Stormy's Corner

WWI Blog

There's a very cool diary of a World War I veteran created from his journal and pictures by his grandson.  If anybody would like to do something like this with any of my family members, I'd be happy to help out on the technical side!

On a similar note, my grandmother had a blog.  She wrote out all the stories long hand and mailed them to my mom who typed them in and posted them.  Then my aunt would print them out and take them over to my grandmother's for her to see.  She was very proud of being an author - she loved sharing stories.

Pioneer Woman featured on CNN

I really enjoy reading The Pioneer Woman's blog and I even bought her calendar because I like her pictures so much.  This is the woman who left Los Angeles, married a rancher and now home schools her four children.  And takes 75-150 pictures a day of life on the ranch.    I've wondered several times what she sounds like in person and what she looks like.  Well, she was featured on CNN so now I know!

Why do you blog? Do you care who Violent Acres is?

Blogs are like diaries but they are public.  They are obviously meant to be read, to be shared - otherwise why put them on the web, right?  That said, there are some blogs that make you wonder why people are writing that in public.  And I have to admit that lately there's been a few times where I had to stop myself from writing something on my blog - something I was upset about, wanted to share, but probably shouldn't share with the whole world.  (For example, imagine you are upset with something a colleague did or said at a meeting and it's so Dilbertesque that you want to write about it.   I had second thoughts on the wisdom of writing about that ...)  People that write blogs like that try very hard to keep them anonymous.

There are a couple of blogs that I follow that I'm not sure why I read them.  One of those is Violent Acres.  I feel like I'm reading someone's diary and yet I enjoy reading it.  Some of the things she says are things people never say in public but make total sense to me.  Like why are women obsessed with being fat?  Or of course she's writing for traffic not for herself, or she would have just written in her diary and stuffed it under her pillow.  So I can't understand why this reader got so upset about it:

This is why I’m done reading Violent Acres:
“For the official record, though, of course I write for the traffic. If I were ‘writing for myself,’ I’d type this shit up in microsoft word and put it under my pillow. I’m here to entertain you. If I wasn’t entertaining you, I’d likely stop writing…despite the fact that this site does turn a profit.”

That absolutely sickens me. Some of the things that V wrote about were very personal, tragic, and terrible. Very few people (me being one of them) would understand what it is like to go through some of the things that she wrote about. And now I found out that she wrote these things for a profit? What am I to think about that? Were any of them actually true? Did she embellish her stories to draw more people in? It is my belief that anyone who writes for traffic can’t be trusted to write honest content.

Basically, they no longer plan to read her blog because it was written for an audience!  Did they really believe that Violent Acres was writing a diary in public for herself with no regards to who read it??  They obviously wanted Violent Acres to keep up the charade.  (By the way there's a lot of hoopla right now - people are trying to figure out who Violent Acres is.  I agree with the group that says "I don't care."  It's highly unlikely I know the person anyway ... and I'm not really worried if her stories are 100% accurate or not.   I read them because I enjoy reading them.) 

Napa Valley Photo Being Used on Website

One of my photos from Napa is being used by Napa Valley Schmap.

Stormy's Blogs

So I got asked how I keep up so many blogs, so I thought I'd update on what blogs I have. Active blogs:

• FlyTight.  This is a new blog about travel.  I added it at Frank's suggestion.  Check it out!
• My OpenLogic blog.  This is my work blog and it's primarily on open source software.
• Stormy's Corner.  Anything I find interesting that doesn't fit in the above categories.

Not so active blogs:

• Living Well.  I started putting health related things here.  I rarely ever post but it still gets quite a bit of traffic.
• Dot Dog.  I used to have a lot of dog posts (that get a lot of traffic) so I consolidated them here.
• My Man's Man.  I was taking pictures and blogging about all the yummy food Frank makes.  I haven't posted in a while but Frank has his own blog now at Life of a Hunter!

And for those of you that are curious, my most consistent top posts by traffic are:

• Deciding to stop breastfeeding - a lot of people have shared their stories.  At least 30 people a day hit this post trying to find information about how to stop breastfeeding.
• How much do dogs sleep?
• No drinks for dogs!
• Kidney failure in dogs

(Note I didn't include the work blog in this as I don't have those stats.)

So it looks like if I want traffic, I should keep posting about dogs!

Videos of the kids

Here's a video of Caleb trying his bouncy swing for the first time! 

