Xeni Jardin

Xeni Jardin

Xeni Jardin in 2008
Born August 5, 1970
Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation Journalist
Parent(s) Monica Rumsey
Glenn B. Hamm Jr[1]

Xeni Jardin (/ˈʃɛni ʒɑrˈdæn/ SHEN-ee zhar-DAN; b. 1970) is an American weblogger, digital media commentator,[2] and tech culture journalist.[3] She is known for her position as co-editor of the collaborative weblog Boing Boing, as a contributor to Wired magazine and Wired News, and as a correspondent for the National Public Radio show Day to Day. She has also worked as a guest technology news commentator for television networks such as PBS NewsHour, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and ABC.

Life and work

Jardin in 2005

Jardin was born in Richmond, Virginia, on August 5, 1970.[note 1] Her father, artist Glenn B. Hamm Jr., died in August 1980 of ALS. She left home at age 14, but remained in school in Richmond.[1] Her brother, Carl M. Hamm, retained their family name, and is a Richmond, Virginia-based disc jockey, who performs under the stage name "DJ Carlito".[4] Meanwhile, Jardin prefers the name "Xeni Jardin" over her given name, for personal reasons.[1] "Xeni" is short for "Xeniflores," a word with origins in Guatemala's native culture, meaning "protector of flowers,"[1] while "jardin" is the Spanish and French word for "garden." Prior to becoming a journalist, she was site editor for travel agency Traveltrust,[5] then Supervisor of Enterprise Web Technology for Latham & Watkins[6] before working at Quaartz, an internet calendaring startup.[7]

Her career as a journalist began in 1999 when she was associated with Jason Calacanis's Silicon Alley Reporter, first as a contributing editor, and later as Vice President of Silicon Alley‍ '​s parent company, Rising Tide Studios. In 2001 she became a freelance writer for Wired and other magazines, and in 2002 she began contributing to Boing Boing after Mark Frauenfelder met her at a party and invited her to be a co-editor.[1] Jardin has also written op-ed pieces for the New York Times[8] and the Los Angeles Times.[9] She has also been the main source of an article in The Age talking about the cultural relevance of Wikipedia articles,[2] and the source for a New York Times article discussing Boing Boing‍ '​s part in the creation of the Flying Spaghetti Monster internet meme.[10]

Jardin is also involved in television and radio work. In 2003, she began contributing the "Xeni Tech" segment for NPR's show Day to Day,[11] and has appeared as a guest on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer to discuss the Washington Post‍ '​s decision to remove their comments section (a step Boing Boing had also taken).[12] She has also made appearances on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and ABC World News Tonight.[1] and featured on the BBC Radio 5 show Pods and Blogs discussing her work at Boing Boing.[13]

Her work at Boing Boing has provoked some critical response. In March 2005, Jesse Andrews created a script for GreaseMonkey that filters out Boing Boing posts by Jardin.[14][15] In March 2006, Matthew N. Sharp created XeniSucks.com, which criticizes and parodies Jardin's posts on Boing Boing. Jardin posted a link to the site on Boing Boing and described it as "a total hoot" (the link is now removed).[16] A June 2008 controversy over Jardin's deleting from public view all posts and links associated with sex blogger Violet Blue in the wake of a falling-out led to discussions about journalism ethics and standards and media transparency.[17][18][19][20]

On December 1, 2011, she live-blogged her first mammogram, which returned a positive diagnosis of breast cancer.[21]

In 2012, Jardin became one of the initial supporters of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

In August 2012, she stated she was in a relationship with broadcast journalist Miles O'Brien.[22]

Notes

  1. ↑ Piccalo op cit, reports that Jardin's father "died a few weeks after Jardin's 10th birthday." Social Security Death Index gives his death as August 1980, which would put Jardin's birthdate at 1970. The same article stated Jardin was 32 prior to her 2005 birthday, which puts her birthdate at 1972.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Behold, the wizard of blogs. (Piccalo, Gina). Los Angeles Times, 10 April 2005. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Wikipedia Worries", Rob O'Neill, The Age.
  3. ↑ Jardin, Xeni. "Xeni.net". Homepage.
  4. ↑ DJ Carlito blog Accessed August 25, 2011
  5. ↑ Hamm, Xeniflóres (1997). Traveltrust.com via Internet Archive
  6. ↑ Hamm, Xeni Jardin (July 14, 1999). UKNM: That pesky Euro symbol. via chinwag.com
  7. ↑ Kirkpatrick, David and Daniel Roth (January 10, 2005). Why There's No Escaping the Blog. Fortune
  8. ↑ Jardin, Xeni (March 9, 2006). Exporting Censorship. New York Times
  9. ↑ Jardin, Xeni, (September 25, 2006), You authors are saps to resist Googling, Los Angeles Times.
  10. ↑ But Is There Intelligent Spaghetti Out There?", Boxer, Sarah, New York Times.
  11. ↑ Jardin, Xeni. Xeni Tech. Day to Day, NPR. Retrieved May 1, 2006.
  12. ↑ Lehrer, Jim (January 24, 2006). Post Web Site Silences Public Comments After a Flood of Complaints. NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
  13. ↑ BBC Radio 5, Pods and Blogs.
  14. ↑ Jardin, Xeni (March 18, 2005). HOWTO de-Xeni BoingBoing, Boing Boing
  15. ↑ Andrews, Jesse (April 28, 2006). de-Xeni (Release 0.0.1). via userscripts.org, retrieved May 1, 2006.
  16. ↑ Jardin, Xeni (March 27, 2006). xenisucks.com, at Boing Boing, URL accessed on May 17, 2006. BoingBoing has since removed this post, which can be seen at web.archive.org/web/20060327234548/http://www.boingboing.net/
  17. ↑ Cohen, Noam (July 7, 2008). Poof! You’re Unpublished. New York Times
  18. ↑ Sarno, David BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin on unpublishing the Violet Blue posts Los Angeles Times
  19. ↑ Sarno, David BoingBoing bloggers talk about Violet Blue controversy's implications Los Angeles Times
  20. ↑ Thomas, Owen (July 2, 2008). "How Xeni and Violet's Boing Boing affair went sour". Gawker.com. Retrieved April 12, 2009.
  21. ↑ Jardin, Xeni (December 1, 2011). "@xeni: I have breast cancer....". Twitter. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
  22. ↑ Xeni Jardin at 6:27 pm Tue, Aug 21, 2012 (2012-08-21). "For Aileen.". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2014-03-08.

External links

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