contentious.com

"As Internet culture has grown, we’ve come to romanticize certain kinds of unmediated, old-fashioned “human” interactions. But this fantasy ignores how much of normal social interaction is fleeting, bite-size, instant, tweetlike. Humans have always talked to each other via a kind of analog Twitter. These new technologies just get us there with maximum efficiency. Meeting a new person is thrilling, in a primal way—your attention focuses completely, if only for a nanosecond, to see if the creature in front of you has the power to change your life for better or worse. ChatRoulette creates this moment over and over again; it privileges it over actual conversation. Eventually, I realized that clicking “next” was not so much a rejection as it was pure curiosity, like riding a train past an apartment building at night, looking briefly into as many lit windows as possible."

"Most of us can't afford to live exclusively within Apple's (or Microsoft's) ecosystem. Work often gets in the way of personal preferences, whatever they may be. We're also more and more inclined to experiment with new devices, and most of these aren't built by Apple or Microsoft. When this happens, we're left scrambling for workarounds to the otherwise flawless experience technology "monogamy" provides.

"…Rumors are swirling that Google is preparing an iTunes competitor. There are plenty of reasons why it should, and here's one more: monogamy doesn't work in technology, because no vendor dominates innovation once and for all."

"An as-yet-unexplained Facebook glitch flooded my inbox last night and this morning with 128 private messages written by complete strangers to their friends — or, in the case of the person who wrote, “I might kill you for this,” their enemies. The misdirected missives range from mundane logistics (”hey whats ur adress so i can send u my bat mitzvah invites?”) to family squabbles (”Until I start hearing some thank yous from you, I will be unable to give you rides home after dance”) to love triangles (”I am EXTREMELY jealous of you”) to unrequited-love notes in foreign languages (”léger nuage de malaise hé oui, entre nous deux“).

"It’s obviously troubling that any of this landed in my inbox, even if the bug only affected “a small number of users for a short period of time,” according to Facebook. But as a seemingly random slice of the unseen Internet, the errant messages are also totally fascinating."

"During Q & A, older journalists' questions showed anxiety that they wouldn't be hired because they were too old and not tech-savvy enough. Many younger reporters' remarks seemed designed to demonstrate that they're Very Serious About Journalism, betraying a lack of experience."

"The 2010 Nonprofit Text Messaging Benchmarks report is the first of its kind. A joint venture between M+R and MobileActive.org, the aim of this study is to provide benchmarks and metrics by which nonprofit organizations can measure their success with text messaging, and to illustrate the various ways in which organizations are using text messaging."

Way cool interactive game approach to explaining medical procedure

"Take on the role of the Surgeon throughout a total knee replacement surgery."

Well, if anyone's going to be optimistic, it might as well be young people

Interesting Nigerian film flips gender assumptions of polygamy. It's definitely about polygamy, not polyamory, but it sounds fun (if cheesy). Where can you get "Nollywood" films from, online or in the Bay Area?

"This is just how the world works. Harassing media people to admit this dynamic is a lot like arguing with a J-school professor about whether "objectivity" exists. Everyone knows it is how it is, but we've all mutually agreed to ignore it and proceed ahead, for our own mutual benefit. Any fair media critic would readily admit their biases (to a point); the more strenuously one argues their own ability to be judgmental of their own friends and drinking buddies and business connections and sources and employers, the more full of shit they generally are, and the more worthless their commentary. It truly is the Facebook-ization of the media, in the sense that you can watch much of media criticism evolve into little more than the media critic's own Facebook page of links to friend's articles and formalized mutual masturbation with fellow colleagues in the media."

"The end of a love affair is always a little sordid, isn’t it? Awkward moments, bracketed by false reassurances that everything is still OK, postpone the inevitable. I have a Twitter friend who delights in collecting metaphors used to describe the sinking newspaper business. Here’s a new one for you, Nick. The people who run newspapers and those who work for them are engaged in useless foreplay. They cling tightly, trying again and again to make the way they’ve always done it still work, but the passion is gone. …They eye non-profit status with government subsidies like it’s Viagra for print. …They reorganize, then reorganize again, then grope their way back to same old position that no longer works. The wretched gyrations are hideously frustrating for the poor souls involved, and sadly fruitless. They give birth to nothing new. The newspaper business is an aging, impotent beast, bringing down a lot of good journalists who are tangled in its foundering arms."

