Globe and Mail journo Mathew Ingram was a capital fellow the one and only time I met him – when we both appeared on a Newsworld talk show in 2003, cohosted by Antonia Zerbisias and the nastiest prick in town, Matthew Fraser (who, within seconds, dismissed my neighbourhood as a drug haven). Ingram has a business interest in the much-unloved Mesh Conference.
Ingram frequently updates his blog, which covers technology issues. “Covers” is a generous description here: Most of the time, all he does is pad out a link to somebody else’s technology blog.
I checked his last 30 posts, which I summarize as follows (newest first):
- Actual commentary about the Web 2.0 bubble
- Plug for his business partner
- Link with minimal commentary about Marc Andreessen
- Link with minimal commentary about Google search-by-date
- Link with minimal commentary about Twitter (but with two updates)
- Plug for “Pulse with Disqus”
- Link with minimal commentary about Wikia search
- Actual commentary about eBay’s suit against Craigslist
- Link with minimal commentary about Filmaka (sic)
- YouTube “video interlude”
- Plug for his sideline business, Mesh
- Link with minimal commentary about Twitter (but with two updates)
- Post about how he was named a Top 10
troller for linkstechnology blogger - Link with minimal commentary about Ze Frank
- Link with minimal commentary about Twitter
- Link with minimal commentary about Gossip Girl
- Link with minimal commentary about a “bitchmeme”
- Actual commentary on the question “What is ‘the news’?”
- Link with two
embeds and minimal commentary about lousy corporate videos (but with one update) - Link with minimal commentary about the Pirate Bay
- YouTube “video interlude”
- Link with minimal commentary about Twitter (one update)
- Rebuttal from Rogers Cadenhead
- Actual commentary on the issue of advertising on blogs
- Plug for Sphere, “the ‘related-content engine’ whose plug-in I have been using here for some time,” upon its purchase by AOL
- Link with minimal commentary about Denton
- Actual commentary, if minimal and obvious, about accuracy in journalism and blogging
- Link with minimal commentary about Denton
- Plug for his sideline business, Mesh
- Link with minimal commentary about a “bitchmeme”
For Ingram, it’s all about quantity, or at least throughput. I wondered where he finds time in a busy day of newspaper journalism and conference-organizing to post so often. But it’s pretty quick: Ingram can repackage somebody else’s post in a new box in as little as four minutes.
I compared my own 30 previous postings, including but not counting photographs.
- Photo
- Photo
- Photo
- Firsthand report on engineering students’ presentation of prototypes for TTC (apparently the only such report)
- Proposition that readers who want TTC-Web-site research reports put in some cash for the effort
- Photo
- Photo
- Plug for launch of a new noncommercial site of mine
- Plug for liveblogging of a CBC television miniseries
- Photo
- Discussion of compatibility of certain disabilities with the sport of bobsleigh
- Photo
- Original journalistic post about TTC Web site and its contractor
- Photo
- Announcement of completion of (quixotic) serial photography project
- Photo
- Photo
- Photo
- Announcement concerning first book and of title of next
- Photo
- Original journalistic post about TTC Web site and its contractor
- Analysis of functional failings in TTC subway announcement screens
- Photo
- Analysis of type treatments in proposed subway public art
- Analysis of a CBC Failed Redesign
- Announcement of final WCAG Samurai Errata
- Photo
- Photo
- Photo
- Free advice for design site about print stylesheets
- Complaint about overvaluation of the New Yorker (especially its design)
- Photo
- Review of issue of Eye
- Request for WordPress help (again)
- Analysis of excessively retouched magazine-cover photo
- Link to guest blog
- Link to podcasts of two of my presentations
- Photo
- Photo
- Photo
- Photo
- Photo
- Analysis of why it is nerve-wracking to give deputations at City Hall
- Complaint about poor typography and character encoding at a design Web site
- Request for WordPress help
- Transcript of and commentary on interview with Steve Albini
- Photo
- List of worst Canadian TV shows
- Criticism of Creators’ Copyright Coalition
- Report of results of freedom-of-information request about Metrolinx Web site
- Report of my experience giving deputations at City Hall
- Analysis of what is never discussed in graphic-design magazines
- Transcript of and commentary on interview with Steven Heller
- Announcement of who won a specific TTC contract
- Recollection of incidents involving unsafe subway driver
My terminology is not unbiased here, but even correcting for that, I fare better as a writer with principles. I am not a “tech blogger,” but more of my posts are substantive original writing. When all I’m doing is linking to something, I don’t pretend otherwise. I’m honest about plugging my own work; I don’t have business partners’ work to plug.
On the available evidence, Mathew Ingram really does seem like the least original technology blogger. He could solve that problem overnight, but it would reduce his pageviews, “currency,” and “mindshare.”
I would expect a delay of somewhat greater than four minutes for a repackaging of this post.