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TechCrunch

Google Product Manager RJ Pittman Defects To Apple: The battle between Google and Apple continues. RJ Pittman, a prominent product manager at Google, has left the company to join Apple. Weve been tipped off to a tweet he sent out two days ago

Web Publishing Startup DocStoc Now Offers Branded Viewers To Users: Web publishing startup DocStoc is launching a customized document viewer today, allowing anyone to create easily embeddable, branded document viewers. The new feature is open to all DocStoc users and offers the ability to customize the logo, buttons,

SpotRank Is Skyhook’s Intelligent Location Firehose. SimpleGeo Is The First To Wield.: In terms of location data, few get more than Skyhook Wireless. The positioning technology is in use in tens of millions of devices around the globe, including, notably, on every

SpotRank Is Skyhook’s Intelligent Location Firehose. SimpleGeo Is The First To Wield.: In terms of location data, few get more than Skyhook Wireless. The positioning technology is in use in tens of millions of devices around the globe, including, notably, on every iPhone. And now the company has a simple way for

Scamville Marches Onto The iPhone, Sneaks Back Into Facebook: In our Scamville series of posts last October we exposed the massive user fraud occurring Facebook and MySpace social games. Fake quizzes tied to long term mobile subscriptions, malware-laden toolbar downloads and other scams were

Scamville Marches Onto The iPhone, Sneaks Back Into Facebook: In our Scamville series of posts last October we exposed the massive user fraud occurring Facebook and MySpace social games. Fake quizzes tied to long term mobile subscriptions, malware-laden toolbar downloads and other scams were the center of the controversy.

Foursquare And Gowalla In A Dead Heat In The Location War: The SXSW festival in Austin, Texas is currently ground zero for a war, the location war. While over a dozen services have launched new products or features around location, two

Google Is Working On Letting Users Link Their Gmail And Google Apps Accounts: Many people (including myself) have come to the conclusion that Gmail, with its threaded messages, spam filtering, and vast storage space, is one of the webs best webmail providers. In fact, we like it so

For Power Users, Gmail Set To Get Up To Speed: During the Behind the Scenes of Gmail panel today at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, team member Jonathan Perlow made a revelation that will be a huge relief to

Google May Start Pre-Testing New Buzz Features With Users: This afternoon at SXSW, a panel of Gmail and Google Buzz team members took part in a panel where they discussed what goes on behind the scenes at Gmail. The panel covered a smattering of

The Key To Gmail: Sh*t Umbrellas: Today at the Gmail Behind The Scenes panel at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, key team members of the Gmail team revealed the true secret of the service: Shit

Go Try It On Will Be Your Wardrobe Consultant And Personal Stylist In One: Im a big fan of sites that aim to socialize fashion and shopping decisions. Weardrobe, Polyvore and others are taking fashion and style to a new level with the ability to socialize looks and designers. A new fashion-focused

Facebook May Begin Allowing Developers To Store User Data For More Than 24 Hours: Facebooks f8 conference is shaping up to have quite a few improvements in store for developers, and we think weve come across another one: a change to Facebooks data retention policy. Yesterday, Facebook employee Monica

Eko: Mobile Banking for India’s “Dial-Up” Internet: I mentioned in my last post that mobile is bridging the digital—not to mention analog— divide in India, with almost half as many new mobile accounts being opened just

Notes on Leadership: Be Like Steve Jobs, . . . And Bill Campbell, And Andy Grove: Editors note: When venture capitalists invest in early stage startups, more than anything else they are investing in the founders of the company and their ability to lead their employees through the most improbable set of circumstances to

Craig Barrett Takes On Vivek Wadhwa In The Tech Education Debate: Editors note: The most valuable employees of any technology company are the engineers and scientists, which is why everyone in Silicon Valley does whatever they can to ensure the continuous supply to this talent pool. The size of

Famebook: Because You’ve Always Wanted To Have Your Facebook Feed On Paper: Remember that time when a marketing agencys labs unit cooked up an application that allowed you to print your tweets in a custom notebook (aka, Tweetnotebook)? Ok, fair chance you dont - I sure do because

Something Is Technically Wrong With Twitter.com: OMGTwitterisdownagain. Or extremely flaky, at least. This time, the problems seem to occur only when trying to access the Twitter website, as the API seems to be fully functional and thus not causing any trouble for third-party

“No Excuses” For European Startups And More Videos And Photos From Plugg 2010: Last Thursday saw the third edition of Plugg, a conference I started in my home country Belgium back in 2008 that essentially aims to launch and inspire European tech entrepreneurs and advance the startup ecosystem in these

India’s Rural Cell Movement: Can You Hear Me Now?: Last time I was in India I wrote about the amazing business model innovation that had allowed telecom operators in India to make money on a paltry $6 a month

Mashable

Funny Or Die Outtake Reunites SNL’s George W. and Bush Sr.: An extended outtake sequence from director Ron Howard’s “Funny or Die’s Presidential Reunion” featuring Will Ferrell as George W. Bush and Dana Carvey as George Bush Sr. is making the rounds on the Internet. The original clip has attracted almost

“I’m With CoCo” Artist Makes Big Bucks From Conan’s Tour: Mike Mitchell, the artist who created the now-iconic “I’m With CoCo” image of Conan O’Brien that has circulated through Facebook profile pictures and blogs since NBC’s The Tonight Show scheduling controversy, told TMZ that he’s been paid by Conan’s producers

9 Ways to Geek Out Your T-Shirt Collection: A t-shirt isn’t just a cotton garment, it’s a form of communication, a personal billboard that lets you get a message out to the world in a medium that offers the minimum of effort.Whether your geek tendencies lean towards gaming,

Venezuela President Chavez Makes Threat Against the Open Web: Venezuela, already under watch from the likes of Reporters Sans Frontieres for jeopardizing press freedom, appears to be edging closer towards the type of restrictive governmental Internet interference as seen in Cuba, China and Iran.Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has

Foursquare Hits 347,000 Check-ins in a Day: With legions of mobile, tech-savvy individuals invading Austin, Texas for SXSW, Foursquare experienced an extraordinary day yesterday, recording a record-breaking 347,000 check-ins.In response to the boom in usage, the developers added a new badge called Super Swarm. There was already

UN Social Media Envoy to Raise Awareness for Malaria: Tomorrow, the United Nations will be announcing a special Social Media Envoy group that will use the power of social media over the next year to raise awareness for malaria control in African countries.The special envoy is made up of

Inside the New Digg: An Interview with CEO Jay Adelson: At last night’s “Bigg Digg Shindigg” in Austin, TX, Digg CEO Jay Adelson briefly revealed plans for a massive overhaul of the social news site. This morning, I had an opportunity to chat with Adelson in-depth about the new Digg

Classmates.com Agrees to $9.5 Million False Advertising Settlement: Classmates.com — the website that promises to reunite people with their mullet-haired friends of youth — has agreed to pay out a $9.5 million settlement for a lawsuit dating back to 2008 accusing the company of “false advertising” through “deceptive”

Why User Competency Matters in Social Design: Adrian Chan is a Sr Fellow with SNCR.org and is a social interaction design consultant and strategist. You can follow him on Twitter @gravity7 and at his blog: gravity7.com/blog/media.In designing for social participation, we can consider user goals and needs

Pi Day: Google Doodle Celebrates Math Nerds Everywhere: For most of the world, today is March 14th, or 3/14. To most, that date doesn’t have any special meaning. But to us math nerds, it means only one thing: today is Pi Day! Thankfully, it looks like Google has

New Version of Digg Revealed: At the “Bigg Digg Shindigg” event at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference (SXSWi), Digg CEO Jay Adelson revealed that the popular social bookmarking site is getting a major overhaul, teasing the audience about new features such as personalized feeds

On Google’s Impending China Decision, and How It Has Lost Its Impact: The Social Analyst is a weekly column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.Two months ago, Google threatened to shut down its China search engine over

Tweet #RefreshMashable to Support New Location App to Change Your Community: Here in Austin, I just finished introducing SparkHelp, the project Mashable has decided to support for the Pepsi Refresh SxSW Challenge. We’re competing against two other teams over the next few days to help get our idea $50,000 in funding,

5 Must-See Google Easter Eggs: There’s no doubt Google has a sense of humor — its excellent April Fools jokes are a testament to that. But there’s a wealth of funnies that can found any time of the year too. Here we pull together a

