by Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher.com

Monday evening: I’m running late for dinner and I need a cab...I quicken my walk and head to Geary. I pull out the trusty Geek Beacon (my Treo 600) and switch on the display. I wave it high above my head and within seconds a cab pulls up. Bingo, the Geek Beacon does it again (more Geek Beacon stories...).

The cab driver is impressed, "Is that a phone?" he asks. "I saw it from far away, that’s a great idea!" I say it’s what I’m calling the geek beacon, so if you mention it to someone, tell them it’s the geek beacon, the name might get into the language. He laughs and says he will remember the name.

Then, the conversation somehow turns to blogging, (don’t ask me how...it was probably my fault...:-)

Turns out the cab driver was a former publisher of satirical cartoons and writings and once lived in the Haight-Ashbury when he published the local neighborhood newspaper, "The Street: A View from the Haight."

"This was the mid-80s," he said, "the early days of desktop publishing, and the laser printer, and my realization that I could easily replace expensive typesetting and use inexpensive laser printed columns of text and headlines. The cost of publishing a tabloid newspaper thus became significantly cheaper and we were profitable from the very first publication."

"The same is happening now," I said to the taxi driver. Blogging software is a much cheaper way of publishing content. It is a virtually free publishing platform that dynamically distributes content directly to its (self-selected) target audience. No print costs. No barriers to entry. Knowledge capital is the differentiator.

Mike said his magazine had once had a large readership and he developed a very distinctive voice in his writings. He took the work seriously and turned down offers to buy his magazine because he did not trust that the new owners would be able to maintain the quality of the brand. He turned down tens of thousands of dollars rather than sell and risk damage to the media brand he had created.

"Mike--you are a natural for blogging," I said. "I’ll set you up and leave you to it. You’ll be like a fish in water."

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