Gmail - We media follow-up
The We Media people insisted on my feedback, so I wrote them this:
I was dissapointed with the conference because of the way it was set
up. Instead of having people who truly understand "we media" on the
stage, it was filled with representatives of old media. The
discussions on the stage staid on the surface. A good example was the
section about citizen media: it was illustrated not by a true citizen
media video, but by a video from the BBC. A video that totally
misunderstood what citizen media is.
The "assasin" section was cringe-worthy. Invite a blogger to your table! The whole conference felt patronizing to anyone in "we media". We got to sit in the back, and listen to old media people who didn't really get that: we don't need them! They need us.
I won't come back unless we media is on the stage, not old media's interpretation of we media.
Oh, and please don't invite people just for their star power. Richard Dreyfuss's section was irrelevant.
We have a world to change, and I don't have time to be the token blogger at a conference that makes us the "audience" and old media the
"voice". It's the other way round.
It's harsh criticism, but this is how I felt.
loadedpun » Mashup control issues: a great post on issues of control in mashups. These are the kinds of conversations we need to be having.
CARS Video Podcast: the upcoming Pixar movie Cars now has a videoblog. King Kong did it too (first? don't remember..).
"en chile ya hace frío". It's cold in Chile!
Original post, from puritito tomate tv:
[48 segundos; 3,6 mb]Etiquetas: gasco, chile, frío, pepa, vlogs, videoblogging, vlogging
(Via Mefeedia)
PCD Music Lounge Fan Club Release
This is supposed to appeal to teens?
PCD Music Lounge Fan Club Release: "We are creating a nice, safe place for music fans to hang out, chat, dance, make friends, and generally have fun. Remember, when you are in The Lounge, you are in a public social environment."
How... nice!
Joi Ito's Web: Visa Waiver form is YOUR responsibility
Joi Ito's Web: Visa Waiver form is YOUR responsibility!
I use the visa waiver too, and I didn't know that. US immigration are the scariest in the world.
Flash to jump beyond the browser | CNET News.com
Flash to jump beyond the browser.
Interesting. Adobe (=Macromedia) is developing a kind of "Flash browser" that we can build internet applications with that will, as one of its great features, manage offline-online usage, ie. you can use it while offline *and* while online. Competition: lots, but also XUL, the technology that Firefox and also Songbird, an iTunes clone use.
This could become an interesting space, but right now, I would bet on XUL over Flash, simply because it is already there and is slowly being proven/tested in real life apps.
A good movie overview of what's new in Drupal:
4.7-whats-new.mov (video/quicktime Object)
blog-speak vs. press-speak
Mapping a path for the 3D Web - page 2 | CNET News.com. I do prefer blog-speak over press-speak, generally.
In blog-speak: "It was pretty boring although the people were interesting. I was so relieved when we got to see an actual demo instead of boring pie-in-the-sky conversations. And the food was good."
Press-speak: "During one break in the schedule Saturday, two members of the team producing Croquet, an open-source software platform designed for creating collaborative, multiple-user online applications, showed off their software. And as word spread about the demo, nearly everyone in attendance suddenly scrambled to watch.
Quickly, about 30 people gathered in a tight semi-circle around the two Croquet team members as they showed off the software's ability to let people move in and out of rich virtual spaces easily and with little of the lag and complicated user-interface of virtual worlds like "Second Life."
The demonstration was one of the highlights of a day filled with engrossing conversations, but short on tangible progress toward the road map everyone had come to create.
To some, the format of the event presented hard challenges to achieving the stated goals. But some felt that organizers had gotten it right."
Morph-The Media Center conversation: so why doesn't the wemedia blog mention any of the dissapointment felt in the blogosphere about the conference?
The Obvious?: Oh I soooo know that feeling ....
The Obvious?: Oh I soooo know that feeling ....: "As I had feared, it was a complete waste of time. I'm sorry, I'm never normally this critical of a conference - particularly as I know first hand how much damned hard work it takes to put one on - but it was unexpurgated garbage. I had thought it might turn into 'MeTooMedia', but it went one step further than that and became 'TheyMedia'. Instead of progressing the conversation, or even bringing it up to date, the BBC managed to thrust us into a timewarp and take us back at least two, maybe three years.
.....
All in all, the day was very insular and introspective, with a lot of people appearing to think that they are doing very well, thankyouverymuch, without the input of anyone who knows what they're talking about. By the end of the day, I was beyond my usual state of British reserve and just about ready to spit feathers. I'm used to people not getting it, remember - I do this stuff for a living so I have plenty of experience of people talking out of their arse. But this conference brought me to a new level of frustration."
