Chad Dickerson's blog

The NYT is reporting that the Industry Standard is relaunching at IDG, led by InfoWorld CTO Derek Butcher. With Derek involved, the probability for success is high (when I left InfoWorld for Yahoo, right after speaking with our CEO about my departure, I said, “don’t post the job or interview anyone else — promote Derek immediately.” It wasn’t a difficult choice.)

I’m looking forward to seeing how this turns out! I have enormous respect for IDG and the people there (see my ode to founder and chairman Pat McGovern to see one reason why).

Six years ago, as the shock of 9/11 continued to set in on that day, I decided to go on a long bike ride in the Berkeley hills to clear my mind. Since the attacks happened early in the morning west coast time, most people like me stayed put and there was nothing else to do but devour CNN. At some point, that was too much and I had to get out of the house.

On my bike ride (it was a beautiful day in Berkeley, just as it had been in NYC before the attacks) through the strange magic of the brain, I thought of phrases in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land — the “unreal city” and the “falling towers.” The throngs of people walking over the Queensborough Bridge to escape Manhattan reminded me of the “crowd [that] flowed over London Bridge” in Eliot’s poem. When I got to the top of Grizzly Peak, I could see the entire bay laid out before me, and San Francisco was safe and sound in the distance. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated the tranquil city as much as I did that day. (Update: I took my camera with me that day. The photo below is SF on 9/11 as viewed from Grizzly Peak in Berkeley — click for the full-size version).

Below are the prescient passages from Eliot. In my mind, they will forever be associated with 9/11.

……

Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.

……

What is that sound high in the air
Murmur of maternal lamentation
Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth
Ringed by the flat horizon only
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal
……

It’s not that often that a ranked SEC power rolls into Berkeley to play a ranked California team — but that’s exactly what we’ve got in Berkeley this evening. I’m a lot less interested in the football game itself than I am in the idea of a bunch of football-loving Southerners showing up in Berkeley. A little while ago, I called my good friend and Berkeley neighbor Andrew (a Florida Gator) to discuss the juxtaposition of cultures. Andrew had just returned from a walk around downtown Berkeley, where he reported an older gentleman decked out in Tennessee Volunteer orange saying in a syrupy drawl, “I think I smell marijuana.” (I’m not betting on the game, but I would bet my life savings that he did in fact smell marijuana).

So, back to the culture clash. On the home team side, you’ve got Berkeley, perhaps the most liberal city in the United States. Wikipedia’s entry for Berkeley reports that the 2004 presidential election went like this: 90% for John Kerry (54,419 votes) versus only 6.7% for George W. Bush (4,010 votes). 6.7%? Shocking! I was thinking more like 2%. To bring the spirit of Berkeley a little closer to the present, the Cal-Tennessee game has surfaced a controversy with some tree-sitting protesters near the stadium, proving once again that in Berkeley that the real football is politics. The police have put a fence around the tree-sitters for the game, ostensibly to protect the tree-sitters from the football fans, and vice versa. On the one side, you’ve got the Berkeley tree sitting pacifists singing “We Shall Overcome” and on the other side, you’ve got rabid Tennessee fans singing “Rocky Top.” I think that the fence is an absolutely fine idea.

On to Knoxville, the home of the visiting Tennessee Volunteers, where the real football is actually football. The election returns for Knox County (where Knoxville is the county seat) went something like this: 62% Bush, 37% Kerry. The capacity of Neyland Stadium in Knoxville is just shy of 105,000 in a city that reported about 173,000 people in the 2000 census. The folks in Knoxville really care deeply about football. Other than with my buddy Andrew, I don’t think I’ve had a single conversation about football in my nine years of living in Berkeley.

I’m not criticizing Knoxville by any means. I grew up in North Carolina and spent a decent amount of time in Tennessee and have a lot of affection for the state. I think Berkeley would probably benefit from the kind of unity that a good sports team can bring to a community. I’m just saying that Knoxville and Berkeley are very different, and where different cultures collide, sometimes it’s fun to go get right in the middle of it. A little while ago, Nancy and I decided to go for a drive around Berkeley to see how things were shaping up pre-game. Just what I expected: blase Berkeley residents (there’s a football game today?) mixing it up with fired-up Tennessee fans in brilliant orange spilling out of every drinking establishment in downtown Berkeley, linked together only by mutual looks of puzzlement.

No fences between the Tennessee fans and the Berkeley residents there in downtown away from the stadium, but I got the feeling that both parties thought they were peering into an exhibit at the zoo. The only difference was which side of the invisible fence they thought they were on.