Excellent videoblog about homelessness: "For years I’ve used the lens of a television camera to tell the stories of homelessness and the organizations trying to help. That was part of my job. The reports were produced well and told a story, but the stories you see on this site are much different. These are the real people, telling their own, very real stories… unedited, uncensored and raw. The purpose of this vlog is to make the invisible visible. I hope these people and their stories connect with you and don’t let go. I hope their conversations with me will start a conversation in your circle of friends."

"Slowly, but surely, Internet Explorer 6, long the bane of many a web developer, is dying. And you’re invited to its funeral. A Denver, CO-based design company, Aten Design Group, has built a site to mark the occasion. At IE6funeral.com you can RSVP as to whether you will be able to attend the funeral service or not. It’s at the company’s headquarters in Denver, but those who aren’t able to attend in person are being asked to send flowers. For those who can attend, “Funeral attire is encouraged.”

"A new feature launching Wednesday will allow Scribd users to send material from the Web to their own devices — whether an iPhone or Android phone or e-readers including the Kindle, Barnes & Noble's nook and Sony Reader, among others.

"Separately, the company is releasing a series of application protocol interfaces (APIs) enabling device makers to integrate Scribd features like search and social networking more tightly into their gadgets. That effort might even include adding a "Scribd" button to a phone interface.

"And starting next month, Scribd will roll out applications for the iPhone and Android phones that promise to offer "a richer search, browsing and social experience directly" from these devices. It also plans to make PDF documents available in the open ePub publishing format for books, magazines and other content."

"Future Tense host Jon Gordon has been promoted to MPR's social media editor, with responsibilities for MPRNewsQ's mobile strategy. The job — which came together in just two weeks, he says — "is, in a sense, making MPR content more discussable on social networks."

"I've always felt one thing holding MPR back is timely transcriptions of radio content; it's difficult to listen to — and then retweet — an entire interview segment, for example. It would also be great if we could more quickly get clips, but all this requires labor and MPR's newsroom still isn't as big as, say, the Pioneer Press'. Radio is still the dog that wags the tail, and the net-side return-on-investment likely isn't that powerful yet."

The low-end Digital Still Camera (DSC) market is coming under intensifying competitive pressure from cell phones that are sporting increasingly high-resolution image sensors, according to iSuppli Corp. The average resolution for handset cameras’ CMOS sensors in 2008 was 1.5 megapixels. By 2009, that average increased to 2.1 megapixels and iSuppli forecasts it will rise to 5.7 megapixels by 2013. In comparison, DSCs averaged 7.6 megapixels in 2008 and will rise to 13.9 megapixels in 2013."

This park has some very interesting and controversial water features that contradict the local estuary management plan.

Mobile application platform HipLogic is rolling out a consumer version of its smartphone interface for non-smartphones. HipLogic Live is a free downloadable application will deliver content—including Facebook, Twitter, CBS news, CBS sports, and weather—to select Windows Mobile or Symbian devices.

"GetJar generally reaches out to people who carry the least-expensive handsets — in other words, the non-smartphone crowd. CEO Ilja Laurs compares GetJar's app store with Wal-Mart. Just today, GetJar is announcing a partnership with Sprint to open up its app catalog to most phones in Sprint's lineup.

"Smartphones garner most of the attention nowadays, but they still represent a relatively small slice of the total cellphone market. The plainer handsets that GetJar typically targets are called "feature phones" by the wireless industry, an oxymoron.

"You can employ GetJar on smartphones and feature phones. And you may well come across apps in GetJar that aren't available, say, in Nokia or BlackBerry's own stores. But it works both ways; those stores have apps that GetJar doesn't have.

