TypePad Featured Blogs

RConversation

Rebecca MacKinnon's experience teaching new media at Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre,  combined with gigs as CNN's Beijing and Tokyo Bureau Chiefs, along with a fellowship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government provide the perfect background to ruminate on the explosion of online news, its consequences, and its implications. In RConversation, Rebecca blogs articulately and with great expertise on human rights, freedom of speech, and corporate responsibility as they pertain to online media, tackling hot-button Web issues like Yahoo's handing over information that the Chinese government later used to convict political dissidents. Other online controversies include Second Life, Wikipedia, and the always-interesting topic of just what-the-hell-are-they-selling-on-eBay-now? This is the perfect place for news and views on, well, news and views. Take a look.

David Finch

David Finch lives and breathes social media. As content developer for S Planet Media, a company specializing in online and print communication, it’s his job to stay on top of all the newest methods of communicating via technology. Luckily for those of us who don’t have time to keep up with the ever-changing world of social media, David shares his findings with us. Filled with insights on blogging, podcasting, and video, there’s plenty for the novice as well as the social media butterfly. Peppered throughout are updates from his Twitter and Jaiku accounts (practicing what he preaches) and a list of resources to further your education. If you’ve ever wanted to jump into the social media space, David Finch can help you take the plunge.

Bitemarks

Bite Communications is a world-renowned public relations agency committed to building brands and squelching the status quo with the "tenacity of a mule." The employees of Bite (affectionately called "Biters") needed an outlet to express their numerous and varied opinions, and turned to TypePad to host the appropriately named Bitemarks blog. Chock-full of tidbits from the world of public relations and social media, Bitemarks explores and waxes philosophical about a wide range of communications, marketing and media -- and sometimes indulges in a little bit of soapbox venting. Written in an engaging, conversational style and thoroughly entertaining, Bitemarks is a blog you can really sink your teeth into.

The Weather Guys

Consider the humble weatherman -- the tragicomic staple of local newscasts everwhere. Now, toss out your preconceived notions about greenscreens, polyester blazers, and Doppler 8000 radar. Warm up to a new breed of meteorogical journalist -- The Weather Guys. Yes, that's right, USA Today has long employed a pair of these intrepid editors to bring you the best in forecasts, climate news, and even books and music related to the weather. Do you shiver in your bones just thinking about the weather? Well, no more. Leave it to banjo-playing Bob Swanson and his partner-in-clime Doyle Rice to make thinking about the weather all day, every day, just as fascinating as the other great blogs that USA Today offers.

Business of Video

Streaming media is hot, but Dan Rayburn knew that well before it got there. He co-managed the Macintosh New York Music Festival in 1995, a five-night event which some call the first large-scale Webcast on the Internet. Since then he has founded and sold Live On Line, one of the first streaming media production companies. Fast-forward to his current position as Executive Vice President of StreamingMedia.com. Business of Video is Dan's new blog that aims to share his wealth of knowledge on this sizzling subject. Get into the nitty gritty legal aspects of user generated video, tap the pulse of mobile video, or catch the news on content distribution. Download the RSS feed and you'll feel like you've registered to a continuous workshop about business trends in the online video industry. It doesn't matter if you're just jumping in, or if you're already a veteran -- Dan's books and plentiful resources will catch you up.

Gamedrop

MTV Games has a brand new TypePad blog called Gamedrop. Joining their sister network's excellent online resource, VH1 Game Break, this younger endeavor is similarly genuine. For gamers, by gamers -- that's pretty much the rule of thumb for this eclectic collection of off-beat observations about videogame culture. You'll find quirky entries on subjects such as a Yoshi made of snow and "Goodies for the Crafty Gamer." So, while you'll find plenty of anecdotal posts about current and upcoming titles for your Wii, your Xbox 360, or your PS3, you won't find a laundry list of screencaps, cheat codes, and 1.000-word game reviews. If you ask us, we're thankful for the respite. Gaming, just like MTV, is first and foremost about having fun. And this vibrant site certainly reflects that attitude.

Amber Mac

Canadian TV host Amber MacArthur is smart, savvy, and passionate about tech trends and all things Web 2.0. Her blog, Amber Mac, is a space to show off the latest and greatest for consumer technology. This is a site for those who are fascinated with the way the Web is connecting people, delivering news, building business, and entertaining the masses. Where geek toys meet Pop culture, Amber is there. Her excitement for tech treats is contagious, and she's totally dialed in. Don't bother looking for categories, use her del.icio.us links, or better yet, watch the CNI videos in the right navbar. Fans can also subscribe to AmberMac for assurance that they're up on everything hip and new in technology -- before the next job interview, or Wiifest.

