geektastik technology, communication & random geekiness

Ladies and gentlegeeks, I give you the Geekster Moleskine.

Read/Write Web has two posts today that deal with the content and personalization. The first is Alex Iskold’s look at the vertical expansion of social networks, which he prefaces with a distinction between generic networks (which “exist primarily to keep in touch”) and specialized networks (in which “people are brought together based on the specific common interest”). E.g. MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn vs. del.icio.us, Flickr, LibraryThing and Flixster.

The main advantage of a specialized network is that it can offer a better user experience. Because of its specialty its user interface can be more focused and rich… The disadvantage of specialized networks is that they are somewhat limited to their specialty.

Sramana Mitra then offers a look at Yahoo! Travel based on the Web 3.0 framework, coming to the conclusion that it’s “heavy on content, light on personalization.” The site integrates Flickr, allowing users to share their travel photos, but is otherwise lagging in community features, Mitra found. In addition, “there is no personalization based on travel styles…budget ranges, amenity requirements, etc.”

Paper travel guides have always provided this sort of segmentation information. However, websites have always the unique advantage of being able to provide better search and personalization facilities, which so far remains unaddressed. It is also Yahoo’s greatest opportunity for strong differentiation in a market landscape that is fast standardizing.

These articles raise the question about what users want from their online experience – breadth or depth? Facebook’s photo-sharing and event-planning features lag behind specialized sites, but the aggregation of features means Facebook’s larger membership use these features anyway. But Mitra suggests that greater success for Yahoo! Travel will come from increased personalization highly specific to users, rather than the “see how much we know about everything, relevant or not” approach.

So what is the real wave of the future, higher specialization or more aggregation?

Om Malik at GigaOM just posted about new software from FON that turns a Mac (Intel-based machines) or a Linux computer (preferably Ubuntu-based) into a FON spot.

FON is a share-your-Wi-Fi service company that announced a deal with Time Warner Cable earlier this week. Om goes on to discuss what you can and cannot share, and some alternatives to FON including Whisher, which launched at DEMO, and others.

The issue this raises for me, though, is whether you should be allowed to share your Wi-Fi connection with whomever you please. Copyright laws currently prevent bars, for example, from showing a pay-per-view boxing match on a bunch of TVs without paying special (and exorbitant) fees, even if there’s no cover charge at that bar. But I can invite a bunch of friends over to my house to watch the same boxing match
, and HBO probably isn’t going to send the lawyers.

People aren’t charging for FON spots (that I know). Does it relate to scale, then? Does Wi-Fi sharing only become and issue when I have a connection powerful enough to rival, say, a T-Mobile Hot Spot? Or should I be able to share my legally purchased internet connection with whomever I please?

Among the maelstrom of criticism in the wake of Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, the Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein offered up this pearl (get it?) of wisdom in his recent column:

But now, precisely because of its success, it’s fair to ask if Google should be barred from furthering its dominance through acquisitions or collaborations…

There may never have been a Google without the government’s antitrust suit that prevented Microsoft from crushing upstart rivals. By the same principle, isn’t it time to begin restraining Google to increase the odds another Google will come along?

Wait, wait, let me get this straight: you root for a company that grows organically and is successful for a lot of good reasons, and manages to (mostly) “not be evil”…but only up to a point. Then they should voluntarily stop growing, especially by acquiring highly successful companies like YouTube and DoubleClick with a “gusher of profits [enabling them] to outbid rivals.”

For serious?

Beyond the obvious “I only liked that indie band until they were popular” reverse snobbery, I share Paul Kedrosky’s view:

If Microsoft could have crushed Google it would have, and the DoJ’s antitrust suit didn’t do a damn thing to stop it. Google simply out-innovated Microsoft, fair and square.

Booyakasha.

Hellooooo! Ok, so I’m not dead yet. Just after Edwards bloggergate, I decided to take a month-long trip to Australia. I’ve been posting my pictures on Flickr, and also blogging about it on my personal blog, nobody calls me that.

I wound my way up the East Coast from Sydney, with stops at the Gold Coast, Surfer’s Paradise, a farmstay in the Outback, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Island, the Capricorn Coast, the Whitsundays, Cairns, the Atherton Tablelands, and finally Cape Tribulation.

Phew!