The Web has long allowed anonymous conversations among strangers. Text-based chat rooms are rife with deceit — people pretending they are someone else. Video makes this harder — even if you’re wearing a mask. Then, too, the anonymity can be fleeting. Screenshots of people using Chatroulette have popped up everywhere. Is one of them you?

Truly amazing talent.

Wish this was available in the US, and on an iPhone carrier. AT&T's 3G is a joke, even in the Bay Area.

"With Vodafone Sure Signal you can now get a great 3G mobile signal at home, no matter where you live."

One of the few times I think a story-style lead really works in an online presentation:

"A respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both "confusing and harmful" to the mind. The media now echo his concerns with reports on the unprecedented risks of living in an "always on" digital environment. It's worth noting that Gessner, for his part, never once used e-mail and was completely ignorant about computers. That's not because he was a technophobe but because he died in 1565. His warnings referred to the seemingly unmanageable flood of information unleashed by the printing press."

Love it! The Saudi column flipping the gender assumptions of Muslim polygamy is also making waves in Malaysia — and getting a great response. See the comments.

Yet another forehead-meet-wall moment courtesy of AP.

"The AP is using their Twitter feed to tweet out their stories — nothing new there, obviously — but every single one of them links to the story on their Facebook Notes page. It’s not clear how long they’ve been doing this, but Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan noted the oddness of this, and how annoying it is, tonight. The AP obviously has a ton of media partners, and they could easily link to any of those, or even the story hosted on their own site. But no, instead they’re copying all these stories to their Facebook page and linking there for no apparent reason."

"In what critics are calling "musicblogocide 2010", Google has deleted at least six popular music blogs that it claims violated copyright law. These sites, hosted by Google's Blogger and Blogspot services, received notices only after their sites – and years of archives – were wiped from the internet."

Surprisingly well-designed govt site on distracted driving.

Interesting conference in NYC Feb 24-26

"Where is America today with respect to the limits on our access to information, limits on what we can keep confidential and what the government and other institutions can keep secret? How can the public gain access to information and how do we decide what information is a citizen’s right to know? What information endangers individuals’ or the country’s wellbeing and safety? Are the ever-increasing number of technological innovations fundamentally transforming what we can know and what we cannot? What can remain confidential and what cannot? On the one hand, technology has aided access to information and knowledge to broader and broader communities, thus eroding limits, while on the other hand, technologies are increasingly used by governments, businesses, and other social institutions to monitor and interfere with what we can know and cannot know and what is private and what is not."

“Openness” is becoming incorporated into the bureaucratic machinery of government. While executive branch agencies remain constrained by security restrictions, resource limits and other considerations, these rule-driven organizations are being given some new rules to follow.

But the actual contours of the new thrust towards openness — its scope, its content, its urgency — depend significantly on the quality of feedback and support that the initiative receives from the interested public.

Agencies need specific, achievable, actionable suggestions for how to meet their new openness obligations. Each agency’s openness webpage (linked here) invites readers to “share your ideas” on how to proceed. There has never been a better time for concerned citizens to help shape the government transparency agenda. (Actually, there has never been a “government transparency agenda” before.)

"Four major issues around Apple’s current product line that I believe are stifling the industry, consumer choice and pricing. Instead of just giving a simple solution to the problem, I thought long and hard about the opportunities for Apple to be less controlling and more open. For example, if the iPhone was available on more carriers, Apple would sell many, many more units, which would inevitably lead to people switching from Windows desktops to Macs (which is what happened with the iPod).

"Bottom line: Of all the companies in the United States that could possibly be considered for anti-trust action, Apple is the lead candidate. The US Government, however, seems to be obsessed with Microsoft for legacy reasons and Google for privacy reasons.

"The truth is, Google has absolutely no lock-in, collusion or choice issues like Apple’s, and the Internet taught Microsoft long ago that open is better than closed."

An eloquent defense of online newbies who make seemingly stupid mistakes. Worth reading and remembering.

"If you think back to 2002, the big news was Friendster. For many of us, it was the first time we'd joined a social network and we went wild adding friends. Then, in 2003, Myspace came along and we slowly started adding these same friends on Myspace until one day the virtual cobwebs became too much and we left Friendster altogether. And then came Facebook and we did it again.

