Social Software needs to show the seams.

Although I think the "socially awkward" and the "what's the point" problem of some social networking sites is a problem, I think the "suck up your email addresses from outlook" and the one click "spam all of my friends" features are the most troublesome. Stowe Boyd talks about his accidental "spam my friends with one click" episode with Zero Degrees.

Actually, what I find scarier is the way Spoke takes all of your email address from your headers and makes a network out of them. Even if you don't "join" Spoke, if someone who you exchange email with joins, you're actually already in Spoke.

I think the key is user control and a clear interface of what is happening. I think UI used to be a lot about making things "seamless". I think when you are dealing with sensitive privacy related information, your UI has to make it very clear where your data is, when it is going to be transfered to another machine, and what the privacy policy of the said machine is. Every time data moves across a boundary, the user should know this an be provided a choice. UIs that deal with personal information should be about showing the seams, not being seamless.

Ross and Judith also chime in.

[Joi Ito's Web]

Here - here!

That's why the FOAFnet will propose to add a "Enable export via FOAF" button - which will default off.

Folks will need to explicitely opt-in to have their names exported in a FOAF file transfer.  Thoughts?

This seems really cool - my sort of Content.  I'm definitely buying a copy.

Move over, Grey Album -- "London, Booted". Former BoingBoing guestblogger Todd Lappin says,

"Hot on the heels of the Grey Album comes another innnnteresting mash-up/bootleg project that was originally posted as a collaborative challenge to DJs in February. The goal: Take one track from the Clash's "London Calling," and "remix it, add to it, subtract from it - put your own tributary spin on it." The result is London Booted - 19 tracks (plus a few bonus extras) of eclectically reinterpreted Clash. In return for the download, the project organizers are asking listeners to donate to one of several charities, including Future Forests, a reforestation initiative that was a favorite of Joe Strummer. For £17.50 you can even have your own tree in Joe Strummer's Rebel Woods, a future forests project on the Isle of Lucy... er... Skye."

Pretty righteous. I'm fond of "Bubba's Got a Brand New Cadillac," "What about Brixton," and "(Spanish Bombs) over Baghdad," a mashup with a track from Outkast's Stankonia. Hmmmm.... Outklash? Link to London Booted home, and try this alternate site if that doesn't work. [Boing Boing]

Dodgeball expanding.

Geolocated social software app Dodgeball is expanding beyond its New York City base to include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Philadelphia.

(via Many2Many)

[Smart Mobs]

OK here we go - it's here - now.  Time to play.

 Power Tool Drag Races
Ace Auto International Speedway, San Francisco
5/11/2003

 

THE POWER TOOL DRAG RACES-- SATURDAY and SUNDAY, JUNE 12th and 13^th

Blown Big-Block Belt Sanders . . . Nitro Burning Funny-Saws . . .  Wheel Standin' Weed Wackers. . . it's

Racing . . . Racing . . . Racing . . .         Saturday. . .(AND). . .Sunday . . . Sunday . . . Sunday. . .

at the . . . Junkyard . . . Junkyard . . . Junkyard . . . 

Saturday and Sunday, June 12th and 13th, Chopped Chainsaws and Non-Normally Aspirated Angle Grinders will go head-to-head down 75 feet of two-lane blacktop at The Shipyard International Speedway (aka Ace Junkyard).  From Super Stock off-the-shelf machines, to full-tilt multi-motor Top Fuel moooooonnnstrosities, it will be capacitor blowing, carbide tooth shrapnel mayhem brought to you by, well, *you*- the finest redneck fabricators (a.k.a. machine "artists") in the Bay Area.  Participants and spectators alike will thrill to the speed and smells as Black and Decker, Porter Cable, DeWALT and Milwaukee battle it out for supremacy, dubious claims to glory, lots of cold hard cash, and yet another turn-the-key-and-drive-it-away EDSEL for the fastest run of the day (also known heretofore as "The Edsel Cup").