I was extremely frustrated that day as well. With such a fabulous/famous cast of people, how can you put on such a horrible conference? I actually walked out the first day, I just couldn't take it anymore. The second day was a bit better, but I had to leave early to catch a flight.
2006 White House Correspondents Dinner with Stephen Colbert - Google Video
2006 White House Correspondents Dinner with Stephen Colbert - Google Video. You *have* to watch this video. It's quite funny.
This Blog Sits at the: The problem of partial ethnography
Whenever I blog like 5 posts of another blog in a row, it means I've discovered an interesting new one: "I met a guy last Saturday night and he asked for my phone number and, like, things were going well at the bar, so I give him my phone number and he puts me right into his phone and was like, hey, that's ,that's, that's pretty quick and then he asked me if I wanted his number and I was like yeah do you want to put it down on a business card or something. I mean I'm a lady! Who thinks of jumping right into my phone. I got to take this as a process. If we call, if we have some sort of thing going."
[The ad shows the Nokia 8801 and the line:] Nokia: It's your life in there
"It's like my cell phone is precious, it's precious territory."
This Blog Sits at the: Bloggers vs. the old media (are they panicking yet?)
This Blog Sits at the: Bloggers vs. the old media (are they panicking yet?): "In the early days of regime transition, the incumbent (aka New York Times, Wall Street Journal) treats the new challenger (aka bloggers) with a certain high handed indifference. If acknowledgment occurs at all, it comes with a patronizing pat on the head, as in "Hey, aren’t the newcomers charmingly amateur? Welcome to the party. Now, run along and get me a drink." More often, bloggers are not acknowledged. They just don't matter."
Which is exactly what I felt at WeMedia last week, although there are also the ones that *do* get it and they are entusiastic and willing.
This Blog Sits at the:: "The Marketing Science Institute meetings on ethnography are
now over."
Some good insights in ethnography in a business setting.
"But as it stands, almost all the b-school academics who care to teach this stuff were in the room [John Sherry (Notre Dame), Eric Arnould, Linda Price (Arizona), Lisa Penaloza (Colorado), Craig Thompson (Wisconsin) and Rob Kozinets (York and MIT)] and this is not a good sign."
And this one: "One of the real challenges that remains stands at the border between outward research and inward process. Some corporate cultures have a hard time bringing the ethnographic insight fully in-house."
Architectures of Control in Design » An astounding quote on the Mosquito
Architectures of Control in Design » An astounding quote on the Mosquito: "Marketing Director Simon Morris said: âThe noise has been tested extensively on dogs and cats who are totally unaffected by it.
âThe device has a small range and it takes at least 10 minutes for the annoying nature of the noise to take effect.
âPeople have a right to assemble with others in a peaceful way - without violence or threat of violence.
âWe do not consider that this right includes the right of teenagers to congregate for no specific purpose.â?
I guess that includes MySpace, right? You can't make this stuff up! (You could, perhaps, then you'd have V for Vendetta).
Issues of control and information architecture
I was having a conversation with a startup around social software the other day, and those conversations almost always end up being around issues of control. I was trying to explain them that mechanisms of control don't necessarily need to be mechanisms of all-out restriction, but are often social mechanisms of setting examples, social control, deciding what content to surface and such.
So today I am happy to find this excellent blog: Architectures of Control in Design
Starting with the homepage is the fast lane to politico-hell
Column Two: Full site redesign? Start by addressing the home page. I have a lot of respect for James, but that's the WORST advice ever. Starting with the homepage is a direct road to political hell in any company. I usually do my best to keep the homepage out of discussions until we've done other parts of the site. These days, I'm doing the same with the main nav - it all comes out of working on the rest of the site. James, this one's just wrong, I find it hard to imagine you won't go straight to politicohell (don't pass by START).
diariodeviaje: Un dia sin inmigrantes
If you speak Spanish and are interested in immigration issues: diariodeviaje: Un dia sin inmigrantes
The immigrant movement in the US seems to slowly come together. Immigrants were always afraid (no papers, after all!) to organize. "A day without immigrants" seems (correct me if I'm wrong) to be one of the first political events to bring these people together. And then things might start to change.
So just to be clear: it's been, overall, a very dissapointing conference. I wouldn't go next time. Part of that are the way the discussion is structured, and the moderators. There are very few real stories, and few people really speak their minds.
The buzz with us token bloggers is one of dissapointment.
I am a terrorist
I am a terrorist.
