Cyworld in San Francisco

I said last summer that Cyworld had its sights on the USA. Their CEO told the Ohmynews Citizen Journos that it would be February of 2006. So, they are off just a bit. Imagine a "MySpace" for soccer moms. Or seniors who like to email and share photos. Or for almost anyone. That is what the "minihompy" or mini homepage based Cyworld is like in Korea. It has its own money system (acorns) and folks love to download new backgrounds or additions for their pages. I think that part of it is a bit like the Sims. Anyway, get ready, its coming to a computer near you soon.

Quote of the Day.

From an interview Mark Glaser did for mediashift with William Jeakle, who worked at CNN in the ’80s and helped develop the Airport Network, those ubiquitous TV monitors now available in 42 airports. I personally can't stand the TVs in airports or elevators but I liked his idea about "waves."MediaShift . Insider's Take::Why Public TVs Won't Go Away | PBS: "The first wave was television. The second wave was cable, allowing choice. The third wave being time-shifting, like TiVo, having what you want when you want it. The fourth wave is having the programming completely unfettered, having it when you want it and where you want it. And once you take the elephant off the chain, it takes a while for the elephant to realize he’s not on a chain."

The 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize for Blooks

Hey bloggers, here's a prize for those books that have developed from your blog.The 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize for Blooks

New study on Internet Use to follow News echoing around Cyberspace

Pew Internet & American Life Project issued a recent report that is making its way into blogs and news online (note: while I am over 36, I do get most of my news from the internet.) For people under 36,

the internet is now on par with local TV and newspaper as a daily source for news, and surpasses national TV, radio, and local papers as a news source. Fully 46% of this group gets news online on the typical day, compared with 51% who turn to local TV, 41% who turn to radio, and 40% to national TV news. Broadband users in this age group are more likely to seek out a wider range of news sources on a typical day than their dial-up counterparts, with much of that addition coming from online news. For the “under 36” age group generally, the local paper, local TV, and national TV newscasts play lesser roles in their newsgathering habits than for older Americans.

The trend is a reflection of the future that you can interpret if you aren't looking at the world through the rear-view mirror as McLuhan says we often are. Think about how sharing your world view with disembodied peers whose community of ideas is global, rather than based on physical proximity will influence values for both good and ill. What will community mean for these under 36ers? That is what I am trying to figure out.

Unbundling "60 Minutes" in the near future

CBS and Yahoo are going to partner up to feature segments from "60 Minutes" on Yahoo news. This will include content that is produced exclusively for the Web, as well as segments that have aired. They will begin in 2006-07. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Have content, will travel meets have unlimited space will fill.

"Continuous partial attention"

When is some attention, no attention at all? When we are monitoring our laptops, handhelds, cellphones, and trying to listen to a speaker, the partial attention is really a failure to commit. Another mother discusses this in her blog, and I liked what she said because she brings up McLuhan's suggestion that our senses are going to be altered by these devices. What are you doing as you read this?

tags technorati : sna attention_economy

Is the role of editors more or less important in the digital age? - Editors Weblog- Analysis

Is the role of editors more or less important in the digital age? - Editors Weblog- Analysis

About content, the Washington Post and paper vs. pixel news

This is commentary on WaPo, Assistant Managing Editor for Continuous News, Rajiv Chandrasekaran's discussion of continuous news. What I like best is the suggestion that news stories be published initially as blog entries where readers could comment and correct the reporter who would then polish the story for a more "fixed version." That is an idea that I am going to use with students. What a way to go with a story idea that you know is good, but can't quite get an angle on...

