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This is a very nice idea of grouping current services and applications around the topic of social software and digital identity.
And best of all: You can play bingo with it! Print it out, mark every service you are using and see if you got a hit in every square! (You are a geek if you do, but that is a different topic ...)
Via André Ribeirinho.
Tag(s): Digital Identity, social software
31.10.06 - tools - 0 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
is how I would have named the article in Business Week. ;o)
Kerry Campell asked me some questions about how German politicians 'work' with Web 2.0 for her article "
Europe's Politicians Embrace Web 2.0. The quote for Germany is absolutly correct:
German politicians, however, are a bit slower than their Continental neighbors to get on the Web 2.0 wagon.
A very nice understatement. ;o) Although my interest in politics can be called "small" (one of the reasons I insisted she should talk to
Nico about this as he is much more into the political stuff than I am) her questioning got me curious:
How are politicans in your country using modern technology? My view goes especially to my readers in the smaller European countries like for example Portugal ;)
Do they embrace it, or is it more of a necessary evil? Do they understand what they are working with, or is it more of a reaction because "others are doing it" and so they have to in order to stay cool?
(tip: you can leave a comment at the business week article as well)
Technorati Tags: europe, web20, politics
29.10.06 - european view - 0 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
Rick Segal asked this question on his recent trip to good old Europe and reflects on the reactions.
It does bother me much more that I have to decide whether or not I write in English or my german tongue. The audiences are different (that helps) but some things have to go on the german blog because the cultural context is lost otherwise. Many times I end up posting in neither language - beying so annoyed about having to choose.
As with having two blogs - it is more if a choice for you the reader. English reading people do mind it if there is content which they cannot participate / read etc, which is why I keep them seperate.
Rick mentions how non english websites use tools from english site: well, why should I bother with having a lower quality german speaking service if I can have a better one in english. Which in many cases is also a tool i use for my english blogs.
Did I mention I want a working translator in all areas of our live asap? Could the guys who decide which cool feature is next please start with this one? Talk about crowdsourcing, and taking in the community of interest etc ... image how that would rock if we all spoke the same language ....
Rick talks about how interesting he finds it that Estonian official websites have so much translated into English - and loyal readers will know that this is one of my standard things I tell about Germany: Most of the Germans do not have the level of english I have (and yes, as usual I consider mine far from being perfect). They just don't.
They may have some vocabulary for the holidays, but even when travelling to the states I am amazed when walking in San Francisco how many German tourist I encounter who frequently complain about not being able to understand anything.
Which is why (and there we go back to the point at the beginning) a lot of my readers are separated into two camps: Those who read english and those who only read German. It shows not only in what they talk about but also in the topics they are interested in or what relationships they build.
It is not the language which is bothering me, but the seperation through it.
It is not fun when you want to talk about what interests you, what you are passionate about and the response is being resented - purely based on the fact that "it is in english". While I am interested at what is happening in the Valley, most people here are absolutely not. They may be interested what is happening in Germany in some towns, but that is about it.
So of course I go where my peers are. Which means 80% of the time travelling. But then ... It is not much fun when you get accused of wanting to show of when all you do is talk about what you have done in the past months or go for in the next 12. I will attend the
PodcastconUK for speaking,
LeWeb (when I find my Mastercard to actually be able to pay it), attend the
BBC Christmas Bash and if I look at the parts I want to go for in 2007 I could use a travel agent just on how to deal with flights, hotels etc. Those are a few days out of the months to come and people act as if I am doing nothing else but running around from conference to conference.
So to answer the question "Does it bother or concern you that English appears to be the native tongue for the Internet." I would say: It concerns me a much greater deal that people still stay in their own language and own eco system.
At the same time I see how complicated, frustrating it is for many, for them it will stay "Endstation Deutsch" because they will not be able to participate even though internet access has become so easy.
I'm drawing no conclusions as of yet, just giving you some observations about languages and the use. At a certain point, your blog, web site, web service, etc, will be impacted. It's worth thinking about.
