I wonder why none of the social networking bloggers picked up on this?

The hit movie "The Day After Tomorrow" provides profiles and lots of coolio features in a Flash based interface.  Much of the design looks like a Laszlo app.

You can put up your own face, list off your three fav songs (which are then compiled into a Top 10 list) and give responses to standard "End of the World" questions.  All in all it's quite an impressive site for a movie site.  I wonder who did it?

No FOAF though and your profile registration requires human intervention to approve it.

Dyson on user-generated content. Esther Dyson: "All joking aside, the rise of user-generated content marks a huge shift in the media business."

Why pay people to produce content, when you can get tons of users to do it for free?
[Seb's Open Research]

I'm gonna see Esther on Sunday at the PlanetWork scene.  This will be fun.

Interview with Don Hopkins

In this interview, Don Hopkins describes his early days on the Sims development team with Will Wright (back when the project was called Dollhouse) and the difficulties the team had fighting EA's attempts to terminate the project, and then preventing EA from gutting it of interesting content (like architecture tools). Even now, he claims that EA fails to respect Will Wright and his vision by not developing custom content for TSO, and that it has shown no interest in a tool that he (Hopkins) created that would allow users to safely create custom objects that won't crash the game.

Overview of the Interview -- some headline quotes:

"I recall that one of our most difficult accomplishments was convincing EA not to cancel the project, because some of the EA old guard didn’t trust nor respect Will’s vision, didn’t “get” the idea of Dollhouse, didn’t think it would sell, wanted to inject it full of their old tried and trusted formula, and wanted to gut out the most interesting parts of the game (like the architecture tools). I think it’s a lucky fluke that The Sims ever shipped, and I hope EA has learned enough from their experience to trust the projects that Will is directly involved in, listen to what he’s been saying eloquently and consistently for years, and let something like The Sims happen again."

" I don’t think the lack of user created content is the only reason The Sims Online is a failure, but I think it’s an extremely important one that EA went out on a limb and promised, but never executed on. EA still hasn’t officially announced that they’re not going to let Maxis support user created content, but as far as I have been able to tell, they’ve whitewashed the original discussion groups where they made and discussed the promise. I realize that there are some difficult technical issues that have to be solved, in order to support user created content in an online game like The Sims Online. That’s why I wrote this proposal for SafeTMog, a tool that would enable users to safely create objects for The Sims Online that could not possibly crash the game: http://www.donhopkins.com/2004/02/05.html#a72"

"Unfortunately EA was not apparently interested in SafeTMog, which leads me to believe that they’re not interested in ever supporting user created content in The Sims Online. I don’t know why Maxis never executed on the plan they promised, but I do believe they disregarded and didn’t respect Will Wright’s opinion in this matter, which he clearly articulated. I don’t think the problem was a lack of resources – just the opposite. So much conservative money was bet on the project that it wasn’t allowed to innovate. I don’t believe it was ineptitude at the engineering or design level, but more likely at the executive management, resource allocation and marketing level. My impression is that some of the people in charge didn’t believe in Will’s vision, didn’t trust him, didn’t listen to him, didn’t do what he’s been saying for years, all along. I wish EA would have taken some of the millions of dollars they made from The Sims 1, and invested it back in fully developing The Sims Online, instead of sucking it out of Maxis to support the rest of EA."

You can read the entire Interview with Don Hopkins in the Alphaville Herald.

[Don Hopkins' RadiOMatic BlogUTron]

Don is an old friend.  He's also MAD I tell you MAD!

As remarkable as GMail is - it's more noteable that Stowe Boyd has changed his photo.  Not many bloggers do that.

GMail Is Truly Amazing.

 

June 02, 2004

GMail Is Truly Amazing

When Google announced its plans for a web-mail system, I was not surprised at all. The 1GB limits they setup were certainly a bit unexpected, but not outside of the thinking of its two captains and the company as a whole.

What has surprised me, however, is the quasi-cottage industry that has formed surrounding this aspect of their business. In general several groups of people have formed:

• Insiders - those that have GMail accounts and report back on their admiration or lack thereof for the new service.

• Outsiders - those that are desperately seeking entrance into the GMail system. I've heard of people buying GMail accounts on EBay, using GMail accounts as prizes for objects, and even the formation of a GMailSwapping Network where people can barter away their prized and cherished possessions for a GMail account.