For reasons that make little practical sense, I’ve been holding on to the same email account for 13 years now, paying $9.95/month for a dial-up account that I never used just to keep the address. I just cancelled it today: chadd@mindspring.com is no more. The customer service rep sounded uniquely pained when she noticed that my account originated in August 1996. The address actually reaches farther back than that. It was my first e-mail account (sort of).

When I got my first e-mail account at work in early 1994, it was chadd@nando.net (the visionaries at the News & Observer started an ISP — back when newspapers still could be bold and daring). It was from my nando.net address that I sent my first emails and made a number of silly USENET posts. When Mindspring bought the nando.net ISP business, my beloved nando.net email address became chadd@mindspring.com. Then Earthlink bought Mindspring and my account went along with it.

So, bye-bye chadd@mindspring.com — I will always remember you as my first.

Before I get into my mini-review of Ryan Adams’ show in Berkeley on Tuesday night, I should state a few facts for the record about my almost-relationship with Ryan Adams. Forgive me in advance for the indulgence — I need to get a few things out of the way.

• I grew up in Greenville, NC — about 70 miles from Ryan’s hometown of Jacksonville (not to be confused with the Jacksonville in Florida in the same way that the Greenville I grew up in shouldn’t be confused with the one in South Carolina). There was nothing between us but Kinston, and that ain’t saying much (see map). (Ryan, if you’re reading this, I know you’re at least chuckling.) Ryan put in best in his song “Jacksonville Skyline” (note: Jacksonville doesn’t have a skyline): Well, Jacksonville’s a city with a hopeless streetlight / Seems like you’re lucky if it ever changes from red to green (off Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia, one of my all-time favorite albums, period)



• One night in the summer of 1995, I had nothing to do one night and my friend David Menconi invited me out to see a band in Raleigh that I had never heard of and really didn’t care about (I think it was this show — only their 7th outing). The band was fronted by Ryan Adams, who I only knew as a guy who played in the Patty Duke Syndrome, a local punk rock band. The transition to “alt-country” didn’t make sense to me, but Ryan explained it in the first Whiskeytown 7-inch, “Angels are Messengers from God”: I started this damn country band / ‘cuz punk rock was too hard to sing. I first encountered this 7-inch when I did the 2-5am Monday morning shift at WXDU (I followed the much-more-lively Sunday night 11pm-2am hip-hop show, and I always felt like I was breaking up a party when I arrived for my shift and segued over to my set. Well, ok, I actually was breaking up a party every time).
• I came this close to having Whiskeytown play a house-warming party in my backyard when I lived in Raleigh in 1995.
• Tenuous connection #345: My favorite band while I was in Raleigh (in the era of Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, et. al.) was Picasso Trigger. Lisa Cooper, the guitarist, became a good friend of mine when we found ourselves washing dishes and delivering pizzas at the same suburban Pizza Hut (see #2 in “Five things you don’t know about me“). I had a major punk rock crush on Kathy Poindexter, the lead singer of Picasso Trigger. I think Ryan did, too: he wrote “Lo-fi Tennessee Mountain Angel” for her. (side note: John, the drummer from Picasso Trigger at the time, made it on “The Price is Right” shortly after I left NC. I helped him change the tire on his van once. Another brush with fame.) Lisa Cooper, if you are out there, email me! The last time I saw you, we ended up a party in Atlanta and the Indigo Girls showed up. Decidedly not punk rock.

OK, with that out of the way, here’s the mini-review, and I emphasize “mini.”

First of all, I feel sorry for the folks who caught Ryan in SF on Monday night if this SF Weekly review is on target: “The whole atmosphere gave off the sterile vibe of a show neutered of any spontaneity. . .” The Berkeley show was as spontaneous as any Ryan Adams or Whiskeytown show I’ve seen. Contrast the SF Weekly review with what these bloggers said:

“as most of us settled into our seats, Ryan went up and down the aisles taking song requests from fans all over the theatre, kneeling down or grabbing an empty seat nearby in order to attain eye-level with them as they shared a conversation.” [link]

“Ryan Adams was really funny and made everyone laugh the whole time: he barked into the mike randomly and whispered weird things about how he gets wedgies often, and then violenlty unwegied himself.” [link]

“He was so funny throughout the show, lots of very entertaining banter between songs…about Cheez-Its, his not-boxer-but-not-brief underwear that was driving him crazy, all kinds of hilarious stuff. He really seemed to be enjoying himself. It was a great night, and well worth being ridiculously tired today!” [link]

“5 stars for one of the best shows of 2007.” (Nicholas H. on Yelp)

“He was definitely the most chatty and entertaining between songs as I’ve heard in a long time. From singing an impromptu custom birthday song to a girl a few rows up from us named Summer Rae Brown (it’ll be the smash hit of her summer for sure) to making up poems about his love for Cheez-Its (me too, Ryan, me too) it was hilarious.” [link]

Aside from his engagement with the audience, this was a great show, plain and simple. The band was ridiculously tight without seeming at all mechanical, and I felt that sense of amazement that you only feel at a Great Rock Show. All I can say is: wow. Ryan is a certified Rock Star.

