901am

New Media News Every Morning

  • Home
  • 901am Japan
  • About Us
  • Advertise at 901am

Dodgeball founders dodging the end?

April 16, 2007 By Duncan Riley

dodgeballThe founders of the Google acquired Dodgeball have abandoned ship, according to Valleywag.

What is Dodgeball I hear most people say? Dodgeball was acquired by Google in 2005, no idea for how much, but given the fact that most people have no idea what Dodgeball is, it’s fair to say, not a lot.

But from all accounts Dodgeball was the Twitter that never happened in its time. The service was all mobile phones and location, but that’s about as far as it got, having stagnated in the Google pile of companies they bought just because Sergey got out of bed on the wrong side one morning.

RIP Dodgeball. You were a service before your time, or as the case may be a service who sold out too early because your founders were too greedy. May our children and childrens children say “Dodge what” for all the time to come.

Filed Under: Newswire

Is too much ever enough, or just too much?

April 16, 2007 By Duncan Riley

ustreamBlogging is a game of putting yourself out there, sharing your views with the world.

Then came Twitter. As much as I was a skeptic at first, Twitter really has become the next level in the evolution of online presence. It’s a slightly wild, 140 character extension of self, random thoughts, location and links.

And yet less that 2 months after the rise of Twitter, we see the Webcam technology of Web 1.0 meet the narcissism of Web 2.0, an always on stream of activity, and often lack thereof. If justin.tv bought the world of web cams to Web 2.0, ustream could become the poster child of a new movement of 20 somethings who are too old or too uncaring to remember the likes of Jenicam.

Is too much ever enough, or just too much?

Is the narcissystem the way of the future?

The poster kids of Web 2.0, Chris Pirillo and Robert Scoble have lead the way. Pirillo’s live streams are actually fairly interesting, Scoble’s streams of him in a car aren’t really my thing. Interestingly though in a historical sense is that the tech of the Truman Show is now available to the masses, at least those with generous bandwidth plans, particularly with their mobile (cell) providers.

Matthew Ingram has some good points, but I’m not sure he looks deeply enough at the overflow of information this all leads to. I’ve enjoyed watching some of Pirillo’s live stuff, but imagine if 20 other interesting people were doing the same thing? How then could I manage to watch them all? Imagine that in 3-6 months time ustream is the new YouTube, that thousands, tens of thousands are streaming parts, sometimes all of their day. What then?

I’ve always argued the text is the ultimate form of communication, because it allows dissemination to many easily and in a more manageable form. I love the idea of Podcasting, but I’ know that it’s far more limited than text because it takes far longer to consume. Always on video is harder again. Where as I can consume multiple podcasts, and thousands of blogs, it’s hard to consume more than a handful of always on streams, and certainly more so in terms of time, when Pirillo or Justin are at their best, I’m often asleep (12 hours ahead of US EST at the moment).

Question though is would I give it a try? Watch this space. The logistics are difficult, particularly mobile, given that always on data (via 3G) in Australia is expensive, but the narcissist in me is certainly tempted. Perhaps I can become another number in the too much is never enough equation.

Filed Under: Opinion

Text Link Ads launches Post Level Text Link Ads

April 10, 2007 By Duncan Riley

Text Link Ad sellers Text-Link-Ads.com has announced the launch of a new product, Post Level Text Link Ads, a sort of automated post-text footer advertising system.

The new advertising option uses an updated version of the existing TLA WP plugin.

Ads will look something like this:

tla

According to an email from TLA:

– You will still have editorial control for each link purchased if you have opted for editorial control for your regular Text Link Ads.

– Pricing is set automatically and is lower on a per link basis then typical homepage placed Text Link Ads.

– No extra coding work for you, we sync all of your posts automatically with our new WP plugin.

– If you regular Text Link Ads are sold out you will now have new inventory to sell.

Looks like a good offering that will find decent support in the blogosphere, a sort of nice and ethical version of Pay Per Post.

