Walking the dog in Paris

Bloguers

I will be leaving for Paris later today to visit the Internet 2.0 conference. Wired has a nice article on it, explaing why blogging is so popular in France.

"So, while leading politicians like ex-Prime Minister Alain Juppé keep high-profile weblogs, just as common are citizen agitators like Christophe Grébert, whose daily diatribes against the way local politicians run his home town of Puteaux are so relentless that the town's mayor once had him arrested."

A fascinating second life

Although massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs) fascinate me in many ways, I have never really had the time to play them. But since it's a potential spin-off area for Eccky I started a second life in Second Life, the most 'open' MMOG. Amazing how easy it is to spend so (or even too) much time in there... For other 'Residents' reading this, my Second Life name is Yme Boyoma. And if you'd like to visit me go here: Hera (228,48).

"Other MMOs, such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest and Ultima Online, to name a few, dwarf Second Life's 25,000 users. Still, many industry observers feel Second Life offers the best platform for mixing social interaction, play and the opportunity to tackle serious issues."

Mobile advertising over TV advertising?

It's all about 'Red-Button' advertising.

"Just as advertisers are realizing that the dream of pushing real-time ads to mobile devices is dying, it appears that a few are recognizing the power of advertising that's pulled by the user, rather than pushed by the advertiser. In fact, some say that user-requested mobile advertising is going to eventually take the place of television advertising."

Podcasting the GODSHOW

Fascinating story on a Dutch priest who has been reporting live from Rome last week using a blog and podcasts.

"Trey Jackson mailed me that The Catholic Insider Podcast was discussed on CNN today, in CNN's "Inside the Blogs":

"We go to Roderick Vonhögen, a priest from the Netherlands, who blogs here at CatholicInsider.com.

I love this graphic here. You can imagine he is probably a quite progressive priest if this is the graphic he has on the front of his site.

At catholic insider you can see the pictures he's taken there on st. Peter's square. You can read his thoughts, but you can also hear his thoughts. This priest is podcasting, that is: it's kind of an audioblog. You can go onto the site and listen to his thoughts, what he's seeing all around him.

So many people are downloading these things today, these podcasts, that it's become the #1 podcast on the internet right now."

Innovation through user experience

This is an important lesson and one of the reasons first movers are not necessarily winners in the end. Too much focus on technology and/or too little on user experience.

"Robert Morris from IBM argued last year at Etech 2002 that -- and I'm paraphrasing from memory here -- most significant advances in software are actually advances in user experience, not in technology. Mosaic was not an advancement in technology over TBL's original browser. Blogger is a highly-specialized FTP client. IM is IRC++ (or IRC for Dummies, depending on your POV). The advantages that these applications offered people were user experience-oriented, not technology-oriented."

Say goodbye to the wristwatch?

I don't even remember the last time I wore a watch. But I do remember thinking phones would be integrated in watches. I still do by the way..;-)

"According to Patrick Besnard, a representative for the French watchmaking industry (quoted in this article), "Youngsters don't have a watch anymore today. If they want to know the time, they look at their mobile, which never leaves them."

Spam as the murder weapon

A well known spammer was sentenced to nine years in prison last week. While that may sound heavy, I feel he should be in prison for at least the rest of his life. Consider the fact that he sent out at least 10 million emails a day, and let's suppose that it will take 1 second (on average considering spam-filters) for each recipient to delete this message. That's almost 3 man months per day. If he takes the weekends off, his spam activities would still 'cost' one human life per year.

"A jury had recommended the nine-year prison term after convicting Jeremy Jaynes of pumping out at least 10 million e-mails a day with the help of 16 high-speed lines, the kind of internet capacity a 1,000-employee company would need. Prosecutors have described Jaynes as among the top 10 spammers in the world at the time of his arrest, using the name "Gaven Stubberfield" and other aliases to peddle junk products and pornography. Prosecutors say he grossed up to $750,000 per month."

Open source marketing

Some food for thought on marketing new style. As opposed to command and control old style marketing.

"They understand that the powerful new markets created by Open Source values are transparent, that they operate in real-time, that they are controlled by people not companies, that they are global, highly reactive, flooded with information and made up of millions of interlinked niches. And they know that effective modern marketing strategies must reflect this new environment."