I finally started playing with the video function on my camera and Anita has helped me with editing them.  So here's my first video blog post.

How to share a video on a blog

Here's how to share a video on a blog:

1. Capture a video.  I use the video function on my camera and then upload it just like I do my pictures.  One tip: make the video twice as long as you think it needs to be.
2. Edit the video.  Anita uses Windows Movie Maker that comes free with Windows XP SP2. You might need to:
   1. Shrink the video.  Anything larger than 4-5 MB will take a long time to upload.
   2. Rotate it.
   3. Combine videos.  The one of Caleb in his bouncy swing is actually three videos.  (If you watch closely, you'll see him bonk his head on the door frame and then it cuts to the next video!  He didn't get hurt - it didn't faze him at all - but it worried me enough to stop video taping!)
3. Upload it to YouTube.com.  You'll need an account.
4. Once you've uploaded it, YouTube will give you the code to paste in your blog.  Under "Edit Video Information," at the bottom of the page, there's some code in the box called "Embed HTML."

A BVI beach that you should not miss

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, is a great beach that meets just about everyone's beach expectations.

• Lots of white sand for those who just love to play in sand or sunbath.
• Almost nobody on the east end for those that like to have a beach to themselves.
• A great view for those that like to just sit and enjoy.
• Lots of beach bars on the west end for those that like to play with others.
• A water trampoline for those who really like to play.

Highly worth the trip.

Commenting on blogs with coComment

Blogs are about conversations.  In order for a blog conversation to happen, people have to comment.  One of the reasons I never used to comment on blogs was because I felt like I was dropping into a party, dropping a question or comment and then leaving without waiting to see if anyone had a response.  And I'd never go back to a blog post to see who responded to my comment!

coComment solved my problem.  If you use FireFox (and you should use Firefox! ), you can install their extention and then everytime you comment on a blog, it makes not of it.  Once a day or once a week you can log into your coComment account and see all the blogs you commented on and whether or not anybody responded after you.  You can then follow up on the comment ... or not.  You can also see who is commenting on the blogs you commented on.  It's a very useful tool if you like commenting on blogs.  And if you don't comment on blogs, well, maybe it will help you get started.

Photo by rougerouge.

Cute dog stories and pictures

If you haven't seen it yet, I'd like to show you Humans For Dogs, a blog about everything humans need to understand dogs.  I've included a lot of cute pictures that people have shared on Flickr!

Photo by  Altweibersommer.

Best domain name tool

Want to know if a domain name (the "address" of a web page) is available?  Start typing in the Instant Domain Name widget, and it will let you know.

What kind of blog should Stormy's Corner be?

Common wisdom says that successful blogs are niche blogs.  Actually Ben Casnocha puts it well when he says blogs are either niche blogs or personality blogs and each blog post gets evaluated by:

a) Does the post cover one of my preferred topics?
b) Is the post from someone I like and want to stay connected with?

So I struggle with Stormy's Corner.  I have lots of regular readers that probably read all posts because they want to stay connected with me and secondly because the topics may or may not be interested to them.  But at the same time most of my blog visits are from somebody searching for an answer - at the moment they are searching for help stopping breastfeeding or about dogs and alcohol. I even created a "niche blog,"  Humans for Dogs, since a lot of the searches came from dog related topics from alcohol to chiropractic care to sleep.  (Breastfeeding posts are by far my most popular but I don't feel like I have enough to say about breastfeeing to create an entire blog about it so I will just continue to post the occasional story on Stormy's Corner.)

I've been reading a lot about blogging about blogging and how to make a blog successful and while I want Stormy's Corner to be successful, I think it is right now. 

If there's a way Stormy's Corner could be more to you - could meet your needs more - let me know!  Comment now!

Stormy's Corner has its own domain!

Stormy's Corner now has its own domain at http://stormyscorner.com!  (You can continue to read it at http://stormy.blogs.com as well.)

Blogging about blogging

I've always read a lot of blogs but only recently have I checked into blogs about blogging.  Wow!  There's a whole other world out there, a whole community, that blogs about blogging and all the things associated with blogging like how to get more traffic, how to make money, how to create a good blog, etc.  There are also some celebrities.  People everyone in the "blogging about blogging" world know - like everyone in the open source world knows who Linus Torvalds is or everyone into football knows who Howie Long is.  One of the celebrities in the blogging world is John Chow from JohnChow.com. 

