Monthly Archives: July 2008

Green Comes to Technosailor.com

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Next week is a very special week here at technosailor.com. We are going to have a very heavy emphasis on “green” technology and all the major verticals will be contributing in one way or another.

Energy costs are sky high, Bush is badgering Congress to lift the ban on off-shore drilling, and computer manufacturers are bandying around trying to create the most energy efficient server – something I’m very interested in discussing with manufacturers, I might add.

There are plenty of energy alternatives to be had, from solar to nuclear to conventional oil, should the supply permit it. Our cars can be used less by telecommuting. We can all be smarter about the way we live our lives.

Our focus is, obviously, slanted toward technology and so we want to try to find the best ways to use the technology available to save the resources we have, keep costs down and maybe, increase the quality of life for all of us.

Next week, I’ll be making a brief trip to Dearborn, MI to visit Ford and see their next line new technologies for the new line of cars. I’ll be paying close attention to the technologies surrounding Hybrid vehicles, etc. Look for reports here.

What does a Grocery Store scanner have to do with a PC?

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I have a good amount of respect for Jeremiah Owyang. He’s an analyst at Forrester who has done some good work on social media.

On the other hand, why he isn’t well-informed enough to avoid asking really, really stupid questions makes me question whether I should take him seriously as an authority on technology, or at least makes me think he should avoid politics. He asks:

  • Is knowing how to use a computer and use the internet a job requirement?
  • Does it impact a leaders ability to manage the country and impact the world?
  • Does it influence your vote, if so, why?
  • What do you expect from your leaders? CEO? President?

    • Can we please stop asking these overused, over-parsed TV talking head questions that avoid the real issue?

    The question should be about whether or not a leader is familiar with how ordinary Americans live. This means more than being able to send an email. It means being able to drive, understand traffic, and fill a gas tank. It’s going shopping for groceries and seeing the prices on the scanner. Remember George H.W. Bush in 1992, when he was so amazed at the barcode reader? That cost him points.

    Both candidates for President are U.S. Senators with highly competent staffs that handle many daily activities that ordinary Americans have to do themselves, simply because of the demands of the job. They don’t have time to do many of the things that we do. Senators are highly micromanaged. Their days are scheduled and organized by campaign staff and office staff. As I have written before, elected officials have two jobs: The job they have, and keeping the job they have (or running for higher office).

    I’m tired of hearing about who is more “authentic.” I want to know what they know about how things happen. You know what would be a great campaign stunt for either Senator? Give your Assistant, Chief of Staff, Legislative Director, etc a few days off. Come in early, get a copy of your schedule, find out what you have to do, and do it. No handlers. The only people who are allowed to work in the office for that week are the ones who you do not receive briefings, assistance or advice from directly.

    How well could you keep up on the issues? What tools would you use? Would you become a wizard with your Outlook calendar? How would you research an issue? How would you get around?

    In other words, how would you live if you were us?

    You cannot solve the problem unless you know and understand the problem.

    (here’s an example of doing this well: Michael Bloomberg takes the subway to work. the man is worth billions, and he’s a straphanger. you think the subway gets the attention it needs? I bet it does.)

    Informalities Can Kill Your Job Search

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    The economy is way down and the pain is not only being felt at the pump. It’s being felt in the job market. Unemployment hit an all time high last quarter as more and as more and more people hit the streets looking for meaningful employment, bad habits are accompanying them.

    Sarah Needleman of the Wall Street Journal wrote a story today about the informality used in social media, text messaging and other “typical” lines of communication. Often times, the informalities deep six candidates.

    I’ll admit that I am guilty of being informal in job searches. Needleman indicates that the most egregious mistakes come from entry level candidates just out of school, indicating a generational (and of course, maturity) issue.

    I also tend to use emoticons mostly in IM. This has gotten me in trouble in the past where the text I’ve written in emails was misunderstood because of a lack of a :-) or ;-) to indicate humor. Text as a medium sucks, and that is why ultimate care must be taken in how text is formulated.

    Other things that can kill a candidacy with a company are:

    1. Not understanding the company culture
    2. Eagerness to proactively answer unasked and unrelated questions in an interview
    3. Blanket resumé distribution
    4. Inappropriate attire for an interview (Understand the culture of the company as in point #1, especially in the web space)
    5. Buzzword Bingo on resumés or in interviews
    6. Inability to discern exactly what an interviewer is looking for despite the questions asked
    7. Inappropriate behavior, photos, language as demonstrated in social networks, blogs, etc

    Obviously, not all of these things apply in every situation. Astute candidates get ahead of the curve and understand before sending “Send” what exactly is being communicated.

    As a bonus, my friend, Jen Nedeau, is quoted in the article as well. She demonstrates an appropriate use of these technologies.

    “I definitely text my managers if I am running late,” says Jennifer Nedeau, 23, a project manager at New Media Strategies Inc., a marketing firm in Arlington, Va. “I know I’m not bothering them with a phone call, but they’re still getting the message.”

    I’d add that text messaging a manager comes after you’ve got a good relationship with the manager or if he/she explicitly gives permission. Otherwise, you’re asking to be on a list. ;-)

    Walled Gardens and Business Models in the 21st Century

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    Walled Gardens. Defined as media properties utilizing privileged access to provide information services or content to a user. The classic example of a walled garden was AOL, before they opened up most of their services. Users paid $23.95 or whatever the access rate was and got access to the “AOL Network.”

    Then there was Facebook, the walled garden social network that restricted access to college and high school students, and businesses who had a Facebook presence. In all these cases, the confirming matter was a legitimate email address issued by the legitimate university, high school or business.