Pete Cashmore Talks Foursquare, iPad, and Location on Bloomberg: If you had to pick the one buzzword that’s dominating social media chatter today, it would have to be location. Just over a year ago, Foursquare burst onto the scene at the SXSW conference in Austin, TX. Since then, it’s

‘Predators’ Preview Debuts at SXSW: SXSWi (the South by Southwest Interactive conference) is certainly our favorite track of the SXSW experience, but it’s not the only portion of the festival taking place this weekend. Film goers are out en masse in Austin too, and directors

Top 10 Twitter Trends for This Week: Hooray for Hollywood! — the big winner this week in our roundup of the top 10 Twitter trends. From the Oscars to Alice in Wonderland (and of course, Justin Bieber), celebrity — whether be it music or film — dominated

Chatroulette Founder Working to Preserve User Privacy: The creator of Chatroulette has revealed that he is working on a way to preserve user’s privacy, following the launch of Chat Roulette Map, a Google Maps mashups that pinpoints the location of users of the service.Andrey Ternovskiy, speaking in

Giiv Lets You Give Gifts Via Text Message: This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft

Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters: Thanks to this week’s advertisers and partners for enabling us to bring you the latest social media news and resources. Mashable’s sponsors are as social media savvy as our readers!Advertise with us and get noticed.Help us to help you. Mashable

Read/WriteWeb

Never Mind the Valley: Here's Boulder, Part 2: Nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and fueled by leaders and social hubs such as Micah Baldwin, Tech Stars mentor, #followfriday creator and now chief community caretaker at Graphic.ly of Digital X, and Robert Reich, the

ReadWriteStart Weekly Wrapup: It has been quite busy this week on the Web as loads of announcements leading up to SXSW have hit the newswires. This weekends festivities in Austin look to top last years Twitter invasion with

Is Innovation Fair? Andrew Keen Says No: Andrew Keen is no stranger to controversy. He has irritated bloggers by equating Web 2.0 with communism and enraged citizen journalists with his best selling book, Cult of the Amateur: How Todays Internet is Killing

Big Changes Are Coming to Digg: More Power to Publishers, Less Power to Top Diggers: Last night, during Diggs annual SXSW party, Diggs CEO Jay Adelson announced a set of significant changes to Digg. Among the changes Adelson announced are a streamlined submission process, a personalized homepage, an unlimited amount

Facebook Firehose May Be Released at Developer Conference F8: Facebook plans to announce the availability of a firehose of user data at its F8 developers conference in April, we believe based on research. Such an offering could be similar to the firehose that Twitter has shared with

Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible: Our readers know ReadWriteWeb as the blog thats ahead of the technology curve. Our sponsors know us as that, too. Once a week we introduce our sponsors to our readers and let them know

Cartoon: Can't Go to SXSW? We Feel Your Pain: For anyone in this business who isnt at SXSW in Austin, Texas this week, pretty much every social media channel feels like sitting next to a high school clique loudly talking about a party you werent invited

Universal Check-in App Confirmed: Brightkite's Stealth Service: We write this for you, the tired, the weak and the weary, the dogged attendees of the South By South West festival in Austin this weekend. We know that youre exhausted, but

Google Takes Small Steps for Buzz, Points to Big Solutions for Social Networking: Buzz, Googles controversial attempt to unseat Facebook as the most mainstream of social activity stream readers, just made some much-needed changes that Facebook could learn from as well.Buzz users now have more granular control over what social interactions

Small Business Web Directory Launches at SXSW: Upon first glance we were skeptical. Generally when someone says theyre launching a business directory its an SEO play with little value to users. Nevertheless, the small business web directory is a pleasant surprise. The

Privacy Is Not Dead: Danah Boyd Talks About Privacy at SXSW: During todays SXSW keynote, social media research Danah Boyd, who works for Microsoft Research New England and is a fellow at Harvard Universitys Berkman Center for Internet and Society, talked about online privacy. Specifically,

ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 13 March 2010: Its SXSW weekend so you may be pretty burnt out on conferences - or just sick and tired of hearing about them - but if youre in New York City this week, dont miss whats

Weekly Wrapup: Bike Trails, Location Madness, SXSW, And More...: Our top stories this week were about cutting the strings that tie us to our desks. And also about stalking celebrities at SXSW. Read on for our coverage and analysis. We also continued our

Will Google's Cloud be a Cozy Nest for Aviary?: Aviary, the online creative platform is a visionary tool. When it launched a few years back, the irony of a Flash based Photoshop competitor was, well, ironic. With the launch of Aviary

OneLogin: Enterprise-Class Security Services and OpenID For The Small and Medium Sized Business: Were seeing a lot more discussion on the topic of single-sign on for SaaS environments. The issue is becoming more important as security emerges as a top concern for companies considering making the move to

What Google Will Do in China (SXSW Presentation): Kaiser Kuo presented today at SXSW about Google in China. He spoke about how the Google situation will impact Chinese Internet users, other companies and the Chinese government.In the presentation, Kuo (who also spoke to ReadWriteWeb a

Smartphone Users Want Mobile Coupons, Barcode Scanners & Location-Aware Ads: Once upon a time, smartphones were mostly about connecting busy professionals with their email accounts while on the go. Now that smartphones have reached the mainstream consumer market, however, people are looking for more than

Chevrolet Blends Mobile and Desktop Augmented Reality at SXSW: Everyone has been talking about how this years SXSW will be the year of location as Foursquare and Austin-based Gowalla go head-to-head in a location-based battle royale. Location, however, is not the only emerging

Superfeedr Now Adds Location to Feeds Automatically: Real-tme feed publishing startup Superfeedr has quietly turned on automatic location data in the feeds it republishes from around the web, we confirmed with the company today. Founder Julien Genestoux explained the feature using Twitter as his example,

Intel, AOL, Others Help Betaworks Round Up $20M: As we profiled in our Never Mind the Valley series last month, New York is increasing its stronghold on the east coast startup scene. The citys rich media and international business ecosystems make

GigaOM

TechStars Grades Itself: TechStars, a seed stage investment program which has outposts in Boulder, Boston and Seattle, has invested $16.5 million in 39 companies. OF the total, 29are still active, five were acquired and four failed. Twenty seven have managed to raised outside

TechStars Grades Itself: TechStars, a seed stage investment program which has outposts in Boulder (Colorado), Boston and Seattle, recently decided to graded itself. So far, the group is not doing to badly. Out of the total 39 companies to come out of TechStars,

Google Accepts Buzz Criticism, Invites Boyd to Speak on Privacy: Google, to its credit, is rolling with the punches thrown in response to its Buzz launch. Members of the product team spoke on an inside-the-scenes panel at SXSW today, facing industry-wide criticism as well as cutting attacks over privacy issues

When it Comes to Web Scale Go Cheap, Go Custom or Go Home: Dealing with the awesome amounts of data generated by users and serving up relationships tied to that data quickly are forcing web-scale sites like Twitter, Reddit and Facebook to investigate a variety of home-built, open sourced solutions. Heres what they

SXSW: Shirky’s New Opportunities in Public Sharing: Today social technology theorist Clay Shirky delivered a fitting counterpoint to Danah Boyds keynote on privacy at SXSW the day before. Where Boyd spoke of the danger of making information more public than users intended it, Shirky talked about new

Google Accepts Buzz Criticism, Invites Boyd to Speak on Privacy: Google, to its credit, is rolling with the punches thrown in response to its Buzz launch. Members the product team spoke on a inside-the-scenes panel at SXSW today, facing industry-wide criticism as well as some cutting attacks over privacy issues

When it Comes to Web Scale Go Cheap, Go Custom or Go Home: Dealing with the awesome amounts of data generated by users and serving up relationships tied to that data quickly are forcing web-scale sites like Twitter, Reddit and Facebook to investigate a variety of home-built, open sourced solutions. Heres what they

SXSW: Shirky’s New Opportunities in Public Sharing: Today social technology theorist Clay Shirky delivered a fitting counterpoint to Danah Boyds keynote on privacy at SXSW the day before. Where Boyd spoke of the danger of making information more public than users intended it, Shirky talked about new

SXSW: Is Privacy on the Social Web a Technical Problem?: How to deal with user privacy on social networks as they grow, mature and become more sophisticated has been a frequent topic of conversation at this years SXSW. Is privacy just a technical problem?