Patrice Douge

We love it when bloggers explode the notion that blogging is just about writing. Patrice Douge has done just that, by creating a personal blog devoted to images. A travel-loving photojournalist, Douge captures colorful and thought-provoking moments mostly in and around Florida. It's clear that this blog represents Douge's passion as well as his livelihood. Visit the portfolio to follow Douge on assignment from high school Homecoming parades to horse races. While the blog is only updated a few times a month, the sidebars play historian to even more photos. Don't miss "Into the Spirit," a photo essay from Haitian voodoo and Catholic religious ceremonies.

Business 2.0 Beta

With Business 2.0 Beta, the well-loved magazine about modern entrepreneurship has unveiled a powerful lineup of TypePad (and Movable Type) blogs. Some may already be familiar to visitors to the magazine's site, like The Next Net (formerly B2Day). However, most of the blogs are wholly new endeavors, bringing editors, reporters, and even an art director out from behind their office desks and into a brave new network of business-related content. You'll find blogs dealing with everything from marine technology to real estate to "extreme gadgetry,"  and even business humor. We love the idea of this bold "experiment" and suspect that it will be nothing less than a resounding success. For more about the lineup and the method behind Business 2.0's blog madness, check out this introductory post from editor Erick Schonfeld.

Cookie Magazine: Daysitter

Stepping well beyond the mommy blog tradition of giving parents advice about tougher child-rearing moments, Daysitter connects savvy moms and dads with the outside world. Posting up to five times a day, this blog from Cookie magazine is full of info on current events, kid culture, work/life balance, gear and goodies, Dad style, and even includes a category on celebreeders so that we can get our glitterati gossip fix. If your surf time is precious, check straight into First Feeding, their daily roundup of posts and essential parenting news items from around the web. After all, Cookie Mag has a mantra of "mom style, kid culture" and Daysitter definitely lives up to that. The best part? The anonymous writer is witty, candid, "snarky, but not too snarky," and makes reading this blog feel like you're gabbing with your best friend.

Lunch over IP

Bruno Giussani is a powerhouse European writer who has worked for a whole range of notable publications (International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week). He's also the producer of the TEDGLOBAL conference. His award-winning TypePad blog, Lunch over IP, is a treasure trove of insights from the front lines of business and technology. Giussani's dispatches inhabit the spectrum between quick commentary to long-form articles, with his main focus centered on Internet-related stories. So whether you're a tech veteran hopping from conference to conference or just an interested observer looking for a fresh perspective on technology, check out Lunch over IP.

Kaiju Shakedown

Kaiju Shakedown is just one of a bunch of TypePad blogs offered by Tinseltown's paper of record: Variety. Here, blogger Grady Hendrix keeps tabs on the latest releases in Asian cinema -- everything from the animated fantasies to the martial-arts action movies to the big-budget epics to the new wave of Asian horror. There's more than any die-hard fan could ask for -- festival updates, buzz on future releases, and interviews with influential filmmakers. Catch up on the latest about the much ballyhooed Exiled or just sit back and take in some trailers. Movie buffs who want to stay ahead of the curve, Kaiju Shakedown is required reading.

The Movable Buffet

The Movable Buffet is Richard Abowitz's Las Vegas blog, a daily dose of Sin City news for the Los Angeles Times website. It's been running for nearly a year as part of a collection of 13 great LA Times blogs. Abowitz gets his street cred from being a Contributing Editor for the Las Vegas Weekly as well as having lived in Glitter Gulch since 1999. The Movable Buffet is primarily for Vegas-o-philes that enjoy a local's perspective. Topics skew towards local politics, local crime, and local celebrities more than the typical tourist information, but for those considering a trip to Vegas, there are posts about new shows, regular entertainers, club openings and closings, and some cool event pics for bigger holidays like New Year's Eve. Travelers looking for  planning information will find a handy link to the LA Times'  Las Vegas Travel section.