Here’s the setlist:

A Kiss Before I Go
Please do not let me go
Goodnight Rose
Peaceful Valley
Two
Easy Plateau
Beautiful Sorta
Mockingbird
Happy Birthday (Summer Rae Brown)
When Stars Go Blue
I Taught Myself How To Grow Old
Everybody Knows
Let it Ride
Blue Hotel
Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part
Dear Chicago
Wildflowers
What Sin Replaces Love
Cold Roses
Shakedown On 9th Street
I See Monsters

Over on the Yahoo! Developer Network blog, I just posted about the unbelievable goings-on here in London yesterday. It was quite a day, one of the most memorable of my career.

In a world where the-sky-is-falling sensationalist media is the norm, the conclusion to the saga of the collapsed freeway here in the Bay Area is downright inspiring: the contractor (C.C. Myers) finished the job early! When is the last time things came together so nicely on a highway project? Wow! The lede (as they say in the biz) in the SF Gate story is absolutely gripping:

For a man whose confidence in his construction company borders on braggadocio, C.C. Myers was noticeably nervous on the ninth night after he promised to rebuild the fire-damaged MacArthur Maze in just 25 days.

Read on for the most engaging story you’ve ever read about highway construction. On the day of the collapse, all I heard was how horrible traffic was going to be (it never was that bad) and how it was going to takes months and years to correct (obviously not). C.C. Myers showed how it’s done. No matter what field you’re in, you just have to admire the planning and execution.

If C.C. Myers doesn’t throw out the first pitch at the next A’s or Giants game, get a statue at City Hall, and a key to every city in the Bay Area, I will be disappointed. Amazing job! The Bay Area appreciates it.

I had plans this weekend and Twitter led me astray from them briefly, but I discovered a new cover of an old favorite in the process.

It all started when I woke up on Saturday morning, checked in with Twitter, and noticed that Cody had twittered: “Departing to Kansas for the weekend. If Magnetic Fields changed song lyrics to ‘Baby I was born on a PLANE’ it would apply to my recent life.” I absolutely love Magnetic Fields, and “Born on a Train” (available on iTunes) is one of my favorites, so Cody’s twitter had me puttering around the house on Saturday morning singing this amazing song:

Some roads are only seen at night
Ghost roads — nothing but neon signs.
But some nights the neon gas gets free
and turns into walking dead like me

And I’ve been making promises I know I’ll never keep
One of these days I’m gonna leave you in your sleep
I’ll have to go when the whistle blows, the whistle knows my name
Baby, I was born on a train.

Feeling inspired, I sat down to play the song (I learned to play it on guitar long ago — it’s easy, like most Magnetic Fields songs), but I couldn’t remember past the first verse, so I did a search and near the top of the results was a link to the Arcade Fire lyrics. Arcade Fire?! I had no idea.

Now, I’m not totally sold on this whole Arcade Fire thing (that’s another post entirely), but when a band covers one of my favorite Magnetic Fields songs, it goes a long way towards earning my musical respect. I had to find their cover, and it only took a search or two to locate it. It was a live version done on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Electic on January 17, 2005. You can watch the whole performance (“Born on a Train” begins at the 29:40 mark — open this URL directly in RealPlayer instead of the built-in player if you want to see the time) or you can go straight to it on YouTube.

In the process of finding the Arcade Fire cover, I discovered a video of the Magnetic Fields’ original version, and a fan write-up that compares the original and the cover head-to-head. I’ll still go with the original, but I’ll give a nod to the Arcade Fire for good taste, and a nod to the Internet for giving me the chance to make the comparison.

[Update: Wired posted something after I had started writing this that suggested that Pat McGovern's hand wasn't quite so invisible after all. Harry McCracken "returned to [PC World] only because IDG founder and chairman Pat McGovern and IDG President Bob Carrigan both assured him that he would have editorial autonomy over the content.”]

As a former employee of IDG, I have been closely (but quietly) following the PC World controversy in which editor-in-chief Harry McCracken reportedly quit when CEO Colin Crawford tried to kill a story that was critical of Apple (see Wired’s Epicenter blog):

The piece, a whimsical article titled “Ten Things We Hate About Apple,” was still in draft form when Crawford killed it. McCracken said no way and walked after Crawford refused to compromise. Apparently Crawford also told editors that product reviews in the magazine were too critical of vendors, especially ones who advertise in the magazine, and that they had to start being nicer to advertisers.

