Archive for the ‘Web 2.0’ Category

I’m loving being able to collect all my podcasts via iTunes. But there are a few issues you should be aware of.

For the podcaster: DailySonic suggests that iTunes may be caching MP3 files, bad, bad, bad – if it is happening. What this means is that rather than the feed coming off your server, they store to cache a copy (on the off chance your server is down) on their server. While this all sounds really handy it completely screws with your distribution and tracking – not to mention the revenue model of many podcasts.

For the listener: If you want to collect more than one Podcast – and I couldn’t imagine you wouldn’t – then you will beed to get into preferences and change your settings. The the default scan in iTunes is once a day and only retrieves the single
most-recent program.

According to ClickZ… "more than half of journalists use blogs in the course of their work".

The Euro RSCG/Columbia study shows that more than 51 percent of journalists use blogs regularly, and 28 percent rely on them to help in their day-to-day reporting duties. By contrast, a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project survey showed that just 11 percent of the U.S. population as a whole reads blogs…

Journalists mostly used blogs for finding story ideas (53 percent), researching and referencing facts (43 percent) and finding sources (36 percent). And 33 percent said they used blogs to uncover breaking news or scandals. Still, despite their reliance on blogs for reporting, only 1 percent of journalists found blogs credible, the study found.

Skype is a brilliant example of the power of nurturing communities with a high-quality product, continued innovation and ease of connection. While recognizing that in this instance it’s also the essence of the product, that’s a sub-text.

Compare Skype to Vonage for a second and you will see what I mean. I "joined" Vonage about four months ago. They treat me just like SBC or Verizon. Every add-on costs more. I get a bill and little else other than the product. The quality is pretty suspect. And while cheaper than Verizon, it ain’t cheaper than Skype.

Then there is my Skype account. I get more and more value from neat add-ons developed by Skype and its community. The price and quality are much better than anything Vonage offers. And the community just gets better as a result of this innovation. Then vSkype comes along and adds to my Skype experience with video calling. Bam! The community activates and becomes more valuable – to Skype and to each other. vSkype’s CEO says in an email that in the first 36 hours they had 50,000 downloads while some 8 hours later they zipped past 100,000. That’s momentum.

Skype Journal has a terrific interview with Stuart Jacobson. In the Participatory Era Skype is establishing an incredible lead over Vonage – in participatory terms,

Add video to Skype… way cool… not for the Mac though…

And, Nev reports that IBM has 3600+ blogs… Wow!

Really? IMHO, this notion is flawed in absolute terms – the best blogs aren’t purely pointers or linkers. And, great blogs are rich with opinion.

"Best" is in the eyes of the reader. For instance, I tend to migrate towards bloggers crafting opinions and views that I might not get somewhere else. Adam says it well:

The A-listers are viewed by many as pundits or pontificators – but from my perspective these guys are not actually putting forth a whole lot in the way of declarative statements or analysis (at least not through their blogs). In fact I’d say they’re acting more like radio DJ’s (playing attractive mixes of someone else’s original content), rather than artists.

I get most of my news from, well, news sources – and blogs are a key part of that picture. I call them the "pointers" – and I have a folder in my RSS reader named as such that I turn to each morning for news. The kinds of places I go include Steve on the blogosphere, BBC news, O’Reilly – for tech stuff, Engadget (so I’m a geek) – and, many, many more…

But the blogs I enjoy most (yours also Steve) go deep on issues or have a neat creative bent. Bloghers are doing some cool stuff in the latter of these two areas.

There is  a rough parallel in the media universe – USA Today might have
a higher circ than say The New Yorker (making it statistically better)
but that doesn’t make it higher quality or "better" in real terms.
Connections, like circ, aren’t enough to qualify "betterness". The very function of USA Today drives traffic.

What brings me back to blogs day after day is the writing and views of the writer (which is why USA Today is still at the bottom of my drive while I have scanned The New Yorker). I look for a little enlightenment, humor and smarts – coupled with great content. And of course, links. These factors draw me back to blogs like Ross Mayfield on social networking technologies; Dan, of course; 43 Folders on getting effective; Lessig – it’s interesting; Om Malik on broadband; Yager on things Mac; James on things tech; Stowe – cause he is brainy; if:book – I just like it; Pause – Jory is a terrific writer … and the other thousand-plus feeds I have in NetNewswire… It isn’t the links that make them successful – although I do enjoy the utility – it is the thinking. Connecting is a feature, not a differentiator.

Until we start to understand the blogosphere more deeply in terms of the intent and function of different blogs we’re not going to be able to define best (and we might not want to anyway). Stack rankings based on traffic and links don’t get at the richness of the blogosphere and the different functions blogs serve.

In fact, many of the A list corporate blogs break all the rules. Schwartz – no trackbacks. Edelman – no links. Fastlane – hardly call it a linkfest with four posts containing a grand total of two links on the site right now.

But I will concede this, there are some great bloggers who are incredible connectors.