SXSW 2010: All You Need to Know, Courtesy of the GigaOM Network: The GigaOM crew is out in full force at this year’s South by Southwest, reporting on all that is nearest and dearest to our readers’ hearts –including an in-depth look at the privacy discussions taking place from Liz Gannes, and

SXSW: Boyd Calls Out Google and Facebook for Abusing Users’ Privacy: Researcher Danah Boyd brought fighting words to SXSW, where she delivered a well-received keynote on the subject of online privacy and publicity, calling out Google and Facebook for being cavalier with their users personal information, including repurposing it for a

Android This Week: Android Passes Palm; Backflip Crippled; Sense to Nexus One: comScore released numbers this week showing that Androids market share surge 153 percent from October to January, and surpassed that of Palm’s webOS for the first time. Meanwhile, users of the Backflip say the device is crippled compared to others

SXSW: Is Privacy on the Social Web a Technical Problem?: How to deal with user privacy on social networks as they grow, mature and become more sophisticated has been a frequent topic of conversation at this years SXSW. But is privacy just a technical problem?

SXSW 2010: All You Need to Know, Courtesy of the GigaOM Network: The GigaOM crew is out in full force at this year’s South by Southwest, reporting on all that is nearest and dearest to our readers’ hearts.Need help figuring out what to do and who or what to see? This 10-point

SXSW: Boyd Calls Out Google and Facebook for Abusing Users’ Privacy: Researcher Danah Boyd brought fighting words to SXSW, where she delivered a well-received keynote on the subject of online privacy and publicity, calling out Google and Facebook for being cavalier with their users personal information, including repurposing it for a

Android This Week: Android Passes Palm; Backflip Crippled; Sense to Nexus One: comScore released numbers this week showing that Androids market share surge 153 percent from October to January, and surpassed that of Palm’s webOS for the first time. Meanwhile, users of the Backflip say the device is crippled compared to others

Geowars…Really?: Over the past few days I’ve watched this meme about the so-called “geowars” ahead of SXSW gather steam, both in the blogosphere and on Twitter. And it’s giving me a headache. For some odd reason, people believe that SXSW is

Geowars…Really?: Over the past few days I’ve watched this meme about the so-called “geowars” ahead of SXSW gather steam, both in the blogosphere and on Twitter. And it’s giving me a headache. For some odd reason, people believe that SXSW is

What If Metcalfe’s Law Is Wrong?: “Metcalfe’s Law” has long been accepted as characterizing the value — and value growth — of fully connected networks. But there are times when the “law” appears to overstate a network’s value. And if that’s the case, what can service

Roundup: Social Media Monitoring Tools: There are countless ways to track your brand on social media. Simple methods include using Twitter search and Google Alerts; more elaborate tools include Radian6s newly announced Engagement Console, which will scour numerous social platforms for any mention of your

37signals

PHOTO: Sculptor Alex Queral carves up phonebooks: Sculptor Alex Queral carves up phonebooks to create portraits. Above: James Brown.

Method picks a fight with the jug: There are two kinds of companies I really like. One that ignores the competition entirely. And one that picks a fight. Method, and their new laundry detergent line, is a great example of the later.The new

Zappos pranks itself for new ads: Ad agency Mullen chose to focus on Zappos’ famous customer service for their new ad campaign. The twist is, behind the puppets and comedy are recordings of actual customer service calls. Mullen’s making of video explains how they basically pranked

There is an inverse relationship between level of anonymity and quality of conversation: 37signals Answers (recently launched) is our first new app built with 37signals ID integration. That means everyone involved is using real names and avatars.And wow, what a difference it makes. Trading anonymity for accountability has led to radically improved conversations.I’d

QUOTE: A perfectionist is someone who finishes the: A perfectionist is someone who finishes the backside of a drawer, which I consider completely unnecessary.—An interview with Helmut Krone.

"Now, Elvis, look, you get up there, you sing your song, but don’t move too much": The First of Elvis is an interesting profile of photographer Al Wertheimer’s days of shadowing Elvis Presley in 1956, the year Elvis-mania hit. Wertheimer describes what made Elvis different:“He dared to move,” says Wertheimer. “Singers just did not move onstage

"Why You Aren't Done Yet" and REWORK book signings at SXSW: 37signals is going to be at SXSW in full force. We’re showing up eight strong. Jason will be doing a reading from REWORK and a book signing on Saturday at 10AM on the Day Stage. Yours truly will be talking

REWORK is now in stores: Alright, the big day is finally here! REWORK is now available in stores. You can order the

QUOTE: The competitor to be feared is one who never: The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.—Henry Ford

VIDEO: Our new office, pre-construction. Lease signed: Our new office, pre-construction. Lease signed today. Move in scheduled sometime in July. Full story, floor plans, and vision shortly.

Slack, YAGNI, and low ceremony: Three terms that came up repeatedly during our San Diego retreat:Slack All the stuff that doesn’t fit neatly into bigger, concept-driven iterations. We save one of our programmer/designer teams for slack work — small scope things that build up, a

Product Blog update: Basecamp email improvements, Highrise case studies, etc.: Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:Basecamp New in Basecamp: Stylized email notificationsWe created new email designs for milestones (and 48-hour milestone reminders), file uploads, messages, to-dos, and comments.New in Basecamp: Post a

PHOTO: I ran some statistics on the last few years: I ran some statistics on the last few years of Basecamp activity and uncovered this strange, recurring anomaly.

The long take: A long take is a single, unbroken camera shot that lasts much longer than a typical shot. While the idea’s been around for a long time, it feels like it has extra impact in today’s world of hyper-editing and constant

Two different worlds: I walked into a Sprint store today to check out the Palm Pixi. AT&T has been bad enough lately that, while I’m not ready to chuck the iPhone, I’m at least growing curious. Unfortunately “walking in” is about all I

Milton Friedman on the four ways you can spend money: You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.You can spend your own money on somebody else. For

See Ryan talk about Christopher Alexander in NYC: I’m excited to give a talk at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. I’m going to walk through Christopher Alexander’s design theory and explain how to apply it to everyday web app UI work. Alexander’s book Notes

There's no room for The Idea Guy: Startups need people able and willing of doing the actual work. They need programmers, designers, and eventually folks to do marketing, support, and more. What they don’t need, though, is someone who’s just going to be The Idea Guy.You know

Episode #9: All about REWORK: Time: 41:20 | 03/02/2010 | Download MP3 Like this episode? Please share it with your friends: The new business book

A New Way of Working: A Two-Month Recap: Back in early January I posted about our new way of working in 2010. Instead of working individually in isolation as we had in the past, we’re breaking into small teams of three (two programmers, one designer). We’re keeping the

O'Reilly Radar

Personalization and the future of Digg: I recently talked to Joe Stump, CTO of SimpleGeo, about a number of topics related to location and databases. In the course of the interview, we also

Four short links: 12 March 2010: Flickr Flow -- a season wheel, showing the relative popularity of colours in Flickr photos at different times of the year. Beautiful. (via gurneyjourney)Light Peak -- optical peripheral cabling and motherboard connections. (via timoreilly on twitter)British Museum Pilots Wikipedian in

NHIN Direct: Open Healthcare and Government as a Platform: In my advocacy around Government 2.0, Ive been focused on the idea that government should act like a platform provider rather than a complete solution provider. That is, government should lay down rules of the road, create core functionality that

How crowdsourcing helped Haiti's relief efforts: Tech-minded volunteers quickly pitched in with a variety of communication and data services in the days following the Haiti earthquake. One company -- crowdsourcing platform CrowdFlower -- repurposed its service as a text-message translation tool to aid Mission 4636. Crowdflower

Four short links: 11 March 2010: Digital Inclusion: How Do You Tell? -- either means nor skills are simple binary states. A while ago, I was talking to a young man looking for a job, and asked him why he didn’t look online. Because it’s two

Gov 2.0 invades Harvard: A report from #gov20ne: Last Saturday (March 6), several hundred folks gathered at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government to spend the day discussing open government. OReillys own Laurel Ruma was one of the organizers, and she sends in this report:To geeks, bar camps

We're about to scratch the real-world data itch: Since virtually all of my work is done on the web, Ive grown accustomed to granular information. Even a casual look at web traffic reveals insight. I can see the topics that strike a nerve with visitors. I can pick

