smays.com

Website make-over

We relaunched our corporate website today. Same content, just a fresh coat of digital paint provided by Caffeinated Studio in Dallas. Much thanks to Trent, Brad and Rob for the design and to Joel, Phil and Andy for all the under the hood stuff.

We'll be fixing broken links and such for days but it's it good to have finally thrown the switch. We ripped off the previous design from GE back when a company website wasn't all that big a deal ("Yeah, sure, go ahead. As long as it doesn't cost much.")

Today our company has lots of web pages "out there." Internet, intranet, extranet, blogs, etc etc. Thousands of pages. This "Internet thing" has caught on and I no longer have to sell the idea of the web et al. Even blogs and podcasts have become part of our company culture.

I used to say I was an EMT frantically giving CPR to the Internet patient in the back of the ambulance as it meandered toward the hospital. Today, our online patient is feeling much better. Drinking apple juice and watching Oprah. I'm so glad to see him feeling better.

Future of mobile news?

Kim Pearson (E-Media Tidbits) wonders if Sprint's "Now" widget might be the future of mobile news:

"What if a mobile Web page like this was truly customizable, so that you could arrange the content of the boxes to suit your interests, and you could save that widget to your desktop, phone and blog? Your cell phone provider becomes your ubiquitous information provider. The feeds become something like the programming on basic cable. Instead of news as a product that delivers eyeballs to advertisers, it's news as part of your basic broadband information package. Perhaps, continuing the cable analogy, it's a platform for developing premium news services as well."

I'm convinced the future of all media is mobile. And I'm gonna have to break down and get an iPhone. If our accountant says I can deduct it as a business expense, I'll probably take the plunge. Not having a smart phone is like not having a TV in 1960.

Audio interview with Pawlenty on YouTube?

Ana Marie Cox interviewed Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. I was wondering why she posted the audio-only interview to YouTube when slides started started flashing up. Sort of like sub-titles of what she was thinking as she asked and/or he answered.

It would have been tempting to throw up some stills but not doing so was more effective. I can't recall seeing something like this before. I cross-posted from politix because I found the approach intriguing.

"Believing in the impossible"

The web has only been around 6,000 days. So Kevin Kelly reminds us in his presentation at the recent Web 2.0 Summit. In the beginning, we thought the web would be "TV only better." It has evolved into something much different and Mr. Kelly takes a stab at what the web will be 6,000 days from now.

"As different from the web (of today) as the web was from TV."

Here's what I jotted on my Coffee Zone napkin:

• "If what you create is not on the web, it doesn't count."
• "If it can't be shared, it doesn't count."
• In the next 6,000 days everything will move to the Cloud; move to Database and move to Sharing. (He explains in the video)

He ticks off several things that we now take for granted but would have considered impossible at the beginning of the web. Which, of course, means that things we now consider impossible, will be routine in 15 years.

I love the idea of "Believing in the impossible."

First POTUS Mac user

As if I needed another reason to admire O, I learn he's the first U. S. president to use a Mac. I posted this here --instead of politix-- because this is more about tech than politics. [9to5Mac.com]

The Fuller Brush Man

I'll be in our Dallas office for a few days next week. The agenda is kind of loose and open-ended. Our sports division (HQ in Dallas) is exploring ways to use more "new media" tools and I'll try to help them find ways to do this. I think. My point is, what a great job.

And here's what I've learned. Just about every online tool you need is out there. Cheap or free and easy to use. The hard part is finding people who... I wish I could come up with a better word... people who "get" this whole Internet thing. Sure, everybody uses email and Google and all that, but for most the net is where you go to find something rather than create something.

Posting photos to flickr, writing a blog, even something as simple as Twitter involves sharing something of your self. Expressing who you are. It's walking out on that high school stage and singing Killing Me Softly. A lot of people just can't do it.

But when I meet (discover?) such a kindred spirit, someone who has something to say and a passion for saying it, it's great fun showing them things I've discovered on my endless surfing safaris.

New look for Mizzou website

Branden Miller tweets the new look for MUTigers.com, the website of the Missouri Tigers. Mizzou is one of the universities with which Learfield Sports works, but I have nothing to do with the websites.

But I've always thought most of them were cramped, too busy and impossible to navigate. This new design is a huge improvement. I haven't poked around on the new site yet but plan to later today.

I hope similar make-overs are planned for our other properties.