So join Dr. Hal Robbins, Chicken John and John Hell as they engage us for an afternoon of semi-benign alcohol fueled abuse with all the local aristocracy including: Flash-O-Matic on the V-8 Blender, the triumphant return of the Sean Kelly's Trashy Trailer Massage and Wellness Center, Justin Incredible's Miracle Wax(ing) Booth, and a special Synchronized Welding and Pole Dance Intermission Extravaganza by the Happyland Drill Team Cheerleaders!   Music, hot dogs, cotton candy, posters, T-shirts, promo booths, special games for the kids, Seth Maxwell Malice, and much much more yet to be figured out will make it a day of family fun not to be missed . . .

If confused, see what happened last year at: http://laughingsquid.org/pix/2003_05/power_tool_drag_races/

 WHAT'S NEW THIS YEAR:

This year we have TWO new racing classes and ONE fabulous TV contract with the Discovery Channel and Natural History New Zealand so come out for a day (actually two days) at the races and be the media WHORE that Deep Down you KNOW you are! 

All fun aside, kids, this year we've hit the Big Time (or something appearing to approximate it).  The above will be filming the event this year to create 4 one-hour pilot programs to be aired on the Discovery Channel next fall/winter as part of Discovery's ever expanding offerings in the "idiot American fabricators build stupid things" subgenre of the reality TV genre.  The production company behind this is a nice group of folk from New Zealand and not a sleezy LA porn outfit, as one would likely expect for the event in question.  We appear to have a reasonable contract and nice collaborative relationship with them that will retain our full control of the event (so all of us do not end up embarrassed for the rest of our lives) and allow us to continue doing whatever we want at the event (but with no guarantees about what will have to get edited out for family TV).  For more details on how all this will work, we think, see www.qbox.org.

The Production Company is already here in the Bay Area and about to start shooting all of you that are interested while you build your crazed engineering monstrosities and tell lies about your lives. They want about 10 people/teams to follow in great detail as they build their machines over the next two months.  Those interested in being on the list of potential featured contestants should tell Charlie and Jim, or better yet, Simone (simone@qbox.org) very very soon.

 RACING CLASSES: (for full rules, see: http://www.qbox.org/ptrules.shtml)

As usual, there will be classes for both machines that run "riderless" in wood tracks, and customs which their maker(s) "ride" down open asphalt lanes.  This year we have added two new classes ("Unusual Designs" and "Sex Toys") and consolidated the Ridden Classes into a single class as no one seems to want to build double person ridden machines.  This year we promise to have not one, but two "designated organizers" who stay cognizant enough to keep track of all this (Smone and Lera) and hold chaos at bay until all races are fairly and squarely run.  And we have expanded the event to two days so we are sure to actually finally really make it through the double elimination rounds (for the first time) as well as give the film crew one day where they can be more invasive to get the shots they need (Saturday), whereas Sunday will be the regular plate of mayhem and the film crew will have to fend for themselves.

THE PURSE(S)

Each class will pay back 100% of entry fees for that class, plus some extra money we'll throw in, so we can pay down to third place in each class this year.  It will take around 15 entries per class on average to create a $500 purse for 1st place.

Special Mystery Prizes, awarded by special mystery judges for:

Most impressive engineering

Most pathetic engineering

Most dangerous machine

Most spectacular crash

Machine most likely to get its maker laid And . . .

Machine most likely to get the most air time on TV

And of course, the rotating "Edsel Cup" for the fastest top speed run of the day.  Current track record is held by none other than Jim Mason, artist, with his CO2 fire extinguisher rocket car, which last year crossed the finish line at 64MPH, covering the 75 foot track in 1.7 seconds.  Go faster and drive the Edsel home yourself.

 ENTRY FEE(S):

The entry fees are as follows until May 15th.  After May 15th, the entry fees will go up, just like Burning Man.  To reduce chaos, and embarrassing disorganization, we will NOT be accepting entries the day of the races.  Entry fee for racing is paid via Paypal only at www.paypal.com to account simone@qbox.org

Super Stock: $30

Sex Toys: $30

Modified: $35

Funny Car: $40

Unusual Designs / Top Fuel: $45

We have set the entry fee above $0 so we can have real purses for the winners.  What is a drag race without a good purse anyway?

