Many thanks for all the good wishes for our transition from a blog network to a Web Network Magazine. A lot of people have commented, mostly favourably. A few geeks have raised a quizzical eyebrow or two, it’s fair to say.

I’ve been over the process quite a bit, so suffice it to say, Syntagma is looking for a wider audience outside the blogosphere in the territory of mainstream media. That doesn’t mean we’re deserting the predominately tech audience within it. We’re not. We still have three tech blogs and a gadget blog.

Quite a few people have suggested a new “front page” to include RSS headline feeds from the other sites. That’s top of the agenda right now. The tricky part is that RSS feeds are pretty boring. Like pungent spices, they have to be used sparingly.

Some kind of directory on a widened-out page will happen though, but maybe not the “river of news” some people want. Syntagma will still be in a written format, and not a Crewe junction for the network.

That’s all to come in our next fit of creativity — when we’ve recovered from the last one.

A Peter Kay line in Phoenix Nights (UK sitcom) has been voted the greatest one-liner in TV comedy history :

“Garlic bread — it’s the future, I’ve tasted it”.

I’ve often wondered who gets to make these decisions. Some of us have thrown away better one-liners than that. Haven’t they watched any episodes of Friends (especially Chandler), or Frazier? I’m guessing it’s all in the performance for this one.

Here’s my contribution : “Chicken Kiev — the best squirt in the eye I’ve ever had.”

Shan’t give up the day job.

Thanks to Darren over at Blog Republic for the interview published today.

Excerpt :

4) I called your SyntagmaMedia a blog network, but I think you’re changing that direction a bit. Tell me what your direction is, and why?

This reflects what I said above, that blog networks are geeky things that appeal to the Techmeme set. We’re looking way beyond that now and see ourselves more as a continuously-updated, online, distributed magazine, with each “blog” as a topic section with its own domain and standalone capability.

Catch it at : Blog Republic.

As with most writers, the tools of the trade mean a lot to me. Over the years these tools have become so complicated it’s hard to keep track of them. The long journey from charcoal to software has been full of twists and turns and unexpected developments.

Since word processors were invented, pencils have seemed so outre. Even when typewriters first came on the scene, the humble wooden scribbler still had some meaning in life. Now, alas, this most simple of utilitarian inventions is regarded with disdain by most people. Except … some of us.

Ever since hearing that Henry David Thoreau didn’t live off a hill of beans while staying at Walden, I’ve thought of him as a pretty shrewd sort of guy. He was a man who wrote arguably the most successful book in history about surviving in the wilds.

Close inspection of his methods, though, reveals that he situated his “hut” just a mile or so from his home town of Concord, Mass., so that he could drop in on his friends for dinner, and even go home for weekends. Why do I find that so admirable?

Even more resourceful was his insistence on keeping the family pencil factory going while he struggled for sustinence in the woods. Why pencils? Well, he was a writer, and this was the middle of the 19th century, before typewriters came on the scene. In those days pencils were big business, and siting one close to sources of timber and charcoal was a surefire guarantee of success.

I mention all this as a preamble to an interesting blog I stumbled on during my increasing rare rounds of the blogosphere. It’s called The Pencil Revolution, and what it doesn’t know about pencils could be written on the end of a pencil. Thoreau would have loved this one.

Pencil Revolution

Since the Blog Herald switched from being a river of posts to an online broadsheet newspaper, it’s been rather good to Syntagma — at least in terms of column inches. We’ll draw a veil over Aaron Brazell for the moment.

Today, TDH (don’t know who that is) gives some coverage to our reorganization from a blog network to a “continuously updated, online, distributed magazine”.

At first T tries hard to put the boot in but, realizing that would be grotesquely inappropriate, switches its direction just before making contact. T ends by being quite supportive and appreciative of our activities and aims. Naturally, we agree.