In order to see how links can drive traffic, I'm taking John Chow up on his offer to link back to my blog if I write a review about his blog.  So this review is honest but it's driven by the motivation to get a link.  (So you are duly warned!)

Here are some of my observations about JohnChow.com:

• Great content about how to write a good blog.  John Chow follows his own advice and writes great original content.  (Although giving advice on blogging doesn't seem to be his primary or only focus.)
• Integrity.  He offered to link back to every blog that reviewed his blog and it looks like a lot of people took him up on the offer and he's honoring his word!
• Communication.  He's very good about writing blog posts and about promoting his top commentators but maybe not so good with email.  I originally wrote this review on 2/20/07 and submitted it via email.  I never heard back - not even a thank you or I'll get to it later.  I'm assuming on 2/25/07 that the reason I haven't been listed on his blog yet is because I didn't include a link back to the rules page but some type of feedback that it had been received would have been great.  Feedback on why I wasn't going to be listed would have been terrific.  If you're going to have an email form promoted on your website, you should answer it. 
• Navigation.  I like the navigation tabs at the top of the blog and I liked that the subscribe buttons were at the top.
• Memorable logos and banners. 
• Lots of good pictures, especially of food! (And pictures of food are hard - I've been trying on My Man's Man.)
• Lots of community building tools like listing the top commentators and using MyBlogLog to show recent readers.
• I like how he mixes content about blogging (what most people probably read the blog for) and personal stories about restaurants he's eating at and places he's been to.  I think that adds "voice."

It feels a bit weird to review someone who is supposed to be the expert.  Maybe I should ask John to review my blog!

[Edited on 2/25/07.]

My grandmothers have blogs!

Both of my grandmothers have blogs now!  I'm very proud of them and I'm very proud of my mom for typing in the stories and creating the blogs:

• South Dakota Mary
• Vera

Check them out - they are/were amazing women!

Negative Google Ads Associated with YOUR Name

I ran across something interesting yesterday.  If you search for "Joe Vitale" (the author of The Attractor Factor) in Google, the top two sponsored ads are extremely negative:

• Joe Vitale Sucks www.RichJerkWebsites.com      Don't buy anything from Joe Vitale until you read this.
• I was scammed 37 times Dannys-Scam-Review.com      These websites are absolute scams I will show you the ones that work

Now these are sites that paid to be put at the top when someone searched for "Joe Vitale."  They didn't show up when I searched for Vitale.  Nothing on their websites mentions Joe Vitale and nothing I found anywhere suggests that Joe Vitale is either a jerk or a scam artist.

A couple of salient points come to mind:

• Obviously, these people have found it financially advantageous to buy ads for the words "Joe Vitale" - they are assuming people that have read his book or heard about it might think he's a scam or at least have enough doubts to read their websites.  (I did.  I thought, wow, is he a scam artist, and I clicked on the link and looked for information and couldn't find any but in the meantime I read their website and saw all their ads.)  So these people drive traffic to their website by picking names that people might believe are scam artists.
• Poor Joe Vitale.  These people are making it look like he's a scam artist and as far as I know, there's nothing illegal about it.  The second one doesn't even say anything about Joe Vitale - it just says "I was scammed 37 times" when you search on his name.

I don't know whether to be impressed or horrified.  Luckily when I search on my name there are no sponsored links, good or bad.

A 3 year old's courageous battle with cancer

Read Samantha's Story for a 3 year old's courageous battle with cancer.  It's both a tear jerker and heart warming.

Why do people bare all?

I've been thinking a lot lately about why people post what they do in their blogs - and I'm talking about those blogs that read like personal diaries.  I can't say I haven't been tempted to post about some pretty personal issues and my parents would say I have crossed the line, but why am I tempted?  Why do people post their personal diaries?

I think they are looking to share their stories and commiserate with others.  It's kind of the same reason you talk to the stranger at the bar or in line next to you.

However, here's the dilemna I keep coming to.  If I'm going to post my personal diary, I want to do so anonymously.  And not just anonymous to strangers, I wouldn't want everybody in my life reading what I thought about them.  After I get in a "discussion" with someone I might go vent in my diary, but it wouldn't be good for that person to read my diary right away.  We might end up duking it out in the comments!  So if it's anonymous and I don't tell my friends about my personal web diary, then who reads it?  Perfect strangers.  And what perfect stranger is going to want to read about the argument I had with my best friend or how my six year old didn't listen today?  Not many of them.  So then nobody would read it.  So if nobody is going to read my personal diary, why post it? 