"Let's face it – if we can avoid it, we'd rather not do this again and that's precisely what Facebook wants. Facebook has already become the dominant platform for social networking, but as it expands its business in other directions, we will begin to see it pull users away from other businesses too. This partnership is not only about preventing that, but further solidifying Facebook's place as our one, true login."

"I know that there is a period of time where apps need to reign. But I for one am betting that the future is “the mobile web” not the “the mobile app.” There will always be some apps that have reasons to be native on devices but I am betting that serious innovation will happen on mobile browsers and that the future will so most apps folded into the cloud. We’ve already seen it once in the PC era. It’s the best thing for our health. We can build for one primary browser (like we do for Firefox on the desktop today) and then figure out how to get the rest working with whatever Microsoft builds.

"It will be 3-5 years before this transition takes place. Much money will be gained and lost in this period. And somebody will win in the transition. Wise companies will plan for this “great porting” to take place. Unfortunately it won’t be in the next 3 years so we have to live through this temporary era."

"The alliance integrates Facebook Chat into AIM, AOL's instant messaging platform, and its new Lifestream feature. Lifestream already provides many of the same updates and social features that Google is now introducing with Google Buzz, said Brad Garlinghouse, a former Yahoo executive who now leads AOL operations in Silicon Valley. AIM is the first major instant messaging service to integrate with Facebook's new interface."

Story about Patch.com that mentions Oakland Local

"Are there enough talented writers and reporters to staff all of the local sites Patch.com has in mind? If not, then the company will quickly have to come to grips with the wildly varying quality levels that “citizen journalism” can produce (each Patch site has a single professional journalist who works with volunteer and freelance staff). Some feel that whatever happens with AOL and its expansion, it can’t help but be good for business.

AP bungles technology again.

"Here’s how it works now: The four nonprofits load their work into a web delivery platform called AP Exchange, which includes massive amounts of material produced by AP and its members. Editors around the country can find stories in Exchange by searching the database by keyword. Exchange users will have the option of routinely displaying the nonprofit journalism in their news searches. Nonprofit stories are also available in a section of the site called “Marketplace,” where an editor can click through to the nonprofit section to see what’s there.

"However, there’s no alert system to notify editors when something new has been added. Nonprofits’ stories are not distributed over the AP’s main wire services, as a major AP investigation would."

Mobile phones are used for advocacy. Nearly half of mobile users (49%) go online to advocate compared to only 41% of traditional users. In fact, they (67%) are 1.4 times more likely than traditional users (47%) to activate support. Mobile phones offer users the chance to immediately respond to breaking news, whether it is a new piece of legislation or even the latest ongoing development of a corporation or politician under siege.

"Ruder Finn's Mobile Intent Index is the first study of its kind to examine the underlying motivations or reasons – intents – people have for using their mobile phones. The representative and Census-balanced online study of 500 American adults 18 years of age and older who "use their mobile device to go online or to access the Internet" was conducted in November 2009 by RF Insights among respondents who belong to Western Wats' large consumer panel, Opinion Outpost. The margin of error is +/- 4.4% (95th confidence interval)."

Really slick interactive graphic representation on important new research about how Americans use their mobile phones.

"A good manf folks out there still spend more time offline than on. For these people, screen time is spent doing business-related activities at the office (+ occasional jaunts to YouTube and Facebook) followed by briefer after-hours web surfing that includes catching up with friends on Facebook, reading personal email, downloading music/media, streaming videos and/or playing games. But online sessions must be interspersed with other real world activities like cooking dinner. That's why it's no surprise to find that the rise of the mobile phone corresponds with the rise in Facebook's (and other social networking sites) numbers. It has become a do-anywhere activity that captures people's attention whenever they have free time instead of an activity that requires people make time for it.

"Developers and designers will now have to take this into consideration. Either they make their applications accessible & simple enough for least common denominator – or risk losing to competitors."

