the future of internet, early adopters, generation Y, etc.

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Jun 10, 2008, 3:50:08 AM6/10/08
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Nouvelles plateformes et réappropriation du web : 
Early Adopters et Generation Y 
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#10 : The Post-American World



"
The Post-American World
The Post-American World
by Fareed Zakaria
Average Customer Review:

Download: $9.99

(Ranking is updated hourly. Visit the Bestsellers in The Kindle Store list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.)"

Voir en ligne : #10: The Post-American World

Delicious 2.0 : We’ve Been Waiting 9 Months



"

It’s been over nine months since Yahoo first gave us a glimpse of Delicious 2.0 - a complete code rewrite from the now aging platform that was acquired by Yahoo in December 2005.


Yahoo never said when they’d be ready to launch the new Delicious (it’s available at preview.delicious.com but beta invitations are locked down). In January there was a hint on the Delicious blog that the new version was coming soon: “We know we haven’t updated the blog in a looong time but the team has been heads down working on the next version of Delicious. We’ll have an update to share with you guys next week.” But no update came, and since then, not a peep from Yahoo.


It’s now been nine months. We’ve heard from Yahoo insiders that founder Joshua Schachter is now working on another project, and now that his stock has fully vested it isn’t even certain he’ll stay with the company. Meanwhile, scaling issues have confounded the Delicious team and they continue to rework the architecture.


In April venture capitalist/blogger Fred Wilson noted that the user numbers for Delicious were dropping. Schachter told us that the Comscore numbers did not reflect their business, saying they continue to “grow normally.” He also pointed out that a large number of people use the service via Firefox and other browser plugins, and that the service shut off search indexing, hurting unique traffic numbers.


Delicious is still my social bookmarking service of choice, but Delicious 2.0 is a serious black eye for Yahoo and the Delicious team. It’s time for them to update us on when we can expect a general release of the next version.


Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.





"

Voir en ligne : Delicious 2.0: We’ve Been Waiting 9 Months

A History of Copy Protection



"The epic struggle between game makers and pirates has yielded some crazy copy protection methods over the past decades. Here's how far we've come in the realm of security..."

Voir en ligne : A History of Copy Protection

Euro 2008 : "Personne en France n’ose remettre en cause les choix de Domenech"



"Notre revue de presse quotidienne du tournoi austro-helvétique... Avec en vedette aujourd'hui, France-Roumanie, qui mobilise le ban et l'arrière-ban de la presse européenne."

Voir en ligne : Euro 2008: "Personne en France n'ose remettre en cause les choix de Domenech"

Un centre E. Leclerc pirate The Pirate Bay



"Clin d'oeil du lundi matin. Le centre commercial E. Leclerc Atout Sud, dans la banlieue de Nantes, organise un  concours à grand renfort de campagne publicitaire, dans les boîtes aux lettres et dans les abribus de la région. L'opération propose aux consommateurs de participer "à une chasse aux trésors", et la société de communication chargée de concevoir les affiches et les flyers s'est donc logiquement [Lire la suite]"

Voir en ligne : Un centre E. Leclerc pirate The Pirate Bay

"Consumers May Lose Digital Content They Have Paid For"



"Canwest covers the Canadian DMCA, noting that the bill is expected to hit Canadian consumers as they attempt to use their digital content.
"

Voir en ligne : "Consumers May Lose Digital Content They Have Paid For"

The WikiMinister



"The Edmonton Journal with a new moniker for Industry Minister Jim Prentice.
"

Voir en ligne : The WikiMinister

UK govt’s "What to do about fraud" page "withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act"



"The HM Revenue and Customs (UK) web-page for "What to do if you suspect or discover fraud" with National Insurance Numbers consists of the phrase "(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)" repeated over and over again, including indented bullets, new paragraphs, etc.


You know the Orwell Was Right stickers? Someone needs to make one that reproduces this webpage under the legend, "Orwell was an optimist."



NIM39140 - National Insurance Numbers (NINOs): Format and Security: What to do if you suspect or discover fraud


(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)


(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)


(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)


(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)


* (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

* (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)




lINK

(Thanks,







"

Voir en ligne : UK govt's "What to do about fraud" page "withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act"

Rocket car spotted on the streets of LA



"


Dwiff sez, "Custom rocket car surfaces in Los Angeles neighborhood Silver Lake, looking like something straight out of Penelope Pitstop."

Link

(Thanks, Dwiff!)







"

Voir en ligne : Rocket car spotted on the streets of LA

Tim Wu : iPhone central to "future of the Internet"



"

Mobile devices and mobile networks suffer far more restrictions than their tethered counterparts. As mobile grows in importance, Columbia prof Tim Wu wants to see both networks and devices opened up to generativity.

Read More...






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Voir en ligne : Tim Wu: iPhone central to "future of the Internet"


Future of the Internet and How to Stop It — CC licensed Jonathan Zittrain book about the danger the Internet faces



"Nick sez, "Jonathan Zittrain gets so many things right in his book, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It about what he calls 'generative technology' and why it's so important. It's chock-full of all sorts of issues that make Boingers salivate - freedom of speech, copyright, open source software, digital rights activism, privacy, censorship - put together into a very convincing argument in favor of unbridled innovation.
This is definitely a book that you don't want to pass up. It's licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 3.0 license and freely downloadable from the book's website."




The iPhone is the opposite. It is sterile. Rather than a platform that invites innovation,
the iPhone comes preprogrammed. You are not allowed to add programs
to the all-in-one device that Steve Jobs sells you. Its functionality is locked
in, though Apple can change it through remote updates. Indeed, to those who
managed to tinker with the code to enable the iPhone to support more or different
applications,4 Apple threatened (and then delivered on the threat) to transform
the iPhone into an iBrick.5 The machine was not to be generative beyond the innovations
that Apple (and its exclusive carrier, AT&T) wanted. Whereas the world
would innovate for the Apple II, only Apple would innovate for the iPhone. (A
promised software development kit may allow others to program the iPhone with
Apple’s permission.)

