives halfway between reality and fantasy all the time. This is also true of Newt Gingrich, but since he doesn’t change outfits as much as Gaga, he doesn’t hold our attention.

I believe a revolution can start with the actions of a single person. If you board that logic train with me, it means that somebody who says they can be the queen we need can be an agent of positive change, even if she wears meat sometimes, and somebody else can be an agent of negative change, especially if he wears funny hats. Individuality and inspiration, dressed in sparkly costumes, or even serving an out-of control ego, are better than marching along with manipulators who misbehave, cash in, and repeat. It’s about power, and how you use it.

Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger

Actually, that’s a real one. Maybe he should have a talk show with Gaddafi.

Camera image by Steve Jurvetson via Creative Commons License.

I have a secret life. I read Bon Appetit for the recipes. (“Jeeze, I thought living in California with all the crazy people he’d have a more interesting secret life than that.”) No, really, that’s it. I like to cook.

Bon Appetit has hired a new editor in chief, formerly of GQ, and he has given the magazine new mojo. The lace curtains have parted in the current issue, revealing a view of a real, working kitchen. It’s good to know that I don’t have to channel Martha Stewart any longer to make the food. The magazine was graced with shockingly non-frilly photographs. There was even a engineer-geeky article on moka coffee makers. The new Bon Appetit seemed so promising, so genuine … until I saw the Botox ad, and the ad for some kind of drug called Latisse that you use to make your eyelashes longer. Right then, Bon Appetit went limp and trivial in my hands. Its new day rising was hijacked by a drug lord named Allergan.

Know what? Lines on a face are not a bad thing. They are history’s map, and I don’t think I’ve ever made a serious decision about anybody based on the length of their eyelashes. The disconnect between genuine food and fake faces generated this open letter to Bon Appetit’s new editor, Adam Rapoport.

Dear Adam,

I realize that magazine editors are all-powerful beings. You make the absolute call on what goes on and between the covers of Bon Appetit. I admire your dedication to showing people how to eat well. You don’t write too much about food with preservatives and you don’t seem to be a fan of high fructose corn syrup, unless you could maybe use it to make a good martini. (Doubtful.) Your magazine seems to be about fresh, local ingredients prepared inventively. So I wonder why the hell you need to run a bunch of ads from Allergan about chemically messing with your face? Look, I know magazines can be desperate for ad revenue. Men’s magazines have lots of Viagra ads. There are forward-looking journals that carry backward-looking oil company ads. But drug-centric ads in super-fresh, living-large Bon Appetit?  Big-time mismatch, you ask me.

I was kidding about you having absolute control over the magazine. When the ad department says they want to run an ad from Allergan you probably say, “Can it be a two-page spread?” Bon Appetit has to make money. How it does — that’s not always up to you. But don’t you wish it was? Wouldn’t it be great to say something like:

“We here at the new Bon Appetit are going to follow our gut…food matters to us… and this may sound corny and earnest, but I really believe that having good food in your life makes your life better.”

Oh, wait, sorry. You did say that. Those are your words from your editor’s letter in the Italy issue. Words like those sound authentic, like they come from a guy who shouldn’t have ads in his magazine for fake big-pharma crap. An authentic magazine about authentic food really needs to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Great piece in the Italy issue, by the way, from Gabrielle Hamilton. Doesn’t look like she’s had Botox, and the same for her 80-odd year old mother-in-law, who was the focus of the article.