Webcasting high school football games

From a post by Liz Foreman at Lost Remote:

"Beginning this Friday, Gannett will have 12 live high school football games showing on widgets posted to USAToday.com and many of our local broadcast and newspaper sites. The games are being produced by our broadcast and newspaper sites as well as a high school AV department. Most of the games are single cam, laptop, aircard + Mogulus productions."

"Virtual Immortality Made Easy"

Regular readers know  smays.com is all about getting those photos and home movies out of the closet and up on flickr and YouTube. I've even posted a time or two about digital immortality.

Scott Maentz and his wife are actually doing something about it. From their website:

"Our mission at RememberGranny.com is to help technology challenged Baby Boomers create a legacy for future generations using today’s rich digital media and the latest Internet applications."

I spoke with Scott earlier today. [Audio: 14 min MP3]

RG.com has packages starting at just $99 but my favorite is the Complete Virtual Immortality Package ($499). Need some f2f help? Then you'll want to consider the Virtual Immortality Mini-Vacation.

PS: I just went looking for some of my earlier posts where I talk about putting your life on line; paying flickr to keep your pix up forever and a day... and I can't find them. Poor tagging. If anyone remembers some of these posts and happened to bookmark or link, drop me a line.

I'm closing in on 4,000 posts and it's getting damned hard to find stuff.

More US mobile phone than Americans 13+

The following stats were featured in a marketing piece I received today. And I'm guessing the numbers are even higher in other developed countries.

• 85% of Americans have a cell phone (there are actually more US mobile phones than Americans age 13 and older) Source: CTIA Wireless Association
• 66% of cell phones in America are equipped with a camera Source: comScore
• 40% of Americans with cell phones send/receive text messages (80% among 13-24 year olds; 63% among 18-27year olds) Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
• 24% of Americans with cell phones send/receive photo or video messages (up 60% in the past year) Source: M:Metrics
  

And it will just get easier and easier to share those photos and videos. I'm not feeling particularly left out because I probably shoot-and-share more video than the average bear. But I can't deny my mobilness much longer. Holding out for video iPhone.

I'm on the waiting list for the Go-Chip

In the 1993 TV mini-series, Wild Palms, Senator Anton Kreutzer (Robert Loggia) has the Go-Chip implanted and uploads his consciousness to the Net. Immortality! Unfortunately, the IT guys were running Vista on the server. But that's a damned fine looking smoking jacket.

My Tracfone can't do this.

[via Hear 2.0]

Still in love with my Tracfone

I paid $19.95 at Wal-Mart for my Tracfone (sometime in 2005). A year ago I bought a prepaid card (1 year/500 minutes) that expires in a few days. I still have 172 minutes which I lose if I don't purchase another card. Despite pressure from all quarters to get an iPhone, I picked up another prepaid card. 60 minutes/90 days. I just punched in the PIN number and I'm good till mid-December.

I gotta tell you... I love the Tracfone. It's like a Bic pin or a Swatch or drug store reading glasses. Does one thing well. Demands no maintenance. Disposable. And I don't have one of those little holsters on my belt. The Tracfone goes in the glove box or the laptop bag.

It has an ugly little LCD display and a charge can last me a couple of weeks (I only turn it on when I want to make or receive a call.)

What I really want is a Flip video camera that can stream live to Qik. Small, inexpensive, does one thing well.

I wanna see the rejects

PR Newswire: The University of Oklahoma and Sooner Sports Properties recently partnered with mobile sports fan network FanChatter to provide Scoreboard Photo Sharing at every Sooner home football game this season (sponsored by McDonald's.)

The McDonald's Sooner Football I'm Lovin' It feature invites fans to show how much they're "lovin'" the Sooners during the game by texting or emailing photos from their phone to a custom address. Every fan that sends a photo receives an instant text message reply thanking them for their submission and alerting them to special deals on McDonald's menu items.

Twins Scoreboard Photo Sharing powered by FanChatter Stadium from FanChatter on Vimeo.

Select photos are then displayed on the videoboard before the start of the 4th quarter and all approved photos are forwarded to a McDonald's branded gallery website where they can be seen and shared with friends. The feature's reply message and branded gallery components offer added messaging platforms to advertisers while also enhancing the fans' experience between games.

I don't think I blogged it but I floated this idea a couple of years ago. Disclosure: Learfield --the company I work for-- has the marketing rights for the Sooners.

Cyborg Anthropology

I doubt there's any shortage of scholarly papers on the sociological and anthropological effects of the mobile phone. I've never had a desire to search out and read any of them.

