With UbiKann, I Can Be Everywhere
Take a look at the recent advert for Apple’s iTunes & iPod, featuring Bob Dylan. The advert plays with the well known shadows concept commonly used in both iPod and iTunes ads, however each person in the ad like Dylan is recognisable regardless of the shadow effect…
Enjoy 
Taking a look at the online photo industry may well give you the answer…
If you look at the new battle between Flickr (Yahoo) and Picasa (Google) then you could be faced with what will be happening soon in blogging.
Google is putting the heat on Flickr with its Picasa 2 beta that I have recently been testing. This is a trend setter in online photo sites…
Picasa 2 is not on their web site ! It is Windows based application/software we are talking about (also available for Mac OS X 10.4 or later). You download it and install it on your PC. The current stable version allows you to organise, edit, share your pictures (using extra software called hello) via email, instant messaging etc. It is extremely easy to use. If someone told me it was Apple software ported to PC I would understand better why it was so user friendly. It has been available since mid-summer so Picasa 2 beta is not the news here.
The version 2 beta of Picasa lets you upload pictures from your PC to your Picasa web album.
So you’re thinking that sounds cool and all, but what does this have to do with blogging ? Well everything. As I’ll explain now the ease of use and simplicity readily available on your computer is a real winner…
I realised when I opened an account at Flickr for my Dad that it was far too much for him. He looked on, wide-eyed, trying to follow the steps I indicated to him about uploading pictures and then organising them in sets. I knew he used the current stable version of Picasa and loves it. I understood I was faced with a dilemma.
Do I create a Picasa web account and show him how to use it and drop the advantages of Flickr ?
Or do I continue with Flickr, knowing that my Dad will probably not feel courageous enough to use it ! Hint to Picasa here about changing this maybe so that I will have no reason not to use Picasa ?
As you can see below I have the set of photos I selected in Picasa on my PC, and in less than a minute my pictures are up on the Picasa web site !
This is the initial Picasa page with my set of travel images, I click on “Web Album” :
Then I log into my account (you can ask Picasa to remember this) :
Next, Picasa starts uploading all the selected photos (you can choose what size to upload) :
And here are the uploaded photos on Picasa.
This is where the comparison hit me !
Blogging is the same. Until there is an application to create blogs which is as easy to use as Picasa, people will shy away from great systems like WordPress, Movable Type, Blogger etc. Note I said “as easy to use”. You need to have used Picasa and see how easy other people find it to use.
I’m not talking about changing the look of your blog, nor about the Tiger Admin from orderedlist.com which does wonders for the WordPress admin panel. I’m talking about a piece of software that you can download and runs on your PC, allowing you to create your post, preview it and then upload everything to your blog.
What is needed is a piece of software like Picasa 2, very stylish and trendy, but most of all, simple to use and understand. My Dad took to it and likes using it, he was really enthusiastic about it, so it is something worth writing home about !
Making blogging easy will be a winner. People like me, who design sites, code new stuff into their blogs and use beta versions of skins/presentations for blogs like K2 are a small percentage of the population.
A successful system will need to think about the majority of the population that will find the WP admin panel or any other web based panel system currently available so daunting they’ll rarely use it so they’ll rarely blog.
So I’d like to call on Google, Yahoo or Apple to create a piece of software for blogging (for PC, Unix & Mac) as described above, with maybe a spell checker, saving draft versions and uploading everything automatically to the blog of your choice. You’ll find people will not only blog but they’ll blog about your cool software and tell all their friends about it. We’ll have a blogging star system. For the VC lot among you, yes this means either a star or maybe even a cash cow !
The Economist is carbon-neutralized. The magazine decided that for its 16 page ‘Green’ section it would make a difference, not just in words, but in actions.
The idea sprang to life in the latest edition of The Economist, with a special environment section called “A survey of climate change”. The latest issue of the magazine has been carbon-neutralized. The Economist calculated the impact on the environment that the process of publishing this month’s issue would have, “so Carbon Neutral could trap the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (118 tons) in a U.S. mine as a way of neutralizing the emissions created by producing the magazine — cost about $1,200.” (Ad Age)
When interviewed, Emma Duncan, Deputy Editor of The Economist, explained that advertisers were quick to jump on the idea of participating in this month’s issue, especially companies that are keen on getting an environmentally friendly message across. They even got ads from companies that rarely advertise !
However the Economist not only took a bold step on this issue, the whole section was nearly all produced by Ms Duncan. Her work spanned over a four month period, travelling around the world to write the various stories that appear in this special section. The Economist found a novel and highly appropriate way of getting the message across. Savvy to on-line trends, they have a podcast interview of Emma Duncan that you can download or play directly from the site.
