TechDirt on Weblogs Inc vs Newsgator. My natural inclination (dare I say once again) is to side with Jason Calacanis on this, however Mike does make an interesting point. It’s an issue I still struggle with when it comes to full vs part feeds..how do you actually measure the return on these sorts of things, presuming there is one.
Tags: Jason Calacanis, Weblogs Inc, Techdirt
Nick Carr on the growing communist tones in Web 2.0. He’s not the only person to have seen it. You can see it in Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail book as well. Web 2.0 shouldn’t be about ideology in terms of being a purist pursuit, it should only be about freedom of choice and anything that empowers the user. Whether or not YouTube allows downloads of clips or not is totally irrelevant: at the end of the day they empower the user, the consumer, the individual who wants to upload their own videos, and for me that makes them a Web 2.0 company. The flip side of the debate however is a dire one, because if the Web 2.0 purists win it will actually result in driving people, and for that matter companies and capital away from Web 2.0 in the same way the red flag waving in the Open Source community scares corporations away from embracing everything from Firefox through to the various distributions of Linux. Web 2.0 should be about inclusiveness, and in deed in practice it is a broad church. Let’s hope that some of those ideologically driven types dont win the day.
Scoble reports that Tim Bray of Sun fame is in strife after dropping the f word.
OK, so sometimes even humble I self censor myself here at duncanriley.com at times, after all you never really want to offend people too much, however sometimes there really is no reasonable alternative to using fuck, or even fucking when your trying to describe somethings, no matter what the do gooders might suggest. There’s some uniquely strong about the use of the word. And here’s another thing: isn’t blogging suppose to be about reflecting our thoughts without censorship, about being honest and open?
When I think about my everyday interactions with people, the f word is in common usage, and it has been really for generations, indeed even baby boomers use it (although admitedly their parents didn’t). Sure, there are some bounds to reasonable taste, for example I’d never use the c word on this blog, and it’s not something that I’d use regularly in everyday speach either (although she who must be obeyed has dropped it on occasions..but again to make a point, after all, some people really can be c’s), but for one man who is passionate about what he’s talking about, to say that it’s fucking cool shouldn’t really be cause for morality based attacks from others. I’m rooting for you Tim, and I’m sure a fucking lot of other people are as well. 🙂
Tags: Tim Bray, Robert Scoble, Sun, fuck
First, the videos I?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢m putting up are around 200MB a piece. The bandwidth distributors I know are charging $.14 or more PER GIGABYTE to distribute those videos. So, that comes to $28, or more for 1,000 downloads (if my math is right).
Wait a second here. We?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢re going to collect $10 in advertising to pay $28 in bandwidth? Who said video is a great business? We?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢re losing money, but I?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢m sure we?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢ll make it up in quantity. Heheh.
Here’s the thing, I think it’s a similar issue with Podcasting as well. It’s why services such as YouTube are so popular, even with people doing their own video blogs. Revver is the company to watch though: did you know that even ZeFrank’s The Show is on Revver? Yep, despite the inherent risks anyone takes in not hosting their own content (copyright and control are the biggies), most people are using “free” services to host video because the economics don’t yet work properly in hosting it yourself. It should also be noted that it’s also not costing the big free hosting firms the sort of money Scoble is talking about either in terms of bandwidth costs…strength in numbers I guess.
Tags: Robert Scoble, Revver, Zefrank, YouTube
The Blogging Times has the scoop:Universal, Sony BMG Music entertainment and the Warner Music Group have all taken small share holding in YouTube. In you can’t beat them, join them I guess, but on a deeper note are the big record and movie houses finally changing their tune? (pardon the pun 🙂 ).
BusinessWeek on stats tracking. It’s a bit fluffy around the edges, but at least it will get people talking about a difficulty just about everyone has online…what is the best way to track your numbers? Apples, Oranges and grapes don’t look the same nor taste the same, and yet there is this amount and more in terms of alternatives when it comes to metrics. Someone, somewhere must have a better idea, a more fairer way to measure this stuff…and who ever this person is, cmon down..now..please? 🙂
Rather than send this by email, I’ve decided to post this.
Dear Steve,
Please don’t take this the wrong way. I’ve got a poor history when it comes to rubbing people the wrong way, and I’ll admit that. You’re someone who I respect deeply. I can remember when you first started blogging (does that make me old?), your publicity stunt at only taking news from online sources was brilliant, and in years to come it will be written about in text books. Like many people I’ve enjoyed reading your blog since, indeed it was one of the first blogs I added to Bloglines when I first setup an account, and it’s still there. You were also kind enough to link to the b5media announcement in relation to us taking VC funding, when some of your A-List friends didn’t.