But my interest was piqued by Amber Case, one of the attendees at Gnomedex 8.0. A recent graduate, Amber describes her area of work and study as "Cyborg Anthropology." Ooh. She was kind enough to send me a copy of her thesis: "The Cell Phone and Its Technosocial Sites of Engagement." Here's a snippet from the introduction:

"Mobile telephony has ushered in social geographies that are no longer entirely public or entirely private. The mobile phone allows place to exist in non-place, and privacy to exist in public. Never before have people been able to disembody their voices and talk across any distance, in almost any place. Cell phone technology has thus changed the dichotomies of place and non-place as well as the private and public dichotomies into a technological-human hybrid."

I think I've had a whiff of this idea from all the time I spend communicating online. And when I break down and graft an iPhone to my hip, it's only going to get better/worse.

Viewzi 101 - Visual Search Engine Explained

One of the coolest things I saw at Gnomedex 8.0 was Viewzi. At one of the parties they had Viewzi projected on a giant screen and a couple of very good DJ's were spinning some very tunes. People kept walking by and gently closing my mouth.

Viewzi is a visual search engine and hard to explain (in words). But the Viewzi folks have prepared a short video to get you started. As I have more time to play with Viewzi and get learn how to make it walk and talk, I'll be posting my "Oooh!" moments here. [Thanks, Giovanni}

No satellite or cable TV? No problem.

Our DirecTV works great until a heavy rain rolls in and blocks the signal. It's called "rain fade" and you lose your signal a couple of minutes before the rain actually reaches earth.

That happened last night while we were watching the Democratic National Convention. It wa getting close to time for Obama to speak and, since we didn't know how long it would last, I grabbed the MacBook and started streaming CNN's live feed.

It was a little small and I didn't bother to go full-screen because we were on the floor in the bedroom and could see it fine.

This has become so easy and mundane, it's hardly worth mentioning. But that's my point. Distribution is becoming --has become-- a non-issue. In four years I have no doubt I would just swipe the iPhone and watch the speeh there.

Perhaps I'm still awestruck by this because I remember a time before color TV, cable, VCR, DVD, computers, web, etc.

Twittering politics

Good piece at washingtonpost.com on how folks are using Twitter to cover politics. A couple of nuggets:

Slate's John Dickerson: "If I have a thought that occurs to me, I'll fire it off," Dickerson says. "Sometimes it ends up being the lead of a piece, or the notion a piece gets framed around." At the same time, he says, "there's an element of narcissism and class clownery. A wisecrack comes into your head and you want to share it."

Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar: "posting my real-time thoughts, impressions and wisecracks without having to worry about fleshing them out for a proper blog post. Working within that 140-character limit -- and still managing to get out your observation, your comment, your setup and punch line or what have you -- is great training for a writer."

After a slow start, I've come to rely on --and enjoy-- Twitter almost as much as blogging. You can follow my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/smaysdotcom. You'll need to set up an account but it's free and takes about 2 min.

Sports journo sees future on the web

Big time sports journalist Jay Mariotti has resigned from the Chicago Sun-Times:

"It's been a tremendous experience, but I'm going to be honest with you, the profession is dying,'' Mariotti said, "I don't think either paper [Sun-Times or Chicago Tribune] is going to survive. To showcase your work ... you need a stellar Web site and if a newspaper doesn't have that, you can't be stuck in the 20th century with your old newspaper.''

His bosses have a different take on things and you can read what they have to say at CBS2Chicago.com.

"web think"

I don't think I've come across the term "web think" before I saw it on a post by Terry Heaton. It describes a way of looking at information and media and, frankly, the world.

"Those who influence my thinking do not come from a media background, but are pioneers in “web think” and the running of web businesses. This puts me in almost constant conflict with the world I’m actually trying to serve and help and fuels the rolling of eyes I often witness in conference rooms or sense over the phone."

My theory is "web think" is like learning a second language. You're really "there" when you start thinking (dreaming?) in the new language. You internalize it.

Wi-Fi on some American flights

American Airlines passengers will now have Wi-Fi access on some flights. The airline said Wednesday that it has finally launched its in-flight Internet access service via Wi-Fi on 15 of its 767-200 airplanes. The service, called Gogo, will be offered on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami. The cost is $12.95 per flight. Passengers will be able to sign up when they boot up their browsers. [More at C|Net]

Now that would make the flight from STL to Seattle whiz by. Would happily pay $13. Have to believe all flights will have it eventually.