For the moment: If you consider selling in the German market for big time, you need to have a german website, no way around it. This comes first. Second you need to make sure that you understand cultural differences. And third - well there may be no third as there may already be a copy cat in the German market or your special service is so localized to your own market that it is not transferable at all.
And I am afraid that this will not change for a very long time. So while Estonia has embraced what the new language can bring them (as most smaller countries do) the big ones like Germany, France and Spain loose out - because they are too big.
Commenter Ed asks if we should be bothered that the language of the commercial internet is english, and I was missing a point in this post:
...
That the commercial internet does not understand though is the fact how much money can be made OUTSIDE the pure english speaking users. Once they get this, they may actually go and work on some better translators.
Too bad porn is basically just images and nonsense sound which does not need no translation, otherwise we would have had a working babelfish 5 years ago ...
Used tags: a_european_view, international_customers
28.10.06 - european view - 2 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
If you are one of those people thinking that starting in Europe is done by going to London or taking a look at what is happening there, you should think again. It was always untrue as London is UK and not Europe but even more so now that we are talking Web 2.0 and all.
*The* major events happen in Copenhagen, Geneva, Lisbon with
Reboot,
Lift and
Shift on the more idealistic visionary side and in Paris and Munich for the more enterprisy / media side with
Les Blogs and
Digital Lifestyle Day (Amsterdam not to be forgotten)
Yes, if you want a city where you can bump into a lot of things happening everyday then London is at the moment one of your best guesses. But thanks to a highly connected net of low cost airlines no place in Europe is much more than 2-3 flying hours away.
But as most people in Europe have to travel anyhow if they want to go somewhere, local places pick up with speed in what they are doing. I say it everytime and I say it again: If you only look at English as a language on what is happening over here, you are mistaken to do so.
Cultural diversity as well as the need for the local language make the market much more complicated (which is why companies find it easier to just go to London), but if you want to get an idea about the market and how for example at the moment new startups pop up in Germany you will need to find a way to communicate into and out of this country.
So let's say you want to get a feel for how European diversity works and how it is to be in a room where people do not only speak english as their not non native language but as the language of choice, and where the usual visitor tends to speak at least 2 language, sometimes even 4 or 5. Where cultures connect not just states, then you have your conference to go - Les Web 3.
Les blogs changes to Le Web
Loic Lemeurchanges the name of Les Blogs to Le Web:
The new name is Le Web 3, I wanted it to be more general than just blogs. We had 450 people from 25 countries last year, we expect 1000 bloggers and key Web2.0 players this year
which I think is a good choice.
At Les Blogs 2 (besides some incidents with food and a backchannel) I felt that most of us where surprised how many normal people already had reached the point of 'getting it' and where eager to come and learn where the more digital boheme part of the conference was irritated because they where not expecting this.
This time the signal is clear, even without having the program yet: This is going to be about the mass market, the enterprises, the big topics of how to make this work and monetize it.
Coincedently I had made up my mind today that I wanted to go - even though after last time I was thinking not to. But now I am more than happy and curious to see who will come and what will happen at this conference.
One of the reasons to be so happy is actually that 2006 has been a very good year for Germany. While we still do not blog as much as other countries, a lot of new and intersting applications and ideas have risen. The amount of people talking / entering Second Life is astonishing. And while not obvious, the people using
openbc for their social netword service of choice are high, even though it may not be on the radar of more american focussed viewers. People as well as big media and enterprises are entering the podcasting market equally in audio as in video, Germany always has been a strong wikipedia as well as ebay country.
Oh did I mention we do have more people living here than in the UK? So yes, events are happening in London, but the rest of the bunch is working and living somewhere else and interested in getting connected and making things happen. Over here, for people living here with their different approach to life / culture and society and bring new and different viewpoints to the table.
See you in Paris!