Dan Gillmor writing for BBC

So, Dan Gillmor who wrote "We the Media" and then tried getting an online news and community going (the now defunct "Bayosphere") is writing for BBC Technology. What I enjoy are the reader comments. Somehow the tone of comments is interesting to me. They seem more conversational and as if from thinking individuals. Too many comments from USA posters sound like one-track mind politicos who troll endlessly for places to copy and paste their echoing comments. Yes, most of these do tend to be right-wingers. I won't say conservatives, because conservatives are often rational and too many of the right-wing blogger/commenters are living is a world of rhetoric, unnconnected to facts. Anyway, Dan's answers are interesting, though I don't always think he is right, especially on the democratization idea. I don't think that equal access to publishing tools is the same as democracy.

tags technorati : citizen- journalism

French on to something with iTunes law, say analysts | CNET News.com

The French government wants to| CNET News.com: "set rules for this new market now or risk one or two U.S. companies taking control of online access to music, video and TV." They want to legislate that songs or other media products that are bought on a proprietary device, such as an iPod, can be played on ANY device. Studies in Europe show consumers will pay more for this. I suspect this is one of those issues that kind breezes past upon first reading, but will return and eventually occupy a big part of media attention.

PODZINGER

A new tool for searching for video podcasts. PODZINGER

AD INDUSTRY TO DEVELOP NEW ACTOR PAYMENT STRUCTURES

It must be mainstream when department. Ad Age notes that the industry (motion picture industry, that is) is preparing for negotiations with SAG that will take a new look at how actors are compensated. The motivating factors are the increasing use of product placement in all kinds of programming, and new venues for commercials, as in those you might see on your iPod. AD INDUSTRY TO DEVELOP NEW ACTOR PAYMENT STRUCTURES: "We need a new, equitable approach to talent payment -- one that recognizes that consumers are viewing commercials on cellphones and iPods, and advertisers are using digital editing to customize messages for narrow audiences,' he said. Branded entertainment The talent unions have also expressed concern over the creative community being left out of discussions concerning brand integration in programming, an increasingly popular marketing practice."

Google, feds face off over search records | CNET News.com

Google, feds face off over search records | CNET News.com: "On Jan. 18, the U.S. Justice Department asked Ware to order Google to comply with a subpoena. It demands a 'random sampling' of 1 million Internet addresses accessible through Google's popular search engine, and a random sampling of 1 million search queries submitted to Google in a one-week period."

An update on Cyworld use and stats

Bloggers Blog: Blogging Even Bigger in South Korea

International Women's Day and Iran

I salute the brave women who dared to march in Iran. I often wonder if I would have their courage or not. At the rate the neo-cons are going in the USA, my courage may end up being tested. If you want to read an interesting book that will open your eyes about Iran and fundamentalism, get Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.

tags technorati : womensrights

CyWorld and its allure

Another discussion of how central CyWorld is in Korean society. When we are connected to that degree, who knows what will happen.

tags technorati : cyworld

Social atlas for friends and burritos | CNET News.com

These mapping apps are just getting cooler and cooler. This one let's you create map and populate with just the spots you deem are important. You can add spots to the shared map for any users, and you can include pictures. My first place is self-referential as it is my office but I can think of lots of interesting ways to use this new software.Social atlas for friends and burritos | CNET News.com

Blogging and stealth P.R.

This is an NYTImes story, so you might have to register for it. The gist is that Walmart has a guy who works for Edelman writing blog entries that it sends out for bloggers to post. See the quotes below. You can post whatever you want as a blogger, but I would argue for transparency and that you need to own up to it being a press release or from someone with a point they want to make. It is interesting to me that PRNewswire members were asking about this at a panel I did for them recently, but I didn't have any concrete examples. Notice the one blogger was asking for advertising as he expected traffic to spike when he posted his "exclusive" from Wal-Mart. From a McLuhan-esque perspective, I think this technique may well backfire for bloggers who lose the trust of their audiences. Just like Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people, some of the time. I don't think this technique will last. Wal-Mart Enlists Bloggers in P.R. Campaign - New York Times: "Wal-Mart has warned bloggers against lifting text from the e-mail it sends them. After apparently noticing the practice, Mr. Manson asked them to 'resist the urge,' because 'I'd be sick if someone ripped you because they noticed a couple of bloggers with nearly identical posts.'But Mr. Manson has not encouraged bloggers to reveal that they communicate with Wal-Mart or to attribute information to either the retailer or Edelman, Ms. Williams of Wal-Mart said.To be sure, some bloggers who post material from Mr. Manson's e-mail do disclose its origins, mentioning Mr. Manson and Wal-Mart by name. But others refer to Mr. Manson as 'one reader,' say they received a 'heads up' about news from Wal-Mart or disclose nothing at all."