“We need to think about climate change maybe as individuals think about insuring their houses: you spend maybe 1% of your annual income insuring your house not because you think it’s going to burn down, but because if by any chance it did burn down, the consequences for you would be disastrous.â€
Emma Duncan, Deputy Editor of The Economist
So it’s an all round thumbs up for this prestigious magazine that will hopefully provide full access to their content soon.
Je viens de terminer la traduction de l’article ‘Web 3.0′ de Jeffrey Zeldman publié en janvier sur ‘A List Apart’. Il n’existait pas encore de traduction de cet article fort intéressant pour les francophones, voilà chose faite. Je voudrai remercier Jean Tournier pour sa relecture et ses remarques précieuses. Je souhaite aussi remercier Erin Kissane, éditrice du magazine ‘A List Apart’ pour son aide pendant la traduction.
J’ai connu les premières périodes de l’Internet et les regards perplexes à la fin des années 90 lorsqu’on expliquait “un travail dans le Web”. Le paragraphe “Bulle, bulle” de cet article a fait resurgir ces souvenirs. Je dois avouer qu’étant un passionné d’Internet depuis le début, j’ai été motivé par l’idée de traduire ces souvenirs…
Part of my family live near Leeds, while my close family live in France. I was looking to compare prices for flights from Paris to Leeds and a little green thing caught my eye next to the results on Google.
My mum’s flight from Leeds to France a few weeks ago was just after the foiled terrorist attacks story and she complained how little passenger alert information she had found on the Jet2 site. So I thought I check their site to see if they had added anything…
First of all I thought Google had started putting company logos on ads but then I realised, it was an icon not a logo. So I hovered over it first but no title info appeared, then I clicked on it (PS: I added the red arrow to indicate what I’m talking about) :
When you click on the arrow a mini form appears where you can add your telephone number and Google (out of the kindness of their hearts) offer to put you in contact with Jet2 via telephone “for free” !
Wow, if it wasn’t past 12 o’clock at night I’d take them up on the offer just to give it a try !
Note also the fact that they suggest remembering your telephone number so that you don’t even have to type you number in next time they offer the same call-back service
This is certainly a post I’ll be tagging with the word ‘Trend’.
I just came across a very interesting Google Video from Google. Luis von Ahn, a Carnegie Mellon professor, discusses the Captcha concept used to stop automatic systems from filling in forms and how currently Spam companies are trying to get around it.
Captcha is used to describe a system that allows a computer to automatically generate random numbers and or letters and then obfuscate them in order to render reading them by a computer highly unlikely or impossible.
This was interesting for me since I had worked on a similar concept for stopping people from requesting lost passwords on Significant-Media.
The video below then goes on to explain how human computation i.e. people solving problems rather than computers can be useful. With the Captcha system for example, computers are not capable of providing correct answers.
Then the ESP Game is explained and the process for it is pretty amazing from a thought process point of view. Anyone who has to come up with new ideas in their company should find this part truly fascinating :
The part I found really impressive, in view of a successive set of procedures, was when von Ahn explains the different combinations of possible player modes, as well as anti-cheating mechanisms…
The guy seems like a great teacher as well, if the seminar is anything to go by !
Placed in context this image tagging system is what early users of flickr were used to when they add tags to their own photos and is now pretty common procedure. Flickr was bought by Yahoo and Google well may have found a novel way of catching up here, if you read between the lines…
Update : interesting article over at the washingtonpost.com concerning a way to ‘turn the tables’ on the phishing techniques using images from the banks
I just came across this photo set of the same view using a time lapse intervelometer device. I was lead to it from a remixed version over on flickr : by ‘narphorium‘ (he explains how he did it in the comments with Photoshop)
Do check the original and the remix, both are really good pieces of work.
On the original page if you go down to the second picture, you’ll see that you get all 6 pictures used in both cases by hovering over the image either from right to left or left to right !
A CD from Sony that can tell how many times you have copied it !!!
I can remember that Martin, a flat mate at University, used to leave his copy of New Scientist hanging around in the kitchen for us to read. Since that time I have often bought a copy and now check the website. A pretty astonishing catch in this months issue concerning a patent from Sony.
First of all it’s not astonishing from Sony since you may remember that they already made a complete mess with their previous attempt. Second, well, will they learn it’s easy to hack whether they try to use software or hardware ? Third this could easily backfire on them, I’m not sure how but a company that has been so stupid thus far is bound to mess up again ! People have figured out how to spy on which links you visited using CSS so spying on what you played with this type of device installed would probably be feasible.
Allowing people to transfer the music to play on mp3 players is obviously not in Sony’s interest. It’s not like they make mp3 players (can you hear the sarcastic tone?).
Maybe Sony should read Architectures of control and “PRM†over at ‘The Flowing Candy Bees’, they might realise how they could be liable again.
London is the place to be for free newspapers. Soon there will be three free newspapers for Londoners to choose from !
