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Success of a Broadcast Medium: The Muzak Transmission Process
By Andy OramNovember 18, 2009
Muzak grew from constant technological innovation and originally succeeded as a broadcast medium using spare spectrum, a business model rarely examined today.
Posterous: The Copy-and-Post Revolution in (Micro) Blogging
By Mark SigalNovember 4, 2009
A friend of mine, who has achieved repeated success in high-tech startup land, said that if you want to be successful, focus on segments where <10% of the crowd currently adopts the solution, and by virtue of dramatically simplifying the approach, you can toggle adoption rates to closer to 90%. Enter Posterous, a micro-blogging tool (it's free) that does a few things really well.
Lessons from Digital Disruption in the Music Business
By Andrew SavikasOctober 28, 2009
Last week's On The Media (mp3 download here) devoted the full program to challenges and changes during the past decade or so in the music business -- from the...
Publishing Models for Internet Commerce
By Andrew SavikasOctober 11, 2009
Last week I pointed to a 1994 interview Tim O'Reilly did that touched on the impact the Web would have on publishing. A nice contemporary companion is this 1995...
""We had all the advantages and let it slip away"
By Andrew SavikasOctober 1, 2009
Among the most honest assessments of the failure of newspapers to adapt to the Web comes from John Temple, former editor, president and publisher of the now-defunct Rocky Mountain...
Microsoft Press Enters Strategic Alliance with O'Reilly
By Tim O'ReillySeptember 24, 2009
Today, Microsoft and O'Reilly Media announced an agreement to support and expand Microsoft Press. Under the terms of the strategic alliance, O'Reilly will be the exclusive distributor of Microsoft Press titles and co-publisher of all Microsoft Press titles, on Nov. 30, 2009. We'll be working with Microsoft to develop new books, as well as distributing both existing and new co-published books to bookstores, and, perhaps most importantly, to the emerging digital book channels that represent the future of book publishing.
The Library of the Commons: Rise of the Infodex
By Mark SigalAugust 31, 2009
Somewhere between the realm of Personal and Shared media lies the realm of the Universal. The realm of the universal is the Library of the Commons, a global repository of user-generated and crowd-sourced media and information. Services that logically nest in the Library include: Amazon Reviews, Yelp, YouTube, Craigslist, Wikipedia, Flickr, Tweets...READ ON.
Old Media, New Media and Where the Rubber Meets the Road
By Mark SigalJuly 29, 2009
My once-beloved San Francisco Chronicle has been “hollowed out,” reduced to a thin pamphlet, thereby accelerating their subscriber attrition. Do you even know anyone who actually uses the Yellow Pages? Remember record stores? Whither Blockbuster? When analog media collides with digital media, “creative destruction” occurs with brutal efficiency…unless you can truly differentiate your offering, a tall task, but not an insurmountable one. Read on
Anderson: "It's All About Attention"
By Andrew SavikasJuly 29, 2009
Over on Spiegel Online, Chris Anderson does a great job responding to nearly all of the standard old-media responses to new media. Unsurprisingly (I'm sure Wired would have done...
Network's Impact on Media - Part II
By Sarah SorensenJuly 28, 2009
While the network gives people a voice that can be used en masse to try to affect change, the resulting proliferation of news sources has some very real challenges. It can fracture and lessen the impact of any particular voice and, because information can come from anyone and anywhere, it is hard to verify...
Network's Impact on Media
By Sarah SorensenJuly 20, 2009
The world lost Walter Cronkite, who represented the TV news age. Now it's the Digital Information Age and the network is changing everything. Think about how much Cronkite had seen in his 92 years and then think about how the last few probably eclipsed all of the previous decades in terms of accelerated change, due to the proliferation of so many new outlets (cable and Web sites) and online tools...
Ten Commandments of Power Account Submitters
By Sara PeytonJuly 14, 2009
Social media expert Tamar Weinberg cuts through the hype and jargon to give you intelligent advice and strategies for positioning your business on the social web in her new book from O'Reilly, The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web
Content is a Service Business
By Andrew SavikasJuly 12, 2009
What you're selling as an artist (or an author, or a publisher for that matter) is not content. What you sell is providing something that the customer/reader/fan wants. That may be entertainment, it may be information, it may be a souvenir of an event or of who they were at a particular moment in their life (Kelly describes something similar as his eight "qualities that can't be copied": Immediacy, Personalization, Interpretation, Authenticity, Accessibility, Embodiment, Patronage, and Findability). Note that that list doesn't include "content." The thing that most publishers (and authors) spend most of their time fretting about (making it, selling it, distributing it, "protecting" it) isn't the thing that their customers are actually buying. Whether they realize it or not, media companies are in the service business, not the content business.