redbankgreen

Red Bank, New Jersey. Some might know it as the place where legendary musician Count Basie is from. John T. Ward knows it as home. An award-winning writer and 20-year resident of Red Bank, Ward created redbankgreen to give exposure to local business owners while also providing news that folks in Red Bank and the surrounding six neighbor towns might care about. Stroll through the blog and read about a small-town bank robbery, when the Ben & Jerry's is opening up, and how their local antique shop manager Judy Barnaby got written up in newspapers around the world because Bruce and his wife Patti stopped in and gave her the scoop that "the gossip item in the previous day's New York Post about an imminent split in the Scialfa-Springsteen household was bunk." Don't you dare say Bruce who. A lot can go on in a town with a population under 12,000, just ask Kevin Smith. Blog addicts will go crazy trying to figure out how creative guru Trish Russoniello (of Red Lamb Design) animates and frames the posts' wonderful illustrations. Next question, does Jet Blue fly to Red Bank?

Data Mining

Data Mining is the info-rich playground of Matthew Hurst, the co-creator of BlogPulse. Matthew loves graphing the peaks and valleys of keyword trends, the interconnections between blogs, and the overall shape of the blogosphere. An image from his eye-popping data visualizations even appeared recently on the cover of a magazine. We have to admit that we love noodling around with spreadsheets and graphs and have often found Hurst's theoretical posts interesting points of departure. If you're a fan blogs and buzz and putting together small pieces together form a larger picture, we think you'll find Data Mining a rich vein for exploration.

A+E Interactive

A+E Interactive is a cool entertainment blog from the San Jose Mercury News, one of the world's most thoroughly wired newspapers. This deceptively modest, yet stylishly designed blog offers a "hangout for gaming, music, movies and culture" for San Francisco Bay area readers. Of course, since we live in a global village, just about anyone who is entertained by video games, television, and popular music will be able to enjoy the content here. Divided into a dozen helpful "channels," with the aforementioned Gaming, Music, Movies at the forefront, but also including subjects such as Celebrities, Teen Views, and Concerts for good measure, the blog does a great job of putting faces on their writers. In fact, you can browse the archives by clicking on the names of one of the 10 Mercury News reporters who man the blog.

Herb Greenberg's Market Blog

One of a trio of great blogs from MarketWatch columnists, Herb Greenberg's Market Blog offers insights into the daily ups and downs of individual stocks. A long-time contributor to CNBC, Greenberg shares his take on the causes and effects that shape your portfolio's bottom line. Best of all, comments are wide open and, like the best bloggers, Greenberg tries to stick around and weigh in on the often lively discussions. Take, for instance, Herb's recent analysis of Apple's quarterly results. After his less-than-rosy outlook on the company's numbers attracted a vocal chorus of Mac faithful, Greenberg gracefully agreed to disagree with the very readers that insisted on calling him names. We salute you, Herb! And here's our consensus estimate: Keep sharing your expert commentary and engaging those commenters and your blog's numbers will continue to skyrocket.

Inky Circus

Who says that science doesn't have to be fun? Girl nerds Anna Gosline, Katie Law, and Anne Casselman have come together to play magazine, not house. These three science journalists from London are making their dreams come true by creating a science magazine for women. They're sharing their journey with readers of Inky Circus, offering a healthy mix of geekiness, humor, and style. On one hand, they might post about reports that women want gadgets more than bling, and on the other, they might point to a website demonstrating "fantastic explanations of DNA, animations of the Krebs cycle, and some super rad 3D images of chromosomes." The science-related posts come together beautifully --  with photos and a vibrancy that will appeal to any reader, no matter their gender (or their IQ.) And while we're wishing these bloggers all the success in the world for their magazine, it's categories like "men whose babies we care not to bear" and "men whose babies we want to bear" that make us wish they would pursue their own TV talk show, too.

On Deadline

On Deadline is one of TypePad's most widely read blogs, there's no doubt about it. Why? Well, as a constantly updated reflection of the day's breaking news and top stories, with a bunch of interesting tidbits thrown in for good measure, On Deadline is the leader of the very, very talented pack of blogs that USA Today offers its readers. Every day, throughout the day, the editors share stories from both the pages of the newspaper and around the 'Net. For readers who the come to USA Today's hot stories through other avenues, prominent links lead back to the blog, offering a movable forum for discussion and reader response. If you want a new-media interface to the formidable information-gathering power of USA Today, put On Deadline in your newsreader and enjoy the buzz from the newsroom.

