June 2007
The Archives
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06.25.07Social networks and the military’s hidden classismI just finished reading a great article on a supposed class difference between MySpace and Facebook users. There is nothing you shouldn't be able to spot between the lines but a good read nonetheless. One thing I found interesting is her conservative take on the U.S. military's ban of MySpace. A month ago, the military banned MySpace but not Facebook. This was a very interesting move because there's a division, even in the military. Soldiers are on MySpace; officers are on Facebook. Facebook is extremely popular in the military, but it's not the SNS of choice for 18-year old soldiers, a ...
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06.24.07How not to design a user interface for the WebI'm just saying, when you launch a product on the Web, make sure you are using every available advantage the medium has to offer. ABC recently opened it's vaults and put their shows online. With their new player, we have yet another example of big media still not getting it. The interface (video below) is linear! So not only do you have to sit through the whirlwind pre-roll, but you aren't even able to select a title in one click. No, instead you have to scroll, one show at a time through the list. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1u6VnA6exw] I know it's petty, ...
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06.24.07Twitter to gain a voice with TwitterGramI'm late to the Twitter game but still find this interesting. Dave Winer has decided to bring voicemail to the internet, soon to be tied into the popular microblogging service. What he calls a TwitterGram will send a tweet with an URL to a 200K audio file. Good for the twittering while driving, updates that require more than 160 characters, sharing a song (at a concert), etc... His rationale is that Twitter is to a blog what a TwitterGram is to podcasting. A web-service should be up shortly at twittergram.com. I expect that it will gain traction but shouldn't come ...
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06.23.07Is noise Facebook’s next growing pain?Bill Erickson has an interesting take on the effects of Facebook applications on the site's userbase. A change has happened at Facebook and not many have noticed it. As the VC's and entrepreneurs have become more connected to facebook, the average user (a college student) has become more disconnected. Facebook as a replacement for TV? It was that 2 years ago, it isn't any more. As a college student and an entrepreneur (like everyone else in the world, I have a facebook app being released next week) I've seen the change happen. Last year, whenever we - and by we, I mean ...
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06.23.07Sony’s Minisodes on MySpace a good ideaThere is an op-ed piece on NPR entitled Old TV Is New Again, and Shorter discussing Sony's release of so-called minisodes. These TV classics, such as Who's the Boss?, Charlie's Angles, and The Facts of Life, will be trimmed to run 3-5 minutes, hence the name. Sony plans to distribute through MySpace, hopefully latching onto their viral userbase and targeting a broad audience, the younger of whom have likely never seen these shows. NPR's commentator on the piece, Andrew Wallenstein, thinks the idea destroys the integrity of the original shows, killing character development, removing plot, etc... His idea: ...
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06.22.07The Paris Hilton Litmus TestDoes the shift of keyword count at this year's Supernova Conference from relevant industry leaders to celebrities such as Paris Hilton indicate the Web is going mainstream. Paul Kedrosky thinks so. While it may be true that the frontiers of mainstream media on the Web are just now being explored, gossip and celebrity mishaps have long been a driver of traffic to seemingly irrelevant sites. BusinessWeek's August 14, 2006 cover story Valley Boy discusses the rise of the (then) new wave of development on the Internet. The accompanying podcast mentions that social news aggregator digg received it's first big break ...
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06.21.07Brief: Why this blogWhy am I starting this blog? In the spirit of Seth Godin's recent Just One Post I am trying to add just a little bit to the Internet's fossil record. I started this blog to focus on the tech industry, entrepreneurship, and business. I want to challenge myself to form stronger opinions and arguments, then share them with a larger community. I am humbled by the quality of some of the blogs I read. I want to develop my ability to communicate at their heightened level. Soon, I will be moving my content to ...
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06.21.07Don’t Get Tunnel VisionSometimes, looking around might just give you your answer. Let me explain. Recently, I was on my way to meet a friend for a round of golf. Leaving my house I looked over the directions to the course and stored the number and address into my phone. It was going to be 2 hours until I actually went to the course and having a larger ego than cranial capacity, I decided written directions wouldn't be required. If anything I had the address in my phone, right? So I run some errands than head to toward the course. ...
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06.19.07Fickle Facebook FriendsPaul Kedrosky has noted Facebook user's fickle adoption of the new third-party applications. Like any user-centric platform users can easily add or remove an application. This does lead to a high level of tire-kicking as Paul mentioned. What developers can expect then is an audience that approaches adoption with a try-before-I-buy mentality. In other words, the Facebook crowd is a savvy user base, fearless but harsh. Therefore, when developers are planning for and designing their F8 strategy, it is important to remember what the platform was originally designed to do. Just read the home screen, "Facebook is a social utility that ...
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