Jobs was not shy about these restrictions baked into the iPhone. As he said at
its launch:

We define everything that is on the phone. . . . You don’t want your phone to be like
a PC. The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then
you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore. These are more like iPods than
they are like computers.6






Link

(Thanks, Nick!)







"

Voir en ligne : Future of the Internet and How to Stop It -- CC licensed Jonathan Zittrain book about the danger the Internet faces

China’s Tencent Inc Launches Xiaoyou



"


Tencent Inc, a company purportedly responsible for the largest IM service in China, has launched QQ Xiaoyou, a network currently allowing invited QQ users for testing ahead of a broader public launch, according to Tangos of China Web 2.0 Review. Amit Chowdry of Pulse 2.0 translates the network’s meaning as equatable to “Alumni.”


Founded in 1998, Tencent has grown its QQ-branded network of services, including QQ.com, QQ Instant Messenger, QQ Mail, QQ show, QQ Pet, QQ Game, and QQ Music/Radio/Live into one catering to a claimed user base hundreds of millions strong. A strong emphasis on claimed, there, due to the fact that China’s collective Web usership falls far short of Tencent’s hugely irregular 783.4 million touted users (for its IM network alone). China only recently surpassed the US in total Internet users, landing somewhere in the mid-200m territory. Given that Web giants Microsoft and Yahoo each cater to user counts somewhere north of 250 million each, Tencent’s claims are heavily suspect.



Nonetheless, QQ Xiaoyou appears to be an active property upon first glance. China Web 2.0 Review says the site, like all other Tencent properties, follows the strict requirements of Internet monitors in the country, with Xiaoyou mandating users register real names and photos, per China’s governing party’s request for greater Web user transparency. If the vetting process is as thorough as is alleged, those registrees will be put through an authentication process that takes up to three days’ time.


If QQ Xiaoyou is to be a serious entry in the market - “QQ Campus,” a previous attempt, is said to have performed poorly relative to competitors - it will be aiming at Xiaonei, a social network that serves university students with 15 million users, according to BeijingReview.com, a national weekly magazine. QQ Xiaoyou, though its color palette is unlike Facebook’s, could perhaps be seen as taking cues from the well-regarded US-based website, much as Xiaonei has shown to do.


---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

MySpace China Creating an Instant Messenger Service
Naspers Acquires Tradus for Furthered Internet Expansion







"

Voir en ligne : China’s Tencent Inc Launches Xiaoyou

Early Adopters Are Undervalued



"

Do you know the law? A lot of people probably don’t know the law as well as they should. Yet, the same people abide by the law. Who first established law? A group of early adopters who knew they couldn’t make everyone happy. And their intentions? To create laws that would benefit the greatest number of citizens. Now, is technology any different? Not in my opinion.


Yesterday, I started a conversation about How Early Adopters Pull The Web. The most sensitive point I made is one on the growing collective intelligence of the early adopter crowd who holds the ability to choose the best features and spawn a new generation of web users who are more experienced and understood than the previous generation. That’s a mouth full, you might want to re-read that or at least give it a second thought.


Steven Hodson reciprocated with an analysis of Happy early adopters don’t equal success, which really fired up a discussion on FriendFeed. He counters the argument I mentioned above when he writes,


It is great that all these hot to trot start-ups involve the early adopters to help them stress test systems and build up the word around them. This can be a double edge sword though especially if these start-ups concentrate to hard on trying to make their service the ideal tool that the early adopters have been looking for. They can take all the suggestions from people like Robert Scoble they like but he’ll be the first one to tell you that his needs aren’t the same as the mainstream.


I see exactly where you’re coming from Steven and you may even be right, but here are my reasons for why I disagree. Functionality is a governing principle similar to law in that not every user is going to like it or feel they benefit from it equally as much as the next guy. These two variables are unchangeable in the complex equation for understanding users (or how people will respond to governing principles), we have no choice but to accept it. Even so, the law holds value just like the functionality of a service will hold value under the same circumstances. Think of the variables as unknowns.


Maybe we need a web that’s a little more flexible? Interchangeable parts helped our physical economy in the past and continues to play a role today. Would the same idea in concept help our virtual economy? I bet it could work on top of base features, just like car production, where you take what they give you and mod it only so much with your personal preference in mind. And that’s what most people do, take the base model or add a few features, while less people mod the entire car themselves.


We’re not all engineers and we’re not all programmers. The reason car production works as well as it does is the engineers determine what base features are best. We know they aren’t the best for everyone, but nonetheless, they have more experience and understanding of what will give the company an edge by satisfying the customer. Could you imagine if we all went to the dealership and said I want to design my next car from scratch. We’d pick all the parts, ones that don’t mix and match unless someone classified our next step in the process based on previous selection. What a procedure that would be, the engineers would be pissed too, they don’t want their name associated with that car.


Sometimes you have to let decisions rest in the hands of those most interested and experienced. Look at where car production is today. A group of early adopters surrounded the first car and now a group of car enthusiasts have emerged more intelligent and understanding of what people need (most people don’t know what they need, they need some baseline). If those early adopters didn’t push auto production from the beginning, then who would have picked up the innovation? Not the mainstream, they weren’t interested in it until someone built them a base model they could add features to.


That’s our role now. To be interested enough to show users how far we can stretch these tools. To introduce features to users who would have never thought of the idea (because they lack experience) and fall in love with it. These things will start happening after we have strong base models and offer a way to play with additional options. That’s why open-source is successful. We’re all using a base model of WordPress and then we mod the functionality by using plugins, themes etc. The real money making generation of the web is yet to come? We’re spending our time building base models so that we have better packages to offer mainstream users, who will build a portion of their experience on top of that foundation.


We needed an early adopter crowd to establish law, which can be amended and helped get us to where we are today. Auto production, the same thing. What’s common between both examples? It took time to get to a point where they were ready to go mainstream. The web is no different and it’s young. Early adopters need time to play around with features, suggest new ones and talk about experiences to build base models that are of interest to the mainstream user. If we don’t do it, they definitely won’t. Field of Dreams did offer good advice, “if you build it, they will come.”


Steven writes a strong conclusion worth talking about.


