There is a move afoot in the blogosphere that declares April 30th a One Day of Silence. The move, as much as it is linkbait (the badges they give you link back to the One Day site), is a move that is not without controversy. It is a call for the blogosphere to remember the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre and to stand united with the families.

This day shall unite us all about this unbelievable painful & shocking event and show some respect and love to those who lost their loved ones.

On April 30th 2007, the Blogosphere will hold a One-Day Blog Silence in honor of the victims at Virginia Tech. More then 30 died at the US college massacre.

But it´s not only about them. Many bloggers have responded and asked about all the other victims of our world. All the people who die every day. What about them?

This day can be a symbol of support to all the victims of our world!

All you have to do is spread the word about it and post the graphic on your blog on 30th April 2007. No words and no comments. Just respect, reflect and empathy.

The reaction in the blogosphere is mixed.

Lorelle states:

I hope this day of silence will be extended to all those who die needlessly and for the ones who never get such tributes around the world.

She continues with this incredible personal story about being in Israel when the holocaust was remembered.

Vivian, from Vancouver, British Columbia thinks that silence should not drown out conversation:

Silence should be a part of the conversation, but it should not replace the conversation. It’s easy to be silent, it takes guts to talk, to express the outrage, to investigate what went wrong and how 32 innocent lives could’ve been preserved.

Bes, from California, states:

Blogosphere is not in deep mourning. Only people taking real action are in deep mourning.

It’s not all negative though. Cynthia offers her own prayer:

Typically, we celebrate the mighty works of God in our lives, proclaiming all His goodness, mercy, faithfulness and unfailing love for us. At other times we are confronted with the undeniable fact that the reason Jesus had to enter the world was because it was broken. It is a place where depravity can overtake a human heart and there are real situations where justice seems unattainable.

In silence may we salute the lives lost at Virginia Tech and use our day to seek the Comforter, recommitting ourselves to being lights in the darkness.

And of course, today has been declared a National Day of mourning and I’m wearing my Hokies colors at the moment. It seems like more than just the blogosphere is participating. For what it’s worth, Hitler was born today in 1889 – but I digress.

I ask what you think. Is this day of silence appropriate? If you’re a blogger will you participate?

Update: A portion of this entry was removed at a bloggers request.

Your friendly neighborhood social media pest is back again. This time with some information about MySpace News. The story was passed along to me by Problogger Darren Rowse who saw it over at Search Engine Journal.

MySpace News allows potential sources to submit their websites or feeds for consideration as news sources – which I’ll wait here patiently while you go do. Back? Good. The SEJ story also reveals the critical bit of information that might be overlooked:

Users have to be MySpace members to vote, but MySpace is also tracking votes by user IP or Cookie(my vote is still registered and personalized after logging out of MySpace), so don’t try spamming MySpace News via multiple MySpace accounts.

In essence, MySpace has created a service that will be exposed only to Tom (the creator of MySpace) and 60M of his closest friends – a large exclusive crowd that will likely be exclusively paying attention to it now that their service provides it.

What does this mean to you? Well, maybe nothing. It all depends on how much reach you want to have into that community. If you’re an independent recording artist, chances are it’s important. If you’re a blogger that writes in tech or pop culture, chances are it’s important. If you’re a presidential candidate looking for an exclusive audience in a group that has not necessarily been gripped by traditional campaign efforts, chances are it’s important.

I’m just saying.

Social Media is the wave of the future. You don’t have to be a blogger or a blog follower or even a blog agnostic to recognize that the cool kids are hanging out at places like Facebook, or MySpace. Have you heard about Twitter – the pseudo instant conversation maker that mashes up web, IM and SMS into something that has become the tool of instant conversation and marketing? Twitter is heavily used by the tech web community, a typically left-of-center political demographic, and last month took the SXSW Interactive conference by storm, tripling the number of daily users from 20k to 60k in 3 days. (By the way, Dan Rather keynoted and everyone adored him like he was a god – if that gives you a good idea of the political slant of attendees).

Some people see these services as cool websites that kids and young adults play at. Smart people see them as the key to the presidency. Folks like Presidential hopeful Barack Obama have serious social media allies such as Bluestate Digital who created social media tools like My.BarackObama.com. Mitt Romney’s actions have led to a close tie with the conservative side of social media, bloggers, etc.

I’m about to make a bold statement – one that I will probably be criticized for. At the end of the day, the race for President is not going to come down to who looks tallest or who has the right message on the issues. Obviously that will play a part in securing support. However, the message to the candidates is that if you expect to win, you must embrace social media. Some might argue that all the candidates at this point are doing that, but I would say that the candidates who truly understand the grassroots movements at places like MySpace and Facebook, have an advantage over the candidates who simply look at the landscape and say, “We need to tackle that group over there” without embracing and fully endorsing that culture.

Social media is a generational thing, and the vote cannot be secured simply by speeches. Netizens probably won’t pay a lot of attention. However, Giuliani might just notice that there are over 1500 members in the Facebook group America’s Mayor, “America’s President. Giuliani 2008″ and that there are 57K+ members plus in the “Anti-Hillary Clinton for President ‘08″ group.

James asked me to blog while he was gone because he felt like the areas where I write on Technosailor – the areas of technology and new media – intersect in an important way with politics. I think he’s on to something, though you might want me to go back home. Regardless, my postings over the next few days (which won’t be nearly as prolific as James’) will hopefully bring some of the discussions in my area of interest to bear in the political and cultural world to the forefront.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on my topics. I have pretty tough skin so feel free to attack my views or topics. I can take it. ;)

Tonight I watched ABC’s coverage of the ball dropping in Times Square, and I have to say that Dick Clark’s agent needs to be fired. Whoever let him appear on camera is more concerned with Dick Clark™ than they are about this man as a human being. I have no idea about the state of his health, but he spoke slowly and sounded like a deaf person, and it was really embarrassing. Here’s a tip: if Carson Daly’s show is less annoying than yours, it’s time to hang it up.

But perhaps it was Clark’s decision to go on tonight, in which case his appearance is even more pathetic, and a perfect example of the infantile narcissism that drives far too many Americans.

Happy New Year?

UPDATE: I posted the following qualifier to some criticism in the comments section:

Ok, the “retarded”€ crack may be beyond the pale, but I don’t see how his appearing on TV not able to speak is a sign of “€œcourage” — either his agents exploiting him or his narcissism clouding his judgment.

And so I stand by my point, that Dick Clark should not have been on television tonight in this condition.

UPDATE 2: This post was originally titled “Is Dick Clark Retarded,” which was pretty tasteless and juvenile on my part and for that I apologize. I’m not one to post for shock value, so I’ve altered the title, but I’m not trying to pretend it never happened.

Swedish couple names first-born ‘Google’ (UPI)

KALMAR, , Sweden, Oct. 20 (UPI) — A couple in Sweden who uses computers a lot have chosen to name their firstborn son Google, after the world-dominant search engine.

Elias Kai, who is Lebanese, told The Local newspaper he’s a “great fan” of the search engine, but the name means more to him than that.

“The word ‘googol’ means 1 followed by 100 zeros, and I want my son to have lots of friends — I want him to be social, so the name also symbolizes this.”

The Swedish tax authority, known for being iffy about allowing unusual baby names, did not stand in their way after the birth on Sept. 12.

“They just thought it was funny,” Elias told the newspaper.

And so did management at the Silicone Valley, Calif.-based software company.

“We wish him long life and good health, and hope his schoolmates aren’t too hard on him,” Google’s in-house blogger wrote.

I’m guessing that Espn will be able to take Google in a fight, but regardless it’s time to start thinking about forced sterilization for all morons.