Interesting interchange between Lawrence Lessig and Richard Epstein on free vs proprietary.
Web Apps Compendium v1.0 || kuro5hin.org
Probably has everything here you need. Say no more.
Interesting article about community news especially in South Korea.
Great article on the creation of Wikipedia — Wired 13.03: The Book Stops Here
Critique of Wikipedia:
Larry Sanger gave voice to these criticisms in a recent essay posted on kuro5hin.org titled Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism Although he acknowledges that “Wikipedia is very cool,” he argues that the site’s production model suffers from two big problems.
The first is that “regardless of whether Wikipedia actually is more or less reliable than the average encyclopedia,” librarians, teachers, and academics don’t perceive it as credible, because it has no formal review process. The second problem, according to Sanger, is that the site in general and Wales in particular are too “anti-elitist.” Established scholars might be willing to contribute to Wikipedia - but not if they have to deal with trolls and especially not if they’re considered no different from any schmo with an iMac.
KYOURadio - Open Source Radio is the first internet station to receive podcasts from whomever and transmit them from their internet radio station.
The Roadhouse: The KYOURadio Email Discussion discusses the problems with their current business model and suggests some ways forward.
I strongly agree with points 1 & 2 — there’s no way that I’m going to ‘sign up’ to listen to an internet station and any web site that does not work with Firefox deserves utter opprobrium in my view.
What’s happening here? I think that we’re on the cusp of an exciting new phenomenon. That podcasting is growing and attracting new audiences is undeniable [find some refs to back up this assertion] and I think we are seeing the start of a trend to producing professional grade content in the podcasting format and the desire to see professional grade dissemination of that content. In the previous posting whatshisface (couldn’t discover the bloke’s name what authors The Roadhouse) writes that:
I got the impression that the folks at KYOU do understand that there are some serious flaws in both their business model and in the technology they’ve chosen.
My guess is that KYOU will respond positively to The Roadhouse’s points. This also raises the interesting topic of the way that creative interactions between ‘customer’ and ‘supplier’ (or whatever terms you choose to describe this business relationship) is enhanced simply by the way that the Internet works.
More guff later probably.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Making phone calls over the net
Plus Broadband telephony gets a boost and The free phone call revolution
BT tends to guoge customers in the UK — local calls are charged for example so competition in the form of Vonage and Skype are gaining popularity. But BT does the broadband so this may not be such a bif deal…
Important Web SItes:
PBS | I, Cringely . May 12, 2005 - Inflection Point
The more interesting item in this Slashdot post, however, was the idea of Apple doing a video equivalent of its AirPort Express WiFi repeater that has audio output to link iTunes to your stereo system. This AirPort extension is the last piece needed for Apple’s video service and answers a lot of questions. Why doesn’t the Mac Mini have an optical audio port? Because the AirPort has one, instead. Why isn’t the Mac Mini more powerful? Because it doesn’t have to be. The Mini becomes a storage and downloading device and H.264 decoding is handled in the AirPort gizmo using one of the H.264 hardware decoder chips coming on the market for around $20.
I’ve been looking for this site for YONKS!
NO2ID: stop ID cards and the database state!
Comments about the BBC’s Creative Archive with access only to surfers from UK web sites. Boo hoo!
[comments please]
Excerpts from Laurence Lessig’s book Future of Ideas . Note the copyright guff at the bottom of the page for irony.
In The XML Factor, Microsoft mind robbery NTKnow say this:
The 1400-word terms and conditions for MSN.CO.UK’s strong-IP “Thought Thieves” film competition are quite the read, even if you’re not the 14-17 year-old they’re intended to be read and understood by and complied with in their therein bywhich entirety. Entries must be the “sole work and creation of the person submitting the film” (no sharing your recious intellectual property fluids with your cameraman, Mr Auteur); must not “use third party intellectual property rights” (no furniture, no architecture, only clouds as ackground); the entry form additionally specifies “Should I be selected as a finalist […] I will formally licence on terms acceptable to Microsoft, all intellectual property rights in my film and agree to waive all moral rights in relation to my film if requested to do so”. But what we made us wonder was: where exactly did Microsoft get this “Thought Thieves” idea from? The idea that people can “steal your thoughts” is surely not original. We’re hoping for a class-action by paranoid schizophrenics, who we think came up with the idea that others are stealing the very THOUGHTS FROM YOUR MIND a good few years before Microsoft started losing theirs.