Start-ups don’t get rich from making early adopters happy. Venture capitalists don’t make their money back from catering to the early adopters. That pot at the end of the rainbow is in the land of the mainstream. So the early adopter might be a good friend to slap your stuff around with but don’t count on them to be the ones to make you rich.


What defines rich? Do all entrepreneurs care about getting rich? The answers are relative and fuzzy. Wikipedia went on to earn money, not nearly as much as other successful companies built to earn profit, but more than most people have. Maybe the online business model should be non-profit, that way we build and help develop services that are looking to reach a wider audience from the beginning.

"

Voir en ligne : Early Adopters Are Undervalued

Can Google Trends Predict The Election ?



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obamamccain.png


If more people are searching on Google for “Obama” than “McCain” does that mean he is more likely to win the election?


Not every voter in the U.S. uses Google, or even uses the Internet, for that matter. But enough of the population does use Google that its search patterns cannot be ignored by either candidate, the press, or anyone interested in the outcome of the election. Fortunately, Google lets anyone see the relative popularity of different search terms on Google Trends. The screen shot above is from a comparison I just did between “Obama” and “McCain” in the U.S. over the past 12 months. If search volume is predictive of election results and the elections were held today, Obama would win.


More traditional polls come to the same conclusion. A CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted June 4 and 5, shows Obama ahead by 47 percent to McCain’s 43 percent (Ralph Nader has 6 percent). And a Gallup poll shows a tighter race, with Obama at 46 percent verses McCain at 45 percent. Obviously, it is a close race and sentiment can go either way between now and November. And there is a likely correlation between search volume and news mentions, which are also compared in the graph above (by pulling in data from Google News).


What is great about Google Trends, though, is that you can drill down by state. An in-depth analysis of how predictive Google Trends was during the primaries (by Michael Giuffrida, a student in Virginia) shows that in at least half the cases for the Democratic primaries, Google Trends did a good job predicting the outcome. Update: Just to clarify, the analysis looks at both Democratic and Republican primaries. For the Democratic primaries 37 states were analyzed, and five of those had to be thrown out because of insufficient data. Of the remaining 32, Google Trends correctly predicted 27 of the primary elections, or an 84 percent success rate. For the Republican primaries, 29 elections were analyzed and Google Trends correctly predicted only about half (the data wasn’t as good for a variety of reasons).


Below are two of his comparisons of Google Trends and actual election results in Missouri (where Obama won) and Florida Nevada (where Clinton won). Google Trends appears to be more predictive the higher the search volume (i.e., the more data points). Some states had more searching than others, but you’d expect election-related searches to spike across the board as the general election nears. At the very least, both campaigns would be wise to use it as a sanity check on their own polling on a state-by-state basis, if they are not doing so already.


(via Slashdot).


obamahillary-missouri.png

obamahilary-nev.png

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.





"

Voir en ligne : Can Google Trends Predict The Election?

Generation Y - Welcome To Their World



"

We've showed how Gen Y is going to change the web. In doing so, Gen Y is also changing the world. Despite all of this, the world of Generation Y eludes a lot of the previous generations. Generation Y is absorbed in a world made possible through technology. This is a key factor that is left out of the misconceptions made about Gen Y. Here's a glimpse into the world of Gen Y and how they're using technology.






Raising Social Awareness Through Facebook



Generation Y is arguably the most socially conscious generation in existence. They're well aware of how social changes affect them and use the internet as a tool to keep them aware of what's going on. Gen Yers are making their stances well known on Facebook. In 2006, the top 10 advocacy groups on Facebook were:





  1. Reduce the Drinking Age to 18! - 111,275


  2. Legalize Same-Sex Marriage - 80,458


  3. Americans for Alternative Energy - 69,465


  4. Support a Woman's Right to Choose - 66,806


  5. Support Stem Cell Research - 55,219


  6. Abolish Abstinence Only Sex Education - 54,712


  7. Government + Religion = Disaster - 47,949


  8. AIDS / HIV research - 24,789


  9. Equal Rights for Gays - 24,013


  10. Pro-Life - 22,409




While Gen Y still participates in rallies, protests, and group meetings, for them it's a lot easier to start a movement with a Facebook group and let the masses join in. These groups are not being ignored either. Money is donated daily, boycotts are being arranged quicker, and news is spreading faster. Gen Y is taking technology and advocacy to another level.



Adopting New Mediums of Information



Generation Y doesn't read books. Well, a lot of people aren't reading books these days. However, one should always factor in the following: technology is very important to Generation Y. They may not always read books because there are newer mediums of information to utilize. Looking at the old medium such as books from libraries, according to a study done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project:



"Gen Y are the leading users of libraries for help solving problems and in more general patronage.


Libraries drew visits by more than half of Americans (53%) in the past year for all kinds of purposes, not just the problems mentioned in this survey. And it was the young adults in tech-loving Generation Y (age 18-30) who led the pack. Compared to their elders, Gen Y members were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose.



Furthermore, it is young adults who are the most likely to say they will use libraries in the future when they encounter problems: 40% of Gen Y said they would do that, compared with 20% of those above age 30 who say they would go to a library."



However, Gen Y is a technologically advanced generation. So, of course Gen Y won't read books or newspapers in the way that previous generations did. Gen Y goes online to get information. They read more blogs than any other generation. They receive the news from online sources and they may even venture into buying an eBook or two. Gen Y certainly won't write off traditional mediums of information. However, they've adopted and embraced the technological advancements that are taking place to better receive information.



A Real P2P Network



Generation Y is full of lazy and self-indulgent kids. If only I had a dollar for every time I heard that statement. This is probably the most ridiculously perpetuated stereotype of Generation Y. Gen Y expects to be rewarded for doing the smallest amount of work. They're only in it for themselves. However, they can't be too bad if they're the most marketed to generation. While they're occasionally self-indulgent (who isn't?), Gen Yers do their part when it comes to helping others.



