Many people have responded heartily to my Linking Blogs and Wiki post, most interesting one being Sébastien Paquet's Mountains and Lakes post which points to TopicExchange created by Seb and Phil.  All the responses begs the following question:

Where is the standard API for Wiki?

Without a standard API, it's difficult to connect blogs and wikis together.  It's a pretty silly question actually.  Wiki doesn't even have a standard format!  What do I have to say about the current state of Wiki technology?  Just this:

Wiki is f**ked up.

Stop running around like Gully Dwarves and get your act together guys.

Update #1

I found Wikipedia API in Python project at SourceForge.  It's still in planning stage, but I am happy to see some movement in Wiki API space.

Michael Wilson thinks Wiki doesn't need a standard API.  He wrote:

"Leave wikis alone for gods sake.  Standardization fetshism doesn't really help much."

Nobody is forcing you to change, Michael.  Also, I haven't mentioned anything about standard organizations.  Just get few key players together and bang out a common syntax and API that works.  The common syntax doesn't have to be used directly by 'puncs' who are already used to their own local brew.  Just use it as an exchange format.

According to Google, I am #1 Selfish Pig.  That's a mighty good scratch.

I was too tired in the last two days to post anything, not enough sleep, chasing a deadline.  My blogging will return after today's deadline sponsored by the Letter A, A, I, and W.

Apparently, majority of Xanga users are young asians and young asian girls in particular are blogging and forming networks hyperactively.  I wonder why.  Check out Hat Nim Choi's survey and report on the subject.  Choi also compares LiveJournal users to Xanga users.  [Via Phill Wolff]

If you are interested in blog stats, subscribe to Phill Wolff and  Maciej Ceglowski's blogs.

Richard MacManus responds to my Linking Blogs and Wikis with Microcontent Wiki.  Is this a resurgence of microcontent?;-p

I was deep in debugging doodoo yesterday and almost didn't make it to the Blogger's Dinner in San Francisco.  When the final problem cleared at 4:30pm, I headed North.  It was a small gathering than last time, but we still managed to have a good time.  Dave Winer, Jake Savin, Scoble and his family, Gnome-girl, Steve Gillmor was there to liven things up.

Afterward, most of us headed to Chris and Gretchen Pirillo's pad near Castro.  They are moving to LA.  Yikes.  I hate cities like LA and San Jose, flat endless sprawling cities.  Chris wasn't there, but we had a good party.

More pictures from the dinner and the party.

Pictures taken by Dave are here.

David Sifry, CTO of Sputnik and creator of Technorati, contributes the Point-Man perspective to the Subsidized Wi-Fi AP idea.  It turns out that Sputnik's original business model had subsidization element to it!

"It's like a blast of deja vu to 2001, back when Sputnik was getting started, and our original business model.  […] But we decided that we were pursuing the wrong business model, and changed our plans." – David Sifry

He then identifies and explains in detail the four factors that forced them to change their business model.

1. Revenue split
2. Legal issues
3. Customer Service headaches
4. The rise of "free" networks

Please read my original post, Tim Oren's post, my response, and then David Sifry's post so you can:

get high on fume,  cool under a tree, get tickled by a breeze, and then finally taste the earth.

PS: This sort of interaction across blogs is what I had in mind in my Linking Blogs and Wikis post.  I could have created a Wiki page somewhere with original post as a composite category to which Tim and David could have contributed their perspectives via their blogs.

I like reading historical novels set in the medieval Europe.  In those novels, trial by combat is a common event.  As barbaric as the dueling for truth might seem, I believe that online world is rife with trial by combat.

Regardless of communication medium and topic of dicussion, the truth belongs to the strongest and most persistent debater.  It doesn't matter if the opponent is terrible at debating (swordsmanship), not fluent with the language (weapon of choice), indisposed to confrontations, too busy, or simply dumb.

Is what I wrote above the truth?  Nay.  It's just me swinging my sword.  You may charge in and comment your sword against mine but what is the point?  If I fail to block your counter-attack, that only proves that I couldn't, not that nobody can.  See what I am getting at?

The difference between the medieval Europe and online world is that combat never really ends online.  After the original debaters have moved on, others step in and keep the arguments going.  Language and cultural boundaries also matter like the way weather and landscape might affect the outcome of a battle.

So truth online is defined by not only who, but also when and where.

This is just a passing shower of morose mood.  I am expecting sunshine tommorrow.

Imagine posts and comments flowing from blogs to wikis like the way streams feed into lakes.  Got the picture yet?  Now think of a blog category as a wiki page.  The picture changes so that the blog becomes a mountain and categories become the streams running down the side of the mountain in all directions toward wikis into which streams from other mountains also feed into.

The resulting picture you have in your mind is the 10,000 feet view of how I think blogs and wikis should be connected.

Update #1: Here are some decorations to complete above picture:

• rain is the news that bombard us daily
• rocks that form the mountains are our experiences
• volcanic eruptions are our rants
• flash floods are sudden spikes of activitiy
• clouds are news generators like North Korea or Saddam Hussein

Silly, but I like to garnish mental images.