For many of us on the media side of the biz, the magic of the tech world is often hidden behind an Oz-like curtain. The folks behind FM’s tech put together the below visualization in order to pull back the curtain a bit and help the rest of us get a handle on the last 14 months of wizardry. Red dots are PHP files, blue dots are HTML, CSS and JS files, and turquoise dots are media files – and all activity is attached to the contributor’s name.

code_swarm – FMPub from yizzle on Vimeo.
Here’s an explanation of what you’re seeing:

“This visualization, called code_swarm, shows the history of commits in a software project. A commit happens when a developer makes changes to the code or documents and transfers them into the central project repository. Both developers and files are represented as moving elements. When a developer commits a file, it lights up and flies towards that developer. Files are colored according to their purpose, such as whether they are source code or a document. If files or developers have not been active for a while, they will fade away. A histogram at the bottom keeps a reminder of what has come before.”

FM is looking for a few good engineers to contribute to our platform. Drop us a line if you’re interested in working with the team!

(A trail on Mt. Tam)



In the past few years, the weekend has taken on a new meaning for me. In short, it’s now defined by work. The weekend is when I catch up on work I can’t get done during the week, in particular work that requires long form thinking, the kind of thinking that powers drafting considered memos and strategy documents, even posting to this or other blogs.

It’s also a time to clear emails and burnish out the odd To Do item that never quite Got Done during the week.

So lately I’ve been working about three to five hours a day on Saturday, and even more on Sunday, where I work a couple hours in the early morning, and then a shift of four hours or more at night. I check my mail constantly, either while at my desk or on my Blackberry while with my family.

In an odd and most likely not very healthy way, the weekends have become two more workdays, albeit workdays that have a slower pace and breaks here and there for French Toast making, family hikes, and date nights with my wife.

And guess what? It’s not working out very well. Turns out that constantly having your mind in work mode can ruin a good session of French toasting. And getting an email bearing potentially bad news while on a date with your wife can really mess with your ability to be the gentleman she deserves you to be.

So Chas, Jason and I’ve decided to do something about it. We don’t know if it’s going to work, but it is off to a good start. Working together, we’ve created a weekend program we call “Take 48.” The rules are simple, really. The three senior leaders of the company – the CEO, the COO, and the Publisher/CRO – have agreed to not send a single email to any member of the FM team from 6 PM on Friday to 6 PM Sunday. It’s hard for us to do – we’re used to managing by email, and particularly used to getting “caught up” in the weekend down time.

But there’s nothing in the rules saying we can’t DO email over the weekend, just that we can’t SEND it during the weekend. If the servers blow up in Chicago, well, someone can pick up the phone, after all.

We tried it out last weekend, and by golly, it really worked. Emails from senior staff usually creates orders of magnitudes more email from other staff members, and it folds into itself. But last weekend, it felt as if FM, as an institution, was taking time to breathe, to contemplate, to relax and feed itself. Maybe even take a nice hike on Mt. Tam.

Here’s to more of that, not only at FM, but in every organization running hard at a Very Big Goal.

I’m not saying that we need to stop working hard, even if it means working on the weekend. But perhaps weekends should be sacred when it comes to intruding in the lives of others. Do your work, if you must, but when it comes to asking others to do your work with you, try to Take 48.

Clearly, we’re growing. Our latest addition: Corrine Kasman, who joins us as Account Executive, Major Accounts in Sausalito. Corrine comes from Ziff Davis Enterprise/Media, where she held several roles in both New York and San Francisco. She most recently was a Regional Sales Manager for Digital Events and Lead Generation Programs. Prior to this role, she was a RSM on two print publications within ZD. Corrine is excited to be part of the San Francisco team and to be working on the cutting-edge of Conversational Media. In her spare time she loves to read, spend time with family & friends and explore California. Welcome, Corrine!

Nicole Cook joins FM as Manager, Strategic Programs in Sausalito.

Nicole comes to us from New York where she was part of CNN’s Business Development team. Prior to that she worked in the film industry in Los Angeles at Exodus Film Group and has also served as Editor and Columnist for FiveStarReviews.com with a monthly Travel and Conscious Living Column. She will graduate with her MA degree in Studies in Consciousness this year and when she’s not working or contemplating thoughts behind thoughts, she’s most likely traversing around the world with her friends, taking pictures, and writing about it.