Computer animation technology

In a day or two, I might read that this was a hoax. If not, this is... I don't know. Amazing falls a little short. Emily is a computer graphic illustration produced using a new modeling technology that enables the minute details of a facial expression to be captured and recreated. For the first minute and a half of the video, before they revert back to the source (the real actress), Emily’s face is being simulated by the technology. [via Podcasting News]

I'm nearing the end of Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near and this bit of CGI magic brought the following paragraph to mind:

"The Web will provide a panoply of virtual environments to explore. Some will be re-creations of real places; others will be fanciful environments that have no counterpart in the physical world. Some, indeed, would be impossible, perhaps because the violate the laws of physics. We will be able to visit these virtual places and have any kind of interaction with other real, as well as simulated, people (of course, ultimately there won't be a clear distinction between the two), ranging from business negotiations to sensual encounters. "Virtual-reality environment designer" will be a new job description and a new art form." (pg.314)

And if you missed my chat with Michale Spooner, give it a listen and think about the job description, Virtual Reality Designer. [Michael, it's time to talk about your CGI work and what lies ahead.]

Recommended reading: Idoru by William Gibson.

"Early in the next century, Lo/Rez is more than just the hottest rock band in the world, it's a business. The enigmatic guru-like guitar hero Rez has announced that he will marry Rei Toei, the most popular musician in Japan. But she doesn't exist. She's an idoru, a massively-complex computer program designed to create and perform music in concerts."

Combine the AI predicted by Kurzweil with CGI about 10,000 times better than the example above and... and I don't know what. But Kurzweil thinks he does. I plan to live long enough to experience this. Whew! I'm all tingley.

Gnomedex 8.0

Heading for Seattle tomorrow to attend Gnomedex. It's a get-together for few hundred bloggers, podcasters and tech enthusiasts. I like Gnomedex because it is one of the smaller such conferences. And my pals Jamie and David will be there so it will be sort of "No Sex and the City." That doesn't work, there's only three of us. You get the idea.

Historically, I see or hear about things at Gnomedex that go mainstream a year or so later. But that lag seems to be shortening.

Blogging might be light for the next couple of days.

Facebook disclaimer

I've started paying a bit more attention to Facebook in an effort to stay closer to my nephews (18 and 16). After mentioning this in an earlier post, I've been getting a lot of "Friend Requests." I have "confirmed" most of these. But I confess I'm not all that taken with Facebook and all this "friend" stuff reminds me of trading Valentine cards in fourth grade.

So please don't get your feelings hurt if I ignore your "Friend Request." Doesn't mean we can't be pals. Just know that I'm not taking Facebook very seriously. If you want to keep up with me, you can do it here. If I want to keep up with you, I'll bug your house or hire a private dick to keep tabs on you.

Web specs

I stopped buying/reading newspapers a long time ago. But there are times --breakfast, for example-- when it is inconvenient or impractical to open the MacBook. My solution has been to print articles I find online and take them with me.

I'd really love to have a pair of reading "glasses" with some flash memory to which I could Blue Tooth these articles, including photos and video. I don't see why that would be technically difficult and damned handy. This is close but likely to get my ass kicked at the local diner where I have breakfast. I'm thinking more along the lines of Clark Kent glasses.

No, I don't need wifi access. That would be cool but would add a lot of cost. And, yes, I know there are all kinds of portable readers out there but I don't want to tote around even a book size device.

What I haven't tried is saving the text to my iPod. Not a great reading experience on the nano but it would work fine on the Touch. Hmmm. And if wifi was available... I suspect this wheel has already been invented.

Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web

Kevin Kelly, speaking at one of the TED conferences, takes a stab at predicting the next ten years of the web. The video runs about 20 minutes. Begins with the first lesson of the web:

Have to get better in believing the impossible.

And his summary has a nice mystical feel, for those that lean that way:

There is only One machine.
The web is its OS.
All screens look into the One.
No bits will live outside the web.
To share is to gain.
Let the One read it.
The One is us.

Go mobile or go home

I will, eventually, have to break down and get a smart phone. I don't really want one but not having one is going to be a liability in my job. Articles, like this one from the American Journalism Review, make this increasingly clear.

