7/12/07 Update:
Twitter is an online app that we've talked about before. While mostly a geek toy, it could have some practical applications, such as a quick and easy way to check in with someone who's traveling, or keep simple notes while attending a meeting (since Twitter can be accessed via text message as well as computer, you can be in touch more or less constantly).
Now, you can integrate a little Twitter "badge" into your blog, as well, as I have done on mine. This badge is a little strip of code you add to the template of your blog that places a small Twitter window on your blog, and will update it as you update your Twitter account. The code is available by clicking on "Badges" on the Twitter website, and then selecting the major, or generic blog type that you use.
While Twitter will automatically place the badge on a major blog-space, such as Blogger, or Facebook, you can also get the code, tweak it and place it in your template yourself.
7/13/07 Update:
What is this Web 2.0 we keep hearing about? Says O'Reilly.com (the O'Reilly books are probably the best instruction/information books on information technology in print today): "The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. What's more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as "Web 2.0" might make sense? We agreed that it did, and so the Web 2.0 Conference was born."
The best way to describe Web 2.0 is comparing what constituted Web 1.0, and what its replacement on Web 2.0 is. This is the chart O'Reilly offers:
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick --> Google AdSense
Ofoto --> Flickr
Akamai --> BitTorrent
mp3.com --> Napster
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia
personal websites --> blogging
evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation --> search engine optimization
page views --> cost per click
screen scraping --> web services
publishing --> participation
content management systems --> wikis
directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness --> syndication
Writer/broadcaster Stephen Fry says Web 2.0 is "an idea in people’s heads rather than a reality. It’s actually an idea that the reciprocity between the user and the provider is what’s emphasized. In other words, genuine interactivity if you like, simply because people can upload as well as download."
Here is a popular visualization of this concept:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Web_2.0_Map.svg/400px-Web_2.0_Map.svg.png
Oh... and if you want to read the Sprint termination letter (this is the supposed move by Sprint to terminate its customers who called customer service too often), read it here!
7/16/07 Update:
More trouble for Google! Reported in PC Magazine: "A Chinese company is suing Google Inc.'s China subsidiary for copying its name, saying the U.S. search engine's registered Chinese name is too similar to its own and has harmed its operations."A spokesman for Beijing Guge Science and Technology Ltd. Co. said Google's commercial name had led to the company being constantly disturbed by people calling up its office trying to contact the search engine.
The official blurb:
7/17/07
What is a troll? Well, in folklore it's a mis-shapen humanoid creature that lurked in places like under bridges where it could surprise unwary travelers. It's purpose was usually harmful. In Internet parlance, a troll is someone who intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community such as an online discussion forum to bait users into responding.
One of the newer online communities is Askville (http://askville.amazon.com/) established by Amazon. The purpose of Askville is to ask a question, and get an answer. Topics are displayed in "cloud" format, where topics (tags) are displayed in alpha order, but more active topics are in larger, bolder typeface.
Some questions from the "Political" topic on Askville:
"Four US Presidents have been assassinated. Lincoln, Kennedy, and ... Who are the other two?"
"What is the gas price where you live?"
"Is there any good news from Iraq?"
"Is there anyone in public life that you really trust?"
Other topics seem to have more information oriented questions, as opposed to what seems like poll questions.
Any user is free to ask a question, and users who answer questions build up what Askville calls "Experience Points." (I always have to wonder at the people who seem to be everywhere on certain forums: do they have anything else to do?) "Every time you answer a question on Askville you will earn or potentially lose experience points in the topics that were associated with that question. Askville uses experience points to determine how knowledgeable a user is in a given topic. Experience points are broken up into various levels. To reach a certain level you need to have earned a certain number of experience points in that topic."
Active participation on Askville results in the accumulation of Quest Coins. "Quest Coins is a virtual currency on Askville that users can earn by participating on Askville. To encourage participation and reward great answers, Askville users can earn Quest Coins based on specific actions you take. The table below summarizes the number of Quest Coins you can earn for different actions. Eventually you will be able to use Quest Coins when we launch Questville.com (coming in 2007). "
Askville is free to use, but does require registration. Unless you just want to lurk under a bridge.
Twitter is an online app that we've talked about before. While mostly a geek toy, it could have some practical applications, such as a quick and easy way to check in with someone who's traveling, or keep simple notes while attending a meeting (since Twitter can be accessed via text message as well as computer, you can be in touch more or less constantly).
Now, you can integrate a little Twitter "badge" into your blog, as well, as I have done on mine. This badge is a little strip of code you add to the template of your blog that places a small Twitter window on your blog, and will update it as you update your Twitter account. The code is available by clicking on "Badges" on the Twitter website, and then selecting the major, or generic blog type that you use.