Your employee, Edelman is embroiled in a pretty shady astroturfing scandal. A fake blog promoting Walmart. I can only imagine that you’re totally stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. Certainly, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes given what’s happened. Having said this however, I’d really like to read your take on this. As precedent I can only look to when Scoble was blogging for Microsoft, and although at times I’d suggest there was some self censorship there a little bit, certainly Robert never ran away from the big issues of the day regarding his employer. As a reader and fan I’d like to see something similar from you. Certainly, if you don’t post about it, I’m personally not going to not respect you for not doing so, however others may. For many, you’re now the direct link between the Edelman and the blogosphere. As much as silence is golden, you’re a guy/ blogger with one of the best reputations of anyone I know in the blogosphere, but unfortunately you also run the risk of some of the tar from the whole Walmart fake blog scandal sticking to you, even though I’ve got no doubt what so ever that you didn’t have anything to do with this. If you don’t respond, I totally understand as to why, but others might not be as understanding. Again, I’m happy I’m not in your shoes.
best
Duncan.
Chartreuse Reloaded is finally up. The pdf info sheet linked to on the site states there’s going to be a $9.95 monthly charge for membership, although I take it some of the “cool” kids will probably get a free pass. I wrote last week that their were no rules, and I suppose if anyone could pull this off it would be Char, but past history with sites that charge a membership fee is pretty poor, who doesn’t remember the failures of sites such as Slate and others trying to charge for access. Indeed, if there is one rule, it should be free = good. Now having said that I know of a couple of forums that provide a wealth of information that is worth charging for, but access to a blog? I’ll sit on the fence for now 🙂
You know, sometimes by reading a persons blog you think you get a fairly good picture of the person, and until today I had a pretty good impression of Fred Wilson. Admitedly, the guy isn’t in my Bloglines subs, but I do fairly regularly visit his blog. I’ve always thought of him as being an upfront sort of guy, totally honest and fair, totally into disclosure and discourse.
And then I made the mistake of commenting on his blog.
You see, I read this post where Fred talks about the issue with tracking statistics on sites. It’s a topic I’ve been following for years, so naturally it was of interest to me. He also mentioned that he’d put his money behind comScores stats over Alexa’s. Well personally I think both a flawed to be honest, and indeed I used an entire column at The Blogging Times to say so. At this stage, having read a number of other comments on the post, including a number of comments from comScore representatives/ employees defending their product I thought I might chime in, again, only because it’s a topic that I’ve had a long standing interest in, and one I’ve actually researched fairly heavily as well.
F*ck.
It turns out that Fred is not only a comScore chearleader, he’s also an investor and a director in the company.
Mind you, not that you’d find it in this post. Maybe I should have known from past posts, but even Mike Arrington would have disclosed in a post such as this if he was a shareholder, investor, or even god bless, a director as well.
Suffice to say, I’ve received an email from Fred tonight that reads as follows (warning, unedited language ahead):
That is a bullshit assertion
Comscore is no way malware
It’s opt in for one, and its easy to remove.
That would be like calling the nielsen people meter spyware.
I replied on both your blog and my blog
fred
Now take another look at my Blogging Times article. I’m didn’t make this stuff up, reputable leaders in the field including symantic and CA (computer associates) have labelled comScores “internet accelerator” as being Spyware and Trackware in that order. There’s also other sites out there that say similar and even worse things about the program. Indeed, PC World itself talks about how this software in bundled in with other programs.
A guess the lesson learned is you can’t really judge a persons character by their blog…most of the time…and I won’t be reading Fred Wilsons blog again in the future.
Tags: Fred Wilson
OK, so I’m late to the party on this one, but I’ve been spending a good part of the last week on Pandora. The sound quality is top notch, and the selection technology good to boot. Ignore the fact if you register that you’re suppose to be in the States, any 5 digits make up a US Zip Code. My 3 existing channels are in the sidebar for those interested. And yes, Dave Brubeck is the greatest musician off all time, The Rat Pack were brilliant, and Crowded House was the best band of the last 30 years…so there!!! 🙂
Duncan Riley on SiliconANGLE Chiang Mai One
