Archive for December, 2005

  • Connect

Got Puggle…

Thanks to Stowe for The top ten “buzz words” to be added to the T9 dictionary (a predictive text input dictionary for users to tap into when texting on their mobile phones):

  • Lifehack – a tool or technique that makes some aspect of one’s life easier or more efficient

  • Mashup – new information created by combining data from two different sources

  • Placeshift – to redirect a TV signal so the viewer can watch a show on a device other than his or her television

  • Playlistism – judging a person based on what songs are on the playlist of his or her digital music player

  • Podjack – to plug the cord of one’s digital music player into the jack of another person’s player to hear what the person is listening to

  • Puggle – a dog bred from a pug and a beagle

  • Sideload – to transfer music or other content to a cell phone using the cell phone provider’s network

  • Vlog – a blog that contains mostly video content

  • Vodcast – a video podcast

  • Ubersexual – a heterosexual man who is masculine, confident, compassionate and stylish

Technorati : ,

  • Connect

Blog Tools | Week 2

A week or so ago I wrote about my journey into the world of Blog tools for Windows. Here is where I am at:
  1. Uninstalled Newsgator. Just too complex, too slow and too hard to figure out. While none of the blog clients really fulfill the way I live in the blogosphere – or its hyperconnected nature, Newzcrawler is working well for me. I’m also using Firefox more to grab and read the top ten blogs I follow.
  2. Uninstalled Qumana. I’m loving Zoundry. Nice application and does everything I could want it to and more. Misses on a few fronts – like being able to specify a font size and easily manage cut and paste formatting. And no spellchecker. But it is still good.

Technorati : , , ,

  • Connect

Blog Content Theft Answers

Blog content theft was always going to be a big issue. The utility of deploying search advertising only amplifies the problem by enabling plagerists and thieves to remarket content within their own commercial framework. I’m not talking about inserting the odd paragraph or extrapolating content in a different context – I’m talking about making off with a bloggers content in its entirety. So what to do?

I’m not sure but here are some thoughts that need qualifying and more discussion:

  1. Make all content available under Creative Commons and then work to enforce it.
  2. Collectively we lobby Google and Yahoo to protect IP by taking action against those who abuse it. Based on Google’s intent to do pretty much the same with books this would appear to be unlikely to work.
  3. Support the evolution new tools like Copyscape into IP-address blocking tools that enable you to start to protect content by stopping those addresses from coming to your site. I know this won’t really work now, but we need to spur and encourage technology innovation here.
  4. Collectively harrass the thieves. Lets create a black-list and make people aware of their infringements on our IP.
Part of me also says that the ecosystem depends on sharing – and sharing of content implies a certain amount of recycling of content. But it is wrong when that occurs without any new contextual framing, linking or value add to the orginal content creator. It’s worse than plagerism – it is theft.

What these companies are missing is the opportunity to grow the ecosystem and participate. They are parasites. And that’s the shame of it. If they had engaged guys like Steve and established a working commercial relationship, they’d probably be able to build wildly successful businesses. Instead they add no value and alienate the marketplace. Reflecting that, probably the best thing we could do is ignore them and let them rot.

Technorati : , ,

  • Connect

Into The Public Eye…

Transparency is always the best practice in any crisis and it seem that CBS is getting more transparent. Launched back in September and just spotted by me (sigh!) is CBS PublicEye blog– it shines a light on what goes on inside the CBS newsroom. You can take a peek inside an editorial meeting, see how the evening line-up is determined, or, follow a ‘day in the life’of a Whitehouse story.

Ok – so this is more about PR and education than it is transparency, but it is really interesting and worth a look.

    Technorati : , , , ,

  • Connect

Blog + Wiki =?

Interesting conversation on what happens when you cross a blog and a wiki. You get a bliki. Martin has an interesting definition of what a bliki is.

Technorati : , ,