Friday, February 14, 2003

I personally know so few bloggers Why is that? Part of the reason for this is because I haven't had the time to attend various events where bloggers are congregating. I hope that as the year progresses, I can find/make time to get more involved. But there's a deeper truth here. Blogging is still very underground! I'm talking it up with friends and family, but people look at me like I'm from another planet. "Who wants to read a weblog about someone's cat?" they say, which is exactly what people said about websites in the early 1990s. All I can say it, look what the web has become since then, and then you can appreciate the potential for weblogs. Just yesterday, I went to lunch with a bunch o' good Macr folk, and when someone mentioned a weblog they read, I asked them more about it. Turns out, no one around the table uses a news aggreagator, and no one has a weblog. They snickered for a sec when I used the term "blogosphere", until they realized I used it seriously, and that there is a whole new world for them to explore. (Hey, if any of you are reading this, give me a ping!) 10:40:10 AM

Harvard: We are waking up and linking to each other. Dave Winer, a pioneer in weblogs, has accepted a post at Harvard, to spread the gospel of blogging for personal, business, and legal uses. Tlowhe poster be is right, weblogs in knowledge management isn't unique to Harvard, but it is really nice to see such a high-profile knowledge brand pushing the blogosphere forward. Berkman Center Executive Director John Palfrey mentioned the new Harvard blogs initiative at his blog today. It got a nice mention at the Washington Post, too. John says: "We're convinced that blogging, evangelized by Dave [Winer] and others here, can help spread the wealth of knowledge from school to school; from student to student; and from elsewhere into Harvard and vice-versa. The Web, e-mail and other basic Net-based apps generally have had this effect to some extent. But not in a wholly satisfying manner. I wouldn't bet again blogs making the next big step forward." I would love to see Harvard "wake up" in this way. As a student, I would love to use blogs to engage other students and professors from all around the university. And, after yesterday's experience with the blogosphere, I am even more excited about what a fully blogging Harvard would be like. This would be particularly important for Harvard's current curricular review and recent curricular reforms. Basically, students like myself find out about changes after they've been made, and we generally find out about them from The Harvard Crimson, not the university itself. Our student government has hardly any communication with the student body; they're essentially like high school student government, in that they yell at you to vote for about a week and then stay the hell away from you. The format of the UC's webpage has finally been updated, but it still has no useful information (and still doesn't reflect changes in UC offices). It's a joke. I would love it if, when curricular changes are debated, the UC wrote something on a blog, advocating their position(s). And I'd like it if I could read administrators and professors opinions. I wish the debates would take place in the open in an easily accessible way. Perhaps blogging could help make that happen. [A Copyfighter's Musings] 10:26:02 AM

Buying Your Valentine An Online Poem Last year we had an article about people who needed to give toasts or speeches going online to buy their witty monologues. People had very mixed feelings about this. I imagine those same feelings are felt for folks who buy "custom" poems for their significant other on Valentine's Day... In an age where you can find anything you want online, it seems that some people have given up thinking for themselves (while other people have cashed in on the ability to think for others...). [Techdirt] Aren't these just high-end Hallmark cards? Nothing new here. 10:04:03 AM

When Identity Theft And Child Porn Collide Two big problems online that are often discussed in separate ways are identity theft and child porn. Here's a story that combines them both, to tell about a school teacher who was arrested for child porn after his credit card was stolen and used to buy child porn. Luckily, the guy had already reported the problems with his card being stolen and the police found out who really had taken the card. However, as identity theft becomes a bigger and bigger problem, there will certainly be more cases like this - where someone completely innocent will be implicated in a crime. [Techdirt] The thought that my identity could be misused for more than financial gain is frightening. I had my identity stolen last year, and thankfully, the issuing credit company contacted me via postal mail to confirm the account. I immediately contacted them to report the fraud, and within weeks, the fraudulent account was closed and my credit history and identity were rescued. God help you if truly heinous crimes are committed in your name. My suggestion? Call all the credit bureaus and put a fraud alert on your accounts. That way, any time new credit is requested, the bureaus must contact you directly before approving the credit. It only lasts 6 months, but I think I'm going to keep them on forever. 9:59:36 AM