For example, when entering college, peers amongst Gen Y are more than willing to go out of their way to help the incoming class of students. On my college campus, groups are set up on Facebook and Myspace to help students get to and from Walmart. Web site addresses are exchanged for students to find out the campus ratings for their professors. Tutoring sessions are done online and offline by Juniors and Seniors, not the faculty, and these are activities that are seen across college campuses nationwide. They've advanced the real-life version of peer-2-peer systems using social networks and more.



Moving Above and Beyond



This is only a glimpse into the world of Generation Y. While Generation Y is very technologically advanced, they're more likely to adopt technologies that help themselves and others whether it's for organizing boycotts, keeping up with the news, or helping peers. They don't just adopt these technologies just because they're out there. They adopt them because of what they can do with them. To conclude, ad agency executive Marian Salzman, states:



"Some of them are the greatest generation. They're more hardworking. They have these tools to get things done. They are enormously clever and resourceful. Some of the others are absolutely incorrigible."






"

Voir en ligne : Generation Y: Welcome To Their World

Aren’t early adopters so cute and adorable



"

Aren't I so darn cute and cuddly It doesn’t matter what part of our society of goods and products; online or offline, you look at there will always be a groups of folks that are willing to be the very first to use it and talk about it. Whether it is some new cool car like the Tesla Roadster or some new web social media site there will always be someone at the head of the line willing to cough up whatever is needed – whether it be money or time or both.


This demographic is generally referred to as the early adopters and even though they; or their wallet, might get stung most of the time by the cost of being involved it is for them the cost of being on the cutting edge. Whether that cost is financial (anyone remember the price drop of the iPhone very shortly after its release?) or just their time the early adopters wear it almost as a badge of honor.


I find this early adopter demographic fascinating to follow; and yes to a certain extent I include myself in this group, because of their ability to grab a hold of a product quickly, become absorbed with it, promote or condemn the hell out of it and then move on to the next thing that grabbed their attention. On top of this there is a constant flow of noise that surrounds them as they obliviously play with their new toys and talk amongst themselves. It is a noise level that some would call information overload and others call just plain stupid, egotistical and next to useless but for the early adopters their day wouldn’t be the same without it.


In the comments to my post yesterday about early adopters not equally product success Robert Scoble provided a reasonable breakdown of how he see the whole early adopter demographic


1. Early adopters. People who try things in a certain genre first. Me? I’m an early adopter in HDTV stuff and social networking stuff and cell phone stuff, but a late adopter in stock market analysis and buying and selling tools. Early adopters are your easiest "first customers." Dave Sifry told me 4,000 people signed up in one or two days for his new Travel Books. Those are defacto early adopters. Anyone on FriendFeed right now is a defacto early adopter. They matter because they are easy to get.


2. Passionates. These are harder to get than early adopters. These are people who will go stark raving mad about your product/service. You only get these if you are good at something. For instance, I’m a passionate FriendFeed user (I praise them at every chance I get). Why? Because I reload their page hundreds of times a day and it’s ALWAYS fast. Much more consistently fast than anything other than Google. And it has many of my favorite people to read on it. Anyway, if you don’t convert early adopters to passionates you won’t go anywhere.


3. Influentials. These are people who tell other people about stuff. Journalists. Bloggers. Twitterers. Public speakers. Radio talk show hosts. Etc. If you don’t get these people (who may or may not be early adopters and/or passionates) you won’t go to mainstream.



Over on FriendFeed in the comments that developed around the post melmcbride added an interesting qualifier to this as well


There’s also the distinction between early adopters and early adoption. Many early/late majority users now are engaging in early *adoption* behaviour but are not, properly, early adopters. They’re trying the next big thing in order to feel "a part of" something or cool or in the know. True early adopters try things out of sheer curiosity and interest to know/understand something. It’s not even a question of "liking" those things but understanding them



There is no denying the fact that without the attention of the early adopter crowd and the  press that is created around them and the new and shiny thing of the moment that they are playing most products in our current society would rarely Oh cool more new toys to play withbe successful. Where there might be some disagreement though is over the extent of their impact.


The end result though is that as much as we might like to belittle, poke fun at or complain about how much noise they are making over what some might consider stupid the early adopter crowd is; and always has been, an integral part of any product launch and possible success. As such they are interesting to watch and learn from as they move from product to product like kids on Christmas morning tearing the wrapping off of their presents.


Conversation Tags: early adopters, social media, technology



Feed Ads By BidVertiser.comFeed Ads By BidVertiser.com



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Voir en ligne : Aren’t early adopters so cute and adorable

Warner Has Lost Its Senses In Last.FM Split



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Last.FM marked a company milestone many months ago when it signed a number of music industry giants to its multi-million-strong audio track list. The now CBS-owned service counted Warner Music Group as one of the first participants. No more. This week, Warner retracted its catalogue, as was reported first by Peter Kafka of Silicon Alley Insider. The reason? Greenbacks. Not enough of ‘em coming through, apparently.


As Saul Hansell of The New York Times explains it, Warner saw that its contract with Last.FM had come upon its final hours, and because CBS wasn’t willing to offer up the bucks Warner was requesting to allow the online streaming service to continue serving its songs - on-demand or otherwise - goodbyes were given.


Executives “briefed on the negotiations” claim that Warner wasn’t happy that Last.FM hadn’t yet enacted a planned fee-based subscription service, which the music giant had hoped to see, but I imagine that had little to do with its departure. Paid subscription music services on the Web have not shown strong growth in the past, and there’s little reason to expect Last.FM to put on a significantly better performance in that department. Instead, I presume the probable cause rests exclusively in the ad-suppported per-track playback fee, which Hansell describes as one purported soft spot responsible for discontinued relations. Warner claims to have found that services like Imeem and MySpace Music “offer richer deals.”


As with the largest service-provider-versus-song-provider battle in the purchase-to-own digital download arena (as many now know, the majority of record companies have maintained restrictions on several million songs within the increasingly fast-selling iTunes Store from being sold as high(er)-quality, DRM-free selections), this exit by Warner from Last.FM serves the former no benefit.