• Crusaders - those that are fighting the GMail service from launching because of concerns regarding provacy, security, ickiness, etc.. Recently, in what must be one of the few, if not the first, case of legislation being filed to preemptively limit the functionality of a web-based application, the California Senate approved its very own Anti-GMail bill.

  Ironically enough, Crusaders need not be Insiders at all. They have been known to object solely on the principle of the issue at hand.

It seems on universal discussion, however, is related to Google's Invitation-Only services (GMail, Orkut). Many feel that it is a wonderful system that loosely prevents abuse. Others find it exclusionary, even elitist and resent the admission practice. Marketers, of course, think it's wonderful, and who could blame them. Google has garnered tremendous free publicity and mindshare as result of these tactics. [Get Real]

Wow!  This sounds cool.  Thanks Jonas!

Socialighting It.

Well, I haven't heard back from Socialight, yet, but - gratuitous use of the term "social network" aside - this seems like a fun thing to try out. In a nutshell, Socialight is a cellphone application (currently for Symbian enabled phones), which provides the user with two distinct features - the suggestively named "tap & tickle" as well as "stick shadows".

The former simply boils down to a remote controlling of someone else's "vibrate" function, turning the target phone into a very high-tech version of an expensive handbuzzer. Tap the joystick (yes, this is suggestive, I know) and your target's phone will vibrate. Hold the stick, or shake it, and the tickling will go on for some time. Which is, btw, a nice way to drain someone else's batteries, if you're so inclined.

The latter is more interesting. "Sticky Shadows" are multimedia notes placeable virtually anywhere. A Socialight enabled phone crossing the location of such a note will retrieve and display the associated text, picture, sound, or video. This makes for a number of great uses. Virtual scavenger hunts are the more playful variants, location aware reminders ("Get milk while you're here, love Mum") or guided tours ("At this location, in 1953...") make for real world uses.

An interesting idea. I'll be waiting to test it out in actual scenarios. Once I do have it, expect a repetition of the infamous semacoding-the-city incident of 2004 :)

Move over Starbucks, Heineken, and Pepsi. Here comes Papa John’s International, a pizza chain which has struck a download-giveaway deal with MusicMatch. Papa John’s is already giving away DVDs with certain pizza purchases. the MusicMatch deal delivers four song downloads with certain soft-drink purchases.

[The Digital Music Weblog]

RIGHT ON - to these people.  Tying digital downloading into good old fashioned promotions - is what's needed.

Orkut is too busy to play.... It seems the Orkut servers are overloaded at the moment. I've not been able to login for the past hour. Hopefully the Orkut team will invest in whatever is needed to help scale their websites.... [The Jeff Pulver Blog]

Um - somebody tell Jeff that Google/Orkut doesn't care about you or the performance of the site.  Orkut is a research project meant to suck end-user behavior patterns and profiles.  They don't care about you.

Smallplanet.net, inc is testing a mobile social networking technology on the UCLA campus, as reported in this press release. Called CrowdSurfer, the application runs on Nokia 6600 and 6230 phones, and uses Bluetooth radio signals to find other users with the app within 100 feet. If someone's detected and the profiles, stored on the web, show affinity, the users are alerted and can find each other. There's a more objective report on the service at Gizmodo.

[Smart Mobs]

Gosh - this sounds very Speck-like.

The Churchill Club panel discussion on blogging and social networking, which I'm co-moderating, has been moved to June 17. It was originally scheduled for tomorrow. Details here.

[Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Man it's gonna be a party,,,,,,,,hmmm - maybe we should announce the FOAFnet there?

Blogging & Social Networking: Who Cares?

Antony Brydon, CEO, Visible Path Corporation
Jason Calacanis, Chairman, The Weblogs, Inc. Network
Marc Canter, CEO, Broadband Mechanics
Charlene Li, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc.
Ross Mayfield, CEO, Socialtext
Ajit Nazre, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Partner
David Pell, Electablog.com
Mark Pincus, CEO, Tribe Networks

Moderator:
Dan Gillmor, San Jose Mercury News
Tony Perkins, Creator & Editor-in-Chief, AlwaysOn

Oh man - this is what I wanted our WebOutliner to be - something folks could use.  But we got all hung up.