Filed Under: Newswire

Introducing the Bloggers Code of Conduct: Not Safe on a Full Stomach

April 9, 2007 By Duncan Riley

badgeWeb 2.0 guru..and the once credible Tim O’Reilly has followed up on his threats to unleash weapons of mass stupidity on the world, posting live once and for all a draft copy of his “Bloggers Code of Conduct” that he’s hoping to impose voluntarily on over 200 million bloggers world wide, then probably by force in countries stupid enough to think this is all a good idea (and yes, Australia will probably be top of that list, it is the Nanny State after all).

Now some people suggested I was a little tough on O’Reilly in my March 29 post on the subject. To those people I say, once again, bollocks, because you haven’t read this stuff.

*901AM HEALTH WARNING: DO NOT READ ON A FULL STOMACH*

Just when you thought the concept of a bloggers code of conduct was a running joke, Tim O’Reilly delivers the actual punchline. Try some of this hippie shit on for size:

“We celebrate the blogosphere because it embraces frank and open conversation. But frankness does not have to mean lack of civility. We present this Blogger Code of Conduct in hopes that it helps create a culture that encourages both personal expression and constructive conversation.”

Oh yeah, censorship has such a wonderful track record in history for fostering personal expression. BTW who defines personal expression and constructive conversation?

We are committed to the “Civility Enforced” standard: we will not post unacceptable content, and we’ll delete comments that contain it.

BUTTON2Unacceptable to who? A pro George W Bush comment is as an unacceptable post at Kos as a 2 guys rimming is on Michelle Malkin. Is Tim O’Reilly judge, jury and executioner?

It goes on to say that we won’t tolerate unacceptable behavior, defined as

– is being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others
– is libelous, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents another person,
– infringes upon a copyright or trademark
– violates an obligation of confidentiality
– violates the privacy of others

So that’s just about EVERY single blog post covered in the above points (well at least the last 2 points). Of course this post is probably covered in 1 + 2 :-)

But get this, the blogging code is conduct is all about civility, but apparently it’s civility defined by Tim O’Reilly because we can lynch others, as long as they were uncivil first:

When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

Yep, truth be told it’s really more like a set of club rules, you’re with Tim or you’re against him, and if you’re against him you can and will be subject to mob rule lest you be lynched by them for non compliance with The Borgs O’Reilly’s rules.

buttonYou can read the whole thing here, and if you’re really keen, you get to display badges on your site as well. Note to Krug, if these become compulsory, we’ll need the dynamite one for 901am ;-)

I’ll conclude in saying this: those who think that a blogging code of conduct is the antidote to death threats and misogyny have about as much hope of success as I’ve got of space walking on Jupiter next year, or Tim O’Reilly has of ever being taken seriously again by anyone except some rabid feminists and professional victims. Civility is subjective, and controlling what people say and do on blogs can only be a recipe for the decline of the medium and the introduction of totalitarianism online, outcomes none of us want nor desire.

Filed Under: Opinion

Moving to a Google Desktop

April 8, 2007 By Duncan Riley

I’ve been in the rather interesting position these last two weeks of working exclusively from my laptop whilst waiting for a new floor to be laid in my house…and job that was suppose to take 2 weeks and now looks like taking 4. Aside from missing the obvious things, such as my 22 inch LCD Monitor, working from a laptop has presented some other challenges, for example I don’t have Microsoft Office on it to write letters. I’ve had a gmail account for a long time, but I’ve never really embraced a lot of Google’s other offerings. Today, presented with a complete lack of organisation, I’ve made the switch, so I though I’d share.

Google Personal Homepage

I’ve never really found Google’s personalized homepage offering appealing before, but then again that’s when you could only use it in white or white. It now comes in different flavours, only 6 additional choices, but they make the world of difference in terms of aesthetics and usability. There’s something much more soothing about the product when it’s not all stark white with a bit of blue.

google home page

Now I don’t subscribe to the meme that Google Personalized Homepage should be used as a RSS reader substitute. It can be, and I’ve added a couple of news feeds to my main page, but you can easily incorporate a Google Reader box as well that allows you to scroll through feeds that way, or switch across. Gmail integrated nicely…sure, I’m still using gmail directly, but it’s nifty for when I first log on in the morning.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Features

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 29
  • Next Page »

Browse

Copyright © 2022 901am · Log in