I’ve said repeatedly that the music industry giants are really in no position to act overzealously when it comes to dealing with Web services. If Warner cannot get Last.FM to present a larger bounty per track playback, or even a broader ad-revenue sharing deal of some sort, it is likely because Last.FM cannot effectively muster such an increase. And for Warner to remove its catalogue is to potentially inhibit growth for Last.FM, which means it will logically take a longer span of time for Last.FM to build its usage figures (sans Warner in its repertoire) enough to warrant the desired increase in “royalty” fees.


Yes, CBS still maintains working relations with EMI, Sony, and Universal, which is certainly helpful to Last.FM. Those deals stave of a collapse of the service, which would undoubtedly come as a very inconvenient shock to many a music fan. But there is no trifecta in the music business. The only ideal is the four-play. (Unless further consolidation in the industry is realized.) And it is in the RIAA’s best interest to work collective, comprehensive deals wherever popular services may be found, because they then encourage growth of memberships for those respective services, and subsequently expand their own revenue streams, which have shrunk considerably in the past few years.


There’s really only one conclusion to make of this week’s news. A bad move by Warner brought bad news for Last.FM. There’s no winner to come of this severance. The still-rocky musical food chain could use all the mutual support it can get. That means all RIAA members need to lower their fences many more notches and start getting a good bit more liberal with how they distribute content.


Memo to Warner: Remove the blinds, guys. The strongarm approach won’t help your cause. Last.FM is no frenemy. Don’t keep it at arm’s length. Get close, and stay close.


---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Last.fm Partners with The Orchard…Mashable Readers Fall Asleep
Last.fm Partners with EMI
WOW: CBS Acquires Last.fm for $280 Million
Last.fm Partners with IODA - Even More Music on Last.fm
Last.fm Partners with Warner
Warner Drops Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Imeem
Last.fm Launches Subscriptions - Surviving the Online Radio Fallout







"

Voir en ligne : Warner Has Lost Its Senses In Last.FM Split

Amazon, Twitter, Disqus down. Do you really want your data in the cloud ?



"

I woke up this morning and checked TechMeme to see what was happening in the tech world. Three stories jumped out at me. Amazon was down due to a Denial of Service attack. Twitter has been down many times over the past few weeks. Dave Winer says he needs a Plan B for Twitter. Disqus, the blog commenting service, has also been down several times recently.

So, I decided to write a quick post about the unreliability of cloud based services. Normally I use Windows Live Writer, a desktop based program, to compose my posts. But, since this was going to be a quick post with no graphics or photos I decided to use TypePad's web based service. Big mistake. It crashed when I tried to run the spell check service just before posting. I swear, I am not making this up.

Typepad provides a browser window to compose your post. Then when you want to use spell check it calls out to another service and runs your text through it. At precisely this point the service failed. Actually it said it was running the spell checker...forever. I decided to let it run for a while to see if it would recover. Nope. I tried to refresh the screen. It said if I navigate away from this screen all work would be lost. It had already been 20 minutes and nothing else seemed to work so I tried the screen refresh. Gone...everything gone. I tried the back button. No luck.

TypePad has lost my posts under similar circumstances probably 10 times out of 300 posts. So failing 3% of the time isn't bad, right? No way. That is why I stopped using TypePad for posting a long time ago. I thought I would be OK with a quick simple post. But, no, screwed again. That is it for me. Never again.

The web fanatics and blogosphere would have you believe that all applications will move to the web. Some will, most will not. Reliability, scalability, security, and a host of other issues will prevent most businesses from moving their mission critical applications to hosted services or cloud based services. The risk of failure is too great.

Amazon is the leader in cloud based services, but even Amazon has experienced down times for its own business. Cloud services will continue to improve. But my guess is the uptake will take longer than most people predict. Today was another reminder of the reality and risk.

Subscribe - To get an automatic feed of all future posts subscribe here, or to receive them via email go here and enter your email address in the box in the right column.



"

Voir en ligne : Amazon, Twitter, Disqus down. Do you really want your data in the cloud?

T-Mobile Sues Starbucks, Says It Jumped The Gun On Free Wi-Fi



"


Only several days have passed since Starbucks and AT&T officially made available free Wi-Fi to US customers (upon purchase, registration, and use of a Starbucks Card with corresponding rewards program), and already T-Mobile, the coffee chain’s pre-existing wireless Internet service partner, has presented a lawsuit in New York state court.


Reuters reported on T-Mobile’s filing Friday evening, in which the company claims that Starbucks “secretly colluded with AT&T to offer free Wi-Fi Internet access in its cafes despite an exclusive agreement with T-Mobile.” T-Mobile is said to be “seeking unspecified damages against Starbucks for breach of its contract and unfair competition.”


Upon announcement of the new deal, Starbucks said that it’s long-standing arrangement with T-Mobile would be phased out in 2008, a plan T-Mobile allows is true, though it says that the stipulations of said plan was that the original provider for Starbucks was to maintain “the exclusive right to ‘sell, market and promote its services’ in Starbucks stores until those stores were fully converted to the AT&T system.” The suit goes on to allege in greater detail that “Starbucks stores would be transitioned (away from T-Mobile) ‘on a market-to-market basis.’” T-Mobile stated that, as of Thursday, the original date of the suit, only locations within San Antonio, TX, and Bakersfield, CA, had completely made the transition.


Though T-Mobile may claim Starbucks has breached their previous agreement, it seems that the coffee giant can perhaps slide past negative judgement in court - if the case is to proceed that far. T-Mobile’s admittance that a gradual, market-to-market transition may well give Starbucks a wide enough window to respond with the technical argument that has followed those rules. It could be exceedingly difficult - save for a good supply of evidence of conflicting transgressions - for T-Mobile to secure a win.




T-Mobile Sues Starbucks - Get more Legal Forms

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Free iTunes at Starbucks
Starbucks and AT&T Officially Cut The Ribbon For Free Wi-Fi
Starbucks’ Bright Idea: Launch a Social Network.
Goombah Holding Starbucks Music Makers Contest Online
AT&T Giving Away Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks
Apple to Launch Wireless Coffee Ordering System?
SMACKDOWN: Veoh Sues Universal Music







"

Voir en ligne : T-Mobile Sues Starbucks, Says It Jumped The Gun On Free Wi-Fi

RSSMeme is the Authority on Google Reader Sharing Notes



"One month after the Google Reader team added the capability to add personal notes to shared items from RSS feeds, it hasn't been entirely clear whether this feature has been a tremendous success, a dud, or somewhere in between. But Benjamin Golub, author of RSSmeme, a shared items tabulator and statistics tracker, has amassed a wealth of data on these notes, which puts RSSmeme to the forefront as far as a resource for measuring their use.