http://www.msn.co.uk/thoughtthieves/
- send us a copy of your entry. We’ll do prizes.
http://www.the-future-of-ideas.com/excerpts/index.shtm
- Lessig’s book starts at the exact point the T&C gets ridiculous
Comments at Copyfight
Apple Grabs More of Flash Market - Yahoo! News
Apple Computer’s (Nasdaq: AAPL - news) iPod Shuffle has expanded its share of the U.S. flash player MP3 market, growing from 43 percent in February to 58 percent in March, according to research firm NPD.
ADVERTISEMENTThe dominance of the iPod Shuffle is especially noteworthy, given its brief amount of time on the scene. Apple released the player less than six months ago as a complement to its digital music product line, which already claims a huge piece of the market.
In a recent interview, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer noted that Apple’s share of the U.S. hard-disk player market is at 90 percent and its iTunes Music Store share is about 70 percent.
Survey: 43 Percent of Adults Get ‘Phished’ - Yahoo! News
Many-to-Many: Exiting Deanspace : smashing article from Clay Shirkey (again — I must try to get him to come to Earlham …) about the Dean campaign and the ‘influence’ of the internet.
Read the comments and trackbacks too…
Clay Shirky Explains Internet Evolution is a brilliant exposition of where the Internet may be going.
How about this for a brilliant quote:
I put Napster third on a list of uprisings of massive, uncoordinated civil disobedience in the last 100 years, after the 55 mph speed limit and Prohibition.
Although this article is 5 years old it’s still germane. How have Clay’s thoughts played out?
Or what about this quote:
We have just lived through a period in which, by lowering the barriers to creating a media outlet, it was assumed that we were witnessing the mass professionalization of media.
But mass professionalization is an oxymoron. The mistake I think we’ve made is to assume that we need to find ways of increasing revenues so we can all go pro. What we are witnessing is the mass amateurization of media, because the net has revolutionized media in the other direction, reducing the cost of being a media outlet to the point where many many more people can participate …
Think like an analyst. Analyse and prognosticate.
Another good quote:
I am uninterested in good [web] design, however. I really only care about great design, and about the environment of experimentation that that requires.
This quote is in the context of web usability and Jakob Nielsen’s desire to legislate for good design of websites.
Spitzer Sues Intermix Over ‘Spyware’
combine with news artcle about spam merchant filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Nokia cell phone the first of its kind
Combine with articles about ipods and gadget ‘convergence’.
Originating from Slashdot conversation ‘gates on Google’
Interesting quotes from level 5 comments:
The difference I see between Doubleclick and Google is their attitude towards my personal data. Doubleclick surepticiously tracks my behaviour in the background, their client is the website and their customer is advertisers. I have no oppportunity to ‘buy in’ or have any ability to affect the transaction, aside from a) avoiding sites that use doubleclick (and how do I figure that out before visiting a link??) and b) turning off coookies, which breaks most of my browsing experience.
Google on the other hand values my personal information. Their customers are still advertisers, but they are partnering with me and offer me value in exchange for my personal information. The offer me free services that are industry best, for the opportunity to present me advertisements. Its a win-win so long as I want to play. And since google’s whole strategy is about advertising through services, there’s a decent hedge against their abuse of this trust — people stop trusting google, they lose eyeballs and thus their business strategy fails.
Plus
Mod up the AC. Google is collecting many data dots about you. It would not take much for them to connect them to create an accurate picture of your hobbies, interests, and buying habits. This is every marketer’s dream. Corporations will buy this data and purchase very precise profiles of each of us, enabling them to efficiently shake even more money from our wallets using all sorts of psychological enticements that will be very hard to defend against.
I’ve always said this…
I don’t mind commercials if it’s for something I might actually buy.
I don’t mind junk mail for products I might actually want.
I don’t even mind telemarketers selling me something that I’m interested in.
I don’t mind advertising when it’s for stuff I’m interested in or curious about.