The Guardian’s opening paragraph :
Newspapers are dying, but no one can accuse them of going quietly.
London is home to a “free frenzy” in Newspaperland. Next month there will be three free newspapers for commuting Londoners. Metro will be joined by a free newspaper from Associated and another from Murdoch. The battle is novel since unlike previous ones that entailed ‘price slashing’, free means no price wars ! Paris already has several free newspapers (one of them is Metro) and now it is London’s turn to have companies fight for the population’s reading time. Studies have shown however, as in Paris, how free newspapers actually create new reading time, in that many new readers of free newspaper didn’t read before. They didn’t read articles nor the adjacent adverts !
What can be referred to as ‘barriers of entry’, not only the price but the distribution barriers have been taken away. On top of being free, if Paris based free newspapers are an example then they can even be handed to you or placed conveniently on your way to work ! What more can you ask for ?
I find this interesting for several reasons :
- Newspapers are complaining about declining number of readers yet the example below of the Guardian shows that you cannot read the article before registering : access barrier
- Several newspapers like the WallStreet Journal and some sections at the New York Times cost members money to read : financial barrier.
(This model seems sustainable specifically to the WSJ which is a very specific case but for how long ?)
- Access to the Internet will soon be far easier/convenient than finding the closest newsstand/newsagents both at work and from home : distribution/access barrier
- Like the Internet the future of newspapers seems far more linked to advertising than circulation revenue
- Barriers are also barriers to viewing the placed adverts
The specifics of the current fight between Murdoch and Associated is further complicated by the fact that each company also distributes traditional newspapers that people pay to read. Creating a good free newspaper can obviously not be allowed at the moment to put the circulation revenue of their other (paid) newspapers in jeopardy.
But as the Independent article explains the idea of getting people into the habit of reading is not bad including the other (paid) newspapers :
Jim Bilton says: “Free newspapers are the only way of getting to the younger, non-newspaper readers and introducing them to the reading habit.”
The list of free newspapers in London will increase next month and as you can see at Free Daily Newspapers (below) there is also a 2 page A4 teaser from the Financial Times along with free newspapers in Manchester, Newcastle and Brighton in the UK.
Article refs.
- Roll up for a good, old-fashioned fight for the future (Guardian)
- Why should newspapers cost less money than a coffee? (Independent)
- Free Daily Newspapers
So what do film stars and Web 2.0 have in common ? Read on to see why value is not always where you think it is !
While checking out CNN I came across an article called “Beware the return of the Web Bubble”, which turned out to be about media companies potentially spending too much money for online social networking businesses.
Linked to this article was another called “Star Power fades in Tinseltown”, the same journalist Paul R. La Monica discusses the failures of recent movies with big stars as opposed to the success of movies like ‘Superman returns‘ and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’. Even though I watched and enjoyed both these movies I truly can’t think of the names of the lead actors.
As the journalist explains, numerous stars, including Cruise and Gibson, are making the headlines for bad reasons, alienating “a large portion of moviegoers”. Indeed, why not go for great writers, special effects and search for new talent. Paying millions for a well known movie star is not proving to be so rewarding.
For the past few years, monstrous box office hits have often been based on comic books, novels and sequels. And most of them have not had featured well-known actors and actresses. The characters and stories have driven the film’s success.
What is the common factor ? ‘Star’ sites of the moment on the Web considered ‘Web 2.0′ and film stars are being paid far too much ! Buying into a company is completely different to paying a well known star to be in your movie, but maybe the glitter of the stars, just like the web 2.0 buzz, is distracting people from the real value.
As Jeffrey Zeldman explains in his “Web 3.0″ article, it does seem that the hype around web 2.0 is getting a bit much. ‘Copy cat’ projects with a simple Web 2.0 veneer are popping up like honey pots. As La Monica points out on CNN Money, this could create a vicious backlash, similar to the web 1.0 bubble burst !
Taking these two concepts further, the real issue is savvy business decisions, rather than a cyclic economic trend. When News Corp. bought MySpace they most probably made a great deal. The finance world later realised that News Corp. had swooped in at just the right time, which triggered this grand race to copy them.
The CNN article is more of a warning, just like Zeldman’s web 3.0 article; it shouldn’t be a race it should be business as usual. Rushing into negotiations and paying 20 times the real market value (if there is any value and it’s not just a pale copy) is what lead to the web 1.0 bubble. I recommend Zeldman’s article for a better understanding of the web 2.0 hype.
There is real value out there, regardless of all the hype about web 2.0. Just make sure that you’re buying into value and not hype.
Article Refs. :
- Media companies shouldn’t overpay for their own MySpace (CNN Money)
- Star Power fades in Tinseltown (CNN Money)
- Web 3.0 (A List Apart)
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