Blosxom goes 1.0 It is difficult to argue with the simplicity of blosxom. A tiny CGI script that adds blogging server capabilities to your apache-style web server. Put text and image files in a folder, and blosxom serves them up as a blog, automatically sorting items by date, adding permalinks, serving up an RSS version as well. The OS X installer is a really nice touch, and is the clear separation between hobby and commercial software. Rael Dornfest's Free Software blogging engine, Blosxom, now has a really nifty OS X installer. Blosxom, implemented in a startlingly tiny amount of perl, does just about everything you could ask for, and uses your favorite text-editor and filesystem to edit and store your entries. LinkDiscuss (via Raelity Bytes) [Boing Boing] The one-two punch on Mac OS is Blosxom and NetNewsWire, and they should really collaborate to produce a single installer for both. Then, my dad could install it and be blogging in minutes! 9:48:42 AM

Technorati Anywhere! The name kinda sucks, but the concept is pretty cool. Once you have this bookmarklet installed, go to any URL, then click the bookmarklet to see who's linking to that URL (as tracked via Technorati). I whipped up a little tool this evening that I thought y'all might like. It's called the Technorati Anywhere! bookmarklet. What it does is simple - the bookmarklet opens a new window or tab in your browser with the list of links (and short excerpts) of people who link to the page you're viewing. It is a new way of instantly checking sources and finding out the credibility of the page you're currently viewing. If you don't like your browser opening new windows or tabs, here's a version of Technorati Anywhere! that shows the results in the current window. It works with recent versions of IE, Netscape, Mozilla, and Safari. The only requirement is that you have Javascript enabled. To install it, do the following, depending on the browser you have: For IE 5.5 and above users: Right click on one of the links above, and then click on "Add to Favorites..." Since there's some Javascript in the bookmark, IE will tell you that "You're adding a favorite that may not be safe." Click OK, and you're done, it is in your favorites. For Netscape 6 and above and Mozilla 1.0 and above users: Drag the link into your bookmark bar. Alternatively, you can right click on the link and then click on "Add bookmark". For Safari users: Drag the link into your bookmark bar. That's it! I hope you enjoy it. I like it better than the Technorati Sidebar I created a while back, and the instant gratification... [Sifry's Alerts] 9:43:36 AM

Rich Media Ads to hit $1B in 2005 From eMarketer.com, here's a story predicting the growth of rich media advertising. They also interview Gal Trifon of Eyeblaster, an online ad technology company poised to benefit from this predicted growth. Gal Trifon: Eyeblaster offers a rich media platform. It's an online tool that allows agencies and publishers to plan, create, distribute, track and optimize rich media campaigns. It's the only solution that offers 100% control of the process to the agencies and publishers. Eyeblaster's not really involved in the creative process. We see more and more campaigns launching without us even knowing about them. We offer all the existing rich media formats. We differentiate between content formats (streaming video, Flash, images, audio-only) and ad formats (window ad, wallpaper ad, full-page commercial, floating ad). I wonder if weblogs are on their radar? By 2005, I certainly believe that weblogs and news aggregators will be the dominant delivery model for rich media content and advertising. 9:38:58 AM

David Pulled the Rip Cord This news is spreading across the blogosphere. I'm not familiar with David Stutz, but I caught a picture of him... think ZZTop with a CS PhD. His departure does not bode well for MS within the Open Source community. But does that matter? Word has hit the street that David Stutz, one of the good guys, has pulled the rip cord and has left Microsoft. The last time I saw Dave was at a dinner up in Seattle where he mentioned something about maybe heading off and spending more time at his winery. It's good to see he has. Having been one of those open source guys inside Sun for a while, I know that he's going to enjoy not playing between the two worlds of Open Source and Big Biz for a while. Dave gives us a view (sanitized, but still very meaningful) of his farewell message to Microsoft. I especially like his last sentence: "Stop looking over your shoulder and invent something!" It sums up everything that I've been saying to people who are afraid of competing with Microsoft or any of the other big guys. We should all, Big Corp or little guy, spend more time chasing dreams, doing what makes us happy, and finding ways of making a living at it rather than living life the other way around. Posted: 2003/02/14 00:32 [James Duncan Davidson] That's a great quote. I was just thinking about the threat of MS in relation to knowledge management, and this resets me to the proper perspective. I'm going to invent something (again). 9:23:22 AM