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How_To_Become_an_Information_SuperStar
| How To Become an Information SuperStar
On the African Plain there is a Meta Predator and her name is
Leo. Panthera leo to be exact.
The internet is the greatest collection of wealth or fodder,
depending upon your info-perspective the world has ever seen.
With such a cacophony of directories filled with video, text,
imagery, sound, fury, Hot Flash and Cold Fusion, what's an
information cheetah to do in order to make sense of it all and
take it to another level of the Game?
Simple. Use the expertise of your fellow experts to reach escape
velocity. Take yourself to the Meta level with something that is
free, easy to use and will make your search for mission critical
information a cruise.
Deja News: (http://deja.com/usenet). The archive of Usenet.
A Meta Expert takes advantage of other experts in the way that a
meta search engine takes advantage of smaller search engines,
the way that a lion takes advantage of smaller predators such as
the Cheetah.
No, I don't work for Deja, or have any affiliation with them
whatsoever. I'm simply the writer, athlete, producer, graphic
designer, videographer Company Computer Guy, Marketer, PR man,
CEO, CIO, CTO, chief dog walker and all around Mass Media
Information SuperStar at large of dogtv.com networks (The
SuperDog Station) http://dogtv.com
I'm a corporation of one and I know I'm not alone out there.
I became an expert on dogs via my own inherent brilliance,
passion and background in writing and biology, with a big
helping hand from Usenet (newsgroups). By reading posts from
experts across the country, I quickly discerned the existence
of, and in fact coined the phrases to describe three major camps
in the Dog Game: A. Koehler Nazis (a choke chain is their best
friend) B. Control Freaks (a cage is their best friend) C.
Psychologists (Prozac is their only friend)
and I came out swinging with my own site, media, personality and
"DOG GAME" philosophy which treats dog training as a game, the
way dogs treat it and which views (correctly) dogs as the
athletes and hunters that they are, and not "problems" to be
fixed or solved with punishment, cages or expensive drugs.
As a usenet pro, I quickly learned to spot experts in other
groups, including Digital Video, Computer Hardware, Software,
Web Developing, and everything else I needed to learn YESTERDAY
in order to create my own television presence on almost no
budget.
Newsgroups are communities anyone can join, where experts in
their fields, everything from motherboards for Athlon
Processors, Danish Gardening, Bicycle Mechanics and questionable
sexual habits get together to fight, laugh, educate, commiserate
and battle for the soul of the digital demographic and deja.com
is the Grand Central Station of information.
A newbie who needs info will go to a search engine. I even cut
my teeth working at a very successful search engine site,
4anything.com (http://4anything.com). These sights are great,
especially for newbies. But what about experts?
An expert who needs critical info (Which anti virus program
won't take over my computer and be worse than an actual
infection? Will this video card be compatible with my
motherboard? Linux or Windows 2000 Professional, please help?)
might do is to bypass the hit and mostly miss search engines and
go directly to the newsgroups, and ask their question and hold
their breath waiting for an answer (which might take minutes or
days, depending on whether the busy experts feel like answering
it).
But here's what a "Meta" Expert would do. He/She would go to
deja.com, click on the usenet link and type their query, such as
the name of their video card and the name of their motherboard,
and chances are (very good, actually) that some other desperate
soul--who has suffered a thousand crashes and cursed a thousand
Gates--has already asked the same question, and several
"experts" have already come to their aid with relevant answers.
All you have to do is find a thread which looks good, click on
the "view thread" link and bingo, you've struck an information
mother lode where you can peruse a whole thread (crosslinked
history of a discussion), filled with tips from stone cold
experts in that particular field. People who LIVE for
motherboards. Believe me, they're out there.
You're at the top of the Food Chain now, Baby!
Two years ago, I was afraid to open up my computer and install
an internal Zip Drive. Now, I'm a bios flashing, hard drive
partitioning, motherboard overclocking hoodlum with three
entirely home built, networked systems, strapped with 200
gigabytes of storage space, processing and pumping out
dogumentary dogudrama video for the masses.
Broadcast.com, eat my shorts. I take that back, maybe we can be
partners some day? C'mon, gimmie a break here, I'm just trying
to sell an article? Go Mavs!
Now I even have Hollywood sites like LOADTV (http://loadtv.com)
contacting me, thinking I'm a big company, asking me to provide
content for them.
I couldn't have become such an info SuperStar alone. Sure, being
talented and born for it helps, but I still could not have done
it without the help of experts around the world, at my beck and
call, free for the consulting, 24 hrs. a day, on Deja News.
Instead of sifting through the infoglut, rise above it and study
the people at the precipice of the edifice, yes those who have
already been there, done that, and distilled it for you. The
Experts.
About the author:
Michael Patton Dog Game SuperStar All Purpose Phenom, who has
been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer and several other
publications with articles on sport, science, satire,
biotechnology, dogs and more. http://dogtv.com
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