<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, steven johnson]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, steven johnson]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/stevenjohnson http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/stevenjohnson <![CDATA[The Twitterati Drink Alone, or with Jenny 8. Lee]]> What's Twitter good for? Knowing that your life of quiet desperation is shared by the rich, powerful, or merely well-read, for starters. Steve Case, Sasha Frere-Jones, and Rob Corddry deserve twitty pity:

New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones economized.

Children's Hospital star Rob Corddry stabbed, then rinsed.

New York Times writer Jenny 8. Lee planned a party with, no surprise, fortune cookies. (Yes, but is she bringing her millionaire Googler boyfriend?)

Former AOL CEO Steve Case tried to feel relevant.

Author and sometimes entrepreneur Steven Berlin Johnson dined alone with his Kindle.

See something worth noting on Twitter? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

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<![CDATA[Huffington Post Bidding On Local News Site?]]> FirefoxScreenSnapz002.jpg We hear the Huffington Post is trying to buy Outside.in, the local news aggregator from supremely smug literary Park Sloper Steven Johnson. HuffPo embracing the local news business as promised? Bizarre.

Sure, publisher Arianna Huffington made noises about local HuffPos last year, but that was when she was in the process of raising an impressive $25 million. No one expected her to stick to that plan, particularly given the low-margins of selling advertising on a local level. (For a sense of how that business is doing ask, oh, any daily newspaper in the country. Or Curbed!)

If HuffPo were going to enter those markets, wouldn't it make more sense to do it on the cheap, shaking some free writers out of its giant database of "citizen journalists" rather than paying for a curious Web application that hasn't exactly set the world on fire? Maybe not: Huffington let her once-successful database project decay before handing it off to her Godson. And as any old media company can tell you, when you lose the ability to innovate internally, it's time to roll out the acquisitions.

(If you know anything about the HuffPo-outside.in talks, we'd love to hear from you. Outside.in employees might want to read up on the office habits of their would-be new boss.)

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<![CDATA[The Twitterati Are Not as Awesome as They Think They Are]]> Today on Twitter: Media people being pretentious, from Bonnie Fuller to Wired's Chris Anderson and beyond!

Outside.in chairman Steven Johnson, who is currently getting paid by venture capitalists to drink and promote his book, sparred with "I'm a PC" Apple ad star John Hodgman. (Actually, that is pretty awesome — the getting paid to drink part.)

Wired.com got hacked with the false report of a Steve Jobs heart attack. Wired editor Chris Anderson, who does not actually run his magazine's website because of Condé Nast's bizarre internal politics, pretended he was in charge, Al Haig-style.

Former Engadget editor Ryan Block fussed with his espresso maker.

Formerly important media person Bonnie Fuller stopped to wonder if she was rude. (Answer: Yes, but not because of that.)

Boing Boing space princess turned blogger Xeni Jardin coveted the BarackBerry.

Anyone else's tweets we should keep an eye on? Send us more Twitter usernames, please.

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<![CDATA[The Twitterati Say Far Too Much]]> One would think that Twitter's 140-character limit would put a cap on oversharing. But one would be wrong. Hints of a 30 Rock star's bowel movements, plans for drinking in public, delicious hair, and more:

Tina Fey (or someone doing a bad impression of Fey, who could possibly be Fey herself) questioned her masticatory work ethic.

YouTube microstar Michael Buckley wanted to listen in on an intimate moment.

New York editrix (and beloved Gawker alumna) Jessica Coen wanted to lick herself.

Wired contributor Sarah Lai Stirland couldn't even contemplate the idea that the new chair of the FCC might have defriended her.

Steven Berlin Johnson, the author and chairman of New York startup Outside.in, announced plans to drink at a book reading. (Note: We hear Johnson is getting paid by Outside.in even when he's on book leave. So venture capitalists are paying him to read and drink. Sweet!)

Anyone else's tweets we should keep an eye on? Send us their username.

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<![CDATA["And then I thought, 'Blue sneakers, why not?'"]]> "Everything happens for a reason," MIT's Henry Jenkins tells Outside.in CEO Steven Johnson in a SXSW keynote conversation. Does that include Johnson's wardrobe? Suggest a better caption in the comments below.

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