DefinitiveInk

Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: There's Some Mighty Pissed Off Flickr Members Right Now

Earlier I wrote that I was impressed with Flickr's e-mail and apparent handling of the merging of old member names with Yahoo reg. There is always a flip aside to this when it comes the change in communities and here is a link to some of the dissent - Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: There's Some Mighty Pissed Off Flickr Members Right Now: ""

(Via Tech Meme.)

Gawker's NY subway smell map

Lessons learned from Flickr

Fred Wilson suggests Flickr is the seminal web 2.0 company and lists 10 reasons why they are.

• 1) Making online content default to public instead of private creates community
• 2) Every web service needs to have a profile for every user
• 3) Users should be encouraged to comment on other user's posts
• 4) Tagging content is better than foldering content and the tags should be public
• 5) Users should be encouraged to tag their content when it is posted to the service
• 6) Widgets should be used to make content available off of the service
• 7) Content on the service should be "bloggable" with one click
• 8) Engagement metrics like comments, favorites, views, can and should be used to drive discovery (the most interesting algorithm)
• 9) Geotagging is great but we've yet to see a great interface for geotagging
• 10) Machine tagging (autotagging) is the next big thing in web 2.0

Coincidentally I recevied an e-mail from them to ugrade my old skool Flickr reg to Yahoo reg.  would add to this list their tone and ways of dealing with their users. Inclusiveness, humility, and seeming joy at the way people are innovating with their APIs.

Very interesting idea of dynamically mapping places mentioned in books in Google's book search. The Alienist etc. I wanted to do this with Dylan's autobiography. It would be great if Google could also make dynamic bibliographies of mentions in the books. (via Techmeme)

Calvin Trillin puts out a business idea for mobile and 2.0 developers at the end of his article on test-driving the self-parking Lexus. He jokes about an in car system that knows alternate side-of-the-street parking. Now that is a service I'd love if I ever upgrade my 18 year old Saab to one that not only has air-bags and a built-in navigation system. I'd improve it by having it refuse to start if the next day is  an obscure Holiday. It would be great as well if it could think ahead and alert me to look for a Tuesday spot if the following Tuesday is not in play.

The Pentagram Papers - A collection of 35 papers by the design staff of Pentagram. (via A Very Short List)

Oomph.Net catchy name for Oxygen's new social net.

I'm also fond of  the name cranky ,Eons new search that only returns 4 items, clearing away the supposed clutter for people over 50

Interesting that LibraryThing and other book sharing sites, of which there are many aren't being thought of as the place for reading groups and other work with book publishers. Instead, I think gather.com has that territory covered with certain ad agencies whether or not it is true.

There is a certain irony to being invited by Kevin Bacon to join sixdegrees.com in an AIM message.

Big Media's crush on Social Networking

Blurb O'Matic

The blurb o'matic takes a nice phrase and turns into something better that it was (Via Gawker.)

Really nice printable paper toys (via LifeHacker)

Denton on Widgets "Let's get something straight here. A widget is an affiliate marketing program, no more, no less..."

Wilson on widgets "...Nick is missing the point of widgets entirely. You can't build a business on widgets alone. But if you have a business; YouTube, Flickr, Delicious, MyBlogLog, Digg, etc, etc, you can get distribution on other's pages with widgets. It's a content and brand distribution strategy."

All of this is in response to the NYT article about widgets so aren't we all just widgets in a content and brand distribution strategy?

I've been thinking and working on some widget oriented projects and have some on my blog. I'm wrestling with them from two sides, in some I think it is important to create the same utility that my flickr, delicious, and even my TypeLists bring to my blog. These connect disparate services together in one place, a distributed CMS of sorts. If I pulled in polls and surveys and an Amazon, ThisNext, or Etsy list, it would be for the same reasons. For others like the Pandora widget it is in a way promoting a service I like. I use it sometimes at work and they've allowed me to personalize it a bit while giving a handy way for interested visitors to start a radio station of their own.  For widgets which don't offer any personalization for the user  I see them evolving more into an affiliate marketing model with some points or renumeration for people who post the blogs and then potentially back to the owners of the systems in which people host their areas.

BitPass shuts down

BitPass closes down."The company pitched its services towards the small and indie content providers to begin with and even though it tried working with media companies in selling their content, the general online premium content market didn’t grow as fast as everyone predicted 3-4 years ago, as the online ad market came back."

Would you wear a shoe named "Wilburt" even if it had a "Poron" inner sole?

LinkedIn has introduced an "Answers" program. Very interesting idea. Since one is linked to their answer if it is brilliant or shows a mastery of the field the answerer becomes a more valuable networker or job candidate depending on what they are after. I have a question for anyone who wants to share their expertise. How could I link to this feature without sharing my log-in info since it is for members only?

MySpace is Getting a Little Testy

MySpace is Getting a Little Testy: If this is in fact true the timing is amazing considering the good NYT article about widgets that hit the stands a few hours earlier .

NYT column on cost of war and what 1.2 Trillion dollars can buy.

hello.typepad.com   is redesigned. Nice, though I miss the weird and wild days.

Any fans of the Sphere widget out there?

Arrington gives advice to my employer.

Geni.com - family genealogy.

Boxxet - dynamic headers

Lost - best news, blogs, and photos - Boxxet: "Just reading about Boxxet on Paid Content. I like the way in the "boxxets" they are dynamicallyy creating header graphics based on the photos they are pulling. Interesting site. The article links to another site called Zimbio that is worth checking out though on the surface I prefer Boxxet. Will all of this human powered info be searchable by Google?

Once at Cotillions, Now Reshaping the Cityscape - New York Times A really nice article about Amanda Burden and her work with the city planning commission

(via RawStory)

An article describing the war and treaty powers within the US Constitution.