Four short links: 10 March 2010: The Future of Book Publishing Business Models (Stephen Walli) -- some good thoughts about the book publishing industry and ebooks. When does Amazon create the iPhone/Android app and the programme that will allow bookstores to receive a cut of every

The state of open government in Canada: Open government isnt about just one government. Thats why I got in touch with David Eaves, a public policy entrepreneur and a speaker at this weeks Gov 2.0 International online conference. In the following Q&A, Eaves weighs in on the

The state of open government in Canada: Open government isnt about just one government. Thats why I got in touch with David Eaves, a public policy entrepreneur and a speaker at this weeks Gov 2.0 International online conference. In the following Q&A, Eaves weighs in on the

Truly Open Data: Im kicking myself. I have spent a non-trivial number of hours talking to government departments and scientists about open data, talking up an open source approach to data, pushing hard to get them to release datasets in machine readable formats

Four short links: 9 March 2010: Cooperative Behaviour Spreads Through a Group, But So Does Cheating (Not Exactly Rocket Science) -- Fowler and Christakis suggest that people tend to mimic the actions of those they played with. They could be directly imitating the actions of other

Four short links: 9 March 2010: Cooperative Behaviour Spreads Through a Group, But So Does Cheating (Not Exactly Rocket Science) -- Fowler and Christakis suggest that people tend to mimic the actions of those they played with. They could be directly imitating the actions of other

Truly Open Data: Im kicking myself. I have spent a non-trivial number of hours talking to government departments and scientists about open data, talking up an open source approach to data, pushing hard to get them to release datasets in machine readable formats

Three lessons from the Chipotle iPhone app: Instant access to burritos bigger than your head is the clear selling point of Chipotles iPhone app (iTunes link). But if we put culinary convenience

Three lessons from the Chipotle iPhone app: Instant access to burritos bigger than your head is the clear selling point of Chipotles iPhone app (iTunes link). But if we put culinary convenience

Four short links: 8 March 2010: Chinas Cyberposse (NY Times) -- is vigilante justice ok if the cause is right? Is it okay if there wouldnt be justice without it? Does the end justify the means? Many interesting questions raised by this large-scale Internet-based human-flesh-search in

Amazon Fires Its Colorado Associates: I just got interesting email from Amazon: the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably,

Four short links: 8 March 2010: Chinas Cyberposse (NY Times) -- is vigilante justice ok if the cause is right? Is it okay if there wouldnt be justice without it? Does the end justify the means? Many interesting questions raised by this large-scale Internet-based human-flesh-search in

Amazon Fires Its Colorado Associates: I just got interesting email from Amazon: the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably,

Micro Persuasion

Instapaper: Now Even More Useful with Email: I love services I can interact with via email. I can post to my Facebook page via email and I can do the same here. One of my favorite services is Instapaper. I use it to bookmark and save articles to

What URL Should You Emphasize? For Me, It's All About Relationships: For the last four years I had two URLs on my business card - my employer's web site and my blog. But recently, when I went to order a refill, I changed the plan. I of course kept the link to

How Google Approaches Social Media As A Team Sport: Photo credit: Karen Wickre via Danny Sullivan The following was cross-posted on the new Edelman Digital web site. Another month, another visit to Silicon Valley – my home away from home –

Ads Drop Dot-Com URLs in Favor of "Facebook Us": The following is also my March Forbes.com column.Today it seems that many marketers are literally tripping over themselves to invade social networks in force. There's almost a land grab underway as businesses rush to set up hubs on the "big

Bringing the Stream to Facebook: I am making a slight shift in my content strategy. My Posterous-powered site will continue to feature insights, observations and essays about emerging technologies. It will include any content - text, photos, videos - where some degree of depth is

BNO Breaking News Service is Now on Facebook: BNO Breaking News, a service that first made its name on Twitter and was later acquired by MSNBC, is now on Facebook. It just started to syndicate updates into my news feed about Former Vice President Dick Cheney's heart episode. It's great to

AP is Visionary - They See a "Siteless Web" Coming: TechCrunch reports that the Associated Press is using their Twitter account to push their followers to their Facebook page. On that hub they syndicate many stories and dispatches as full text. Unlike Danny Sullivan (here and here), I think

Three Ways to Manage Your Attention with Facebook: It took me awhile but I have become a big evangelist for Facebook. It's now my primary source of information. I suspect, from looking at the data, that this is true for millions - although I bet most don't even

Facebook Now Drives More Traffic to Web Sites Than Google Does: We're at the beginning of a major shift in how we find, consume and interact with information. If the 2000s was the Google decade, then the 2010s will be the Facebook decade. Already, you can see the

Google Buzz is About Protecting GMail Ad Dollars, Not Social Networking: One of my chief nits with Google Buzz is that there's no "there." Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc all have destination sites or apps that allow the user to mentally switch contexts from one-to-one/one-to-few communication to one-to-many. Mike Elgan touches on this here.

Serenity Now: Google Buzz is Google Wave Light, a Non-Starter: Those of you who know me or have been reading my work for awhile are probably well aware that I love Google products - especially Gmail. I even stopped using Google Reader in favor of subscribing

Facebook Pulls Lexicon Analytics Tool: Facebook has taken its promising Lexicon tool down from the site. Perhaps this happened when they pushed their new redesign. Lexicon, like Google Trends, provided limited yet interesting data on site-wide trends. You can read more about

Trust in Friends Declines, Trust in Experts Rises - Social Media and PR Still Win: Last week Edelman, my employer, published our tenth annual Trust Barometer study. You can read the full report here. One of the more juicy statistics that Advertising Age and others noted is that trust in peers surprisingly dropped dramatically from

Facebook Will Centralize the Social Web: Michael Arrington laments about about the decentralized nature of social content on TechCrunch today...The online social landscape today sort of feels to me like search did in 1999. It’s a mess, but we don’t complain much about it because we don’t know

Facebook Could Eat the Web: Photo credit: mastermaqLike almost everyone else on the planet, it seems, I am spending more time on Facebook than any other site. The lone exception is Google. The reason I know this is that Safari, my

Go Big, Get Your Employees on the Bus or Go Home: The following is also my column in next weeks issue of Advertising Age.Go Big, Get Your Employees on the Bus or Go HomePhoto credit: Traffic by scottpowerzThe single biggest challenge that marketers face over the next

Presentation: Communicating in the Age of Streams: Last week during the launch of Seesmic Look in New York, I gave a presentation on communicating in the age of streams. You can watch the video here or below (if for some reason the embedded video doesnt go direct to

Forbes Study: CMOs More Bullish on Social Media than Apps: During a recent meeting with Forbes, they shared with me a summary of their recent survey of Chief Marketing Officers (embedded below). There are two notable trends here - which Forbes isnt connecting, but I am.First, social media is seen

Video Interview: Scott Monty, Ford Motor Company: One of the great people I run into everywhere is Scott Monty, who heads social media at the Ford Motor Company. In this four and a half minute video, which I shot yesterday, Scott talks about what he does in

Ten Ideas for the New Decade - An Edelman Digital White Paper: Download now or preview on posterous 10IdeasForTheNewDecade.pdf (3312 KB) One of the best parts of my job is that I get to every day work with and learn from some of the smartest minds in

CenterNetworks

SXSW Video Demo: Lifeyo – Simple Website Builder: If you’ve been working online as long as I have, you probably remember the WYSIWYG craze of the late ’90s. Everyone and their mother had a program that attempted to make building a webpage easier. The most popular (and also

SXSW 2010: Day 2 Recap and Links: Day 2 of the SXSW interactive festival is complete. Here are some of the best reads from the second day of the conference:Lifestreams, Neuroscience Marketing, Privacy and Content Strategy – Weber ShandwickMojito Internet device video demo – Information Week (my post)I

SXSW: Expo Hall Photos: This afternoon marked the opening of the SXSW 2010 expo hall. Like most things at SXSW, the expo hall seems larger than in previous years with more large companies anchoring the space. Paypal, Google, Rackspace, AOL and Microsoft all have huge

SXSW: Interesting Regator Ad: Last year at SXSW we filmed a video demo of Atlanta-based Regator. The service provides curated blog aggregation on hundreds of topics. It looks like the Regator team is in Austin again this year and I’ve noticed their ads on