"In January, ESPN reported it had more hits for NFL content on its mobile Web site (4.9 million) than it did on its PC site (4.5 million), according to RCR Wireless News. Those numbers suggest the mobile jock market has legs, since sports fans will access their cell phones to get scores and inside information even while they're watching games on TV. Two mobile TV partnerships – AT&T's Mobile TV and Verizon's V Cast, both of which use Qualcomm's MediaFlo TV-enabling technology for cell phones – have been launched with the sports market in mind. Both mobile TV services bill themselves as providing full coverage of sporting events, along with some regular network programming in English and Spanish. Content partners include CBS Mobile, NBC 2Go, Fox Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, Viacom's MTV and Nickelodeon, among others."

Keep your Blackberry under your pillow

Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach -- a Republican -- endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday morning. I think my friend and co-worker Kay Henderson broke the story. It got a lot of national play and her blog post generated 3,000+ page views. I'm sure we got a bunch more at RadioIowa.com. I asked Kay how she got on the story so early:

"I sleep with my blackberry. I woke up at 6 o’clock, checked the ‘berry, and went back to sleep.  As I sort of floated out of dreamland I must have heard or sensed the vibration the ‘berry makes when there’s an incoming email. I pulled the ‘berry from underneath the pillow and read the email sent at 7:14 a.m. from a source in the Obama campaign, alerting me to the fact that former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach would be endorsing Obama in a few hours, during a telephone conference call being organized by the Obama campaign.

I called the newsroom and gave Matt – our morning anchor – the details for him to include in our next newscast, then roused myself from bed and walked into my home office.  I started blogging by feel, as I hadn’t found my glasses yet.  By 7:45 a.m. I had a fairly complete blog post up about the news.  It included text from a speech Vice President Dick Cheney gave at a Leach campaign fundraiser in 2003, explaining the Leach-Cheney-Rumsfeld connection.

I kept updating the post through the day.  An addition at the top – the opening Leach quote -- came from a noontime interview.  The McCain folks emailed responses, which got to my email box by 1:50 p.m."

A couple of things in Kay's account stand out for me. If she had waited until she got to the office to check her email, she might not have had the jump on the story. Should all reporters sleep with their Blackberry under their pillow? Well, yeah, if you expect to beat Kay on a story.

And that she blogged the story before having her Cheerios. A whole bunch of political reporters follow Kay's blog.

And while the technology is cool, there's no substitute for having the contact in the Obama campaign.

When nobody controls the cameras

NYTimes.com: "When Congress adjourns, so do C-Span’s live broadcasts because the sole cameras that record the sessions of the Senate and the House of Representatives are controlled by the members of Congress.

On Friday, when several dozen Republicans decided to stay on the House floor and discuss energy legislation after the House adjourned for a five-week summer recess, the cameras and microphones were turned off. So the first source of video was a congressman who streamed live pictures to the Internet using his cellphone camera."

Just one more (small) example of how things are changing. If any feature prompts me to break down and buy a real mobile phone, it will be the ability to stream live video when there's no wifi.

Email is yesterday. Maybe the day before.

If you want to glimpse the future, spend time with those that will live there. Back from a weekend with my brother and his family. The kids are 18, 16 and 12. They're back in the states for 6 months to help Ryan get settled in college.

Uncle Steve was a big hit with his belated graduation present, but after giving Ryan his new iPod Touch, he was a little distracted the rest of the weekend. I also miss a lot of birthdays so we did a little catch-up with the other two. They opted for PSP's (Play Station Portables).

The family is international with friends all over the world. But the kids do not use email to keep in touch ("Uncle Steve, please!"). The primary comm tools are SMS (texting) and Facebook. I had read that but it was interesting to hear it straight from the teenage horse's mouth.

I've had a Facebook page for a while but never use it. If I want to keep in touch with my nephews and niece, that has to change.

Oh, and those PSP's? Wifi ready so when they're not gaming (or while they are), they can keep in touch with friends.

PS: On Saturday we stopped by the local Apple store. Packed. An iPhone class was underway and there were more gray heads than mohawks.

Live from the conference room!

I started fooling with putting video online 5 or 6 years ago. It was extremely primitive back then. YouTube and embedded players were years down the road. I was doing everything on Windows (Studio 9) and the idea of a live video stream was science fiction. But I never doubted figuring out how to do this would come in handy.

On Monday, we're going to stream live video of a sales meeting, including a role-playing session. The sales reps in our "outer offices" will watch in (almost) real time and then take part in a discussion by conference call.