Freemium Services and the Economics of Social Networking
By George ReeseJuly 5, 2009
Social networking sites face a unique economic challenge when it comes to monetizing the value they create. Any attempt to capture a piece of the value they create inevitably damages that value.
In Defense of Social Media (At Least Some Of It)
By Joshua-Michele RossJuly 2, 2009
Scott Berkun just posted a great rant titled, Calling Bullshit on Social Media. I suggest everyone read it. Berkun raises good points - and I agree the hype around social media warrants taking a critical look. Despite being in general agreement, there are a few areas I can't abide, starting with this statement: social media is a stupid term. Is...
Four short links: 11 June 2009
By Nat TorkingtonJune 11, 2009
Trending Topics -- full source code for trendingtopics.org, Wikipedia trend analysis. Rails app running on the Cloudera Hadoop Distribution on EC2. (via mattb on Delicious) Graffiti from Pompeii -- I can't help but read these as Tweets. Herculaneum (on the exterior wall of a house); 10619: Apollinaris, the doctor of the emperor Titus, defecated well here (see also olde...
New on O'Reilly Labs: Open Feedback Publshing System
By Andrew SavikasMay 21, 2009
O'Reilly engineer Keith Fahlgren has formally launched our new Open Feedback Publishing System over on O'Reilly Labs: Over the last few years, traditional publishing has been moving closer to the...
The Digital Panopticon
By Joshua-Michele RossMay 20, 2009
This post is part three of a series raising questions about the mass adoption of social technologies;. Here are links to part one and two. These posts will be opened to live discussion in an upcoming webcast on May 27. (special guest to be announced shortly) In 1785 utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed architectural plans for the Panopticon, a prison...
Completing the circle on journalists and public participation
By Andy OramMay 20, 2009
Capital News Connection has jumped into Web 2.0 full-tilt with Ask Your Lawmaker. The opportunity for a virtuous cycle of public input, professional processing, and listener loyalty--especially in a field whose death has been predicted by many--puts Ask Your Lawmaker into an intriguing category of its own.
Captivity of the Commons
By Joshua-Michele RossMay 19, 2009
This post is part two of the series, “The Question Concerning Social Technology”. Part one is here. These posts will be opened to live discussion in an upcoming webcast on May 27. In January 2002 DARPA launched the Information Awareness Office. The mission was to, “ imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop, information...
The Question Concerning Social Technology
By Joshua-Michele RossMay 18, 2009
I am an evangelist of social media and an active participant: on Linked In (business), MySpace (music) and Facebook (increasingly my online identity), I blog on several sites and I am a daily user of Twitter. I also make my living speaking to companies about the value and operating principles of these more open, participatory technologies. I have read the...
Scribd Store a Welcome Addition to Ebook Market (and 650 O'Reilly Titles Included)
By Andrew SavikasMay 18, 2009
The document-sharing site Scribd has launched a new "Scribd Store" selling view and download access to documents and books. As part of the launch, there are now more than 650 O'Reilly ebooks now available for preview and sale in the Scribd store, and all include DRM-free PDF downloads with purchase. (Scribd will soon be adding EPUB as a format, and...
2 Years Later, the Facebook App Platform is Still Thriving
By Ben LoricaMay 13, 2009
In a few weeks, the Facebook application platform will mark its second anniversary. While it garnered lots of press coverage in the months after it launched, the arrival of the iTunes app store shifted attention away from Facebook's vibrant ecosystem. The media glow is understandable: among other things, the younger iTunes platform is adding apps at a much faster rate...
Four short links: 12 May 2009
By Nat TorkingtonMay 12, 2009
Lacie 10TB Storage -- for what used to be the price of a good computer, you can now buy 10TB of storage. Storage on sale goes for less than $100 a terabyte. This obviously promotes collecting, hoarding, packratting, and the search technology necessary to find what you've stashed away. Analogies to be drawn between McMansions full of Chinese-made crap...