If I post anonymously, only strangers will know about my blog, they won't be interested in my life, nobody will read it, so then why post at all?

So then I have to assume that the only way to get someone to read your diary blog (assuming you want someone to read it - personally I think most diaries are better off unread) is to tell friends about it.  Well then you better not blog about too many of the negative things that happen to you or any of the arguments you get into!

I have a feeling my kids might have very different opinions on this by the time they get old enough to have their own online presence.

Reading blogs: Bloglines vs Google Reader

I recently switched from Bloglines to Google Reader for reading blogs and news.  I've decided to stick with Google Reader and here's why:

• It's easier to add a feed, i.e. blog.  It's one click instead of several screens.
• It's easier to change a feed's folder, i.e. category.
• I can set it up to only show me the feeds that have new posts.
• If I click on a folder, it doesn't mark all the posts read until I actually scroll past them.  (In Bloglines, if I clicked on a folder all 200+ unread messages I had to read them all right then as they all got marked read immediately.)

Things I liked better in Bloglines:

• I could put my folders in any order I wanted.  Google Reader puts them in alphabetical order.
• Pictures and links in the posts seemed to show up better in Bloglines.

New blogs

I've created two new blogs.  You should check them out!

• My Man's Man - Cooking for the adventurous family
• Humans for Dogs - What humans need to know to understand dogs

This blog, Stormy's Corner, will stay the same.

Write a comment on Stormy's Corner!

You can leave a comment on any post by clicking on the word "Comments()" at the end of every post - you can practice on this page by clicking "Comments(0)" below.

Blogs are about conversation - share your experiences, thoughts and ideas!  Although this is my blog, it's not just about me - it's about all of you reading it, so please feel free to leave a comment or two!

Here's my promise in return:

• I won't delete a comment just because I don't agree with it.
• Profanity is bad.  I will delete any comment that contains profanity - any kind of profanity.  If you post lots of comments with lots of swear words, I will prohibit you from posting any more comments.  It gets old reading rude posts and deleting them.
• Rude comments are bad for conversation.  I reserve the right to decide what is rude versus what is contentious.
• Spam is bad.  Spam includes posting six comments to one post that all say the same thing is spam.

I have lots of silent readers - I'd like to hear what you think.  Many of you only tell me in person or via email - just post your comments! They are good and others should hear them.

Oops, Mom Googled Me - Los Angeles Times

A writer wrote a piece called "9 Tips for Surviving the Holidays at Your Republican Parents' Home." and her mom just learned how to Google, tried googling her daughter and found it: Oops, Mom Googled Me - Los Angeles Times.

It struck a cord with me today.  Blogs aren't diaries.  At least I don't think so.  If I'm upset about something, writing it down helps, and since I tend to write things in a blog, my first instict is to blog about it.  However, every time I'm tempted, I remember who all reads my blog.  I don't want an argument in the comments section of my blog.  I also don't want to hurt someone's feelings in a blog anymore than I do over email.  <satire begin> It's much better to hurt someone's feelings in person - then at least you can make sure all your comments, good and bad, are interpreted as you wanted them to be. :) Or at least you have a better chance. </satire end>

I've even debated several times on starting an anonymous blog.  However, I resolved on two points:

• I won't blog on things I'm just upset about. That first writing should go somewhere else until I decide whether or not I really have a public point to make or a position to take.  Even an email to the person you are upset with is better than a public airing of the issue.
• If I do have a public position to take, I don't want to hide it from the people that read my blog.  What's the point of sharing my political view with the world if I'm not willing to share it with or try to convince those closest to me?

Just my two cents ...

Dad's blog: The Elkton Farmers

Dad has a blog about the farmers in his hometown: The Elkton Farmers.  He's got some great pictures, so you should check it out every once in a while.

My grandmother's blog

My mom has been adding pictures to my grandmother's blog, Vera's Corner, and it's looking very nice.  My grandmother wrote out all the blog entries by hand, mailed them to my mom, my mom typed them in and posted them, and then my aunt printed out the blog and took it to my grandmother to see.

She was very proud of being an author.  She had some great stories to tell!