Not sure what my point is here, but whether it's Photoshop, or blogging or podcasting or video streaming... you have to play with the stuff BEFORE you have a practical application.

"So how'd you get that pussy blogging job, smays.com?

"Well, I started spending every spare moment online in 1996... and the rest was just dumb luck."

Oh, yeah. We're not using some six figure video conferencing set-up on Monday. Just a cheap camcorder and a MacBook Pro.

"The web is your future"

"A lot of experienced news people — whether broadcast or print — feel
like they’ve been baited and switched, that they were trained and hired
to do one thing but are now being required to do something else. That’s
understandable, but it’s also completely irrelevant." -- Terry Heaton

zPhone

My new zPhone arrived yesterday and it's everything I hoped it would be. I sprung for the white patent leather shoulder harness so I have a feeling I'll be turning heads when I pull this rascal out.

I haven't figured out how to set it to vibrate but I'm told you know when you have a call. My favorite feature, however, is the paper print out of missed calls.

I opted for the International Orange model, but the zPhone also comes in cammo. Sold out, of course.

Hey Gomer, what the name of that song on the radio?

My digital homey David Brazeal didn't pop for an new 3G iPhone but did upgrade his original iPhone with some nifty new software. In this short (2 min) video, David shows us Shazam.

Don't know the name of that song on the radio? No problemo. Shazam does.

A pee with a view

Old pal and blogger-to-be Yolonda shares the following:

"Nuts & Volts Magazine now has a monthly feature of “fascinating websites.”  This month’s strange nominee is Urinal.net. The site’s a few years old, so you may have “passed” this way before (so to speak).  I thought of you because of your pissing dwarf Twitter contest entry.  My favorite  – a pee with a view in Kowloon."

And I'm pretty sure I can't "go" with the entire city of Kowloon watching.

And I can't mention urinals with acknowledging my own fascination with theater restrooms. Specifically, how damned good I look in theater restrooms.  My first post on this was in April of 2002, but I didn't get up my courage to document it until 2004.

 

$4 million for a radio station website?

Boston sports radio station WEEI-AM is upgrading their website, WEEI.com. According to one source, the station could spend as much as $4 million on the site.

GM Tim Murphy says the goal is "...to support and help our phenomenal talent on air and to make their shows as good as they could possibly be." To do that, WEEI has hired two Boston Herald sportswriters.

The station plans to roll out the new Web site in January. [BostonHerald.com]

Audix USB12 Microphone (video)

Will everyone need a web page?

WSJ's Jason Fry wonders if we're getting closer to the day when everyone will need a web page. He starts with the question of how we're to find each other in a rapidly evolving future.

"...landlines are disappearing, yet there's no "white pages" for cellphones. And we don't want one -- the rise of email, IM and other forms of messaging have transformed the phone call into an intrusive way to communicate, best reserved for certain situations between people who already have a relationship. Which is fine, but raises the issue of how we're supposed to get in touch with people we don't already know. The most likely solution to the problem is a single point of contact, with additional levels of contact information unlocked by us as we deem appropriate. A Web page -- whether it's on an outpost such as Facebook or LinkedIn or a site built out with communications tools -- can serve that function pretty well.

A personal Web page is an opportunity to tell your story and balance out other narratives that you can't control."

I found this piece very interesting. When I google "steve mays" I want this blog to show up on the first page of results. Ego? Sure, for now. And it will probably never have financial or business implications for me but that might not be true for a twenty-something.

"Is the UN building open on July 4th?"

It's two a.m. and you're in a bar with your pals, locked in a trivia death-match. A dispute arises over the answer to one of the questions. Nobody in the bar knows the answer and things are about to get ugly. What do you do?

Text your question to 242242.  Somewhere in the world a bleary-eyed ChaCha Guide is in front of her computer, waiting to answer your question. In under three minutes.

I hadn't heard of ChaCha until Zach the Intern --a ChaCha Guide-- told me about it this morning (14 min). Download MP3

All networking will be social

Planet Nelson points us to this insightful article on social networking from Managing Technology:

"...how we exchange information is changing, from sharing information actively (emailing photos to friends) to sharing it passively (uploading those photos to Facebook and emailing notification to friends). "What's happening is that we're separating access from notification," said Kraus. This leads to more sharing because people don't worry as much about interrupting others with emails, calling attention to themselves and appearing too self-important.

Third, and most important, Kraus sees the web eventually becoming entirely social. "Today, social computing is something you do at a specific site," said Kraus. "But we're realizing that being social is not a site. It's a concept."