Sarah Milstein and The Twitter Book featured on The Agenda - Canada's Top Current Affairs Show Talks about Twitter and Its Impact on Journalism
By Sara PeytonMay 5, 2009
Hosted by award-winning journalist Steve Paiken, The Agenda explored Twitter and it's impact on how we get and share the news in last night's show. Twitter expert and coauthor of The Twitter Book, Sarah Milstein, joined the Toronto based show from a studio in San Francisco. Jay Rosen, professor with the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, Amber MacArthur, new media journalist and web strategist, Mathew Ingram, the communities editor at The Globe and Mail, and David Cohn is the founder of Spot.us--a nonprofit project to pioneer community funded reporting--also joined the discussion. Take a look.
Report: Large-Form Kindle to Target Textbooks and Newspapers
By Mac SlocumMay 5, 2009
The Wall Street Journal says a large-form Kindle -- rumored to make its debut tomorrow -- will be partially targeted at the textbook market: Beginning this fall, some students...
Replacing Journalism: New Foundations for Expertise, Diversity, and Debate
By Andy OramMay 3, 2009
In this new article, I've isolated three key traits we seek in journalism--expertise, diversity, and debate--and suggest how we might elicit them from the general public without mediation by journalists. The exercise is an example of the kind of practice that could emerge from a combination of new technologies and new habits.
Responding to Morozov on Twitter's "Power to Misinform"
By Timothy M. O'BrienApril 26, 2009
In Foreign Policy, Evgeny Morozov writes about Twitters power to misinform in the context of the emerging Swine Flu crisis. In his article he brings up concerns about the use of Twitter to spread misinformation and makes some broad generalizations about the motivations of the average Twitter. In this article, I response to some of the things Morozov has to say about the validity of analyzing Twitter trends.
Four short links: 6 Apr 2009
By Nat TorkingtonApril 6, 2009
Baby nerds, evil URL shorteners, reasoned discussion, and the Government straps its Web 2.0 on: Books for Wee Nerds -- Forget Pat the Bunny -- your baby wants to Pat Schrodinger's Kitty! Help baby search for subatomic particles and explore the universe. (via Tim's tweets) On URL Shorteners -- Joshua Schachter and Maciej Ceglowski on the downsides of URL shortening...
Hack in the Box (Dubai) 2009 / Psychotronic(a) / Hacking the Psyche
By Nitesh DhanjaniMarch 30, 2009
I will be presenting Psychotronica: Exposure, Control, and Deceit at the Hack in the Box Conference in Dubai (20th - 23rd April 2009).
From Open Source Software to Open Culture: Three Misunderstandings
By Andy OramMarch 22, 2009
The original practice and promise of open source software is unique. The software experience cannot be ported whole-hog into other areas such as sharing songs or organizing public forums.
Coming to Grips with the "Unthinkable" in Publishing
By Andrew SavikasMarch 18, 2009
While much of the Twitter chatter this past weekend was about the annual South by Southwest festival and conference, there was quite a bit of "retweeting" of links to a...
Four short links: 10 Mar 2009
By Nat TorkingtonMarch 10, 2009
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation Sets Up Its Own BitTorrent Tracker -- the money shot is not that they're using the same code as Pirate Bay, it's "By using BitTorrent we can reach our audience with full quality media files. Experience from our early tests show that if we’re the best provider of our own content we also gain control of...
Ideation: Flip Video News Network (a RIGHT HERE NOW service)
By Mark SigalMarch 4, 2009
Imagine CNN for the broadband era. A real time news network with bureaus/beats all around the world. Best of all, we're building it on the free or cheap.
As the Internet Rewires Our Brains
By Kurt CagleMarch 1, 2009
The Internet, ironically, has been abuzz this week with dire news about how the Social Media and the Internet itself is stunting our mental growth, is turning us into idiot savants, Aspergers and reverting our brains to a more primitive state. The first such statement came from Lady Greenfield, an Oxford University neurologist, baroness, and director of the Royal Institution in England, who warned that sites such as Facebook and Twitter were contributing to the decline of critical skills in children who used them heavily, claiming that repeated exposure could effectively rewire the brain.
Four short links: 27 Feb 2009
By Nat TorkingtonFebruary 27, 2009
The Economist in Chinese, online news, concurrency, and community. Have a great weekend! Translating the Economist -- Andy Baio reports on a Chinese electronic community that, each week, splits up and translates The Economist articles into Chinese. The DIY ethos here, "we want this, it's not here yet, let's make it happen", is tremendous. Business Models of News -- excellent...