Whuffie

The only book I've read in the past 10 years or so is Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. The 'whuffie' thing has been on my mind ever since. Merit vs Whuffie.

"People like Searls, Gillmor and Rosen have whuffie in spades, and this is why they can start snowballs rolling downhill and why those snowballs grow as they go. If you have no whuffie, your snowball will just melt - no whuffie means few readers, no one gaining kudos off developing your idea, no whuffie coming back to you for having had it. The idea goes nowhere.

It'd be nice to think that it's the quality of the idea that gets the snowball moving, but more often than not, that has nothing to do with it. Hugh Macleod, for example, has so much whuffie that all he has to do is fart and the trackbacks start rolling in."

RFID implantee

Ideas around implanting RFID chips are nothing new, here's a story about a guy who had it done for personal use. When I think about having a chip implanted in my hand I always wonder about a situation where I would get robbed and the thieves would cut off my hand in order to access my house or withdraw money from my bank. "Give me your money or I'll shoot" will never be the same again I guess....

"Ideally, what sort of accessibility do you hope to see this implant give you in the future? Well, because I’m writing my own software and soldering up my own stuff, pretty much anything I want. Well, more accurately, anything I have the time and inspiration to do. Ultimately though, I think true keyless access will require an implantable chip with a very strong encryption system; right now I’m only looking at this type of thing in a personal context."

Never ending copyfight

Clay Shirky writes about a personal experience that clearly demonstrates the stupidity of certain (c) laws and the people who are responsible for (not changing) them.

"Got that? I am in possession of a video, of me, shot by a friend, copied to a piece of physical media given to me as a gift. In the video, I am speaking words written by me, and for which I am the clear holder of the copyright. I am working with said video on a machine I own. Every modern legal judgment concerning copyright, from the Berne Convention to the Betamax case, is on my side. AND I CAN'T MAKE A COPY DIRECTLY FROM THE DEVICE. This is because copyright laws do not exist to defend the moral rights of copyright holders -- they exist to help enforce artificial scarcity."

Only you can save television

TV economics are amazing, industry execs probably stupid. There are an estimated 31 million hours of original television content produced each year, but you'll see almost nothing of that even when you'd want to...

"Thus the ratio of produced content to available content is the highest of any industry I've looked at. Other industries may produce more content--print, for instance--but it's far more available (see Google). Only television treats its premium content as disposable. True, a lot of it actually is. But not all, and not as much as is effectively thrown away after a brief moment in the sun. "

Opening m-commerce to physical goods

Operators are key to (blocking) so much innovation....

"Picture this. On the way to work, you're reading a review of your favourite band's latest album. At the foot of the review, it says "to have this album delivered to your home 'text U2 to 80222' to bill the CD to your phone bill". The next morning you open your CD to find an invitation on the sleeve to go online to watch the band's latest video by texting 'U2 video' to 80222. You're then sent a pin code via SMS, again billed to your account, which you enter on the Web site to watch the video."

Online gamer killed for selling cyber sword

Virtual is real, no doubt about that.

"The online game features heroes and villains, sorcerers and warriors, many of whom wield enormous swords. Qiu and a friend jointly won their virtual weapon last February and lent it to Zhu, who then sold it for 7,200 yuan. Qui went to the police to report the theft but was told the weapon was not real property protected by law. "Zhu promised to hand over the cash but an angry Qui lost patience and attacked Zhu at his home, stabbing him in the left chest with great force and killing him," the court heard."

Being part of the discussion

The Wall Street Journal has always been an example of a traditional newspaper being able to charge for their content because it was so good, relevant and in a way even unique. But something is changing that will force a strategic change at the WSJ.

"He also claims that "publishers in all mediums have tended to devalue their brands," which is missing the point (by a wide margin). If anyone has "devalued" their brand, it's the Wall Street Journal, by taking itself out of the discussion. People don't just consume the news any more, they are a part of the process, and that includes the ability to help spread the news."

On the internet, 2nd (and 3rd and . . . ) opinions

Reviewing reviews, aggregating reviews or filtering reviews is a common activity on the web. And it adds value I believe.

"Sometimes the Internet is like that. The traditional objects of culture - books, movies, art - are becoming ever more distant. In their place are reviews of reviews, museums of museums and many, many lists."