Something Glorious

Something Glorious, the brainchild of Ari Bendersky, offers an eclectic mix of recommendations about music, design, men's accessories, and assorted cultural ephemera. Subtitled "Things that I love that you should love too," Glorious is a beautiful example of the new breed of personal journalism that transcends simple consumer shout-outs. Bendersky writes most extensively about contemporary music, and includes a number of interviews with artists like Bloc Party and Dave Matthews. However, he's clearly dedicated to covering a wide spectrum -- from gadgets to grooming to gourmet foods (Humboldt Fog, mmmmmm). Presented with such a broad range of goodness, we'd be amazed if  readers of Something Glorious didn't find something intriguing on each and every visit.

New Media Musings

A few years back, journalist J.D. Lasica decided to focus his considerable talents and energies on  "citizens media and the personal media revolution." His main TypePad blog (Pro subscribers can have as many as they want), New Media Musings, is just one of the venues that J.D. has at his diposal, along with his not-for-profit Ourmedia.org, his book (and blog), Darknet, and numerous articles appearing in publications far and wide. Lasica's latest  mission took him to the International Citizen Reporters' Forum in Seoul, South Korea, where grassroots journalists and the organizations that connect them were meeting to discuss the future. If you have an interest in the trends that will define personal and public media in the years to come, check out Lasica's point of view, which not only includes posts and commentary, but an amazing array of photographs and video. Lasica is a new-media triple-threat who uses a multiple blog strategy to keep his readers coming back.

Obscure Store and Reading Room

Journalist Jim Romenesko has been scouring odd tidbits from the newspapers, magazines, and news sites of the world for a long time -- since 1998 online and since 1989 in print. That makes the Obscure Store and Reading Room one of the oldest examples of a continuously updated "filter" blog -- a site that scans the web and brings you high-quality writing about a specific subject or set of subjects. Happily, in 2005, Romenesko decided to move this venerated blog to TypePad. So, if you delight in "man bites dog" stories, make sure you make time to browse the aisles of the Obscure Store. If meta-news about the media is more your speed, visit Romenesko's eponymous blog on the Poynter Institute's journalism site.

Popular Science

Popular Science magazine has been covering innovation in computers, automobiles, medicine, aviation, and other practical sciences for as long as we can remember. Their cover illustrations have fueled the dreams of countless gadget freaks for decades, and they're still going strong. Last month it was "Laser Warfare." One word: Sweet. We've been anxiously waiting for laser warfare since, oh, 1977 or so. All kidding aside, the PopSciBlog exchanges the speculative imagery for a more here-and-now approach. The writers and editors at PopSci.com offers great tidbits from the same categories as the parent publication -- automotive, aviation, aerospace, etc. -- plus some fun Internet finds, covered with all the enthusiasm and wit you'd expect. As the site's blogroll indicates, if you're a fan of Boing Boing, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, or Make, you'll probably want to add Popular Science to your bookmarks.

Past Deadline

Founded in 1930, venerable entertainment daily The Hollywood Reporter recently started a pair of TypePad blogs. Past Deadline, which covers television and film, is the work of Ray Richmond, while Risky Business, focussed on the big screen, in penned by Anne Thompson. Both cover the goings on behind the scenes in Tinseltown -- whether it's on screen, on the set, or in the boardroom. Richmond , author of a weekly column in the Reporter called "The Pulse," brings his own brand of wicked sarcasm to the table, offering up hilarious jabs at industry idiocy -- from absurd marketing ploys to assinine media personalities. You've got to love the off-the-wall journalistic style of Hollywood reporters in general, and The Hollywood Reporter and its bloggers are no exception.

JANE Magazine Blogs

The folks behind JANE Magazine bill themselves as purveyors of "fashion, beauty, music, gossip, and news for 20-something women." Dirty secret: You don't have to be a 20-something woman to enjoy the fun. Check out the mag's site and you'll see that they've jumped into blogging in a big way. They've actually got four separate blogs. One group blog for all their editors, one for music and celebrities, one for fashion and makeup, and one devoted to a monthly guest blogger. This past month, the guest contributor was Lindsay Robertson, who posted up an eclectic storm on everything from American Inventor to leprechaun sightings. With that many blogs overflowing with content, plus friends like Lindsay, JANE is certainly one of the cool kids on the magazine rack.   

Regret the Error

Even prestigious publications eff things up sometimes. That's right, The Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, and dare we say -- the New York Times. Mistakes happen. Regret the Error, run by Craig Silverman, reports on corrections that have been made, whether grudgingly or graciously, as well as overall issues of accuracy in the media.