Each racing team will get 2 free entries to the event for both days.  Additional tickets will be available at the regular door price of $10 for Saturday, $15 for Sunday.  Regular gate entries for spectating can be purchased at the gate the day of the races.

For more information, see www.qbox.org.   All inquiries, questions and complaints should be directed to Simone at simone@qbox.org.

 Brought to you by the fine folks at The Shipyard and Qbox

www.theshipyard.org

www.qbox.org

Dual Paolo post.....

Passions. In the last few months I have been getting more and more interested in guitar playing. It all started with GarageBand: soon after installing the software I realized that I needed to play some instrument to have more fun.

I had already payed guitars in the past, but never studied seriously: as a kid spending all that time exercising is usually not a priority.

But apparently this time the passion is sticking. After buying my first electric guitar back in February (a low cost Yamaha ERG 121), last saturday I brought home the beauty you see here on the right (it's an Ibanez AFS75T, still considered a low cost instrument but a quite beautiful one imho).

I still have to study and practice a lot before being able to publish some music here, but I'm enjoing every little bit of the process. These things are incredibly sexy, the addiction and lust that I knew from electronic gadgets is nothing compared to this.


[Paolo Valdemarin: Paolo's Weblog]

European blogger dinners season is open.

On May 12th I'm going to be in London to attend to Loïc UK blogger dinner.

Unfortunately there's no way to get to Amesterdam from here at a low cost (it doesn't necessarily have to cost 0.01 EUR... I could also spend 10! ;-), so I won't be able to go to Scripting.com dinner.

But with Dave riding around Europe by train there might be other chances...

------

I can just see Paolo at those late night musician jam sessions, hunched over his ax -feeling the groove, tight in the pocket.

And I can just picture Paolo getting on his Ryan Air plane - for 1 Euro - cruising up to bloodey England for a bloodey blogger dinner.

But one thing I CAN'T picture - is Paolo at some Amsterdam Hash bar.

:-)

LAS VEGAS--RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser on Tuesday brushed off a recent rebuff from Apple Computer and called on Hollywood to keep new digital technologies open for all to use.

Incompatible piracy prevention tools in new digital entertainment services such as Apple's iTunes Music Store and its iPod portable music player threaten to turn off consumers, he said.

"It's kind of a Soviet model," said Glaser, referring to Apple's closed environment in a remark that drew laugher from the audience at the annual National Association of Broadcasters conference here. "Taking secure music off the PC is a morass of incompatibility. This is not going to fly in the mainstream market."

RealNetworks has sought to position itself as a technology neutral Switzerland amid an array of competing and incompatible formats from Apple, Microsoft and others. RealNetworks' Helix multimedia software supports all major formats, but it hasn't won much support for its own technology among device makers.

The company had approached Apple CEO Steve Jobs with a proposal to create a technical alliance that would allow customers of RealNetworks' music service to play songs on the iPod, to no avail. That could now force RealNetworks into a deeper relationship with archenemy Microsoft, which has won support for its technology on dozens of players and plans a major upgrade later this summer.

Glaser also advised Hollywood to avoid being too cautious in licensing its movies to Internet services, a mistake that could lead to a repeat of the music industry's run-in with online piracy at the hands of Napster and other peer-to-peer applications. Although legal film-download services are available today, they are hampered by limitations, including strict viewing rules for downloaded files, weak access to the latest films, and skimpy film libraries online.

Still, Hollywood has been reluctant to license movies online because of the failings of digital rights management technology to protect their content from piracy, according to many industry executives. Also, consumers are often unwilling to watch feature films on a PC.

Glaser said that the future of new media and advertising is personalization.

