The OC For Sale

An iSold It store opened up about a month ago not far from where I live. Interested in what denizens of the real OC are auctioning off? Here are the store's listings. Unsurprising: lots of golf clubs, a ship in a bottle, BMW headlights, a rhinestone studded evening bag in the shape of Old Glory, The U.S.S. Ronald Reagan on a mug. Must be visiting from L.A.: Rocky Horror Picture Show dolls, Born to Ski trolls.

The concept and ramifications of this kind of business model fascinate me. For starters, it must dramatically increase eBay's inventory. The flipside: it must hurt donation-dependent charitable organizations that might otherwise receive people's cast-off loot. (Not to mention the emotional toll this must take on garage sale junkies.) It also has to be a huge boon to bargain hunters. I have the feeling the sellers using these services are almost always looking to lighten the load with a minimum of effort, and that any return is pure gravy, more than they thought they would realize. Thus, they're probably more willing than most eBay sellers to start the bidding low and not set a reserve.

All Over The Air, But Not Online

CNN is going blog wild this week, and today featured particularly extensive coverage on Inside Politics, with a lengthy "Inside the Blogs" feature complete with iMac-and-Safari-wielding, perky-yet-savvy anchors. None of the stories seem to be on the Web however, except perhaps indirectly. (Note to CNN: when covering the blogosphere, put the stuff online.) Jeff Jarvis did his characteristic great job of providing insightful and accurate sound bites.

While looking for traces of these stories at CNN.com and not finding them, I did see this piece covering JotSpot from Demo, which while completely unrelated is nevertheless well worth the read.

Meta Pick

A bit of meta-physical gymnastics for you: my pick of the day is the Guardian Newsblog's Pick of the Day. (Via the Chief Blogging Officer, who is pleased to have been picked.) Worth it just to learn that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will be in theaters soon — with Mos Def playing Ford Prefect. Don't forget your towel.

Uncommon Creations

Check out these two fine examples of what Creative Commons has wrought (and it's not that far out of the starting gate):

The Staccato podcast: "Welcome to Staccato, where we feature music that probably won't get you sued. All tracks are available under a Creative Commons license. So is the show, of course." Via the Chris Pirillo Show on 1/27 (hour 3), which features an inteview with Staccato's founder Matt May and includes Matt's take on both the strengths and fallibilities of Creative Commons. Regarding the latter, Matt discusses how other rights considerations (i.e. ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI) might not go away simply because someone has tried to issue a work under a CC license. Matt selects his tuneage from the new releases feed at Archive.org/Open Source Audio.

Science Commons: "The mission of Science Commons is to encourage scientific innovation by making it easier for scientists, universities, and industries to use literature, data, and other scientific intellectual property and to share their knowledge with others." (Via Cory Doctorow on The Gadget Show.) To the blawgers out there: do me a favor and read the Science Commons description in full with these questions in mind: doesn't the realm of legal knowledge confront these same sort of obstacles, and wouldn't this kind of approach help overcome them in our arena as well?

Today's New Blawg (And One That's Been Around The Blawgk)

Hi Neil, nice to see you!

And welcome to your blog's Terrible Twos, Dennis, let us know if you require a Supernanny intervention.