The 2007 Writers’ Strike

Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune wrote a great article discussing what appears to be the inevitability of the Writers’ Guild of America Strike. The WGA contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers runs out at midnight tomorrow. Negotiations are not going well, apparently.

This is an especially interesting story to watch for me -- with my dual perspectives of writer and lawyer. There’s been many a settlement on the courthouse steps, so I’m not counting out an eleventh-hour deal here. Then again, writers are stubborn (read that “filled with righteous indignation”) and they’ve got the five-month strike in 1988 to prove that they don’t bluff.

I’m not that interested in the almost-immediate impact upon late night talk shows and daytime soap operas; however, I’m a little worried about The Closer, Burn Notice, Ugly Betty, and Psych.

For more information:

Chicago Tribune

Writers’ Guild of America
http://www.wga.org/ (west)
http://www.wgaeast.org/ (east)

AMPTP

Internet Marketing for Lawyers: All About This Google Page Rank Business

There's lots of chatter on the web about Google's PageRank and how lots of pages have suddenly been "demoted" ... here, I've gathered together a collection of links on the topic:

1. Google's explanation of its PageRank;

2. The ever-changing Wikipedia article on PageRank;

3. Phil Craven's article at WebWorkshop, explaining how PageRank works and introducing the concept of LinkFarms;

4. Matt Cutts' e-mail to SearchEngineJournal, where he confirms that the recent alteration of PageRank was due to paid links (lots of comments here);

5. And now, the blog commentary: Problogger, SearchEngineGuide, and
Entrepreneur's Journey.