If you don't use Twitter, flickr, YouTube, Facebook, My Space, Digg or any of the countless other social networking tool, this idea seems ridiculus. Just as the Internets once seemed like a silly waste of time.

"Computer Jesus"

From a Mindy McAdams post on setting up a team for online journalism: "Sure, it would be great if you could hire one single person who could do everything. We call that “computer jesus” — and you need to accept the fact that there really are not many people in the world who can walk on water.

New bag helps laptop pass TSA security

The Transportation Security Administration
has given the go-ahead for passengers to use newly designed carry-on
bags that will let them pass through security without having to take
their laptops out for the X-ray inspection. The T.S.A. would accept the new
laptop cases as soon as they come on the market.[NYT]

SlideShare

| View | Upload your own

I've heard good things about slideshare, saw it on Buzz Machine, and decided to give it a try. This is an old (and out of date) presentation but it's the only one I have, so... I believe you can drop in narration audio and I'll give that a try later.

I just like the idea of embedding a slideshow better than trying to email around huge PowerPoint files.

We're gonna need a bigger dial

Mark Ramsey points us to this LA Times story about Chrysler's plans to offer wireless Internet in its 2009 models. Something we all knew was coming. As always, Mr. Ramsey asks the good questions. Here's one of them:

"What does it mean to be "radio" in a world where audio is fully integrated into an experience that includes video, text, interactivity, and personalization? The attraction to these services will not only be that they're supplemental to radio, but that they expand the definition of radio. And that expansion will benefit only those broadcasters and their partners smart enough to recognize that the advantage of a broadcast tower is non-existent in this context."

Or a satellite channel?

Some politicians get the Internet... and some don't

Don't bail before the big finish. Worth the wait. [Thanks, Bob.]

Obama-McCain Twitter Debate

Personal Democracy Forum/techPresident: "Starting tonight, a designated representative of both of the major presidential campaigns are going to participate in a free-wheeling debate on technology and government, moderated by Time magazine blogger Ana Marie Cox and channeled via Twitter."

This is probably one of those ideas that sounds more interesting than they turn out to be. But I'll be following along, just because I have the hots for AMC.

Crackberry cold turkey

"A couple of weeks ago, ABC News writers were forced to surrender their BlackBerry hand-held devices when the network clashed with the guild over after-hours work. According to people familiar with the situation, ABC asked writers and producers to sign a waiver acknowledging that they may use their BlackBerrys to monitor and compose work-related e-mail after normal working hours. When the writers guild advised its members not to sign, the network took the BlackBerrys away." [Broadcasting & Cable]

This is one of the reasons I've always owned my own laptops (and most other work-related) toys. Even though the company would have probably provided some of these. I take the "carpenter's tools" view. I know that all hammers are not the same. I want the best.

"Downloads, podcasts and embed video"

That was part of a promo I heard on MSNBC tonight. First time I noticed the phrase, "embed video." Even the networks are figuring out it's a good thing to have your video embedded in millions of blogs and websites.

I'm sure there is still a lot of "...no, no! We want them to come to OUR website!" But the web IS the network now and your affiliates are are all those blogs.

Obama's management style sounds familiar

This NYT story reminded me one of my favorite management stories (The Cleanest Tastee Freeze in Town). A couple of grafs in particular:

"No state was more important to his candidacy than Iowa, but when (Senator Obama) arrived there for campaign visits he stopped aides who tried to give detailed accounts of developments."

“I’d get in the car with him and talk a mile a minute,” recalled Paul Tewes, who was the campaign’s state director. Mr. Tewes recalled that on the candidate’s fifth visit to the state, Mr. Obama interrupted one of his detailed updates, saying: “You know what, Paul? All I want from you is for you to do your best, and I trust you and you know what you’re doing.”

In the years that I reported to Clyde Lear, I heard him say (to me and others) almost those exact words, more times than I can count. I've heard many talk the talk in this regard, but only a few that could walk the walk. Nice to know Senator O is one of them.

Competition still hot for domain names

If you missed this story on NPR's Morning Edition last week, it's worth a listen (4 min). Seems the market for web site domain names is on the rise. Last month, the name Gasprices.com sold for $300,000.

Back when we registered Legislature.com, we could not believe it was still available. I mean, ALL one-word domains were gone by that time. But for some reason, not Legislature.com. We jumped on it. Would we sell it? In a New York minute. Dot com.