I personally may share a few dozen stories on my Google Reader shared items feed per day. But I have, so far, stayed away from adding notes to the items I share, preferring to let those who may follow my feed get the item, uncluttered by my own graffiti. In fact, I am less willing to reshare an item from another person's link blog whom I am subscribed to for that same reason, not wanting to pass their own notes to my readers.


But while I'm lagging in my early adopter responsibilities, Golub reports that nearly 30,000 shared items in Google Reader that flowed through RSSmeme were tagged with notes in the last month, just over 13% of all stories. (See: More Google Reader Notes Statistics) The average item with notes had 1.44 notes per story, meaning there is a 44% chance that once an item gets a note, it will get a second one also. These 42,000+ notes, Benjamin shows, were created by just over 4,200 users, at 10 notes apiece, or one per individual user every three days.

While I've not yet embraced the notes, I have embraced RSSmeme's showing me when people added a note to my own items. Through use of the product's FeedFlare, I can see not just how many shares an item has, but I can see if it has notes, and click through to see what somebody said about my post. Now, if I see "Shared 15 times with one note", I often click on the alert and am directed to RSSmeme's dedicated item page to see who said what. Rather than subscribe to a boatload of linkblogs, RSSmeme can act as the conduit between the blog author and the person sharing and noting.

Is RSSmeme's cool integration enough for me to start adding my notes to Google Reader shared items? Probably not. As Drew Olanoff of ReadBurner noted on our weekly podcast earlier, I am already pushing a lot of new items in and sharing every day. I don't think I need to add commentary to each one. But for those who like it, and aren't acting as a fountain of noise, RSSmeme's capabilities are very useful.


"

Voir en ligne : RSSMeme is the Authority on Google Reader Sharing Notes

Google, Netvibes Help Football Fans Follow Euro 2008



"


The tournament for the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro 2008 for short, commenced this weekend, and will carry through to June 29. Fans of the games will of course been keeping a close eye on their television sets, whether watching competing teams square off in Austria or Switzerland, the two host countries this year.


Still, if you’re planning to undertake an in-person tour of the multinational event, Google can help you find your way around the highlight Swiss cities of Basel, Bern, Geneve, and Zurich and the Austrian cities of Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Salzburg, and Wien (Vienna) with a custom map created with help of transit authorities SBB and VBZ of Switzerland and OBB of Austria. This data will certainly come as a convenience for those who wish to watch the players work the three-week bracket while standing (and jumping and screaming) tens or hundreds of feet away.



The visual aids don’t stop there, though. Match data - statistics as well as the game schedule - for each stadium is presented in the mashup. Google has also added representations of “all eight stadiums hosting the games to the ‘3D Buildings’ layer” of its Earth utility.


Of course, you could always go to the official Euro 2008 website to get match info as it comes in, but Google’s all-in-one setup is bound to get a good number of hits, too. And if those options weren’t enough, Netvibes this week announced the debut of a widget titled ‘Euro2008’ to get a glimpse of the match calendar, national team standings, and news. So whether you want to follow the wins and losses on a start page, an interactive map, or a virtual globe, you can.


---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Netvibes Rugby World Cup Widget for Vista
Netvibes Ginger: 50 Invites for Mashable Readers
Mashable Multi-Feed Netvibes Module Released!
Netvibes Universe - Now Available For Corporations, Too
500 Netvibes Universes Available
Universal Widget API Debuts
Richard MacManus: Live.com has Nothing On Netvibes







"

Voir en ligne : Google, Netvibes Help Football Fans Follow Euro 2008

T-Mobile Sues Starbucks Over Free Wifi



"

What do they say – one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Looks like that was for T-Mobile USA that has filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, which had recently switched over from T-Mobile to AT&T.


AT&T offering free WiFi at Starbucks locations is putting the hurt on T-Mobile’s WiFi business, prompted the lawsuit. (Hey Ma Bell, thanks for listening to our suggestion about free Wifi. ) At the time of the original WiFi announcement all three parties – Starbucks, T-Mobile and AT&T – made polite noises about getting along and impacting each other’s business.



Predict The Outcome Of T-Mobile Vs Starbucks Suit




  • T-Mobile Wins, Gets Compensation

  • Lawsuit Is Dismissed

  • They settle out of court













Even though, only two markets (San Antonio, TX & Bakersfield, Calif.) have switched to AT&T, T-Mobile is chagrined that Starbucks & AT&T are offering a free WiFi promotion. ( Rest of the Starbucks’ stores still use the T-Mobile network. As a result the free offer breaches most of the agreements put in place between the three parties.


“Our wifi business is a key component of our strategy as we are looking at it to build our TMobile@Home offering,” Peter Daobrow, spokesperson for T-Mobile said in conversation this morning, The company plans to have about ten T-Mobile@Home devices by end of this year. He wouldn’t say how much his company is going to lose because of Starbucks actions. “After six plus years of our relationship this was quite a disappointment. They didn’t involve us even though it does impact us financially.”


The fact that a coffee seller has become a key pawn for two telecoms is amusing. First, the free WiFi is vital for AT&T, which might be facing the worst kind of network usage with the launch of 3G iPhone. They need to offload as much traffic off the 3G network to WiFi networks, whether at home, work or at Starbucks. T-Mobile on the other hand seems to make a considerable amount of money from its WiFi network, which also compensates for its current lack of 3G network. [Full lawsuit embedded below the fold.]




Read this document on Scribd: T-Mobile Vs Starbucks Lawsuit




"

Voir en ligne : T-Mobile Sues Starbucks Over Free Wifi

Hale "Bonddad" Stewart : What's Going On in the Oil Market ?