One pretty cool thing happened in London at WeMedia - I met 2 terrorists. The first day, one of the bloggers stood up and said he'd rather not be called an "assassin", he preferred the term "terrorist". The whole first day made me so angry. It was nothing but cluelessness. Today seems better.
The second day, I met a lady who was actually a convicted terrorist in 3 countries. She was with the AIF (or something, the african something), and according to a laywer she met in Canada who helped draft the legislation there, that organization was retroactively classified as a "terrorist" organisation, hence, she is a terrorist.
And that reminded me of the movie V for Vendetta. At the end of the movie, crowds of people stand up and put on the terrorist mask. Hey, my terrorist is your freedom fighter. And now in 1 weekend, 2 people tell me proudly they are terrorists. I see a movement born there.
The word terrorist has been abused by the Bush governement enough, time to take it back.
I am a terrorist now. How about you? If you are, tag yourself with iamaterrorist.
I'm a token blogger at WeMedia
So I'm at the WeMedia conference in London, it's this big BBC/Reuters thing about journalism, media and stuff, and it's pretty global - they have a guy from Al Jazeera talking and such. They just finished the opening notes.
It's not that large it seems, a tv studio, a few hundred people, lotta journalists, some famous people, who all get to "ask questions" (Richard Dryfuss is into information? Who knew!). It feels like a BigMedia thing, it's structured almost as a TV show (I guess they couldn't help themselves - I'm almost surprised there's no-one doing audience warmup), and at the end 2 business people (from Nokia and something else I didn't get) got to push their products (The Nokia guy: "Our revolutionary technology that empowers blablablablabla"). Come on! So yeah, I was a bit annoyed with the talk about opening media and every single person who got to speak was famous or something (Jeff Jarvis? That's their idea of a blogger?). Oh, I know, famous or rich, because either you speak or you pay like, I'm not sure, 800$ to get in. But all the bitching apart, it's sounding pretty cool and interesting all in all.
Anyways, I'm looking forward to some of the panels and meeting some people, hearing some stories. I had to get up at 4:30am so I'm kinda grumpy. And also, I don't have a plug for this weird UK electricity system so I'm not sure I'll be able to charge the laptop. And I'm typing this in Notepad, I haven't been able to connect yet. I'm making some movies too, but I won't be able to upload them until later.
Oh and I noticed Adam Curry didn't pick up his badge yet, he'll be late then :) Damn famous conference people! Unconference it is not.
Update: no converter available today it seems, so not sure about the blogging.
I'll just make notes until my laptop runs outta power.
Next session (second one, day 1).
Let's play social media buzzword bingo!
"This age of transformation."
"The global challenges we'll be facing."
"The developing world."
"Empowerment."
"Bottom up."
Yey.
The Niti gentleman (from the UN) is talking now:
"I sensed there was something missing: relevance."
"When we speak of media, it's not just internet/... Don't forget SMS, radio (in Africa!), television, ..."
ps: I wonder if the video will be available online?
Back to mr. Niti:
"Economic power is shifting to the developing countries. India and China, and many others will become media powers."
ps: everyone around me is connected, my laptop doesn't wanna connect. darn.
"Street protest work very well for regime change. Armed protests haven't worked much. Perhaps because it is far easier for the media to cover street protest. Maybe armed conflict doesn't make as good theater ... this emergence of transnational networks of activists, united around issues/policies ..."
Sigh, can't connect. Arg. Damn windows!
There's some bloggers sitting around me (we got like the backseats ;) It's like being black in the 40s in the USA, I really feel like we're the token bloggers here. Man that's dumb.
Movies coming soon, I did some vlogging.
(Hey, I got connected at Reuters today!)
In London
I'm gonna be at WeMedia the following days and I'm gonna try to make it to London 2.0 RC 5, Wednesday May 3rd. If my brain isn't too fried after a long conference day. I haven't been in London since I left in 2002, looking forward to it.
Sifry's Alerts: State of the Blogosphere, April 2006 Part 2: On Language and Tagging
Sifry's Alerts: State of the Blogosphere, April 2006 Part 2: On Language and Tagging: "The first is that we are using automated language analysis software (based on languid), and it may have bugs, thus over or undercounting a particular language or group of languages."
Myspace Comedy - Brought to you by Sierra Mist!!
Mmm. Pages with nothing but ads? I'm not sure. I'm getting the feeling Myspace is losing it. The only thing that can save them is if they continue to watch the numbers of what's being used more closely than the numbers of what's generating income. But then, they might continue to go strong for decades to come, who knows. It's just hard to imagine.