While Twitter will automatically place the badge on a major blog-space, such as Blogger, or Facebook, you can also get the code, tweak it and place it in your template yourself.
7/13/07 Update:
What is this Web 2.0 we keep hearing about? Says O'Reilly.com (the O'Reilly books are probably the best instruction/information books on information technology in print today): "The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. What's more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as "Web 2.0" might make sense? We agreed that it did, and so the Web 2.0 Conference was born."
The best way to describe Web 2.0 is comparing what constituted Web 1.0, and what its replacement on Web 2.0 is. This is the chart O'Reilly offers:
Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick --> Google AdSense
Ofoto --> Flickr
Akamai --> BitTorrent
mp3.com --> Napster
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia
personal websites --> blogging
evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation --> search engine optimization
page views --> cost per click
screen scraping --> web services
publishing --> participation
content management systems --> wikis
directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness --> syndication
Writer/broadcaster Stephen Fry says Web 2.0 is "an idea in people’s heads rather than a reality. It’s actually an idea that the reciprocity between the user and the provider is what’s emphasized. In other words, genuine interactivity if you like, simply because people can upload as well as download."
Here is a popular visualization of this concept:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Web_2.0_Map.svg/400px-Web_2.0_Map.svg.png
Oh... and if you want to read the Sprint termination letter (this is the supposed move by Sprint to terminate its customers who called customer service too often), read it here!
7/16/07 Update:
More trouble for Google! Reported in PC Magazine: "A Chinese company is suing Google Inc.'s China subsidiary for copying its name, saying the U.S. search engine's registered Chinese name is too similar to its own and has harmed its operations."A spokesman for Beijing Guge Science and Technology Ltd. Co. said Google's commercial name had led to the company being constantly disturbed by people calling up its office trying to contact the search engine.
"We just want Google to change their commercial name," Tian Yunshan, a company official, told Reuters on Friday. "We have already passed our demands on to Google ... We will see what happens in court."
"The search engine's Chinese name—a transliteration of the English word "Google"—was also used in Beijing Guge's commercially registered name, Tian said."
Pidgin: Today, on the recommendation of a friend, I have downloaded and installed Pidgin, an IM client that allows you to converse with friends on multiple IM platforms.The official blurb:
"Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, and Zephyr.
"Pidgin can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AIM, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time.
"Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer, away messages, and typing notification. It also goes beyond that and provides many unique features. A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle; and plugins, consisting of text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify on away, spell checking, tabbed conversations, and more."
For my system, I need to activate both AIM and Google Talk. AIM was automatic - just required my Username and Password. Google Talk was a bit more complicated, but a little investigation on Google located the information I needed to get the account active. (Pidgin supports Jabber/XMPP, which is what Google Talk uses.)7/17/07
What is a troll? Well, in folklore it's a mis-shapen humanoid creature that lurked in places like under bridges where it could surprise unwary travelers. It's purpose was usually harmful. In Internet parlance, a troll is someone who intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community such as an online discussion forum to bait users into responding.
One of the newer online communities is Askville (http://askville.amazon.com/) established by Amazon. The purpose of Askville is to ask a question, and get an answer. Topics are displayed in "cloud" format, where topics (tags) are displayed in alpha order, but more active topics are in larger, bolder typeface.
Some questions from the "Political" topic on Askville:
"Four US Presidents have been assassinated. Lincoln, Kennedy, and ... Who are the other two?"
"What is the gas price where you live?"
"Is there any good news from Iraq?"
"Is there anyone in public life that you really trust?"
Other topics seem to have more information oriented questions, as opposed to what seems like poll questions.
Any user is free to ask a question, and users who answer questions build up what Askville calls "Experience Points." (I always have to wonder at the people who seem to be everywhere on certain forums: do they have anything else to do?) "Every time you answer a question on Askville you will earn or potentially lose experience points in the topics that were associated with that question. Askville uses experience points to determine how knowledgeable a user is in a given topic. Experience points are broken up into various levels. To reach a certain level you need to have earned a certain number of experience points in that topic."
Active participation on Askville results in the accumulation of Quest Coins. "Quest Coins is a virtual currency on Askville that users can earn by participating on Askville. To encourage participation and reward great answers, Askville users can earn Quest Coins based on specific actions you take. The table below summarizes the number of Quest Coins you can earn for different actions. Eventually you will be able to use Quest Coins when we launch Questville.com (coming in 2007). "
Askville is free to use, but does require registration. Unless you just want to lurk under a bridge.
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