"Manage by setting objectives and organizing, motivating, communicating with, measuring, and developing people, including yourself." Peter Drucker

Time to vote for the 2007 bloggies! Voting closes 10pm est this Friday. Congrats to all finalists. A really tight competition this year. Here's just a taste, three of the thirty categories...

Best weblog about music: Pitchfork, Stereogum, You Ain't No Picasso, Yank Blog, 3Hive

Best entertainment weblog: Defamer, Blogging Project Runway, Pink Is the New Blog, PerezHilton, Go Fug Yourself

Weblog of the year: Go Fug Yourself, PostSecret, Gizmodo, Dooce, Boing Boing, Lifehacker

Check out all of the finalists and vote, early and often, here.

The hookup: XM hangin with Mr Softy. As suggested, encouraged for some years now, the first tribe of wireless (and those FM with pictures guys) need a Redmond strategy. XM has one. Vista ships with XM on board. The story here. (p.s. it's not too late, the ultimate destination is local, perhaps an ad hoc group should make the trip and spend some time with Mr Groove himself, Ozzie. This is the part where you get extra points for those live and local investments). Perspective: Ray looking back and looking forward in Dec 2005 here

Lovin that Tempranillo: Do yourself a favor and please pick up some of this good Spanish grape. The Vina Sardasol 2005 (Navarra - 100% Tempranillo) is available for under $10; highly recommended. As close to stealing as one should ever get.

Lovin that chili: Fred Winston updates his classic chili recipe. Check it out here.

Not appreciated: The folks at WBBM Channel 2, Chicago, decided to put up a little blue-and-orange countdown clock on the screen to count down the days, hours and minutes until the Bears play in the big game. "It wasn't appreciated by people watching the Hallmark movie of the week" said Carol Fowler, ND at the CBS O&O. Pulled outta prime. Phil Rosenthal has the story in the Trib here. Meanwhile Chicago radio star Steve Dahl blogs the bowl here as only he can. Bravo Steve, well done!

Congrats & Cheers: Arbitron gets MRC seal of approval, onward! Reggie Rouse named VP Urban for CBS Radio.

The readers will see you now: Gary Kamiya writing in Salon, The readers strike back...

"There's an old New Yorker cartoon in which a Führer-like figure, standing onstage in front of a huge "Triumph of the Will" crowd, says, "I think I may say, without fear of contradiction..." That pretty much sums up the elite media's relation with its audience before the Internet. We all need to be contradicted when we're wrong -- and we're all wrong a lot. The Führer is dead -- long live the people!

And yet, it's too easy simply to celebrate the downfall of the elite media and glory in the toppling of the gatekeepers. Yes, they -- we -- could and can be smug and arrogant. Yes, we should be summoned to account when we screw up. And yes, the online revolution has made it easier to do that. But to be part of an elite doesn't mean you're divinely anointed. It simply means you have some aptitude for what you do and have spent years learning to do it, and so you're probably better at it than most people. Not smarter, not a better human being -- just better at your craft. This is true of football players, surgeons, chefs and auto mechanics -- why shouldn't it be true of journalists as well? Forget the word "elite": In our laudable all-American haste to trash bogus royalty, let's not forget there's a completely different category. It's called professionalism."

"But the pell-mell rush of information flooding across a million screens has made it too easy for readers to forget that the info-byte they just swallowed was a handcrafted object.

Pro athletes have a saying: "Respect the game." It may be too much to expect the mouse-wielding masses to embrace that credo. But a little respect would go a long way to restoring the heft of the written word, its shape and dignity. And in an age of weightless information, that would be good for readers and writers alike."

Read the entire piece here. Kudos Gary! Well reasoned, well written. Thanks to Romenesko for the tip. I certainly respect and appreciate Gary's thoughts on unfiltered forums. Comments here are moderated not to avoid conversation including alternative povs but to avoid lawyers. Trade forums are populated, in the majority, with posts by noms de plume. While I understand most firms prohibit open participation by employees the result is too often the freak show of rants and drive by bashings keystroked by persons unknown. The ability to hide behind one (or more) identities seems to bring out a kind of bad behavior clearly absent when one is required to properly sign the writing. 21st century graffiti, the kilroys are here, online, social grace and decency be damned. Still, the conversation goes on, good thoughtful comments are being heard above the noise made by the fools, idiots and the occasional playful, if snarky, wit of pranksters.

The right pov from the Wright guy: B&C writer John Eggerton tells us...

"NBC Universal Chairman Bob Wright tells B&C that this is the last business cycle where an old-line media company can afford not to have at least 20%-30% of its business in digital. But he also says the digital component is not yet sufficient to boost the bottom line of companies with only "average" performance in traditional businesses."

Read the entire article here. Thanks to LR ace Steve Safran for the tip.