Apparently, social media services like Facebook and YouTube are using this service, and similar offerings, to automatically find music copyright violations in content posted to their site. This is probably what happened when Facebook recently deleted a video from a friend that I'd posted which included a short music clip. I can understand Facebook not wanting RIAA breating down its neck, but this just gets really damn petty.

"Once it became known that Lightfoot had not in fact gone to his eternal reward, plenty of people spent the next several hours doing another thing that people love to do on Twitter: blame Twitter for spreading a fake news report. But as Peter Kafka correctly points out, Twitter didn’t kill Gordon Lightfoot — traditional media did. It appeared to start with a prank phone call (remember the telephone?) to the management company representing Lightfoot’s close friend and fellow musical legend Ronnie Hawkins, from someone pretending to be Lightfoot’s grandson.

"Hawkins then started calling people to let them know, who in turn alerted Canwest News Service, which called Hawkins to confirm the news and then published a brief news item that got picked up by a number of the chain’s newspapers. That report was then spread by reporters on Twitter, including Canwest political reporter David Akin, who later wrote a blog post about the role he played in the story."

"A little-explored aspect of black history is the presence of gay and lesbian African-Americans. For example, George Washington Carver has a story right out of high school history books. Born into slavery, Carver went on to graduate from high school, earn a master’s degree, and revive sustainable farming in the South. He invented peanut butter. Unfortunately, most history books continue to forget that Carver was gay.

"Nonviolent activist Bayard Rustin organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The History of Black Economic Empowerment is this year’s Black History Month theme. Before the 1963 march, Rustin championed the Freedom Rides, in which blacks and whites rode buses into the South to test and challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate public transportation. Rustin also happened to be gay. In his later years, he spoke openly about LGBT rights. Rustin died in 1987, the dream of equality not yet fulfilled, but inching closer."

How to get your site accepting Addiply network ads. Not sure how targeted this is in US yet, seems mainly a UK thing so far.

A Yelp-style local business/service listing site that takes local advertising. They have a mobile component.

"ReachLocal Xchange: a platform where media partners like you can access our marketplace of high-quality sponsored listings, or create advertising offers that generate value for our advertisers and more revenue for your media. Whether you have search, display, directory, or other valuable digital advertising inventory, the ReachLocal Xchange gives you access to our proprietary network of tens of thousands of local businesses quickly and easily."

"It may be awhile since you've thought about CitySearch, but the local listings site is not ready to roll over and let Google or Yelp corner the local ad market. Today CitySearch announced the launch of CityGrid, a bid to turn the company's voluminous local listings into the largest content and advertising network for local."

Mark Potts' new venture: an online local advertising service.

Local online advertising service

"PlaceLocal is a smart technology that allows online publishers to automate local ad creation, sales, and management. Type in any local business and PlaceLocal automatically builds a stunning, customized online ad for the advertiser. Publishers are using PlaceLocal to streamline their advertising workflow and increase revenue from local advertisers."

Local, social, and ubiquitious. Winning combo.

"2010 is going to be the year the game changed for online local. The right factors are finally converging: quality local content, awesome mobile devices, and local advertising services. It’s getting much easier to envision what the tapestry of local media and advertising will look like in just a few short years.

"And for that reason, I say to the newspaper execs of the world: please stop fussing about with pay walls and get serious about online local. Let’s look at what they’re facing…

If you use Blip.tv to distribute online video (a service I highly recommend), then be sure to follow these instructions for exporting video from your video editor (like iMovie) so that it will work best to upload to their service.

All the more reason for news/info providers to focus on lean mobile channels.

"And when Americans were asked why they have no Internet connection at home, the "don't need/Not interested" response dropped to 16.7% of those polled, while "too expensive" jumped to 38.9%. And when home dialup Internet users were asked why they don't upgrade to broadband, the not interested crowd shrank to 7.3% while the too expensive set ballooned to 41.3%.

"These numbers don't differ by much when NTIA compared rural and urban responses: 22.3 percent of rural area residents called a broadband upgrade too costly; 27.6 percent of city dwellers reported the same. But a sizeable number of rural Americans also checked the "not available" category—11.1%"