SXSW Day 1 Recap and Links: Day 1 of the SXSW interactive festival is complete. Here are some of the best reads from the first full day of the conference:SXSW: Social media marketing for business – Lost Remote12 Tips on Live Blogging & Content Marketing at

Is This What It’s Going To Be Like All Weekend?: I’ve heard from multiple people along with SXSW event staff that this year’s event will be the busiest ever. I’ve been coming to SXSW for 5 years and from what I can tell, it sure is more crowded than it

Startup Career Fair in NYC on April 9th: Since founding the Columbia Venture Community a few years back, I have watched the group continue to thrive due to the efforts of the talented leaders that have taken it upon themselves to drive the organization forward. It has

SXSW: I Hope AT&T Goes Down (video): Ok, I’ve never actually wanted a service to not function and I am partially joking, but it would be great if AT&T service would go down here at SXSW 2010 in Austin. Why? Because perhaps then there would be actual talking

SXSW 2010 Schwag Bag Video and Giveaway: After waiting on line just about 90 minutes to get my badge, I was able to pick up the exciting SXSW 2010 schwag bag. The bag always contains tons of paper and a variety of small trinkets. I actually wish

It’s Not About our App, It’s About the User’s Data and Context: The post below was authored by Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu.The title provides a short answer to the question: Why do we integrate with Google Apps? An important emerging theme in cloud applications is the one-page or to be more accurate

Does the iPad Replace the Need for a Smartphone?: We’ve covered the Apple iPad several times on CenterNetworks. The device appears to be launching next month and I believe it will be a game changer. Andreas discussed how he sees the device being used in the home and I

Chat With Skimlinks CEO Alicia Navarro on Skimkit Launch: Last week London-based Skimlinks launched the SkimKit, a tool that helps publishers find products that have affiliate opportunities attached. Martin Bryant from Next Web has a good overview from the launch of the SkimKit service.This morning I met with Skimlinks

Gary’s Guide Adds More NYC Service Directories: Last weekend we showed you how you can use Gary’s Guide to navigate SXSW. This week Gary has added more service directories to his event planning guide. The directories include coworking, event venues, free event venues, and a classifieds section

Pre-SXSW Job Listing: Below are some of the latest jobs posted on the CenterNetworks Job Board. Subscribe to the CN Jobs feed and get all of the latest Web industry jobs delivered directly to you.Featured Jobs:e-Commerce & Online Marketing Guru at Quirky Inc.Senior

Amtrak Adds Wi-Fi On Acela Trains: In the old days, there were two main ways to get anywhere from Boston to Washington using public transit. Those two ways were Amtrak trains and Grayhound buses. Over the past few years, new bus services that travel along the

Gary Helps You Find SXSW & Austin Events: We are just a few days away from the annual event known as SXSW. I’ve provided a primer for the 2010 SXSW which should help you get around and make the most out of the event.So how do you keep

reMail Goes Open Source: Two weeks ago Google acquired the email search for the iPhone service reMail. Corsin provided a good history of the reMail service. Today founder Gabor Cselle has announced that the reMail service is now open source. Many users were upset when

Information Capturing Service Memonic Launches Subscription Based Option: Memonic is online information capturing and organizational service. It allows you to capture pieces of information like maps, routes, photos or text. The capturing process can be completed in a variety of ways including: a smart bookmarklet, an iPhone application,

ExpenseBay Helps You Deal With the Horror of Expense Reports: Typically corporate trips are great – you get to use someone else’s credit card for travel and meals. There’s only one time that corporate travel sucks – and that’s the time it takes to put together the expense report for the

DreamIt Recruiting New Class of Startups: We’ve covered the startups from the DreamIt incubator several times over the past couple of years. Based in Philly, the DreamIt startup incubator helps people with ideas move the ideas forward into full startups. The group provides mentoring, connections, startup

Webware

Google '99.9 percent' sure to shutter Google.cn: Google, now 99.9 percent certain it will shutter its Chinese search engine amid conflict over censorship, has in-depth plans to do so, according to a Financial Times source.

VoxOx now translates as you type: VoxOxs claim on a robust feature set makes it a powerful, if slightly unstable, multi-protocol chat and VoIP client. It now comes with free universal translation for all IMs and tweets. Originally posted at The Download Blog

Consensus emerges for key Web-app standard: Indexed DB isnt a sure thing, but its got most of the right allies in the browser world to become an enabler of the cloud computing vision. Originally posted at Deep Tech

Come see Paris--in 26 gigapixels: Site, which offers a breathtaking view of Paris, enables you to pan around, see monuments, and get a high-def feel for what the City of Light is all about. Originally posted at The Digital Home

Google tweaking Buzz to declutter Gmail inbox: Dont like Buzz spamming your Gmail inbox? Google is adding some knobs to let users dial down the notifications. Originally posted at Deep Tech

Mozilla aggressively asks older Firefox users to update: Most Firefox users have upgraded to Firefox 3.6. The stragglers that havent may have their reasons, but today Mozilla starts to pressure them aggressively. Originally posted at The Download Blog

Wearing your Stickybit on your sleeve, or elsewhere: One of the start-ups hoping to make a splash at this years South by Southwest Interactive Festival is Stickybits, a set of bar code stickers that you can tag with anything. Originally posted at The Social

Chasing Groupon, LivingSocial raises $25 million: Despite the fact that Groupon dominates all of its smaller competitors in the daily-deals market, rival LivingSocial is trying to draw some blood by expanding with the help of a new infusion of venture funding. Originally posted at The Social

Google tries to make its RSS reader fun, too: The Net giant unveils Google Reader Play, an attempt to put an easy-to-use, entertaining interface on its feed-reader Web application Originally posted at Deep Tech

Android phones get Opera Mini 5 beta: Opera adds Android to its updated browser lineup. Originally posted at Android Atlas

Springpad bookmarks the world: Neat little clipping and saving service works on Web, iPhone Originally posted at Rafes Radar

FTC wants more input on Google-AdMob deal: The FTC is asking Google competitors to weigh in on its proposed $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising company AdMob, according to a report. Originally posted at Relevant Results

Google Maps to add bike maps, directions: Cyclists will be able to use Google Maps to plot directions around 150 U.S. cities when bike directions go live on Google later on Tuesday. Originally posted at Relevant Results

Google announces business app store for Google Apps: Software developers can cater to Google Apps customers through a new application store announced at Googles Campfire One event in Mountain View. Originally posted at Relevant Results

Foursquare unveils its SXSWi arsenal: In heated war with rival Gowalla for the geek seal of approval at the annual digital culture festival, Foursquare unveils new badges, new partners, and new promotions. Originally posted at The Social

In Chatroulette, the Web is closer to the real world: Chatroulette is receiving a lot of criticism, but perhaps the media are identifying it as something its not.

How to save and share ridiculously large files: Want to transfer a really big file in your browser, but keep running into size limits? We break down a list of free and paid services that can lend a hand. Originally posted at Web Crawler

8-Bit NYC is the coolest map--ever: Map of New York City depicted in 8-bit gaming glory is a viable mapping tool too. Originally posted at The Digital Home

Gowalla debuts Travel Channel deal, Android app: The location-based mobile networking app has launched its first non-iPhone app, and is making it clear that its gunning for the same media partnerships that rival Foursquare is going for. Originally posted at The Social

Google launches tool for searching public data: Curious about unemployment trends in your state cross-referenced against salaries? Google Public Data Explorer could make it easier to create a visual representation of that data. Originally posted at Relevant Results

eHub

Stickybits: A social way to attach digital content to real world objects using barcodes. URL: Stickybits

Onotate: Manage, present, review and annotate web design mockups. URL: Onotate

Naked Apartments: A New York-centric apartment matchmaking site between renters, brokers, and landlords. Renters can create a profile, get a free credit check, and write and read reviews of brokers. Brokers have the ability to view renters’ credit scores and income, and

Ibis Reader: An ereader application that you don’t have to install or download. Read public domain ePub books on your computer, laptop, smartphone or tablet. Upload your own collection of ePub books, or discover new ones. Bookmark your reading spot, change the

What Do You Suggest: A site that provides a visual exploration of Google’s suggestion feature. Type in a word or phrase, and then follow it to the answer. URL: What do you suggest?