The search box pays more than for IE7's development
New Microsoft browser raises Google's hackles - page 2 | CNET News.com
It seems that the little search box in your browser is where a large part of the search wars will be fought. That's why Mozilla's income depends on that little box. "Google estimates that the boxes, when available, are the starting point for 30 percent to 50 percent of a user's searches". With 80% marketshare, a quick calculation, that means Microsoft, with IE8 and its new searchbox, would get 80% of 80% of 40% is about 20% of the search market handed out to itself when they launch and dissiminate IE7.
Which means that that little box, defaulted to MS Search, must more than pay for IE7's development. (And I'm not even counting the pain it inflicts on Google with this.)
TechCrunch
TechCrunch: "I’ve heard from three independent sources that YouTube may have very quietly raised another $25 million in venture capital [...] Forbes reports that YouTube’s bandwidth fees are approaching $1 million per month."
Up at 3:30am and I'm in Dublin, Ireland, a wonderful country. Country, yes. Damn jetlag, I'll be dead tomorrow. I wonder if my new clients-to-be read my weblog. :) They'll let me know. They seem nice people.
Which brings me to: I got another email today of some startup wanting to work with me. It makes sense: you want experienced IA's on your product. Anyway, more and more, I'm convinced about my policy of wanting to work with nice people first, on interesting projects second. Nice people are more important. It just makes life more enjoyable.
Enough ranting and raving. Dublin, here I am. The hotel is very nice. The bathroom has BIG handles on everything. Don Norman would be pleased. The pubs are good as well.
Visa Blog : Students Need Your Help!
Visa Blog : Students Need Your Help!: "Tens of thousands of high school students have participated in school walk-outs to draw attention to comprehensive immigration reform. Their successes are well documented in national and local media. Sadly, many students are facing disciplinary and criminal action as a result of walking out of school. These students are in need of legal counsel and all participants need to know their rights. You can help!"
The difference between rethoric ("We want our kids to have values") and practice ("When they stand up for themselves we punish them and trivialize their intent.") is really amazing. In a way, we're living in Big Brothers' 1984. Especially in the US, these days, or perhaps it's just more apparent there.
Joho the Blog: Karl Rove would sing in Spanish
Joho the Blog: Karl Rove would sing in Spanish: "The immigration bill has turned into a fiasco, leaving the Republicans as the party that would build a wall between two countries — a wall! — and forcing the President to have to clarify his party's position by saying that, no, putting 12 million people on deportation trains probably isn't such a practical idea.
Then our President is forced to take a stand on a symbolic, wedge issue: Does the national anthem have the same value if sung in Spanish? Karl Rove would not have let the President get backed into that corner. And once in the corner, he would not have let Bush snarl his way out of it. How can the president of country of immigrants find our national song less beautiful sung in the language of those citizens who have chosen to come here? Why does it make him frightened — I do believe fear is behind this reaction — instead of bring a lump to his throat?"
BBC - Programme Catalogue IA porn
BBC - Programme Catalogue - Programmes classified as pirate radio stations. The new BBC programme catalogue looks beautifully.. IA-like. Somehow. Check that black and white. Check those sparklines. Oh baby!
Amazon.com: Secrets of Videoblogging: Books: Michael Verdi,Ryanne Hodson,Diana Weynand,Shirley Craig
You should really pre-order this book TODAY! Amazon.com: Secrets of Videoblogging: Michael Verdi, Ryanne Hodson, Diana Weynand, Shirley Craig
Myspace, mullets and innovation.
Lucas wonders where the chinks in Myspace's armour are.
Two words. Innovation and mullets. Myspace is locked into a certain model of interaction because of their history and size, and their innovation attempts don't seem particularly successful (video).
Their interaction model is centered around identity creation: here I am! This is me! Be my friend! This works great with teenagers. Myspace will never be a LinkedIn, for example (LinkedIn seems to be doing great, by the way). MySpace also will never be a SecondLife, and not just because it's a website rather than a gameclient. There are other interaction models around things that are not identity.
And mullets, of course, went way out of fashion.
Glimpse Inside a Metaverse: The Virtual World of Second Life - Google Video
Glimpse Inside a Metaverse: The Virtual World of Second Life - Google Video.
"Secondlife". "MySpace". Alternative realities, and what are they replacing? Mostly television.
Immigration and Health Initiative (IAHI)
Check out the new website of the Immigration and Health Initiative (IAHI)
RSS is not a feature
I was wondering if Yahoo's new Mediacenter clone supports RSS 2.0 with enclosures. And I realized: that's not a feature. That's central. A developer or product manager may think: "oh, we can build that in later". But without RSS support, you have another closed media delivery system. Who cares about that? I am still waiting for the day that Tivo, Windows Media Center and so on truly support RSS. Really throw their weight behind it.