(I have now added
an upcoming.org link for le web)
ps: And I can finally use google maps in Europe to find out where the conference is happening. You knew that Google did only have the UK for a very long time as the European map? A greeting to people from Salesforce and co who called their Google Map integration as their killer feature for international users in a time when Google barely knew the outline of the european countries ...
Used tags: a_european_view, international_customers
22.10.06 - european view - 2 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
Over at "a minor technology" Neil Dixon writes in
The license to take it and use it:
In my day to day conversations with UK podcast producers and talent - at least those who are already producing within the space - the question I most frequently get asked goes along the lines of: “If I sign an agreement, does Podshow own my podcast?”.
Podshow has a policy of not discussing the finer points of agreements and relationships outside of those individual relationships - a professional attitude, I think. But I’m still coming across this misconception almost on a daily basis, not only in actual discussions, but on blogs, in emails, and on forums, despite there being relatively very few people who have actually, physically, seen the text of such an agreement.
As usual please read first before you go on reading this. ;)
Later in the article he refers to one incident where the contract with Podshow was talked about in several podcasts and about the harsh conditions in it. Now, while Neil is talking about the UK version of Podshow and the other incident actually might have lead to some changes in the T&C I am not sure if those comments and questions are not valid - for a very basic reason.
If you head over to
podshow.com you will find a standard portal which would have the best chances of being the myspace of podcasting. Several functions which are available make it the perfect place to go there - except for one thing: I cannot recommend at all that you list your own podcast there as the rules are a bit fuzzy.
Quote from the T&C for becoming a normal member for the service (which is needed to actually do anything):[...]Unless you specify otherwise, any and all works of authorship copyrightable by you and posted by you to your member pages (“Member Works”) are submitted with the understanding that you permit anyone to copy, distribute, display and perform your Member Works, royalty-free, on the condition that they credit your authorship each time they do so. You also permit others to distribute derivative works of your Member Works, provided that they give you proper attribution as described below.
[...]
By posting your Member Works on the Member Pages, you are granting PodShow a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, and worldwide license to use your Member Works in connection with the operation of the PodShow Websites, including, without limitation, the license rights to copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Blog Works, and/or to incorporate it into a collective work.
One reason I do NOT list my show in Podshow is very simple - the terms for _listing_ my podcast in the directory are so broad and giving so many rights to Podshow that I do not see how I can trust this. As usual I do not need to list myself there which is what I have chosen to do. You may have a different view on that.
And while I agree that a service like Podshow needs some rights if this is supposed to be working for all sides, there is a limit. Given the contract which has been out before, the T&C on this website i find it highly unlikely that suddenly the contract should be less aggressive.
But let me say this as well: This is business and not handholding romance, nobody is forcing anybody to do something. If I enter a contract I should read it first and wage whatever I think I can get out of it against what I expect I will 'loose'. If this feels positive, I will go forward with it and if not, I just leave it. But if I sign whatever document it is, don't come running later and complain about what you signed up for ...
[btw, anyone can confirm that the T&C on the US side has changed? I remember different wording in there, which was even more annoying]
Technorati Tags: podcast, podshow, term and condition
22.10.06 - business podcast, podcasting - 3 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
The current session is supposed to show me "
One Day in the Life of an Office 2.0 Worker".
From what I can see on the screen this means basically a) waiting for your net connection to come up b) hope that the application runs (we had a gmail server problem earlier) and c) mostly having to use a web application without the benefits of MS Office in efficiency and feature richness as well as 'known' and well designed UI.
I still have to have somebody to set up the system for me and make it usable because for the basic users everything of this is already overhype. So far I have not seen a lot of impressing stuff around possible enhancements for the Office 2.0 worker. The only thing I can see so far is collaboration through the net - which makes it easier to share and work on documents.
Now, a question: How many people in private as well as in company life do use such features? And how many of those still will just mail documents back and forth? How many of you have ever received documents out of MS Office even using the "show changes from other user"?
One other reason here I am here is my favorite thing: Asking the 'international' question. (That usually is of course my German / European view, but usually that is even more than enough to throw people of their "we are perfect and so cool!" mind.)