CityTag: A social mapping platform for Australia, presently. Lets help fix that. Here’s how they describe themselves CityTag is designed to help you find the best info about town, local to where you are – on the spot! via URL: CityTag

Fav4: A start page maker where you set four of your favorite websites as the homepage. Users simply pick four favorites and set it as the start page in their browsers. URL: Fav4

OpenFaces: An open-source library of AJAX-powered JavaServer Faces (JSF) components, an Ajax framework and a client-side validation framework. URL: OpenFaces

Indinero: Web-based business financial management. Automated data entry from banks and credit cards, graphical projections, bank-level security. URL: Indinero

Done.io: A new simplified approach for to do lists. Exposes only what you need to get done right now with the concept of “shifts.” Any incomplete items at the end of the day are also automatically shifted to the next day’s

Siri: A personal assistant in your iPhone. Speak your tasks into your phone and have Siri connect to services and make plans for you. Just like a real assistant, Siri understands what you say, accomplishes tasks for you and adapts to

HQueue: HQueue is the very first downloadable Apple app and Hulu Queue Viewer for $0.99. URL: HQueue

Cliqset: Share, discover and discuss your life online, in real-time. URL: Cliqset

Teambox: Team base projects just got better with a Twitter-like project collaboration tool that lets your team share tasks, messages, files and get notified by email. URL: Teambox

ZipList: A free online service that makes managing your grocery shopping list easier than ever. Add to or delete items from your list via the web, mobile phones, text messages, email or instant messaging. Share your list with family members or

Steepster: A social network for tea-lovers. Write a tea journal, see what others are drinking and get recommendations from people you trust. URL: Steepster

Ethnio: A web service that makes it easy to recruit people from your website to be research participants. URL: Ethnio

WhosRich.me: A social utility that makes it easy for people to track their friends’ shopping habits. URL: WhosRich.me

Neat Chat: An easy and fast way to have an online conversation with a group of friends or colleagues. No signups or software installs required. Just chat through the browser interface. URL: Neat Chat

Museum of Modern Betas

Beta Quotient: Plugg: Good news (from a betalogical point of view): more than 40% (8 of 19) of the startups which presented themselves at the Startup Rally of the Plugg Conference are released in beta*:anewsmeapprupt *collibradatpresenterdistimoenglish-attack *fits.me *getyoo *giswiz * (ninja)hipuiinbox2 *lumoflowrazwarscliposhotools *smarketsstupeflixsubmate

Fits.me: Fits.mevirtual fitting room for online clothing retailersEuro Startup Competition Plugg Names Fits.me Its Winner

SimpleGeo: SimpleGeothe easiest way to use location

Aol Lifestream: Aol LifestreamGet all your updates in one place. Comment, like and update your Facebook, Twitter and MySpace status, right from AOL Lifestream.AOL Launches Lifestream As New Standalone Product. This Is What Google Buzz Should Have Been

Broadband.gov: Broadband.govLearn how the National Broadband Plan will help insure that all Americans have access to high-performance broadband.The FCC Wants You to Test Your Broadband Speeds

Ofuz: OfuzThe goal of Ofuz is to simplify the task of managing your contacts and related duties by means of our innovative collaboration features.

Exceed Net: Exceed Net (german)(by invitation only)Where Innovators Thrive(a social network for innovators)Willkommen im Exceed Network: Where Innovators Thrive

ProgrammableWeb

5 New APIs: BigCommerce, CitySearch CityGrid, Context Voice, EasyImg, edocr: This week we had 23 new APIs added to our API directory. These include an ecommerce platform API for building online stores, an API for a local business directory search, a social conversation aggregation API, an

26 APIs Used in 7 Days: Bing, CJ, Facebook, Google OpenID, TwitPic, Twitter, WeatherBug: This past week 13 new mashups were added to our mashup directory and 26 different APIs were used to build them. Some of the newer or less frequently seen APIs include Clipta, Drop.io, EditGrid, Foxrate, Google

Best New Mashups: All About Status Messages: Microblogging status messages may be small, but they pack quite the mashup punch. Twitter (our Twitter API profile) itself makes up 8% of all mashups on Programmable Web. So, its to be expected that two

What Downturn? Amazon Web Services Has Over 100 Job Openings: It can be hard to find good news regarding employment thanks the recent financial downturn. Apparently no one told Amazon, who have a post on their Amazon Web Services (AWS) blog announcing that they

Improve Your Web Site’s SEO With SEOmoz’s Free API: Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is vital to any successful website. The team at SEOmoz are experts in this field and now offer a number of premium SEO tools including the recently released Open Site

Love a Local Business? Prove it with Intuit’s Foursquare Mashup: Radio stations are always looking for the phrase that pays. Thats passé. When it comes to local businesses on the web, its praise that pays. Whether its Yelp reviews, FourSquare check-ins, or customer feedback provided

Google Says Goodbye to API Keys with New Geocoding API: Google has released a new geocoding web service that is sure to bring a smile to map mashup developers working with the Google Maps API. Announced earlier this week on the Google Geo Developers

Celebrate Your Developers: a Lesson From Mobypicture: If youre looking to run a successful developer program, you should probably pay attention to Mathys van Abbe. Hes the founder of Mobypicture (our Mobypicture API profile), which has just celebrated its 500th developer.

US Army Launches “Apps for Army” Contest, Offers $30,000 in Prizes: The US Army has joined the ranks of government agencies courting developers by announcing a new competition called Apps for the Army (A4A). The competition aims to promote some fresh ideas and practical web and mobile applications for use within

Local-ish API Shows Where You’ve Been: For several years millions have shared the places theyve been using the Where Ive Been website and Facebook application. The site also has an API (our Where Ive Been API profile), which

Is Your Flight Going to be Late? Get a Prediction From the New FlightCaster API: Have you had to pick someone up from the airport only to end-up doing several laps of the airport because the flight was late? This sort of setback due to arrival delays is one of

5 New APIs: Google, Guardian, Ericsson, and CorpWatch: Once again this week we had a variety of new APIs added to our API directory. Some notable new entries include an API for a corporation accountability research service, mobile identification API, a mobile network

28 APIs Used in 7 Days: Bing, eBay, Facebook, Fedex, Google, Salesforce, Yahoo and YouTube: This past weeks new mashups in our mashup directory combined 28 different APIs. Some of the newer or less frequently seen APIs include Google OpenID, Heyzap, Menu Mania, Microsoft adCenter, RescueTime, RPX, Windows Live ID

GMaps Pedometer, Now With Optional G: An early influential Google Maps mashup now gives users the chance to change mapping imagery. The GMaps Pedometer (our GMaps Pedometer mashup profile) has six different tile options, the most recent of which is OpenStreetMap,

See Where the Queen Catches the Bus: If the Queen of England used public transportation, she wouldnt have far to walk from her Buckingham Palace home. And finding her nearest stop is now very easy since Transport of London has implemented a Google Maps mashup of bus

Technorati API Disappears: No Longer Representing the Technorati: Once the mouthpiece and aggregator of the blogosphere, Technorati lost its luster long ago. And now its lost its API, too. The developer page promises a new API but also makes one thing clear: the

Search Thousands of Movie Clips, Assuming You Can Get API Access: The self-proclaimed movie freaks behind MovieClips now have a platform that could allow for some really fun mashups. Unfortunately, even the most basic documentation is hidden behind an application form and a promise that access

Google Buys Another API With Picnik Acquisition: Picnik, the very popular browser based photo editing service thats been integrated into many other sites via their Picnik API, has just been acquired by Google.

Twitter Turns on the Firehose for Companies of All Sizes: The Twitter Streaming API has been successfully used by Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft, who have been given access to the full feed of all public tweets. Twitter has now enabled this firehouse of data for

Web2.0 List

Study: Young More Likely to Pay for Web Content: One of the most surprising results of a new, more wide-ranging survey by the marketing and media information firm Nielsen was that some people are actually prepared to pay and theyre probably not from the demographic youd expect.

Massive cyber attack simulated in U.S: Security experts launch a cyber attack war game to test the nations cyber security defenses.

Facebook gripes protected by free speech, ruling says: Miami, Florida (CNN) -- A former Florida high school student who was suspended by her principal after she set up a Facebook page to criticize her teacher is protected constitutionally under the First Amendment, a federal magistrate ruled.