Four short links: 26 Feb 2009
By Nat TorkingtonFebruary 26, 2009
Three stories about old-media in new-media age, and some patent goblins to leave a bad taste in your mouth: The Kindle Swindle -- the Authors Guild president argues that the robot voice of the Kindle does away with audiobook royalty streams, lucrative for some titles. Doesn't mention the vast majority of books for which there is no audiobook. Creators have...
Where else do you want InsideRIA?
By Steve WeissFebruary 26, 2009
We're ready to extend the reach of the InsideRIA community beyond its home site, and can use your input. We're on Twitter--@InsideRIA--and will soon be adding a widget to the site that enables you to track InsideRIA-generated Tweets. Here are a few other things we're considering:
Pirates are friends, not threats
By Emerson NiideFebruary 25, 2009
The entertainment industry don't realize that there are two very different pirate profiles.
Radar Interview with Clay Shirky
By Joshua-Michele RossFebruary 16, 2009
Clay Shirky is one of the most incisive thinkers on technology and its effects on business and society. I had the pleasure to sit down with him after his keynote at the FASTForward '09 conference last week in Las Vegas. In this interview Clay talks about The effects of low cost coordination and group action. Where to find the next...
Four short links: 11.5 Feb 2009
By Nat TorkingtonFebruary 11, 2009
This second Feb 11 post was brought to you by the intersection of timezones and technology. If there's a third Feb 11 post, I'm changing my name to Bill Murray. Hacking the Earth -- an environmental futurist looks at "geoengineering", deliberately interfering with the Earth's systems to terraform the planet. Radical solution to global warming, unwise hubris and immoral act...
A Climate of Polarization
By Gavin StarksJanuary 28, 2009
We are entering an new era of seismic change in policy, business, society, technology, finance and our environment, on a scale and speed substantially greater than previous revolutions. More than ever, we need to create space for learning, communication and understanding.
New York Times Settles Linking Suit
By Peter BrantleyJanuary 27, 2009
In what many of us thought was a slightly bizarre case, the New York Times Co. has settled with GateHouse Media in a suit attempting to cease the automated...
Four short links: 23 Jan 2009
By Nat TorkingtonJanuary 23, 2009
Potty mouth, piracy, pointers to the future of the web, and Presidential technology woes, all in today's link roundup. F*ck the Cloud - Jason Scott's brilliant (and profanity-strewn) rant about cloud computing and the things people throw away without thinking about. Jason, an Internet historian, has a unique perspective and I think what he says makes a lot of sense....
Music on Computers, Circa 2013
By David BattinoJanuary 22, 2009
For the past 13 years, I've traveled to Texas to join the "premier interactive audio think tank," Project Bar-B-Q. There, great minds from Dolby Labs, Karma Labs, Open Labs, Microsoft, Intel, DTS, Dell, and more plot the future of music on computers. Here's our latest report.
Four short links: 15 Jan 2009
By Nat TorkingtonJanuary 16, 2009
Today we have Tom's Brain on Flickr, the Newspaper Industry's Death in Context, REST with friends, and Filthy Lucre from Twitter. A map of my brain - Tom Coates mindmaps his interests as part of brainstorming for a Webstock talk. I'd love to see these for other geeks. I guess part of keeping up with your friends is building your...
New Book Hot Off the Press: Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One
By Mary RotmanJanuary 15, 2009
With 12 self-paced tutorials and three hours of all-new video instruction, Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One allows you to learn at your own pace, while engaging you in real-world projects that have you try out actual techniques and learn concepts in a hands-on way. Keep reading for more information about the book as well as a way to win a copy for yourself.
Alan Lastufka's Revealing Interview with YouTube Rock Star Michael Buckley
By Sara PeytonJanuary 13, 2009
Michael Buckley's WhatTheBuck is the most popular entertainment show on YouTube, with more than 240,000 subscribers and 70 million views. Here Alan Lastufka, author of YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts, talks to this YouTube rock star and learns more about how Michael does things.
The dreaded EJB question... addressed
By Brett McLaughlinJanuary 13, 2009
Lots of folks have been clamoring to know about the second edition of Head First EJB. Click Play on the video below to get a direct answer... I promise.
Four short links: 12 Jan 2009
By Nat TorkingtonJanuary 12, 2009
Brace yourself: kids, design, newspapers, and robots. It can only be another collection of four tasty links (or the key elements of the least successful Disney holiday movie ever). Our Work So Far This Year - amazing blog entry about St Pauls high school in England, which has had exceptional technologists come to speak to their ITC class. Who? Oh,...
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