Kottke

=//__**Kottke.org**__// = = =

ABOUT
According to a friend of Jason Kottke, Steven Johnson, describes Kottke.org as "An attempt to track and make sense of material that connects the insights of science and culture, rather than using one to dismantle the other." Jason uses 95% of the design for his blog in Photoshop and the other 5% in Flash & Illustrator. On Kottke.org Jason has a sidebar of other websites that he likes, uses or reminds him of his website including: [|Jason's Twitter], [|Silkscreen Font], [|Books], [|Movies],[|Flickr], and [|Photos].

**HISTORY**
Kottke.org is a blog that was created in 1998 by Jason Kottke. Kottke describes his blog as a personal blog, but it is also a full time "gig" for him. The blog has been updated almost daily since March of 1998. Jason designed the Silkscreen [|typeface] and has won a [|Lifetime Achievement Award] as a bloger. As of November 2009[|[update]], his blog is ranked #80 on the [|Technorati] Top 100. After graduating from Coe College Kottke started work as a web designer in 1996 for clients such as [|Charles Schwab]. His design work has been featured in //[|The New Yorker]//, //[|The New York Times]//, //[|Forbes]//, and //[|Brill's Content]//.

On February 22, 2005, Kottke announced that he had left his web design job in order to work on kottke.org full-time. He pledged that all content on the site would still be free while encouraging readers to become "[|micropatrons]" by making an optional contribution of any amount. By the close of business on the day of the announcement, over 200 people were listed as "micropatrons" on kottke.org. Kottke also received in-kind support through a fellowship from [|Eyebeam], which provided space for Kottke to work in its [|research and development] labs. Exactly one year later, Kottke announced that over the course of the year about 1,450 micropatrons had contributed $39,900, the vast majority during the three weeks after his initial announcement, and that he would not attempt the feat for a second year.

As of May 2006. the blog is supported by paid advertisements, as part of the design-oriented advertising network The DECK.

= THE MAN BEHIND THE BLOG = The blog is more of a one man band that is written and edited by [|Jason Kottke] himself. He is a 36 year-old full time blogger that lives in [|Manhattan] with his wife Megan and his son Ollie. Kottke describes some of his preferences on his about me page on his blog "I prefer red wine to white, movies to films,[| jeans] to [|khakis], [|vanilla to chocolate], [|Pixar] to Dreamworks, the subway to taxis, nonfiction to fiction, and Safari to [|Firefox]." Jason has lived in WI, IA, MO, MN, CA, NY, NH, and, briefly, France. He describes himself as a man without a plan.

Kottke graduated from [|Coe College] with a degree in physics in 1995. He has held jobs in Web Design directly out of college. He is responsible fr designing the [|Silkscreen] typeface in 1999. This particular typeface has been used by Adobe, MTV and Volvo. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a blogger. His first ever website was known as Osil8 and it was a blog all about conducting digital experiences. Kottke left web design in 2005 to focus on web design full-time. In 2006 he took a break from his blog when his son was born.



= **THE PURPOSE OF KOTTKE** = Kottke.org is a blog for the most part about things that interest the sites author. Jason Kottke describes that many blogs are about politics, gadgets, or celebrity gossip, but his blog is much different. The most talked about and favorite subjects of the author include movies, science, [|design], New York City, photography, [|technology], [|Apple], and [|sports]. Although this is not all that the site discusses, many of these topics are the bulk of the content. There is one topic that the site tries to steer clear of and that is discussing politics. Most of all thepurpose of the site as described by Jason Kottke himself is "an attempt to track and make sense of "material that connects the insights of science and culture, rather than using one to dismantle the other"".

= = = KOTTKE IN THE NEWS = Kottke has most notably been in the news for breaking the story that of famous Jeopardy celebrity Ken Jennings had lost and that his win streak had ended in 2004. [|Sony] was angered by the breaking of the story before the shows air-date. They requested that not only he remove the content, but that he also delete the audio of the show from his site. Sony also threatened Kottke with legal action, but not the several other "news" outlets such as The Washington Post that ran the story. At this time Jason was worried that maybe his blogging career would be [|over]. He laid low and steered clear of talking about the issues with Sony. The breaking of the story caused once again the blogger vs. journalist debate to come up. Many people in the blogging community decided to back the blogging pioneer. For more on the Sony vs. Kottke story:

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= **TRAFFIC** =
 * Website Value:** $420,000 **Daily Uniques:** 57,000
 * Daily Pageviews:** 85,000
 * Popular In:** United States, Germany, and in Japan
 * Online Since:**26 Dec 1998
 * Alexa Rank:** 26622
 * Coeficienti:** Visits: 86, Views:1.41, Vis per user:1.5
 * Other coef:** Vechime: 2, C_country:1.5489, C_source: 0.99536
 * Visits/Day:** 57,000
 * PageViews/Day:** 85,000
 * PageViews/Visit:** 1.5

**EXTERNAL LINKS**
[|kottke.org] [|leahpeah interview with Jason Kottke] [|Logorama]

//This page was created by Ray Zawodni and Austin Sanders as part of the coursework for the Winter 2010 semester of PrnJ 493A - Blogging and Interactive Journalism//