As a result, he played up a new partnership with Google, the No. 1 search engine on the Internet. Under the agreement, RealNetworks' RealPlayer 10, the company's latest audio and video playback service, will bundle in Google's search toolbar.

Glaser highlighted the growth and success of paid search, or contextual ads, which accompany Google search results. The market has taken off because sponsored search listings are highly targeted and personalized to what Web surfers are looking for, he said.

Glaser pointed to research that showed that in 2004, ad sales from paid search will account for about 30 percent of the $8 billion online advertising market. The Google-Real partnership will likely help RealNetworks capture some of those ad dollars.

[CNET News.com]

As much as I've had bad past experiences with Glaser and as much as I think Real is toast - I completely agree with the guy.

Now the questions is: "what happens next?"

Marc Barrot is at it again - this time adding Technorati to radio.

Now he's just gotta go and finish the WebOutliner.

Now don't get me wrong - I LOVE Marc Barrot - but it's been a while and......

Technorati Cosmos Links in Radio Templates.

I've recently added a small cosmos link to each footer section of this weblog's posts. It seems to be the latest fashion trend, at least among Movable Type publishers who are ready to customize their publishing templates. What about Radio Userland? Well, it doesn't seem to be possible to do it with the current (8.0.8) Radio version, unless you are ready and able to modify a small piece your Radio source code.

The trick is to modify the item template (#itemTemplate.txt file) to include an HTML link tag making a call to the Technorati Cosmos service. The Cosmos Service http GET request expects a 'url' argument specifying the permalink of the post:

http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?url=permalink

where permalink is the URI of the published item, suitably encoded to fit into the arguments component of a GET request.

This is where Radio cannot currently deliver: the <%permalink%> macro referenced for use in the item template does not provide a straight or encoded URL, but an image HTML tag encapsulating the URL instead.

However, if you're confident enough to modify Radio's source scripts, there's nothing preventing you from adding a new <%permalinkUrl%> macro. Template level macros are defined in the system.verbs.builtins.radio.weblog.render script.

To add a new 'permalinkUrl' pseudo-macro, locate the //set permalink bundle in the code, and add a single line at the end of that bundle's content:

t.permalinkUrl = string.urlEncode ( url )

Compile and save the modified script. Keep in mind of course that your modification will be wiped out the next time Userland publishes an update to the radio.weblog.render script.

The full HTML tag to add to the item template then looks like this:

<a href="http:\//www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?url=<%permalinkUrl%>" title="technorati cosmos link" target="_blank">cosmos</a>

Since this a very simple modification, let's hope the <%permalinkUrl%> macro will become part of the next Radio release.

[s l a m]

Heineken to Offer Free Music from Real.

Soda, coffee, beer. First Coke, then Starbucks, now Heineken. The lifestyle convergence sweepstakes grinds forward as Heineken USA announces a partnership with the RealPlayer Music Store to offer free music downloads in specially marked 12-packs. From the announcement article—

”The summer digital music season kicks off…”

The what?! Hey, I’m all for it, but how times do change.

[The Digital Music Weblog]

Here we go!

Baystar Abandons SCO.

[What's New Now]

Gotta love this!

For along time I've been wondering when moden UI widgets will make it into (not only) the blogosphere - but elsewhere.

That's why I've been doing these coolio laszlo objects - but also why I'm excited about these 'ActiveWidgets'.

Thanks ot Grant Rauscher for clueing me in...... As Grant describes it......

open source DHTML library

http://www.activewidgets.com/

nice grid / spreadsheet object... but it generally allows the object-oriented treatment of XHTML in a conveniently similar fashion to server-side.

it greatly improves runtime flexibility as you know, allowing runtime modification of presentation & data elements

this is the most advanced native browser library I've seen since Shinpaugh's buggy Steel

it supports applications with thematic templates at the object level (as opposed to the page level, which only really suffices for publishing) similar to the jukebox, MTTF & PortalTool demos because objects (tags & attributes) can be modified and rerendered during runtime instead of when serving the content

- Grant