Category: Uncategorized

Via Jeremy, I found Chris DiBona’s post about why WiFi should be turned off at conferences. Maybe it should be taken one step further on an every day basis, and all communal workplaces (read: conference rooms) should have a bin at the door where everyone can turn in their Treos, Blackberries, and other mobile devices of choice so that while at the meeting, attendees are at the meeting. If your attention is divided, then you’re not contributing. If you’re not contributing, why are you attending?

I throw the stone knowing that I live in a glass house: I’ve been known to glance at my email during a meeting. That’s not a good thing, and I’m going to make a conscious effort to change my habits.

I’m wondering if the most connected employees and companies are going to need to learn (even before everyone else) that if your employees can’t concentrate on solving problems with each other when they are together in person, then why are you going to the expense (commute time, office space, etc.) of bringing them together in person at all? I write these words believing that some remarkable things can be accomplished by smart people working together in physical proximity. There are plenty of examples where the proximity is not necessary (name your favorite open-source project), but there’s still a spark that can in the right circumstances bring a project up another notch. Sparks take friction, good and bad.

Treo-free Friday, anyone?

I’ll carry my 650 around the office tomorrow (it’s also my phone, after all), but I’ll see if I can go the entire day (at least 5 meetings) without once looking at email or News.com Mobile.

Obviously, I hoped that News.com would bring home the Eppy for Best Internet News Service over 1 million, but that went to Slate Magazine this year. CNET News.com and Boston.com were the other finalists in that category. Overall, the folks at NYT Digital must be pleased, with Martin Nisenholtz honored as Outstanding Individual Achievement and NYTimes.com winning “Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Internet Service over 1 million” (with Boston.com a finalist there, too). Congrats to Eliot and his colleagues. Pssttt… Eliot, you need to blog more.

I’ve been quiet for a few days, even if news in the Mac world has not. Since Sunday morning, I’ve been stretching my brain with a class on accounting and finance. One week, Sunday to Thursday, cramming in lots of information about the language of business. Coming in, I knew the vocabulary of accounting and finance, but not the grammar. At the end, I won’t be writing any novels in this language but I can certainly read with increased comprehension.

This Wharton executive training is fascinating, and excellent, and I’m grateful my company helped make it happen. Back to the day job tomorrow afternoon, with a whole new perspective.

The rumors flew around a short while ago (link to WSJ, behind pay-wall), but my editorial colleagues at CNET News.com got the story this afternoon: Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips. I can see from the burgeoning TalkBack thread (50 comments and counting) that people still aren’t sure whether to believe the news. We’ll see, won’t we?

I certainly appreciate the logic Jon Gruber demonstrated in dissecting the WSJ article last week, but I have faith in the edit team at News.com. This isn’t the kind of report you run without review by various parties. Gruber saw the article already, and wonders about the sources.

There are too many reactions to keep up with, so follow the Technorati thread with me. Note: that link won’t get them all because some of the tracking tags make Technorati think that different URLs are different stories. Not their fault, really, but here’s another link to track people who are linking to the story via the URL that went out in RSS. Confusing, isn’t it?

Nice to have another site that requires little explanation: TV.com. Went live officially this morning, and WSJ used the launch as a reason to survey what’s going on at CNET Networks. I like getting outside perspectives. You might enjoy a bit of history… the domain cost, well, not a lot, relatively when it was purchased back in 1996. And TV.com was a runner-up domain, because the guy who had television.com wanted $50,000, and that was too much at the time. Oops.

Here’s a quick note from TVSquad noting the launch, and AdJab mentions the WSJ article in passing. Jesse Chenard finds it interesting. PaidContent has a bit more Follow along via Technorati if you want.

Congrats to all involved in the launch. Check out Deadliest Catch.

AOL knows how, occasionally, to make some waves in the press. Pointing out that Americans are hooked on email, with some statistics, got picked up all over the place. Addicted to e-mail? You’re not alone is the News.com summary of the survey results. I come down on the “need e-mail” portion of each one of these questions. Having a Treo connected to work e-mail only accentuates my tendencies in this direction.

I’m still a big fan of owning your own words, one of the oldest ideas in electronic forums. So I’m not sure why lowering the final friction point in tagging — that of identity — is truly an advance. I agee that volume is necessary to help the more useful properties of tags emerge, but standalone tagging just puts in one tradeoff for another. Sure to swell the data sets available, and maybe size alone will make tags more broadly interesting. I think Scott Rafer has been paying more attention than I have, so I’m willing to be proven wrong. After all, it’s more interesting when first instincts are wrong, whatever Malcolm Gladwell “blinks.” [Via Tagsonomy, via Many 2 Many]

“So for all the talk of citizen journalists, another need is citizen editors — the people who filter data and turn it into information.” [Chuq Von Ruspach]

I don’t read my own blog that often, so I don’t always notice that the posts I’m making here on the desktop aren’t making it to the website automagically. Usually, quitting and restarting Radio Userland will do the trick.

Or maybe editing and re-publishing this time will do the trick.

That phrase in its entirety isn’t worth repeating, but the sentiment lives on. Except that you can replace the word “opinions” with “social bookmarking services” and continue on your merry way.

While reading What’s Wrong with Commas, Anyway?, I learned about another one, Simpy.com. Of course, I already know about Spurl, Furl, del.icio.us, del.irio.us, connotea, and dozens more if I actually wanted to find them. (Linking is left as an exercise for the reader.) Only one I’m using is del.icio.us, despite its RSI-inducing URL. Yikes. I hope most of these are just hobby sites… otherwise, one might imagine that it’s 1999 all over again, and we’re watching features pretend to be businesses. Somewhere amidst all the tech hype that’s simmering, but not yet boiling over, is there more substance? Or am I just (foolishly) captive to my dozen years of building online services in thinking that earning some time and attention from a meaningful number of people is a bit harder than copying someone else’s idea?

I’m not against copying. The great ones go one step further, after all. It’s just harder to tell a story if it’s not your own. At least, it is for me… maybe I need to get over that. I’ve been thinking a bit more about what a product or service’s story must be to stand out in a crowd. Blame Seth Godin. I need story-telling help.