What I mind is having to sit through ads for “Desperate Housewives” and other pop/crap culture TV shows. What I mind is “American Idol” conspiracy theories on respectable news reporting web sites. What I mind is being hassled at dinner time to switch my long distance carrier. What I mind is getting junk mail for any Chevy product.
Yet, I get Dell’s monthly/quarterly mini-mag all the time and I never fail to flip through it and review prices.
When I want to buy something on-line, I often hit www.google.com and type the item in and then click on the ads to check prices and on-line vendors.
Advertising isn’t evil. It’s just annoying when it’s for stuff that you don’t want. I wouldn’t even mind spam if the spam I got was, first of all, not fully of elementary school grammar and spelling errors, and second of all, not insulting my intelligence. If I got spam for stuff I might actually buy, I’d object to it less.
So, if Google can find a way to target advertising at me for products that I am actually interested in, then more power to them.
Why do you think word-of-mouth is the best advertising?
1. Your friends tend to like the same stuff you do
2. Your friends and family know you and know what you will and won’t like and tend to recommend things that you’ll like
3. Somebody else took the plunge and was satisfied, thus allowing somebody whose opinion you probably respect to personally recommend a product/serviceYou get the point. Word of mouth is highly directed personal advertising. If Google can reproduce that to some degree programmatically, I don’t mind.
From a privacy perspective, I object to this data being collected without my knowledge, but that’s not what they’re doing. I KNOW exactly what they can do with my information, and I continue to let them do it.
Auricle — learning technologies in Higher Education. Great site - great articles.
World’s largest deployment of Moodle
Comment on this in my I.T blog — to do!
I recently got an email from Camelot Universal promotion saying that I had won the UK lottery. Course it was a scame. Here’s the FAQ from the 419 scam site. This kind of scam is not new — here’s a fascinating account of a WW1 original.
Here it is :
AWARD WINNING APPROVAL: FINAL NOTICE.
After a successful completion of the third category draws of CAMELOT UK LOTTERY, held on 7th of May 2005, We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today of winners of the CAMELOT JACKPOT LOTTO WINNINGS PROGRAMS, Your company or your personal e-mail address, is
attached to ticket number 9901-0148-790-691, with serial number 6109-17 drew the lucky Numbers 990-11-815-37-10-83, and consequently won the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of three hundred thousand dollars in cash credited to file REF NO: MELI-T/17-F044262312. This is from total prize money of nine million dollars shared among the thirty international winners in this category.All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from twenty five thousand names from Australia, New Zealand, America, Europe, North America and Asia, as part of international Promotions Program, which is conducted annually. Your fund has been deposited in an
escrow account and insured in your name. Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim as been processed and your money remitted to your account.This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants of this program. We hope with a part of your prize, you will participate in our ear high stakes one hundred million dollars International To claim your winning prize, you must first
contact the claims department by email:
Mr. Duke Edwards
Email:claimagentdept@uk2.net
For processing and remittance of your prize money to a designated account of your choice. Remember, all prize money must be claimed not later than the 20th May 2005.All funds not claimed on or before the fixed date will be returned as unclaimed.
NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference and batch numbers in all correspondences with this office. Furthermore, should there be any change of your address, do inform us as soon as possible. congratulations again from all
our staff for being part of our promotions program.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Jane Littlewood
For Camelot lotto;
N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result in disqualification and any winner below the age of 18years is automatically disqualified.
A very important article to read. Check out all the comments and trackbacks too.
Corante’s Many to Many blog is essential reading …
Useful links:
Until now, the RIAA has used an expedited subpoena process provided for under copyright law, which it says allows it to force ISPs to hand over customer names without a judge’s approval or even a lawsuit. If Friday’s decision stands, the record industry will likely be compelled to take the more time-consuming and costly step of filing “John Doe” lawsuits against people whose identities are not yet known. The person would eventually be unmasked during court proceedings
Four main subject areas:
For each of these we have 5 ‘tracks’ or categories:
3 weeks on each of the 4 subject/topic area. Then a final 2 weeks getting it together in groups and doing some crystal ball predictions.
9 class sessions per topic.
Weekly plan:
I’ve started this course blog as an interim measure prior to my (hopefully) getting up Wordpress on Macarius.
What I really would like is Wordpress’ combination of blog & wiki.
I’m going to throw ideas, links and assorted comments on here as I think of them.