China Alarmed by Threat to Security From Cyberattacks: BEIJING Deep inside a Chinese military engineering institute in September 2008, a researcher took a break from his duties and decided against official policy to check his private e-mail messages. Among the new arrivals was an electronic

Wi-Fi Turns Rowdy Bus Into Rolling Study Hall: The students call it the Internet Bus, and what began as a high-tech experiment has had an old-fashioned and unexpected result. Wi-Fi access has transformed what was often a boisterous bus ride into a rolling study hall, and

Email as Identity: Google Turns on WebFinger: If youve been on the Internet for long enough, you may remember the old UNIX finger command. With finger, you could just type in a command like finger email@readwriteweb.com and the email server would return more information about this person.

Google analyst: U.S. Internet needs to get faster: Mountain View, California (CNN) -- Google long has been an advocate of a single Web, one thats free of government censorship and barriers to information access.Thats not the reality in todays world however.

Is the 'Avatar' concept really possible?: Scientists say we are many decades, even centuries, away from making this kind of sophisticated interaction possible, if it can be done at all. But the fundamentals of components required to create this complicated system of mind-controlled avatars are already

5 Ways Airlines and Hotels Can Drive Revenue with Social Media: Social media is no longer the new thing, especially for airlines. JetBlue has over one an a half million followers on Twitter. Lufthansa allows passengers to update their Twitter or Facebook status about where they are in the sky. AirAsia

If Google Wave Is The Future, Google Buzz Is The Present: Google has a problem. Despite having their hands in just about everything online, theyve never been able to tackle what is a key part of the fabric of the web: social. Yes, they have Orkut and OpenSocial, but no one

IPhone credit card swipe war heats up: What if your iPhone took plastic? Imagine if your business could use it as a mobile credit card processor, a swipe-and-go system for ringing up payments wherever you roam.

Dollars Flow Out as Data Flows In: It used to be that a basic $25-a-month phone bill was your main telecommunications expense. But by 2004, the average American spent $770.95 annually on services like cable television, Internet connectivity and video games, according to data from the Census

Google to Add Social Features to Gmail: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Google is trying once again to capture some of the momentum surrounding social networking companies like Facebook and Twitter by adding new features to Gmail, its popular e-mail service.

Sketchpad: Online Paint/Drawing application

Shorty Awards spotlight best of Twitter: The Shorty Awards - the real-time Webs version of the Oscars - has released its list of finalists.Check out the list here. You can vote on your favorites until Friday at noon ET. (More on how to do that).Winners will

House Passes Cybersecurity Bill: The House today overwhelmingly passed a bill aimed at building up the United States cybersecurity army and expertise, amid growing alarm over the countrys vulnerability online.

Google Asks Spy Agency for Help With Inquiry Into Cyberattacks: Google has turned to the National Security Agency for technical assistance to learn more about the computer network attackers who breached the companys cybersecurity defenses last year, a person with direct knowledge of the agreement said Thursday.

Google searches getting more social: (CNN) -- Googles move to include social networking information in its searches has gotten personal.The search-engine giant has announced that, with a few tweaks, people using Google can now see search results related to friends, co-workers and other members of

15 Must-Have Web Apps for Students: Using free web apps is an easy and cost-effective way to increase your academic productivity. A well-designed app can also replace expensive software products and free up space on your computer. Here is a list of 15 web apps that

Survey of Executives Finds a Growing Fear of Cyberattacks: A survey of 600 computing and computer-security executives in 14 countries suggests that attacks on the Internet pose a growing threat to the energy and communication systems that underlie modern society.

The Web 2.0 Show

Episode 71 - Capital Factory / Josh Baer: Adam speaks with Josh Baer, a Parallel entrepreneur and the Managing Partner at Capital Factory, an early stage accelerator program for tech startups.Adam rates this show as: MUST LISTEN!

Episode 70 - Flowtown / Ethan Bloch: Adam speaks with Ethan Bloch, Co-Founder & CEO of Flowtown to talk about the wonders of serendipity, following your gut and the ins and outs of product development following Eric Reiss Lean Startup model.

Episode 69 - InfoChimps / Founding Team: I sat down the Founders of InfoChimps.org. Infochimps mission is to increase the worlds access to structured data. We talked about handling large data-sets, Mentorship and the importance of Pitching your business.

Episode 68 - Carsonified / Ryan Carson: I spoke with Ryan Carson, a Co-founder of Carsonified, to talk about building a creative agency, separation of personal and business brands, hiring and retaining great designers, running a World Class conference circuit and more.

Episode 67 - HootSuite / Ryan Holmes: I spoke with Ryan Holmes, the Founder and CEO of HootSuite to talk about their Social Media Dashboard HootSuite, rebranding from Bright Kit, pursuing VC funding and when it makes sense to take it.

Episode 66 - Freshbooks / Mike McDerment: I spoke with Mike McDerment, Co-founder and CEO of Freshbooks. Mike shares lots of great advice on building a business, the importance of choosing the RIGHT business partner and more in this jam packed episode.

Episode 43 - Kathy Sierra: Creating Passionate Users: At FOWA 2008, we caught up with Kathy Sierra to talk about creating passionate users, building web apps, the brain and so much more.

Episode 65 - Venmo: SMS-based Payment Platform: I caught up with the Founders of Venmo, Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail. They have no titles, they wear all available hats in their ultra lean 2 person startup based in Philadelphia, PA.

Episode 64 - Earth Aid / Ben Bixby: I spoke with Ben Bixby about Earth Aid, the EarthAid.net platform, and what it means to liberate your utility data stream and save money on your energy and earn free cupcakes.

Episode 63 - Twilio: Telephony in the Cloud: I spoke with Twilio Founders: Jeff Lawson - CEO (@jeffiel), Evan Cooke - CTO (@emcooke) and John Wolthuis - Lead Engineer (@thuddwhirr). We talked about Twilio, telephony in the cloud and many other topics about running a startup.

Episode 61 - Grasshopper / David Hauser: I spoke with David Hauser, Co-Founder and CTO of Grasshopper as well as Jonathan Kay, aka the Ambassador of Buzz, to talk about their business and how they are helping entrepreneurs succeed.

Episode 59 - Groupon.com / Andrew Mason: I sat down with Andrew Mason (29), Founder and CEO of Groupon.com to discuss to awesome ways they are helping people have fun in the city they live in and save money using the tremendous power of collective buying.

Episode 58 - Font Squirrel / Ethan Dunham: We sat with Ethan Dunham to discuss all the juicy details of FontSquirrel.com and whats going on in the world of free fonts and @font-face.

Episode 57 - AdaptiveBlue & GetGlue / Alex Iskold: Josh and I had a chance to speak with Alex Iskold, Founder and CEO of AdaptiveBlue and GetGlue.com. Getglue.com is a social recommendation engine, which helps you discover new books, music and movies.

Episode 56 - 99Designs & SitePoint / Matt Mickiewicz: Interview with Matt Mickiewicz about 99designs, a leading crowdsourcing platform for graphic design.

Episode 55 - Capital Factory / Marc Nathan: Josh and Adam talk with Marc Nathan of Capital Factory and the Houston Technology Center to discuss Starting Up.

Episode 62 - Molehill: Tom Rossi & Kevin Finn: I had a chance to sit with Tom Rossi and Kevin Finn, the Founders of Molehill a product focused Web Application Development company out of Jacksonville, FL.

Episode 61 - Grasshopper: I spoke with David Hauser, Co-Founder and CTO of Grasshopper as well as Jonathan Kay, aka the Ambassador of Buzz, to talk about their business and how they are helping entrepreneurs succeed.

Episode 60 - IWearYourShirt.com / Jason Sadler: I sat down face-to-face to speak with Jason Sadler of I Wear Your Shirt (iwearyourshirt.com) to talk about his rise to fame and fortune by wearing t-shirts. Yes, thats right. T-shirts.

Episode 59 - Andrew Mason and Groupon.com: I sat down with Andrew Mason (29), Founder and CEO of Groupon.com to discuss to awesome ways they are helping people have fun and save money using the tremendous power of collective buying.