One of the basic requirements to have a successful application being used in Germany? Have a German interface. Not have a gazillion features, but do something basic right. In German.
No German interface? Only the geeks will use it. And if they use it and something German comes along? Chances are people will fled you.
The question this panels fails to answer is: Who is the target audience of being an office 2.0 worker? Enterprise users? Small companies? Single users? For me it boils - again - down to having an application which people can use and understand.
The guy from
Joyent is the first one which really points out first and formost the it is not about the application but about open standards and how I can get my data in and out. Then, and only then I will be willing to perhaps try you out.
Now to be fair, I have seen a lot of nice little things on the presentations. BUT: If I want to use it with others together, I need to sign up for such a service. If I work on another project? Possibly a different service again. Which in the end does mean I will start using a service which most people are likely to use or have accounts with it.
And tell you what - even Gcal has not the mass amount of normal users you might need to have to organize your life with Gcal.
CRM System? Does this please sync with my mobile equipment?
Having it online - can I please have a working syncing to my local disk if I choose to? Now for example I only have from time to time net connection because I cannot get a prepaid card with data plan.
And can I please have either a self explanatory application OR have a decent manual?
So many many obstacles to overcome. Many problems to solve. It is probably not nice to say, but a lot of those companies will fail.
But they will be a step towards the real solution which is working.
Technorati Tags: office20con
11.10.06 - european view, tools - 2 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
Some people have asked me why I would be going to the
Office 2.0 conference, and one even went so far to say "you have nothing to do with the stuff?!" - which is quite wrong.
I am always amazed how people reduce you to one side of your persona and interests (which btw already happens with the mix of blogging and podcasting); but even more that such a question is even asked instead of "okay you are going, what do you want to get out of it". I find this kind of approach insulting.
First of all, I do have a history with using office applications as well as providing solutions to other users. I always was for driving application towards centralized solutions where it makes sense and to stay away from it if not. Back in the day that was called a host, now this is called the Web. Having worked in controlling (more on the technical side than the "content" side) for 8 years and in sum 15 years in an enterprise environment I always have had connections and interactions with global IT and projects around it.
Working efficiently with applications - especially MS Office and Exchange, SAP and other host applications - was always my goal for myself as well as for my surrounding. It is my strong believe that not the applications are bad but they are misused.
Normal users do not use the rich functionality of all those applications out there - so while an online solution like Writely makes me cringe because of missing features, it is more than enough for 95% of the people.
Powerpoint is not the root of all evil but the people presenting because they don't know how to use the tools. It wasn't part of my normal job but I have been streamlining presentations and concepts for a very long time to say this with certainty. (And let me tell you this much: Several people at this conference could use my services as well.)
On the other side I know how people hate changes and just not want so many changes to what they know. You don't get training in every kind of ugly application on the planet, but you do get a lot of training on MS Office products. Following the UI Guidelines of Windows is key if you want to have users like your product.
And if you want to go native web and online, you need to be sure everybody really has the needed connection all the time with the net. Which btw is not as easy as you may think other parts of the world.
Last but not least I am not so sure that having everything on the net or in the browser build in is really the best way to go.
So why am I here? First I started looking at this conference because I was looking what was happening at the same time as the Portable Media Expo in Ontario because that is the main reason I am here in the states.
But I am not just going to any conference because it is there. The topic itself interested me a lot because Office and how to use them in personal life as well as the enterprise environment has been part of my interest for a very long time. I have the background, the experience and the case scenarios which would be interesting a normal enterprise when talking to this kind of companies.
And most important of it all: It is a conference slightly outside the typical bubbely content of Web 2.0 but more in the real world with real needs and real day to day actions.
I am here to see how much this world has embraced what is happening in my normal surrounding and how the enterprises are slowly opening up to new things happening. At the same time I will play devil's advocate from the enterprise side towards those bubbely ideas of having everything online which usually not works with what companies are interested in for training and hosting the data.