"

So -- what's behind oil's latest price spike? And the general price spike that's been happening for the last year and a half? There are a ton of contributing reasons, but one stands out as the biggie.



First -- let's look at a few price charts.





The is a weekly chart of oil which goes back about three years. Notice the following points on this chart:



-- The market has been in a strong rally since the beginning of 2007.



-- Prices have continually moved through previously established resistance points.



-- Prices have consolidated price gains in 4 different areas.



-- Notice that all the simple moving averages (SMAs) are moving higher.



-- The shorter SMAs are above the longer SMAs



-- Prices are above all the SMAs



This is what a bull market chart looks like.



Let's go to oil's daily chart.





-- The market has been in a strong rally for four months.



-- Prices have continually moved through previously established resistance points.



-- Prices have consolidated price gains in 3 different areas.



-- Notice that all the simple moving averages (SMAs) are moving higher.



-- The shorter SMAs are above the longer SMAs



-- Prices are above all the SMAs



This is what a bull market chart looks like.



Oil is priced in dollars. Let's see what the dollar chart looks like.





On the weekly chart, notice the following points:



-- Prices have moved lower for the last two years



-- Prices have continually moved through support to hig lower levels



-- The 20 and 20 week SMA are both moving lower; the 10 is moving horizontally for now



-- Prices are below the 20 and 50 day SMA and are trading right with the 10 day SMA. This is a very bearish configuration.



On the dollar's daily chart, notice the following:





The dollar dropped at the end of February, eventually consolidating in a triangle pattern from the end of March to the end of April. Prices have risen a bit since then, but are now trading between 72 and 73.5. Prices and the SMAs are bunched together with the SMAs all moving sideways indicating a lack of direction.



So -- the unit of currency used to price oil has been dropping hard for the last two years. In addition, on Thursday, the European Central Bank's President made very hawkish comments:



European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said Thursday that inflationary pressures in the euro zone will last longer than previously expected, with risks to price stability increasing further in the wake of robust food and oil prices.

The ECB may even raise its 4.0% interest rate, left unchanged on Thursday, at its July meeting, Trichet said. "I don't say it's certain, I say it's possible," he said.



Inflation trends have put the ECB in a state of "heightened alertness," Trichet said after the Governing Council meeting in Frankfurt.



.....



His more hawkish slant was further underscored by the bank's new staff projections for economic growth and inflation over the next two years. Inflation in 2009 is seen at around 2.4%, Trichet said.



Any projection for inflation in 2009 above 2.3% is "an unexpectedly hawkish signal," said Holger Schmieding, an economist for Bank of America.



"A number of us (on the Governing Council) "thought there was the case for raising rates," but Thursday's decision was taken by consensus, Trichet told reporters.



Higher European interest rates make the euro more valuable and the dollar less valuable by comparison. As a result, the euro has been rallying for two days and the dollar has been dropping for two days adding to more concern about the currency the oil is priced in. Hence, we get more increases in oil's price.



There has been some speculation that hedge funds are responsible for these price spikes. While they are responsible for some of the spike, they are not the primary cause. Right now people are looking for a scapegoat to blame, hoping that getting rid of the scapegoat will get rid of the problem. The real problem is two fold.



1.) China and India are growing. This is raising the standard of living of about 2 billion people, thusly increasing oil demand worldwide.



2.) At least from the US perspective, it should be clear that we have no energy policy and that our current "policy" (using a very liberal definition of that word) encourages massive consumption. Barry Ritholtz over at the Big Picture Blog wrote this list of 27 things the US has done which are adding to oil's price increase:



1. Limited areas available for offshore drilling;

2. Stopped the rise of CAFE standards for automobiles;



3. Restricted nuclear power generation of Electrical;



4. Federal Reserve policies since 2001 led to a very weak US dollar (raising Oil prices);



5. Energy conservation policies? None



6. Iraq and Afghanistan wars contributing to Middle East tensions



7. No major United States funding for R&D on energy;



8. Kept CAFE standards for light trucks/SUVs much lower than autos;



9. Failed to raise efficiency standards for appliances for decades;



10. Provided no tax incentives for consumer purchases of hybrid automobiles for decades (in 2005, provided a modest, now expired tax credit);



11. Suburban Sprawl: Americans, on average, live further from where they work than Europeans do;



12. Mass transit system not a high priority;



13. Allowed tax credits for residential solar power to expire;



14. No special capital gains treatment for VC alt.energy investment



15. Ridiculous corn ethanol policy helped drive food prices higher also;



16. Amongst the lowest gasoline taxes in the developed world;



17. No special capital gains tax treatment for clean energy technology development;



18. Created a tax incentive (ADCS) that encouraged purchases of large inefficient vehicles;



19. Game changing breakthroughs over the past decades in solar, battery, or energy generation technologies? None



20. Exempted light trucks, SUVs, and pickups from gas-guzzler tax;



21. Discouraged clean coal, including gas liquification from coal;



22. Limited (or non-existent) state tax incentives for building energy efficient homes;



23. Failed to aggressively promote compact fluorescent light bulb;



24. Limited hydro-electric power generation;



25. Aggressive tax incentives for battery technology development? None



26. Failed to aggressively promote efficiency improvements for residential energy use, transmission of power, or consumption;



27. No new oil refineries built in the USA over the past 25 years.



I realize some people may disagree with some of the above points, but there is no doubting all the above points are helping to push up oil's price.



The bottom line is this: the reasons for oil's upward spike run deep and wide. The main contributing factor -- the dollar's drop -- isn't going away anytime soon, largely because the US' federal finances are a total wreck. It's going to take a massive effort by Washington to develop and implement a national energy policy -- which this country desperately needs. Given the current environment in Washington I'm not holding my breath.




"

Voir en ligne : Hale "Bonddad" Stewart: What's Going On in the Oil Market?