Dion Hinchcliffe

The Evolving Web In 2009: Web Squared Emerges To Refine Web 2.0: It's been five years now that we've begun to understand what Web 2.0 is, starting way back in 2003. It's been a fairly impressive if winding road as a new online generation was born. But far from getting long in

Links for 2010-02-09: Fixing IT in the cloud computing era | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.comFixing IT in the cloud computing era | Enterprise Web 2.0 http://bit.ly/8hVLdk I add points to @timbray, @philww, and @mkrigsman Mike Krigsman and Dion Hinchcliffe At DreamForce On

Links for 2010-02-03: Middle Management: The Importance of Being Michael Scott - Andrew McAfee - Harvard Business ReviewWill Enterprise 2.0 displace middle management, asks @amcafee? http://bit.ly/7zcqat

Exploring Why Social Business Will Drive 21st Century Enterprises: Below is an new core visual -- which is itself a work-in-progress -- for thinking about social business models. It's part an ongoing strategic line of thinking that I've been developing lately to do some direction finding on strategic uses

Links for 2010-01-28: Is Social Media Worth Your Time? - The Conversation - Harvard Business ReviewIs Social Media Worth Your Time? | Harvard Business: http://bit.ly/7fB9tD Useful discussion of motivations.

Links for 2010-01-20: http://bit.ly/5tj2hnSix Must-Read New Topics in Enterprise Social Computing: http://bit.ly/5tj2hn http://bit.ly/5w0e6gDeep new exploration and sum up of SOA governance by Software AG's @mikojava: http://bit.ly/5w0e6g

The K-factor Lesson: How Social Ecosystems Grow (Or Not): Recently for some work that I'm doing I had to revisit the techniques for creating successful online social environments. This is a surprisingly deep and nuanced topic that we as Web application architects or enterprise social computing practitioners are just

Links for 2010-01-04: Three Enterprise 2.0 Themes You Should Be Watching in 2010 « I’m Not Actually a GeekThree Enterprise 2.0 Themes You Should Be Watching in 2010: http://bit.ly/61pQ3O The Personal Enterprise | Socialwrite.comRT @leebryant Nice post from @jevon on the personal enterprise:

Links for 2010-01-03: Collaborative Innovation through Social Competition | SocialComputingJournal.comCollaborative Innovation through Social Competition: http://bit.ly/57tUdi 21 Enterprise 2.0 Success Stories - Your-On-The-Job Mentorship System from the bright ideas factory21 Enterprise 2.0 Success Stories: http://bit.ly/5SSIq3 Great list, we really must create a full database

Links for 2010-01-02: Is Social Media Worth Your Time? - The Conversation - Harvard Business ReviewIs Social Media Worth Your Time? | Harvard Business: http://bit.ly/7fB9tD Useful discussion of motivations. The New Enterprise 2.0 Community ManagerThe New Enterprise 2.0 Community Manager: http://bit.ly/6itpyh Nice props

Links for 2009-12-30: Google Makes an Acquisition to Help Build Google WaveGoogle acquires http://EtherPad.com, a online word processor that lets people to work together in real-time http://bit.ly/51pPHF ht @itworks

Links for 2009-12-27: IBM - Smart Business - United StatesSo far today in Rochester, seen IBM Smart Business Are SOA and Agile a Good Match? - ebizQ ForumRT @Peter_ebizQ Do SOA and Agile work well together? You know, like chocolate and peanut butter.

Links for 2009-12-23: bit.ly, a simple url shortenerRT @johnguidos Social Networks Evolving Faster Than Laws Can Govern: http://bit.ly/2EIQzb.

Links for 2009-12-18: BriefingsDirect Transcripts: BriefingsDirect Analysts Unpack the Psychology of Project Management Via Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0 and SOATop Analysts Unpack the Psychology of Project Management Via Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0 & SOA: http://bit.ly/6oLSIs A terrific convo IMO. ;-) Video review of Andrew McAfee’s

Links for 2009-12-17: Twitter / Jerry W. Purple: ZINGERS. Take a look at th ...Take a look at this fantastic image on Web 2.0 and co-creative community: http://bit.ly/UMTbE and http://bit.ly/837KSz (via @twHIVE_W20) http://drewmclellan.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341bf7cb53ef0115712720c9970c-piTake a look at this fantastic image on Web 2.0 and

How Social Could Disrupt Search: The inimitable Fred Wilson concluded yesterday in Why Social Beats Search, that "achines can help us find what is good. But with the help of machines, our friends and trusted sources can and will do that even better." This statement

12 Adoption Strategies for Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 in 2010: The signs are pointing to next year being a banner one when it comes to mainstream adoption of the latest digital business models. With half a decade under the belt of the Web 2.0 phenomenon and almost as long for

A New Approach To Social Computing: Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0: Those who follow my work know that I've been attempting to identifying the success factors for enterprise social computing as well as trying to clearly understand the potential issues. What we've learned as a whole over the last year is

Exploring Social Collaboration and Enterprise Architecture In Oslo, Norway: A Trip Report: I spent the early part of this week in Oslo, Norway, a guest of

URL Shorteners: A Tale Of Online Business Models And The Cloud: The announcement this afternoon that URL shortener tr.im would stop service immediately and eventually get rid of all its data sparked widespread discussion in the blogosphere today, as evidenced by all the stories about it clustered on Techmeme. URL shorteners

Bokardo

Are You Fun to Follow on Twitter?: Over at Harvard Business Review, Tammy Erickson observes most tweets are not very interesting: Frankly, most people’s tweets are neither interesting nor fun to read — certainly not on a daily or hourly basis. Many, not at all. I say

Five User Experience Trends: Since my blog has been broken a lot recently I missed this excellent overview of Five User Experience trends by Gene Smith. I can’t help but agree with all of them: Services as Software – Gene is one of the

Google: Forms & Landing Pages are Key: A fascinating post by Googler Gavin Doolan:If you are considering making changes to your website design, take a moment to consider the potential revenue impact of your redesign. The graph below shows a theoretical overview of the ROI impact of

Dreamers of Day: I recently posted this quote on the 52weeksofUX site, but I like it so much I’m going to post it here as well: “All men dream; but not equally.Those who dream by night in the dustyrecesses of their mindsAwake to

Is Twitter Successful?: The big question everyone has with Twitter is, and the very first one that John Battelle asked Twitter CEO Ev Williams when he interviewed him yesterday, is Whats the revenue model?

Communicating Value through Cause & Effect on Fanfeedr: How Fanfeedrs intro page does well to communicate the value of the service.

Feature Development in Action: Broadcast Stream Messages in Socialcast: One of the guiding principles of interaction design is to support existing behavior. This means to figure out what is already happening, what activities, tasks, and interactions people are already doing, and build support for them into software.

Using your Sign-up form as a Qualifier: I recently ran across an interesting way to qualify people using sign-up forms at monotask.com.

No Sign-up Necessary (the strikethrough method): Two apps, Posterous and SignApp, have a novel way to communicate how easy it is to start using their product. I call it the strikethrough method.

Coming Soon: Make them Care! (my new book): Just a quick update on my latest project. Im self-publishing a new book about creating great sign-up experiences. Its called Make them Care!. (you can get reminded when its published here)

Designing for Social Traction (slide deck): Here is the slide deck from a talk I gave last week at Delve, a two-day masterclass held in Brooklyn, NY.

What Metric are you Designing to Improve Today?: While aesthetics are subjective, behavior is not.

The Agency Problem: The agency problem is the problem of doing one-off work in a world in which software is becoming a service that needs constant attention.

Steve Jobs on why Apple doesn’t do market research: It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t...

The behavior you’re seeing is the behavior you’ve designed for: Ive given a few talks recently and by far and away the one idea that is resonating with people is the idea that the behavior youre seeing is the behavior youve designed for.

Yahoo’s one page experience: I really like the direction they are going, and once they get rid of the flyouts and refine the me-first dashboard experience of the homepage, I think it could be really valuable. But the moment you step off their brand

On the Origins of Avatar: As I sit looking at Tweetdeck this morning, scanning over 40 avatars of people I know and dont know, I wonder how much of my interaction is influenced by what a particular avatar looks like. Am I more willing to

The Most Important Feature of a Multi-Device Web: Syncing: If you sync seamlessly across devices, people will love you for it.

Looking for examples of microcopy: I’ve set up a new Flickr group with the express intent of aggregating examples of microcopy, that tiny copy (often shorter than a sentence) that helps clarify, explain, reduce commitment, or otherwise assuage someone performing (or considering) a task. You

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