Hopefully Phil Pearson will complete the port to python and we can get that puppy out to folks - finally.

the most impressive lazyweb leverage ever. 4 days, three outliner implementations in three different languages [anil dash's daily links]

Gnome Outliner: A Project is Born

Making Money from the Digital Lifestyle

Marc Canter writes at Always-On about how to make money with digital lifestyle aggregators and Doc follows it up by tying it to his "IT as Construction Industry" metaphor. Good. Part I is the nuts and bolts. Mark's promising to show how to make money in Part II. I'll give you a preview: read what Clayton Christensen said at OSBC or listen to it for yourself. The money is always at the aggregation point. The modular parts become commodities. Phil Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog

I'm going to try to help plan a dinner/party that I can't attend. David Beckemeyer et al to are working on Heckelbot so I can be there virtually. The dinner/party is scheduled for June 23, the day before Supernova 2004 at the Westin in Santa Clara. I ALWAYS go to Supernova, but this year I just can't make it since I have to be in Tokyo for a shareholders meeting.

Here a wiki page for the planning.

Speaking of Supernova, I'm hoping I will be able to participate in the conference via rigged Hecklebot as well. Stay tuned for more on this. ;-)

[Joi Ito's Web]

I can just see Kevin Werbach asking Joi a question via LED display "Joi - what is growing in your garden?" answer...."Rocks"

I vote for a dinner up in the city - there's no place good to eat in the valley - except maybe Straits - but it's too small - and too expensive.  Maybe Don Park or Tantek have favotie place to point us to.

Microsoft released their technical beta of Windows Media Player 10 for download. The major features include a new interface, a built in online store (with choice of stores), an all in one smart jukebox as well as the most important item: enhanced device support. The enhanced device support includes Auto-Sync which "enables the seamless, automatic synchronization of music, video, and even recorded TV and photos to supported portable devices". It looks like you'll be able to map a hard drive or storage location like a PPC or Smartphone to Auto-Sync as well as transfer TV shows from the media center to a portable media center, we're not sure what is and isn't supported yet but we're going to check it out now.

[unmediated]

The real questions is - and speaking of Real - can this jukebox mix and match music from Napster, MusicMatch, Rhapsody, WalMart, etc?  How 'bout iTunes?

Everybody is talking about.....

Group-Blog on Spectrum Issues.

Kevin Werbach, Clay Shirky, Andrew Odlyzko, and David Isenberg have launched Wireless Unleashed, a group weblog. Kevin says:

The site focuses on the benefits of reallocating low-frequency wireless capacity from broadcasting to unlicensed applications, both here and around the world. There is a huge amount of capacity which could be used for two-way applications like broadband to the home, but which is locked up in broadcast allocations based on 1950s technology. Freeing up that capacity could create massive opportunities for innovation, and could dramatically lower the costs of wireless connectivity in developing countries. The blog will serve as a sounding board for our commentary on this issue. We will be writing whitepapers as well.

[unmediated]

Wireless blog.

Kevin Werbach, Clay Shirky, Andrew Odlyzko, and David Isenberg have launched the Wireless Unleashed weblog. These are some way smart folks, so if you care about how we can give everyone more spectrum than we'd ever though imaginable, you might want to tune in.  [Joho the Blog]

new blog on wireless. WirelessUnleashed is a new group blog about unlicensed wireless policy and such. Wonky? You betcha, but with an interesting cast of contributors. [Paul Boutin]

Wireless Unleashed Launches.

Today, Kevin Werbach, Andrew Odlyzko, Clay Shirky, and David Isenberg launched a group weblog on unlicensed wireless issues.

[Smart Mobs]

I'm developing the Technorati Toolbar for Internet Explorer. It enables you to look up references from blogs that point to the web page you're reading, and lots of other cool stuff. I'm developing an open-ended plug-in system: Technorati Toolbar Plug-ins will extend the Technorati Toolbar to support popular blogging tools, render interactive interfaces to dynamic web services, and integrate other tools and services into high level, practical, task oriented user interfaces.

[Don Hopkins' RadiOMatic BlogUTron]

This is gonna be key.