Technorati Tags: office20con
11.10.06 - conference - 0 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
A bit perplex I do read about "
Edelman and Technorati Detail the Most Influential Blogs in German, French and Italian" and so far a lot of the comments do reflect what I feel about it: You got to be kidding me?
I would have understood if Technorati just would have outputted some of the numbers they consider to be 'authorative' by their measurements. They have their weaknesses, especially when it comes to non US blogs and as far as German Blogs go, I think a lot of them just have given up to care about it.
If you read German, you can take a look
at this article in which popculturjunkie explains which changes he has done over the last months to ensure that the basic Technorati-Numbers are matched up to reality - and not for example rank you high just for having done a wordpress theme ...
So after being already bad on the basic numbers they indeed manage to top this. I might be okay with Technorati not being as good as they could be - for an automated process. But on top there has been some real human interaction and work has been done to figure out which is really influential.
I am not including a link to Steve Rubels blogpost on this great announcement, because I do not intend to add one bit of linkage through this (ping to David Sifry: Does Technorati count links with set nofollow?).
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/10/edelman_and_tec.html
What does Steve's Article basically say to me is: A blog is influential if it blogs like Americans do. HELLO?
And interestingly they manage to blog about technical topics. No, that is just the blogs who care about getting themselves into technorati.
I have to stop here because this upsets me so much on so many levels.
As I just discovered,
David Sifry has been invited to show some of his photographs on a nice event around the place I am staying in. Besides that I am really looking forward seeing those, I will ask him about how "good" he feels about being part of such a mispresentation. By which I mean only in part Technorati but for a big part Edelman's "study".
11.10.06 - european view - 3 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
I am trying to upload and then edit the rest of my PME photos (you remember, the PC people have no easy possibility as iphoto which developers of flickr should know about but obviously do not care ...)
and encounter strange error messages today ...
First it told me my name is Crys:
You're currently logged in as Neezee, but it looks like you've got more than one Flickr account.
You logged in to the Uploadr as Crys, so you'll need to re-login to the Flickr website under that account to process your photos.
and now it refuses to send pictures:
The batch was cancelled, but not before 214 of 215 photos were affected.
API ERROR: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <rsp stat="fail"> <err code="1" msg="Photo not found" /> </rsp>
One would think that the software would be clever enough to deal with it ...
Technorati Tags: flickr, errors
08.10.06 - tools - 0 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
I will be transfering from the SFO area to San Francisco on Monday and stay until Saturday later afternoon, and spend sunday back at the SFO area. During SanFran I will be staying at the Mosser Hotel on 4th street.
I will be attending the Office 2.0 conference but thanks to some cold as well as travel stress (as well as 'overwhelming responses' from the audience ;)) the planned preconf podcast falls flat. Thanks to
Ben I now do have a nice mobile phone number +1 415 671 5346 while in the states which I will keep. (It is actually a T-Mobile number as all other options are not feasable to work with - and none of the prepaids seem to have data available. ).
Ben provided a good reason for using social software systems - he needed a car ride for the TV he won from Yahoo into town and mailed me: "I noticed from your comment on UpComing that you were driving down, and I notice from your Plazes that you're staying at the Hol Inn Express. " perfect. :)
After this I will travel in November to
Podcastcon UK where you can find me on the business panel as well as Oct 20/22nd online at the
Internation Podcasting Expo with an updated presentation on "how and why to foster an international audience".
If you have not done such an online conference, I encourage you to test it out. It is quite affordable and a very interesting experience. :)
07.10.06 - business podcast, conference - 0 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
One of the big topics in the last day on the
podcaster's mailing list on yahoo is the trend towards video.
After visiting the Portable Media Conference I am more sure than ever in saying: If you want to go video, but if not I will stay your 'customer'. There are so many reasons NOT to do a video cast out of something and I think many people forget something if they think of video as a successor to audio.