Flamenco Download
The granddaddy of all faceted browse systems, Flamenco, is now available as a free Flamenco Download
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | BBC unveils radical revamp of website
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | BBC unveils radical revamp of website: "The BBC today unveiled radical plans to rebuild its website around user-generated content, including blogs and home videos, with the aim of creating a public service version of MySpace.com."
Mmm. Om Malik doesn't like it. I'm worried too. The BBC team has clearly shown they're very good at doing bottom up webby projects, but announcing something like this, like a big plan, is just setting it up to fail.
Yahoo! Go - TV - What Is It?
Hey, Yahoo is going for the TV space as well. Yahoo! Go - TV - What Is It?
I say why not? Microsoft is doing it, Apple is doing their darndest best, and all the old school tv players are doing it.
Whatever happens in the coming years, somehow internet tv will find its way to your television set. And if it's somewhat open (and they'd be stupid not to be), that means videoblogs will too. I can't wait.
Google's GData, MySQL, and the Future of on-line Databases (by Jeremy Zawodny)
Jeremy from Yahoo is listening again to Adam Bosworth's (from Google) talk on the future of Mysql. The vision is that the new webOS will have certain data types (see
Google OS taking shape), and use RSS with a few extensions as its query language. And Google and others are building it like crazy. These are interesting times.
I wonder what Odeo are up to? They roll out little features now and then. But they're surprisingly quiet for a startup. I guess they're getting that pay service (whatever it is) ready to go...
All this chittah-chattah
All this chittah-chattah: "When you sign up online for Skywards, which is the frequent-flier program of Emirates, the international airline of the United Arab Emirates, you enter your name, address, passport number, and other information, and you select an honorific for yourself from a drop-down list. A few of the choices, in addition to the standard Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, and Dr, are: Admiral, Air Comm, Air Marshal, Al-Haj (denoting a Muslim who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca), Archbishop, Archdeacon, Baron, Baroness, Colonel, Commander, Corporal, Count, Countess, Dame, Deacon, Deaconess, Deshamanya (a title conferred on eminent Sri Lankans), Dowager (for a British widow whose social status derives from that of her late husband, properly used in combination with a second honorific, such as Duchess), Duchess, Duke, Earl, Father, Frau, General, Governor, HRH, Hon, Hon Lady, Hon Professor, JP (justice of the peace?), Judge, Khun (the Thai all-purpose honorific, used for both men and women), L Cpl, Lt, Lt Cmdr, Lt Col, Lt Gen, Midshipman, Mlle, Monsieur, Monsignor, Mother, Pastor, Petty Officer, Professor, Senor, Senora, Senorita, Sgt, Sgt Mjr, Shaikha (for a female shaikh, or sheikh), Sheikh, Shriman (an Indian honorific, for one blessed by Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, wisdom, luck, and other."
Ratings are overrated
In information architecture, ratings are overrated. Not only do ratings often create competition around the wrong attributes, also, ratings often end up being meaningless in particular implementations. What does a 4.5 star rating mean? Usually, the answer is: nothing.
Ratings are overrated. Except when they're not.
Can you spell two point o?
When you spend more time on design than on grammar: "You can specify your interest in some topics, pick from what other people's interests, and even customize it by providing a reading list."
The poorbuthappy guide to being gainfully unemployed |
We're starting an informal conversation about being gainfuklly unemployed (ie. working for yourself) here: The poorbuthappy guide to being gainfully unemployed. Check it out, leave a comment!
Is there a way to use an iPod video to record audio interviews and such? Both Belkin's microphone adaptor and the griffin italk don't seem to work with the video ipod, as far as I can tell.
Rolling Stone : The Rise of the Video Blog
Rolling Stone : The Rise of the Video Blog: "Rocketboom may be the vanguard in the march of the vlogs, but it's hardly alone. Video-blog monitor Mefeedia.com currently lists more than 6,900 vlogs. And while the vast majority are essentially home videos glorifying children, hobbies and pets, vlogs are beginning to infiltrate the mainstream media, part of the increasingly seismic shift in the way we get our news and entertainment."
Big Media still struggles to understand what I like to call authentic media. It's not just about homevideos or funny dogs.
Famous Hollywood People are starting to videoblog now.
Famous Hollywood People are starting to videoblog now. Here's Jack Black's videoblog.
Those crazy Famous Hollywood People!