Fast forward to today, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the story “Editor in Chief Harry McCracken Returns to PCW“:

In a surprise announcement, Robert Carrigan, president of IDG Communications, told PC World’s staff today that “Harry McCracken has decided to remain with PC World as vice-president, editor in chief.”

“[CEO] Colin Crawford will be rejoining the IDG management team as executive vice president, online. In this role, he will be responsible for driving IDG’s online strategy and initiatives in support of our Web-centric business focus,” Carrigan said. “We will conduct a search for a new CEO to lead PC World and Macworld.”

This is welcome news for Journalism (yes, with a capital ‘J’), and I’m not that surprised based on my experience at IDG. Bob Carrigan was quoted, but in this outcome, I see the quietly steady yet invisible hand of Pat McGovern, the visionary behind IDG. When I worked for IDG as CTO of InfoWorld from 2001-2005, I spent enough time around Pat in regular board meetings, dinners, and company functions to get a real sense of how Pat operates. Pat is an amazing man (he is, incidentally, quite wealthy — #85 on the Forbes wealthiest people in America list in 2006, according to Wikipedia, he donated $350 million to MIT to start the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and he understands the China market as well as any American businessman, having been one of the early businessmen there in 1980). In his official bio, one segment sticks out and rings completely true for me in my dealings with Pat :

“Acting locally” describes McGovern’s commitment to his people and to a decentralized management structure focused on respect for IDG employees and customers. In April 2004, Inc. magazine named McGovern one of its “25 Entrepreneurs We Love” for “knowing the power of respect.”

“His commitment to decentralization has created a constellation of motivated business units that make their own decisions about everything from how to reward staff to what new businesses to launch. He also treats his end customers — the readers of such publications as Computerworld, PC World and Macworld — with consummate respect. At IDG the quality of content is sacrosanct…”

When I was at InfoWorld, we went through a vicious downturn in which advertising revenues dropped by almost 50% year-over-year, and as a member of the executive team, I went to the 3-times-a-year board meetings where Pat was always present. I can’t recall specific dates, but I do remember Pat suggesting on a number of occasions that our coverage needed to be more critical of vendors. As a shrewd businessman, Pat was always focused on sales numbers, but he also seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing editorially and wanted us to tell it like it is. He knew that the success of his business depended on editorial credibility. In these meetings, out of all the people in the room, Pat was always most engaged (not like some Blackberry-obsessive execs these days) and even in tough times, Pat was constructive and respectful. I’m not the suit-and-tie type, but when Pat came to town, I happily wore a suit and tie out of respect, and I didn’t mind at all.

Although I moved on from IDG two years ago, I consider Pat McGovern a personal and business role model. In a world where some people equate business success with slash-and-burn management, I’ve grown to admire Pat’s ways even more. Business cycles come and go, but empowerment, respect, and setting a strong example go a long way in building a long-term legacy. I don’t know the inside scoop of what happened at PC World, but you can bet that Pat McGovern was in the mix, empowering people like Bob Carrigan to make the right decision in the end. In the news cycle, this might seem like a flash-in-the-pan story about journalism, but for me, it’s a story about respect and good business in the long term. Hats off to IDG and Pat McGovern.

More from around the web:

• Gizmodo: “PC World Editor Harry McCracken Returns Victorious“
• The Unofficial Apple Weblog: “McCracken returns as PC World editor in chief“
• Ryan Block: “McCracken is backen“: it’s a big win for him and PC World, but a far bigger win for the collective of writers, editors, and publishers who fight daily to keep their editorial independent.
• Business 2.0′s Apple 2.0: “Palace coup at PC World“
• Scoble: “PC World does the right thing and other stories“
• Rex Hammock: “As the (PC) World turns“: When you read stuff like this from former employees, you know there’s something special about the organization and the individuals who run it.
• Paul Conley: “All’s well that ends well“

Back in November of 2004, I was walking down the streets of Manhattan when I saw the biggest blue screen I had ever seen in Times Square, so I recorded the moment with a blog post and a photo on my old InfoWorld blog. Back when I was at InfoWorld, this blog post would show up pretty high in the page view reports on a regular basis — it had serious staying power.

Now it has re-appeared in this “Top 12 blue screens” post, in Portuguese no less. I’m in 3rd place all-time, with this comment:

Um belo Bluescreen em 3 planos diferentes!!

Babel Fish tells me that this means something along the lines of “a Bluescreen beauty in 3 different plans!!”

This is the kind of recognition I crave.

Update: My friend Jon Williams sets the translation straight in the comments: My Brazilian Ops Director translated, its “A nice Bluescreen with 3 different angles”