Very interesting outlook from the man behind TED:
How Web Video is Accelerating Global Innovation
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Category Archives: Web
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I'm a long time reader of Fred Wilson's blog AVC. Usually he writes about topics relevant to his venture capital business, but he doesn't hesitate to mix in posts about his personal life as well. Today he wrote that it's his 49th birthday and how he's beginning to see himself not so much as the 20-something with a chip on his shoulder any more. I read his piece in my Google Reader and it cracked me up when I saw the ad that Google served up with it:
I don't think Fred's feeling quite that mature.
Realtor Rolls While She’s Rolling
Found via Twitter is this realtor in Wilmington, NC who redefines multitasking by shooting informational videos while she's driving. It's an impressive skill, but how can this be legal? Or is it? BTW, it's pretty good info but if you're like me you'll spend the video waiting to see if she takes out a bike rider.
Shocker: Teens are Dense
Anyone who's the parent of a teen will read this story and say, "Well, duh." An excerpt:
Having been born into a world where personal computers were not a revolution, but merely existed alongside air conditioning, microwaves and other appliances, there has been (a perhaps misguided) perception that the young are more digitally in-tune with the ways of the Web than others.
That may not be true, as it turns out. A new study coming out of Northwestern University, discovered that college students have a decided lack of Web savvy, especially when it comes to search engines and the ability to determine the credibility of search results. Apparently, the students favor search engine rankings above all other factors. The only thing that matters is that something is the top search result, not that it's legit.
Just remember folks, just because today's teens grew up in a world where the internet has always existed doesn't mean that they miraculously grew a gland that gave them more common sense than the generations that preceded theirs. Heck, they're just as dumb and narcissistic as we were, but now they're armed with the means to show the world what idiots they are. In our day the only people subjected to our idiocy were our parents, neighbors and teachers.
Libraries Building Out Digital Loan System
An interesting article (subscription required) in the Wall Street Journal about libraries' efforts to lend more books electronically.
Starting Tuesday, a group of libraries led by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library, are joining forces to create a one-stop website for checking out e-books, including access to more than a million scanned public domain books and a catalog of thousands of contemporary e-book titles available at many public libraries…
With its latest project, the organization is making inroads into the idea of loaning in-copyright books to the masses. Only one person at a time will be allowed to check out a digital copy of an in-copyright book for two weeks. While on loan, the physical copy of the book won't be loaned, due to copyright restrictions.
The effort could face legal challenges from authors or publishers. Paul Aiken, the executive director of the Authors Guild—which challenged Google's scanning efforts—said "it is not clear what the legal basis of distributing these authors' work would be." He added: "I am not clear why it should be any different because a book is out of print. The authors' copyright doesn't diminish when a work is out of print."
Mr. Kahle said, "We're just trying to do what libraries have always done."
Whatever You Do, Don’t Tick Off the Artists
If you want to publish something online that generates a gazillion comments then I suggest the following:
- Use, without permission, an original illustration.
- When asked by the artist to remove the illustration, do so, apologize, say something like "it's kind of silly to put that image out there in the online wilds without any protection and get upset when someone uses it," and then explain to him how he shouldn't have made it so easy to use his image and point him to tools he could use to protect his image.
- Sit back and wait for the illustrator community to beat a path to your comments.
- Wonder how you never knew that artists could be so, so, so, virulent.
- Write another post on another blog that's inspired by your first post, and in this new post detail how artists can protect themselves from people like yourself.
- Sit back and gaze in wonder as the illustrator community finds your new blog post and goes even more batsh** crazy.
- Defend your position and watch those flames get higher and higher.
- Watch your boss take the illustrators' side in comment #147 and tell the world that you screwed up and apologize on the company's behalf.
BTW I've been reading Dana Blankenhorn, the author in question, for years and I definitely understand his point of view and I get what he's saying. I tend towards his view of online content (image or word) that in the long run you generally make more money by making it readily available online, but in this specific case I think the illustrator, Chris Buzelli, made some great points.
Buzelli does work for hire and he feels like the value of his work is diminished if it appears in the wrong place, and he also worries that a work for hire might be used inappropriately without his permission. For instance if a client gives him permission to use one of the pieces he did for them as a sample on his website and then that client sees the image used elsewhere, perhaps even on a competitor's website, Buzelli risks losing a client. Another good point he made is that he doesn't want his work used to illustrate an article that he might find objectionable.
