For a variety of reasons that are explored more thoroughly in the very first post there, I have decided to continue my blogging at a new location, inside the Opera Community.
Please do check out MUSE 2 at its home, here, and let me know what you think.
Hoping you will find my musings of continued interest!
My friend Mandheep recently shared this link with me via his blog.
My reaction was similar to his, though perhaps even more agressively critical of the position taken by the article in question.
The student body has migrated to world of apps. They no longer think in terms of “web site”, “homepage”, or “forums”. In fact, I don’t think they are even thinking in terms of “Internet”. Their interactive content experience is no longer segmented by platform (PC, Mac, mobile, PDA, etc), but rather by activity (tweeting, SMS, ringtones, video upload and sharing, etc).
The sooner developers come to terms with this, the more nimbly they will be able to participate in the ongoing evolution of social connectivity.
“Give me something interesting and engaging to do, but for goodness sake don’t try and tell me where I can do it, when I can do it, or how…I simply don’t care”.
Kids!
Secretary Chu is gaining a cult following…and the media wants to jump on the bandwagon!
For the longest time, I’ve been saying that the current “free Internet” would not last. However, the battle plan devised by the AP is contradictory at the very least, and idiotic, at first glance:
The A.P.’s president and chief executive, Tom Curley, claims the his organization is taking a new hard line that news articles should not turn up on search engines and Web sites without permission, yet the new software his organization has developed will, among other things, ensure that each article — and, in the future, each picture and video — would go out with what The A.P. called a digital “wrapper,” data invisible to the ordinary consumer that is intended, among other things, to maximize its ranking in Internet searches??!!
Could someone explain the logic of this to me, other than the possibly very unsavory possibility of some form of entrapment?
Content creators deserve to influence the value of their work. Some may choose to share their work for free, while others may choose to seek remuneration. I fully support that. However, just as the RIAA failed to “force” music consumers to bend to their will, so will this equally draconian measure fail to do anything but cause antagonism, resentment, and consternation.
Perhaps the intent is merely to elicit reaction and launch a much overdue dialogue on the issue? There are easier and less confrontational ways of initiating such a discourse.
Perhaps this is the clever “overreaction” phase in a well-laid plan, designed to bait-and-switch the consumer: begin by infuriating us with an uncompromising and aggressive stance, before changing tack - seemingly in response to our outrage - and offering a far less punitive solution to the challenge? I can only think there must be a less exhausting way for us to all get along.
The current economic crisis has rendered the consumer somewhat apathetic and despondent, so I’m not sure s/he will react in quite the same rebellious manner as s/he did to the RIAA. Will there be a Bit Torrent and Pirate Bay for news sharing? Only time will tell.
My hope is that, whatever restrictions the AP and other pubs place on access to their content, such boundaries will be matched by new models of for acceptable access to the content in question. It is pointless to refuse us access, on the one hand, without offering us new options for content acquisition, on the other. We don’t like the current model so much, and that’s been proven. Don’t force us to swallow that bitter pill.
Apple saw this truth, when they expanded upon the single use download model and monetized it fully.
Might I suggest that the future lies with e-readers, mobile content access, and the model should be multiple: some will wish to access via subscription, some on an ad-based basis, and some on a pay-per-article basis. Don’t choose for us, let us have the final choice. So long as the financial parameters are fair (a fair price for reasonable use), and the usage model is realistic (content when I want it, where I want it, how I want it), I believe we will happily comply with a content creators eminently fair desire to be duly rewarded for their creative and professional efforts.
White Roofs; White Pavements
If it costs the same, and then saves you money, to boot, what is the argument AGAINST this?
I say this should be mandated on new construction in regions 5 thru 9, and I defy anyone to cry “suppression of freedoms”, when the only freedoms they are losing are:
Wedding Entrance
Let us all pray…that we remember what it felt like on that first day together with our loved one, and celebrate the life we live, instead of preparing for the one we imagine.
(and if you’re not married, don’t think this video doesn’t apply to you: that’s you laughing in the wedding party, surrounded by all your friends, and celebrating just as much - if not more)
Lewis Black tries to parse the ongoing debate on universal healthcare…
Obsession
Jeff Bezos explains his Amazon ethos, and clarifies the reasons behind today’s Zappos acquisition.
Total Eclipse
About 1:30 into the video, things get interesting…unless, of course, you speak japanese, in which csae it may all be interesting!
Ode To Joy Redux
…um…study break…
If Frank Gehry and Jonathan Ive had a baby, and it was a car…
The only concern I have is that the engine shown seems to be a powerful yet conventional V12 piston engine. Where’s the hydrogen fuel cell option or, better yet, a madly creative fuel concept in keeping with the rest of the car’s advanced theory?
(thanks to Brick R. for the link)
Walter Cronkite - R.I.P.
Finally, someone manages to make these confirmation hearings mildly interesting…
Announcing a new type of “Courtney Love”.
This Representative is going to be riding a wave of big love on the web in the next week. It remains to be seen what his peers do to join him on that wave…
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…
A return to the classic blog nature: random commentaries, musings, inspirations, and the like - in no particular order.