A NEW MEDIA STORY OF ROCKS AND REVOLUTION

AdAge executive describes the communications revolution in practice in this statement about AdAge, the former weekly magazine about the advertising and marketing industries. More news organizations could adopt this attitude regarding the central purpose of their business (e.g. providing information, not printing paper or packaging TV shows) and be better off. A NEW MEDIA STORY OF ROCKS AND REVOLUTION: "Ad Age is no longer a weekly publication; it’s the world’s leading source of news, information and data on advertising, marketing and media. And it’s delivered through whatever platforms make the most sense for our audience and advertisers. It’s why we run a real-time news operation online and publish a range of e-mail newsletters dedicated to such topics as branded entertainment (Madison & Vine), media (MediaWorks) and China. It’s why we run video reports on the Web and podcasts on iTunes. It’s why we host events and conferences to directly connect members of our community."

tags technorati : advertising disruptivetech publishing

WaPo explores blogging over several days

Reporter Frank Ahrens began this exploration with 30 Million Blogs and Counting..." and asking whether blogging had "peaked" or was going to die out. Then he asked the question, "why do you blog" and got some typical and some not so typica responses. The Washington Post addresses "Bloggers on the reasons behind their daily words" on Sunday. They include a link to the bloggers' actual words, too.

tags technorati : blogs blogging

test this

did this work

Terry Heaton hits the target once more.

Following up on his "unbundled media" stories Terry has a good one here. In a world of content, what people will pay for isn't more or somehow superior content, it's a way to help make sense of the content.The Ammunition Business - OhmyNews International

Internet harassment roils S. Korea

I posted about "Dog Poo" girl, who allowed her pet to relieve itself on the subway and didn't pick up after her pet. A vigilant phonecam rider snapped her picture, posted it on the Web and for several weeks she had to go around incognito. She's getting a day in court, and so are other people who have been "injured" by the Internet. Could this happen in the U.S.A.?Internet harassment roils S. Korea

RFID, Mark of the Beast, and Considerations of the Extension of Ourselves via Technology

I have been posting stories and talking about RFID for years, but this one takes the cake. A Christian consumer advocate has deduced (or gotten a message from God?) that RFID tags ae going to "evolve" to become the Mark of the Beast or 666. She sees

otalitarian scenarios, based on documented plans by Philips, Procter and Gamble, Wal-Mart and other companies, along with the federal government, to track consumer goods and people individually.

And of course, when we all have RFID implants, they could end up festering, and voila, a sore. What is totally interesting is that the original foreward to the book (she didn't use it) was written by Bruce Sterling, sci-fi author. Politics, literature and a quest for fame breeds strange bedfellows. Wired News: RFID

Gaming increasingly tied to social trends and how we live today.

I agree with the whole story but this exchange is so true now, not even a bit in the future.HiddenWires - The Future of Gaming is Networked: "As games become networked, many new innovations that are already taking place in the Internet space are now trickling down to the networked gaming world. Ideas such as social networking, online commodity exchange, user-generated content, and peer-to-peer networking are all finding their reincarnations in networked gaming. Networked in-game advertisements, which can offer dynamic advertisements to gamers in real time, will become a new revenue stream for the gaming industry and help advertisers find lost audience. Games that can leverage the social networking phenomenon - including Cyworld and MySpace - and peer-to-peer technologies such as Peer Impact (from Wurld Media) will be able to leverage viral effects and motivate gamers to take more active roles in the value chain, helping networked gaming to reach a much broader audience."

I didn't know my interests fit into a "beat."

A scholar has set up an international fellowship to explore how stories like the rise of Apple's iPod that combine good business acumen, technology, and what I'd call "bricolage"The Stanford Daily Online Edition