Just so we're clear I think that Blankenhorn made a mistake by not first getting permission to use the image and then did the right thing by taking down the image as soon as he heard from Buzelli. I think he made another mistake by not simply apologizing and moving on, but I also think that because of this kerfluffle content creators now have an object lesson to reference. For his part I think Buzelli really did the right thing by not lawyering up and taking care of this directly himself. Finally, I think the last group of people I want to tick off are artists. They're scary when they get riled.
Go Topeka Your Name
So Google's doing this little deal where they're going to provide nasty-fast connectivity to certain municipalities at no cost. So cities around the country have been doing goofy things to try and get ElGoog to wire 'em up, and none goofier than Topeka, KS which changed its name to Google, KS. So the folks at ElGoog have a sense of humor on this April Fools Day. So here's the evidence:
Split Google Loyalties
Today I attended the Linking Winston-Salem luncheon and part of the program was a plea to support the Winston-Salem effort to get Googled. Winston-Salem is a little late getting started with its public push, especially when you compare it to Greensboro's weeks old effort, but I guess it's better late than never, and since I live in the Winston-Salem burbs I'm happy to see them going for it.
On the other hand thanks to my job and my long-time interest in the Greensboro blog community I've also been invited to participate in their various Google-wooing efforts. Typical of Greensboro they've been working out the kinks in public, but they seem to be making decent headway.
I've been thinking about this and I've come to the conclusion that I can't be the only one who's in this situation. I'm guessing that since this isn't an election I can vote for as many municipalities as I want, but I'm also guessing that Greensboro and Winston-Salem could be missing an opportunity. Wouldn't a consolidated, regional effort for the Triad make a lot of sense to Google? I haven't studied the requirements in depth so I don't know if this is even an option, but if it is I can think of a lot of compelling reasons for a Piedmont Triad effort:
- The combination of all the higher ed institutions in the Triad is pretty impressive (Wake, UNCG, Winston-Salem State, NC A&T, High Point U, Salem College, Greensboro College, UNCSA, etc.)
- The combination of all the large, public corporations between the two cities
- Each of the cities is doing some pretty cool economic development on its own (FedEx and HondaJet in Greensboro, PTRP in Winston-Salem) but when considered together the efforts seem even more impressive
That's just three positives off the top of my head, and I'm sure that there are people who will let me know if I'm all wet, but I still have to ask if a joint effort has even been contemplated?
I do realize that Google's basic info page says "We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people" and that even if you combined only Greensboro and Winston-Salem you'd be awful close to the upper limit so the entire Triad would obviously exceed it. Still, if Google's going to wire multiple mid-sized cities wouldn't it be of interest to them to do a couple in close proximity for purely logistical reasons? And if that's the case wouldn't it make sense for the various players in the Triad to throw in together to make a really, really compelling case with Google? Just askin'.
Why Twitter’s Influence is Probably Greater Than Most People Think
Fred Wilson has a post, Twitter.com vs. The Twitter Ecosystem, that is an essential read for anyone whose job involves Twitter. Strike that: it's important for anyone in business, period. I say that because the evolution of Twitter and similar "sharing" services is happening much faster than many people realize and it is reflected in the numbers that Fred shares. Anyone in business will be directly affected by that trend.
Please read Fred's post for yourself and keep in mind that his audience is a geek-ish, early adopter crowd, but over the five years I've been reading Fred's blog I've found them to be highly predictive of the world of communication and commerce that is about a year down the road. In other words they are behaving now the way the average consumer will be behaving in the next year or two.
Hall of Fame Redskin Twitterers
I've been on Twitter forever, but you'd never know it by the anemic number of people who follow me and whom I follow. One thing I've never done is follow celebrities. Not sure why, and it's not like I have a policy against it, but I've just never been interested in what famous people have to say in 140 characters or less. Hence I was surprised today to learn that some of my childhood heroes are active on Twitter. People like two Redskins from the golden age (1980s) who are now in the NFL Hall of Fame, John Riggins and Darrell Green.
Yep it's interesting that they're out there, but not interesting enough for me to follow them. It's not them, it's me. I like to follow people who link to interesting information or are active in my (physical) community so there's simply nothing of interest that these two or most other celebrities will write that will be of any interest to me at all. I'm also afraid that if I start following celebs I'll never get anything done.
Befuddled 