Yes, TV was a successor to radio meaning it would take away viewing time from pure listening time. BUT. Audio Podcasting does lead to new customers - and they are not mainstream. Take me as an example.
I did not listen to radio nor watch TV nor do I today watch video casts (with some rare exceptions from time to time). But I have listened for the last two years to an amount of audio which you will not believe.
So while it did take away no time at all from my usual listening / viewing behaviour, it added a huge amount of media consumption. Think about that for a second. How many friends do you have which just do not watch TV anymore?
Here my reply from the mailing list
Stephen Eley (from the Escapepod) wrote:
> So there is plenty of demand. I don't think that means everybody
> should drop what they're doing and switch to video, but just because
> *you* don't have a use for them doesn't mean it's a poor business move
> for the producer.
Yes. If you have a need for millions of viewers, then you most likely have to go for video. But also bring up your production values ALOT.
I don't mind people going to video as long as there stays enough content to enjoy with audio :)
What most people confuse: The time of one medium only and millions of users is over. Most of us will never ( be it audio or video) achieve such huuuge listener or viewership. And that is perfectly fine.
Because if you long for the masses, you are going mainstream. Big time. And sorry to say that: If you try to play mainstream, you are better good. Really good.
Instead, lets look at what we have:
A possibility to get into the ears of hundred thousands if not millions of people and actually take them away from radio or audio book / music in all those places they still will not watch television even if there are enough available - you do not watch television when you drive a car.
If you want mass audience - that is fine too. I prefer a specific audience - geeky, intelligent and such. They are by definition fewer of those available than general public.
So. if you love doing something and have a passion on a topic and have the chance to have for example enthusiastic thankful 5000 listeners in comparison to doing something you hate just to try to attract more viewers with a technology which is not as easy as with audio - do you really think that is the way to go for you?
I rather take the 5K and learn how to grow them - if that is actually important to me.
Tip: It is not the world population which is your target. It is about the size of your target topic audience. And that can be so small, that 500 listeners means world domination.
When visiting the PME I was questioning myself if video should be stronger included, but after having some time to think about it I would say: No. Let's keep the PME audio centric, perhaps with the addition of screen casting, but take most of the video things out and let them have it somewhere different.
OR make dedicated days to video and audio, so the audience can choose which day to go for their interest.
Technorati Tags: pme, pme2006, protablemediaexpo, podcasting, videocasting, listenership, world domination"
07.10.06 - podcasting - 2 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
So what to do with some spare time in the US?
After recovering from some cold - don't stay in the cold outside even if over the day you where too hot as the aircondition and the weather will kill you *grrrrrr* - I went to the delicious birthday bash at Yahoo. As most options travelling there where not really compelling I engaged in my first adventure of getting a rental car ever.
It wasn't as bad as expected - after all I was a bit concerned about this automatic gear. I still prefer stick, but I can deal with the other one now.
Fox Rental around my hotel was okay but lacked customer service, which is why I took the free miles option to drive a bit around the hotel in south San Francisco - to find a Hertz Station. Which turned out to be wonderfully nice in service. If you ever need to rent there - head for the South San Fran Hertz station at south boulevard.
I still have not manage to find a normal supermarket, but had another reason to rent again today (and over the weekend): Ikea.
When passing Palo Alto on my way to Yahoo I saw familar coloring of yellow and blue. And when I asked
Maryam Scoble about meeting she suggested Palo Alot (which I love). To which I added "Great! I can make a visit to Ikea first".
And the magic words came: "I want to go too!". Other visit wineries, I have more fun at Ikea. So Maryam and I are hooking up for a truly girly experience: Visiting Ikea with nothing special in mind to shop. :) :)
06.10.06 - travel - 3 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
As it seems they will let me rent a car. An automatic one, which I never drove. So we will see how good this will go, but a warning: Stay away. ;)
Foreign woman with a high degree of talent of not finding the way on the street tonight.
Now I need to get to the printer downstairs to print out all those direction maps ;)
03.10.06 - travel - 2 comments / TB ( ) - permanent link
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