Schools banning blogging

I can't help but think that these schools have missed the world moving on.  Telling your students they can't blog is like saying they can't make phone calls. 

Forgive me, Father, for I have blogged | News.blog | CNET News.com.

Several Catholic high schools have banned their students from posting personal information about themselves or their schools, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Authors' Blogs

The New York Times has an article today about authors who blog.  They were all very interesting and one thing is for sure.  Authors use their blogs as uniquely as they write their books.  Some were diaries, some shared book ideas, some shared book characters.  The book part of the blog seemed to work best for nonfiction topics where the author was posting ideas or facts and getting feedback, ideas, and pointers to sources.

The New York Times > Technology > Dear Blog: Today I Worked on My Book.

Pause, a blog with good style

I found a new blog today, Pause.  I really like Jory's style.  A little about the world with anecdotes from her life.  A good mix and very readable.  FastCompany's Best Business Blogs: Women at Work pointed me there.

What's a Successful Blog

Anne's blog pointed me to this post on Asterisk about what makes A Successful Blog.  It's a pretty good list, just check out the top five:

• Well written.  Good content will make or break your blog.  Period.  This it the #1 thing that makes a blog successful in my book.
• Frequently updated.  Unless you’re a guru of some sort you really need to stay on top of it.  This can be a real challenge.
• Consistent.  This is kind of a combination of the first two.  I like sites that are able to maintain quality and frequency overtime.
• Open.  I like to read people who are honest and willing to talk about tough issues in a free and open way.

However, I think the question you need to ask first, is "what are you trying to accomplish with your blog? " Some people want a journal, others want to keep friends and family informed, others are trying to influence political views, ... Unless you know what you are trying to do, you won't know if you are successful or not.

Which brings us to the question of "what's the purpose of this blog?"  I started it to learn about blogging.  For me, it's become a place to show what I'm interested in and what piques my interest in the world.  I think it has primarily three audiences:

1. friends and family
2. people looking for esotric information on topics like double dutch jump roping
3. people looking for book reviews

I've often thought about starting a topic specific blog, but at the moment, I feel more like a jack of all trades.  There are way too many things to learn about to limit myself to studying and talking about just one!

Successful Blogs

I think some of the most successful blogs are those with a main topic, like Hacking NetFlix.  I just can't think what my main non-work-related topic would be ...

Blogs Will Change Your Business

Business Week has a good article on how blogging will change businesses whether they are ready or not, Blogs Will Change Your Business.  It reads like a wake up call to businesses.  Worth reading if you are interested in blogging and how its changing our world - lots of good points and examples.

They also started a Business Week Blog called Blogspotting, after train spotting.

Flickr, pictures!

Take a look on the right, you will see five pictures at random from my album on Flickr.  Anne pointed me at the tool and it's great!

Most common search?

This weblog gets about 35-50 visitors a day and most of those are because something in my weblog was pulled up as a result of a search.  Believe it or not, at least one hit a day is from someone looking for information on double-dutch jump roping!  They go to this blog entry that I wrote in August, Double Dutch Jump Roping. 

For those that are now intrigued, here's the best history I found on the web for double dutch jump roping,  National Double Dutch League.  If you are interested in finding a team near you, the USA Jump Rope organization can help.

Writing for the Web

Mark Bernstein has written a thought provoking article, 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web, about how to write for the web. How do you write an ongoing, ever changing column? What should you write about? (Something you care about.) How do you keep readers engaged? (By being passionate, personal, and consistent.)

Definitely worth a read for anyone who maintains a blog.

Business Blogs

Many well known business people, like Jonathan Schwartz the COO of Sun, now have blogs. This article talks about some of the benefits of having personal business blogs.

BW Online | August 9, 2004 | Blogging for Business

The New York Times & Google

Search for news on Google, and the New York Times articles rarely show up. This article in Wired discusses why. "The New York Times requires that its users register, which makes it difficult for search engines to spider its content. Perhaps an even more impenetrable barrier is the Times' paid archive. Because it stows material more than a week old behind an archive wall, you have to cough up $3 per article. Since few are willing to pay for content they can get free elsewhere, search engines, which often base results on relevancy (read: popularity), will continue to dis the Times."

I had to post this because just a day or two ago, my mom suggested that I not link to NYT articles in my blog since after a couple of weeks they are no longer available for free. The article had the perfect solution. This New York Times Link Generator offers a solution. They keep an archive of all of the NYT articles. Enter a NYT url and they will give you a "weblog-safe" link, one that will continue to be freely accessible even after two weeks.