    Web 2.0 drastically changed the way we do “internet”. No longer do people expect to pay for these services, they simply don’t. AOL recognized this fact a few years ago when then CEO Jonathan Miller suggested to the board that AOL should drop its subscription model and open up. AOL decentralized and became an open platform, including their very popular AIM service. AIM, a formerly closed protocol, now is run via Open AIM, a service which has allowed the interoperability between Google Talk, Jabber, and .Me, to name a few.

    Facebook opened up big time. They decided to let the world see what was behind the curtain and were wildly successful. Though Facebook is still a walled garden in some respect to data, the walls keep falling with Facebook apps and Facebook Connect, announced last week.

    As a final example of a traditionally closed walled garden throwing all caution to the wind and embracing the open internet environment, I give you the New York Times. NYT excessively applies metadata to all of its content, opening up the door for others such as Blogrunner, a Techmeme competitor which is actually owned by NYT. More notably to the traditional media norm, the registration requirement (which is almost always free at online newspapers) to view articles was removed giving full access to NYT content.

    No registration. No hoops. Profit.

    The challenge, as Seth Godin is probably about to find out, is when a business model is built around paid access (or even free but registration required). I’ve toyed with the idea of premium content for RSS subscribers only here. Though I won’t promise not to try it again, I can say it did not work. There was no increase in subscribers. There was even better content and resources, yes. But it does not work.

    That said… one of the things that the open content movement seems to be bringing to light is single sign in. Facebook Connect, for instance, allows users to gain access to dedicated non-Facebook resources, free of charge and without forcing yet another account.

    This doesn’t solve business model. I think the Pay per Play model is flawed inherently and though some people are successfully making money on older models, I don’t think the honeymoon can last.

    That’s just me, though. Curious to hear what you think the best method of monetizing premium content is.

    Memo to Bloggers: Not Everything is Free.

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    Just a small, possibly controversial, thought on Redlasso shutting their doors for bloggers to use their content.

    NBC and Fox filed copyright infringement actions against Redlasso for allowing users search, clip, and post excerpts from copyrighted video content on their blogs. Redkasso (rightly) closed up their free service, but continues to supply to (paying) business customers.

    There were some puzzled, angry bloggers out there wondering why they would keep their system up for the bigwigs, but close off access to the free “beta” service. Press releases crowing about Fair Use and whatnot.

    Just because it’s a clip and you’re commenting on it does not make it fair use. Why?

    Blame Google.

    If you have AdSense ads, or any ads whatsoever on your blog, it’s not fair use. You’re making money. With someone else’s content.

    Some people have a problem with that, other’s don’t. My flickr photos are Creative Commons licensed. I still have the Copyright, but I can decide how to license my content. Maybe one day I will decide that I want to charge for using them. But not yet.

    Did you know that TV networks don’t always own their content? House, MD is broadcast on Fox but owned by NBC Universal. Even if Fox had no problem with RedLasso allowing House to be clipped, it’s not up to the broadcaster. It’s up to the content owner.

    RedLasso might even have permission to be distributing clips to paying subscribers. I know at least one other service that does something similar. But those subscribers can’t do just anything with the clips. Especially if money changes hands.

    I care about Fair Use. I’ve been involved in the issue since DeCSS hit the ‘net. Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. Really. I do have a DeCSS T-Shirt.

    I also know that copyright is a serious thing. Producing content, whether written, video, or audio is hard. If you pay for it, you do have rights. Fair Use. First Sale. Stuff like that.

    Why are people so angry about losing something they didn’t have in the first place?

    WordPress Plugin: WP-Brightkite

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    Some of you have noticed that I’ve been doing some experimentation in recent months with geolocation. Geolocation is a very powerful aspect of the next generation web. Particularly in the mobile space.

    Boulder, CO-based Brightkite stormed on the scene a few months back as a location based micro blogging network. Members could take photos from the cellphones, send short messages to be posted to the service, and follow their friends. Based on the concept of location, Brightkite users could “check in” to a location. I am currently checked in at “Woodlawn, Maryland”, a fairly generic location since I value my privacy in my home. However, people can check-in down to specific addresses, cafés, places of employment, etc.

    Though my fascination with Brightkite as a mobile microcontent network has faded, their is one aspect to it that I find extremely valuable in the absence of GPS on my Blackberry and the lack of ownership of an iPhone 3G. That is their KML file.

    I set about creating a plugin that would parse the KML file of the most recent Brightkite check in location. Thus, WP-Brightkite was born.

    Notably, for those folks interested in the geotagging content, the Brightkite plugin will parse latitude and longitude of the most recent checkin and geotag feeds using the ICBM RSS namespace. For a little extra bling, I’ve provided a template tag which drops a little Google Map next to the subject line of posts with geotagging (see this post, for instance).

    1. Upload the
      1
      wp-brightkite/

      directory to

      1
      /wp-content/plugins/
    2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’menu in WordPress
    3. Fill out Brightkite user data on your profile page. Note: Standard WP permissions apply.
    4. Use the
      1
       

      within your template to print a mini 10×10 map icon, clickable for Google Maps location.

    There’s quite a bit more I want to do with this, but since I’ve been using it here on Technosailor.com for a few months, I wanted to get it into the wild and fix any bugs (thus the beta tag) before exploring more functionality.

    Let me know what you think, and consider a donation.

    Update: Please log a ticket here if you are having difficulties. You must login with your WordPress Support Forums username and password (here) to get new ticket creation options. The comment system I have here does not seem to be sending people notices of followups on support requests.

    When logging a ticket, please tell me what version of PHP you are using and what version of WordPress you are using. Thanks.