FM, FM authors and FM partners have received a ton of industry coverage recently. We’re winding down after a hugely successful CM Summit (and getting excited about the next installment) where we featured forward-looking digital media and marketing industry leaders, and where we announced three major developments. The press has picked up on the conversation. Happy reading!
Why Would a Publisher with Own Vertical Network Hook Up with Federated?
Folio Magazine – 06/12/2008
DeveloperShed, Ziff Davis Enterprise’s 12-site tech network of developer communities, has joined Federated Media, a blog aggregator and service provider that brings independent publishers into its network by offering to take on their ad sales.
Federated Media Puts on Hammersuit
Game Daily – 06/12/2008
Exploiting the company’s “marketing expertise and sponsorship coordination,” Hammersuit is hoping this will increase marketing opportunities for its affiliate sites.

Federated Media Launches Online Conversation Tracking Tool
MarketingVox – 06/11/2008
The Conversational Marketing Toolbox was designed to “build visibility and accountability into today’s eclectic media and marketing mix consisting of IAB advertising, sponsorships, video advertising, widgets, social networking applications, conversational media hubs and more,” Federated Media stated.
FM Offers Social Media Metrics
ClickZ – 06/11/2008
Federated Media wants to make it easier for advertisers to track the impact their community-driven campaigns have online with a new suite of tools. Called Conversational Marketing Toolbox, the offering will allow advertisers to determine benchmarks for their campaign’s success, handpick which data to track and view that data on a single interface. FM will run beta versions of the toolbox this summer, with the full product available later this year.

FM Unveils Toolbox To Monetize Social Ads
Adotas – 06/10/2008
“Getting beyond the click” to understand what increasingly cynical Web users want from ads is essential – especially in the social media universe. Federated Media, which runs the largest independent blog network, has unveiled a new tool to address the issue. The Conversational Marketing Toolbox was introduced at to industry execs the Conversational Marketing Summit: New Brand Way in New York City today. The toolbox will attempt to provide an accurate set of campaign management, measurement and reporting tools to interactive marketers using the FM Network.
Millard: Yahoo! Wrong to Veer From Brand
AdWeek – 06/10/2008
Millard views the situation differently. She sees a focus on the cool efficiency of technology coming at the expense of the emotional creativity that has been key to building brands. Talk of making display advertising as efficient as search listings threatens to confine Internet advertising to a direct-response medium measured only by clicks. While Google is “a wonder,” she saw the TV networks as her competition, she said.
@ CM Summit: Agencies: Big On Data, Not On Insight
PaidContent – 06/10/2008
The transition from traditional to digital has agencies trying to figure out what their roles are. “What can agencies do with regard to sorting through metrics? Where’s the insight?” were the questions Chas Edwards, publisher and chief revenue officer, Federated Media, out to a morning panel at his company’s Consumer Marketing Summit. The main take away: agencies are big on offering all kinds of metrics to determine if a campaign “worked”; but the definition of success remains a work in progress.
McCracken gets cranking on Federated Media’s Technologizer
CNET – 06/10/2008
A month after announcing his resignation from PC World magazine, tech journalism veteran Harry McCracken has announced a new venture: Technologizer, an online destination for general technology news and analysis. The new site will be launched later this summer in conjunction with advertising start-up Federated Media Publishing; founder John Battelle is himself a veteran of the tech press, having co-founded Wired magazine and founded The Industry Standard in the 1990s.
Harry McCracken Joins the Federated Media Family
Wired News – 06/10/2008
Harry McCracken, former editor of PC World, says he’s starting a new site, Technologizer, which will be part of the Federated Media family.
Federated Media Launches Conversational Measurement Toolbox; Signs AnandTech
CenterNetworks – 06/09/2008
Tomorrow at the Conversational Marketing Summit in NYC, ad network Federated Media (FM) will make two announcements: the launch of the Conversational Measurement Toolbox and that they will now represent hardware reviews and forums network AnandTech. Federated Media describes the toolbox as, “a suite of campaign measurement, planning and reporting tools offering marketers greater control and insight into their conversational marketing efforts.” The company claims that this is a first-of-its-kind offering.

Federated Media launches analytics tools, gets new partners
VentureBeat – 06/09/2008
Ad network Federated Media announced an analytics service for advertisers it hopes will help them better manage the growing perplexity of online branding efforts.
Can Small Publishers Help IAB’s Cause?
ClickZ – 06/09/2008
He announced the IAB initiative at Federated Media’s Conversational Marketing summit in New York City, where he spoke at a session called, “Case Study: Does the Government Want to Kill the Web?”

The CM Summit was a smashing success and we want to thank all speakers, sponsors and attendees. The conversation continues in AdWeek, PaidContent and AdAge.
We’re already looking forward to the next Summit this fall in San Francisco. Please go here to stay informed on upcoming events. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!