My favorite tech/social software/meeting cool people conference is HAPPENING.
Gnomedex aims to be a tech zeitgeist – where today’s ideas and thinkers come together – although the direction of our conference may change in the following years. The conference industry certainly has affronted us several challenges, since we refuse to play the games that other conferences do. Gnomedex is still largely a labour of love (though also a small part of our business model).
Marc Canter – one of the most consistent critics of walled gardens/closed systems and the ghost towns they become hits it again with a post about subscribing to people
Well one clear way is to just ’subscribe’ to someone and then find out what they’re doing – wherever they are. This can only be done across vendor’s offerings – so it’s a great use case for open standards.
For a while now I have been a snob of social networks. “I get it, I get it” – I would join, check out early features, and not really invest in the community while trying to get a quick read on the SN. Understanding the theory without being invested. Recently, thanks to having to do the research, friends (like HH) inviting me left and right and some really exciting things happening in the SN space (like Marc’s PeopleAggregator, Facebook opening up, researching SNs in different cultures) I have been getting more invested different worlds, seeing what they have to offer, learning and experiencing (badges to come).
The biggest frustration I have is having to make a new profile from scratch in each of these places. Because, really, my hobbies are the same if I am in facebook or myspace. I might not put my entire employment history in Facebook, but if I did, why would I want to key it or copy/paste it 2x from LinkedIn???? What happens when these data sources become out of synch (like my employment histories or hobbies between social networks)?
The truth Marc has been sharing is simple – open it up (platforms), be free, listen to the customer (radical idea), and anticipate what they want (’cause they dont know it – yet), let them share (on your network and others). I used to think my blog was this center of the social universe for me – and it could become that… we just arent there yet.
We dont have one circle of friends. We don’t have one interest. We dont have only one favorite food. We dont have one email address. We dont only like one musician or singer or group. We dont like only one kind of movie or tv show or magazine. People like choice. They like options. They don’t always make a choice – and that is a choice in itself. They want to engage on their terms in the places and spaces of their choice.
The more you hold them down, lock them out, and box them in the easier it will be for them to invest (time, effort, ideas, creativity) in someone elses platform that is open.
From Marc’s blog:
http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com/2007/06/subscribing-to-people
the first post I find dives into another aggregator/platform Ziki
http://thew0rd.com/2007/06/25/zikicom-releases-v2-of-their-digital-identity-management-suite/
these guys should check out the conversation Doc is leading in VRM
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/vrm/
Great post from the personal blog of James Hong, founder of HotOrNot.com
For the first 3.5 years, it was Jim and I working about 10 hours a week each, with the company earning many millions of dollars per year.
Then 2 things changed, and we realized we had to change with them:
1) Startup economics improved, making it harder to keep good people
2) The Online Advertising Market improved, making free competitors a reality
Organic growth. Community based. Growth. Fun
I love print. I love magazines that commit and pay for long articles and long fiction. The web rewards neither approach. It’s a packeted medium, a surf medium. Short bursts are the way to go. The web isn’t a replacement medium — it’s *another” medium.
(my bold)
Awesome video telling/showing what Web2.0 is all about created by Anthropology Professior Michael Wesch. The video uses Web2.0 sites and technologies (like XML and RSS) to tell a short story using/embedded in the technologies that make it up.
Thanks to Somwhat Frank for the pointer.
13 out of 25 of the Web Celeb 25 are bloggers
1. Jessica Lee Rose
2. Perez Hilton
3. Markos Moulitsas Zúniga
4. Matt Drudge
5. Seth Godin
6. Jeff Jarvis
7. Glenn Reynolds
8. Amanda Congdon
9. Robert Scoble
10. Michael Arrington
11. Hosea Frank
12. Jimmy Wales
13. Harry Knowles
14. Frank Warren
15. Cory Doctorow
16. Xeni Jardin
17. Leo Laporte
18. Merlin Mann
19. John H. Hinderaker
20. Charles Johnson
21. Kevin Sites
22. Mark Lisanti
23. Jason Calacanis
24. Om Malik
25. Violet Blue
http://majestic.typepad.com/seth/2007/01/audients.html
I have not written anything on this blog in over a month. It bothers me not to write for such long periods of time, since I know that my influence expands and contracts based on on how often I post. Relationships require frequency of contact to flourish, whether they be personal or business oriented; and the relationship between me as the author and you as the reader is no different.
Found thanks to the incredible Techmeme and Fortune.com, an article about Second Life opening up its desktop application (not the server) to the Open Source community. As a sometime resident (I dont visit nearly enough – my first life is keeping me away) this is a killer event for the developer community and the user.
Rosedale and other executives say they fully expect there eventually to be multiple virtual worlds that use Linden’s code, or that at least are interoperable with Second Life, so avatars can pass from one world to another. Says Rosedale: “Say IBM builds its own intranet version with our code that’s somewhat different from Second Life. But it’s probably not that different. A user may say ‘Wow, this virtual thing IBM’s built is pretty cool. Now I want to go the mainland.’ And we have another customer.”
Sounds like the kinda thing Marc Canter would dig.
Open source, open standards, open ID, and now… OPEN WORLDS. Taking SL out of one set of servers, distributing it, making a community of second lives – furries in one (or 100), builders in another (or 1000), designers in another, regular folks running through all – different social mores, codes of conduct, experiences, platforms…
Article here.