Since I’ve been back, Jason Baptiste of Publictivity and I have been working on a new project. As some of you already know, I am no longer with the Max Borges Agency. Jason and I have expanded Geektastik from a blog to a consultancy. I’ll keep blogging, of course, with Jason as a frequent contributor, although we’ll soon be moving the blog to a dedicated domain (yay!).

In addition, though, Geektastik will be offering technology & communications consulting to everyday businesses such as real estate firms, magazines, retail stores, etc. Basically, Geektastik serves anyone who wishes to enrich their conversations with their customers, expand their reach, and enhance their business with technology and the Internet.

I’ll be posting more updates about Geektastik, Inc., as well as the regular posts about what’s been going on in the world of technology, and you can be sure I’ll be making up for lost time.

Barcamp Miami
School of Communication Common Grounds Courtyard
FEBRUARY 21st 2006 – 6:00 to 9:00PM

Think BarCamp is a meeting among geeks? Think again!

BarCamp is your opportunity to present your company, your startup or your idea of the next big thing. Everyone is welcome to present and all presentations are scheduled upon arrival.

The first BarCamp “unconference” was organized in California in August 2005.Since then, BarCamps have been held across the globe, culminating last year in the first anniversary Barcamp Earth, held the same day in multiple locations worldwide. Barcamp is a great place to meet people and learn about your online community in your home town.

This year, South Florida will finally get its first BarCamp Miami on February 21st, 2007.

“BarCamp Miami was designed for people in South Florida to share and learn in an open environment.” – Kim Grinfeder, Professor, University of Miami

BarCamp Miami is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from an ad hoc gathering of entrepreneurs, technology developers, journalists, bloggers, designers, web enthusiasts, students and anyone else who’s interested in learning about new projects underway. It’s a way to ‘get everyone together and see what happens’. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the schedule wall.

“You don’t have to present anything but I do encourage people to just come and listen and share ideas.” – Alex de Carvalho, Community Guy, Scrapblog.com

http://barcamp.org/Barcamp-Miami

When: February 21st, 2007, from 6:00PM – 9:00PM
Where: UM School of Communications – Wolfson Building
5100 Brunson Drive
Coral Gables, FL 33124-2105
Cost: FREE!
Contact: Alex de Carvalho, 786-301-9523, alex[at]decarvalho[dot]net
Kim Grinfeder, grinfeder[at]miami[dot]edu

Robert Scoble and Slate’s John Dickerson examine why the John Edwards campaign had blogger trouble in the first place, and how the politician isn’t learning from his mistakes.

Dave Winer, among many, many others, wonders when the New York Times will “call off their war with bloggers.”

Some people use “crude language” when they talk on the phone, and others would be offended if they heard such language. Same with bloggers. I would never say that all reporters are liars and spinmasters, even if I felt it was true, because I know it’s not.

Has Arthur Sulzberger been taking classes at the Joe Biden School of Gross Generalization?

Brian Solis has a thorough post written for “those looking for the righ way to participate” [italics mine] in business blogging.

He also kindly posted a great response to my “PR 2.0″ presentation, whose title is, of course, indebted to him.

Rand Simberg at Transterrestrial Musings confesses:

I’ve always hated the word blog. It’s so ugly: it sounds like something mucky you get stuck in, and I remain embarrassed to this day to admit that I have one. But the word caught fire five years or so ago, and I could no more hold it back than could Canute the tide. But I’ll never call myself a blogger again. I’m a bloggist!”

Lileks coined the phrase back in December 2006

Blogger sounds like someone carrying big wobbly Hefty bags of Jell-O; bloggist has a certain precision, as well as an old-world charm. It also lends itself to bloggista and bloggisto, which moves the emphasis from the dull O to the pert & vivacious i vowel.

I know it’s highly unlikely to take hold, but I confess to feeling equally ashamed of the word “blog.” I always try to weasel around it, like blogs are only for tweener unicorn princesses or Perez Hilton (no, I will NOT link to him).

UPDATE: At last night’s South Florida blogger dinner, Shel Israel pointed out that the whole idea of changing your title to connote greater credibility smacks of a lack of credibility in and of itself.

As someone who’s written before that credibility should come solely from credible work, not from a masthead (or a job title), I shouldn’t have let vanity get the best of me. Apologies.