Bloggers attract attorneys

Some more blogging statistics:
- 36% of bloggers irritate friends or family,
- 55% identify themselves by their real, full name,
- 83% write personal entries,
- 20% post primarily interesting links,

The article that pointed me to these studies is here: 8,000 bloggers born every day | The Register. (Note that the 12% attracted an attorney's attention is not acurate. The original MIT study says that 12% of bloggers know a blogger that has attracted attorney's attention. They might all know the same person!)

Wired News: Bloggers Suffer Burnout

The authors of extremely popular blogs are under constant pressure to produce witty entries. In this article several of them talk about feeling pressure or stress to constantly come up with new posts. If they don't post, they get asked if they are ok. If they do post, lots of comments are posted immediately.

Blogging Statistics

This is an interesting study on the characteristics of blogs and bloggers: Perseus - The Blogging Iceberg. One fact, 52.8% are 19 years old or younger. 82.5% are under the age of 30.

Online Polling Tools

I was looking for free online polling tools and I found the following, none of them perfect. Let me know if you know of any others.

1. pollhost.com. Good: you get to keep and edit your polls, lots of options. Bad: it leaves a huge whitespace in my blog entry.
2. blogpoll.com. Good: lots of options, best looking. Bad: it changes the background color of my blog, you can't edit a poll once you've created it.
3. poll123.com. Bad: You can't show the ongoing results to your readers.
4. blogpolling.com. Bad: You can't show the ongoing results to your readers.

This was not an exhaustive study or evaluation as I was just looking for a few features such as easy to create, free (or very cheap) and show results in weblog or at least to weblog readers.

TIME.com: Meet Joe Blog -- Jun. 21, 2004

There's an interesting article about weblogs and how they are changing the way we get news, TIME.com: Meet Joe Blog -- Jun. 21, 2004. They also have a short history of blogs and a list of the top five blogs, according to the author.

the World as a Blog

the World as a Blog

See a map of the world with the most recent weblog posts called out. It depends on geocoding to work and not all weblogs are geocoded.

RSS

When I first went looking for a blogging tool, the lack of good information about the different sites that host blogs was very frustrating. I did find a few tables that compared prices and features but they hadn't been kept up to date and they didn't include all of the sites I was looking at. I decided not to post anything about the tools because I wouldn't have created a complete comparison and I wouldn't have kept it up to date.

That said, I think there's a cool technology called RSS that would be interesting and useful to most people who read blogs. RSS, very simply, is a news aggregator technology. It provides a way of "subscribing" to blogs and news sites - you can pull all the information to one place instead of visiting each site independently. However, it's the technology, not an end user tool.

For a detailed technical description of what RSS is read this article.

I am looking for a good, simple, cheap RSS reader, i.e. the end user tool. A tool that will go to all my favorite websites (that use RSS) and show me the latest news and posts in one place. I'm looking for one right now. If and when I find one I like, I will share it here. If you have any input, please let me know via comments!

Slashdot

My favorite blog so far is Slashdot, News for Nerds. Stuff that matters. It's like a newsletter for geeks but both the topics and the discussions are supplied by the audience. Today they had an article about a topic I just recently talked about, online networks like Friendster and Orkut. Here's the Slashdot discussion, Detecting Patterns in Complex Social Networks. The article referred to in the original post is rather sparse, but some of the follow up comments in the discussion have links to some very interesting networking sites. The networking sites have studies that even pull in mathematical theories, globalization, and international trade, as well as other topics. You can get a graduate degree in networking. I wonder who actually hires you if you end up with a degree in networking. Do you end up in economics, strategy, international relations? Any of the above?
The book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell talked about how new trends spread like epidemics. I don't have the book in front of me but he talked about three types of people that spread a new trend or idea. Only one of these types of people has large numbers of contacts. This type of person with the contacts has a huge network and spans between groups - they are responsible for a trend spreading. (One of the other types of people was the expert - people trust their judgement.)
One of the articles referred to in the Slashdot discussion says that one of the things researchers study is the clumps. I believe the author of the The Tipping Point would have argued that it's the ties between clumps that are interesting. They are what holds the larger network together. There are also probably experts and focal points within each network but the network wouldn't spread to groups with other interests without the connectors.