Kimberly Brooks : Artist As Second Career : The Wild World Of Kathy Taslitz



"

I am fascinated by artists who find themselves and their art careers later in life. Unlike, say, mathematicians and scientists who allegedly peak before 30, artists tend to mature and get better with age like a fine wine. Take, for example, Wassily Kandinsky, who in 1895 was minding his own business as a law professor at Moscow University, when he saw the nearby French Impressionists Exhibition and felt outraged that Monet felt he had the right to paint things in a way that made the subjects not perfectly recognizable. Cut to: one year later, he comes home all dressed in his knickers, throws his leather briefcase on the kitchen table and says to his wife, "Honey, pack up the house and the kids--I'm quitting my job, we're moving to Munich and I'm going to be a painter." Kandinsky, of course, went on to be a leading theorist and practitioner of abstract painting. Another example is Henri Rousseau who retired from his job as a tax collector in Paris at age 49, had never left France or visited a jungle in his life, taught himself to paint, yet left the world with such renowned images as the "Snake Charmer".



2008-06-06-brooks1.jpg
Left: Kandinsky "Abstract" Right: Rousseau's "The Snake Charmer"




I believe being an artist is a calling, and if it is inside you, it is always there, scratching and clawing to find a way out. I also believe that most people have one inside them-- that your hairdresser really wants to be in a rock band, your lawyer is a frustrated comedian and the postman is secretly a poet. It takes guts to let it out; to make that transition. For those who do it later in life -- and don't just sail from high school to an art major to MFA, etc.-- there is a particular sweetness to the final product; one that radiates the texture of the circuitous path, the passion necessary to pivot and the essence of arriving toward one's truest self.



One such artist who made that leap is former advertising executive Kathy Taslitz. If not in a Rousseau painting, her limited edition art pieces might appear exactly in the part of Maurice Sandak's Where the Wild Things Are when after being punished and sent to bed without supper, Max's bedroom turns into the the jungle. She just opened the doors to her studio to showcase her limited edition works in Chicago a few weeks ago.



2008-06-06-table.jpg
Kathy Taslitz. Truth, 2007 Blackened bronze, Macassar ebony, and mirror




Kimberly Brooks: I'm fascinated by the path you've taken as an artist. In college you majored in communications major, became a successful ad executive and now are making art and living as an artist. Was it something that you were harboring in you all along and then finally came into? Or was it a sudden urge that overtook you and you just followed it?



Kathy Taslitz: Yes and no. I have always thought there was something more I needed to do creatively and put forth that had never been satisfied. I wasn't sure what it would be until I began creating these pieces. I knew I had a voice that hadn't been expressed. This series of works--"Pieces of Ourselves"--has a point of view. It tells a personal and global story about the human experience.



KB: In your bio you mention that you're the daughter of an artist. Can you tell a specific story of working with him/her and how that influenced you?



KT: My mother is an artist that has worked in various media. I remember one day when I was five or six, she took me to the studio where she painted and I had my own canvas to paint as she and the other artists painted theirs. Afterwards, there was a critique where I felt very encouraged. She always had her supplies around the house and let me work with them while she did.



2008-06-06-chain.jpg
Kathy Taslitz, Family Chain, 2007, Blackened bronze, glass, and stainless steel


KB: What is the genesis of your first collection, "Pieces of Ourselves"?



KT: Pieces of Ourselves is a collection of sculptural furniture that grew out of my love of nature and my regard for the stories and truths it offers us. I wanted to bring timeless ideas about nature and experience into modern, human settings. Family Chain, for instance, stresses the strength and stability of roots in the ground, but I hope it also relates the power of partnership, connection, reach, light.



Kimberly Brooks: How did "Old Leaf" come about?



KT: When I walk in the woods or on the beach I am always inspired. But there was one day when I was particularly contemplative, and my senses were very acute. I was struck by the leaves that had fallen to the ground, by their dignity, and by their ability to impart strength and wisdom through the simple act of letting go. I knew that was something that would remain momentous in any setting.



2008-06-06-oldleaf.jpg
Kathy Taslitz, Old Leaf, 2007, Blackened bronze and polished bronze




KB: How do you transform an idea into these sculptures that double as furniture?



KT: The great sculptor Henry Moore said "To know one thing, you must know the opposite." I love that. I am fascinated by both nature and modernity, and though we tend to think of them as opposites, being human really means living out this duality--life is the quest to do this well and gracefully. First I'm inspired by a specific expression in nature, and then I start to sketch that inspiration, but as I work, I move toward making the forms I see in the natural world tangible in some new, modern way. I gravitate toward materials like bronze, glass, and aluminum, which have a very urban quality. To the extent that I have a routine, it is this consistent openness to interesting combinations of forms and materials, and a progression from inspiration and a romantic sensibility to functional pieces that reveal an attention to detail and craft.



KB: Is there a work of art that inspires you?



KT: I have so many inspirations--Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Alberto Giacometti, Rene Magritte, Henry Moore, Juan Miro, Isamu Noguchi, Man Ray. For as long as I can remember I've felt a strong attachment to surrealism, which shares the view that nature illuminates our experience and enables us to tap into the subconscious and develop our self-awareness and human potential. I also love how the surrealists play with the familiar to forge new meanings. Magritte did this brilliantly in works like "The Son of Man."



2008-06-06-magritte.jpg
Magritte "Son of Man"




The daughter of an artist, Kathy Taslitz learned about the aesthetics of art and design early on. She pursued a communications degree at the University of Illinois. After graduating, she worked as an advertising executive and found herself drawn to the creative world as a photo stylist in the fashion and home furnishings industries. Taslitz has been an interior designer for the past nine years, which informs her art practice. She is the winner of an ASID Illinois 2006 Designer Excellence Award. "Pieces of Ourselves" is Taslitz's first collection of sculptural furniture. Her studio is in Chicago, IL. Taslitz's recent show "Pieces of Oursleves" can be seen at www.ktaslitz.com.



--

First Person Artist is a weekly column by artist Kimberly Brooks in which she provides commentary on the creative process and showcases artists' work from around the world. Her current solo exhibition "Technicolor Summer" runs through June 14th at the Taylor De Cordoba Gallery in Los Angeles. Come back every Saturday for more Kimberly Brooks.




"

Voir en ligne : Kimberly Brooks: Artist As Second Career: The Wild World Of Kathy Taslitz

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