Archive for February, 2004

flickred fun

Published at February 29, 2004 in pre-wp. 0 Comments Print Email This Post AddThis Social Bookmark Button

A search in google last night using the key words “funny stuff” came up with this:

an unpleasant end



And this:

an even more unpleasant end



Why all this google abuse? (not to mention the pain and suffering to the poor Legos.) It was all part of my first real stab at flickr, the new social software network from ludicorp.

My first impression of flickr was that it was a bit too cutesy, but then after having a look around, cutesy became friendly. And last night friendly became fun.

The layout of flickr is bright and a bit too pink (what is it with the pre-teen colour choices?) The defining feature with flickr is the instant messaging and the ability to drag n’ drop images into chats. It really does provide for good jumping off points for fun chats. But we all know that IM chats get old very quickly, so we’ll have to wait and see if this new feature has legs.

As I participated in the chat, I realized that everyone probably had google open in another browser window and were frantically searching for images to drop into the chat. That got me thinking that it was strange that a social network NOT developed by google was so linked to the search engine, and Orkut, built by google, lacked any serious searching capabilities or intigrated search features for bringing outside material into the network (maybe it’s because doing this would then make that outside material the sole property of Orkut under their absurd terms of service.)

Add that one to the growing list of Orkut improvement suggestions. In the meantime, if I see you in flickr, I’ll drop you a jpg.

No tag for this post.

posts that might have something to do with what I just said:

  • darn bots can't compute - try the search up top for more posts

thinking socially for kids

Published at February 26, 2004 in pre-wp. 0 Comments Print Email This Post AddThis Social Bookmark Button

You know you’ve stumbled into something relatively fresh when you’re quoted on corante’s many 2 many social software blog (it’s not as cool as having billy bragg drop by your blog, but I just had to blow my own trumpet.)

It all started when I stumbled onto Fiona Romeo’s post about her Etech presentation on Social Software for Children. It’s a very interesting look at how we can build online social networks for kids in a safe a responsible manner.

think.com bringing kids together online.

Getting young kids online and working with computers is an essential element of a 21st education, but it presents some interesting safety issues.

As a new immigrant to social networks, I’ve quickly seen their potential and their danger. As an adult, I feel pretty nervous about the amount of information I’ve disclosed about myself in the past two months on sites like this one and this one. I can’t imagine being the parent of a child who engages in online activities. And yet I think kids can benefit really benefit from this stuff. But there is much work to be done to make these new environments safe.

Today, we’re in the wild west of social software. Inside these communities, there are no guidelines for what is acceptable and people stake out their territory regardless of how insulting their mandate or dubious their intentions. Compared to the internet, social networks are tiny and it isn’t always possible to ignore those who hold crimminal views. But we’ve never discarded a new technology simply because of the devious uses it can be put to. As the communities grow and become more mainstream, safeguards and standards will be built and applied, like the ones applied to webpages.

Fiona Romeo, a developer for BBC interactive is interested in giving a place to kids to learn, share and express themselves. Ross Mayfield recently talked about how his 7 year old daughter blogs (although to an audience of one, for privacy reasons.) These are good examples of the logical way to introduce this technology to a young mind, to allow them to play with it within a controlled environment.

There are several interesting models for social software for kids today. I’m never a big fan of Disney and I view everything they do with much skepticism. But so far I’m impressed with ToonTown, their online community that has kids around the world engage in one big, pie-throwing, cartoon-creating MMORG. They’ve worked hard to redefine the format to encourage teamwork and communication between members, but it’s all fun and games and not much beyond that.

For educational merit, the best network I’ve seen so far is Oracle’s Think.com. It’s open only to schools, requiring them to go through a lengthy sign up process. This ensures the safety of the members and the legitimacy of the webpages and communities that can be created. Inside, kids can create their own webpages, much like blogs, message kids from other schools around the world and collaborate on projects together. Parents too, can access the pages and have a look at what their child is creating and who they are talking too.

IBM's office of tomorrow.

Already there are many discussions about applying Social Network Software to the workplace. Dina Mehta draws upon her experience at Ryze and Orkut to develop networks for clients. Richard MacManus favours a wiki approach to creating these networks. Regardless of what software is used, I believe the collaborative elements of social networking software will find its way into the workplace of tomorrow, just as email has today.

Nothing will replace good ol’ fashion book learning, but a child who is introduced to the multi-tasking concepts that online communities can offer will definitely feel at home in the workplace of the future.

Now we just have get the governments to cough up the dough to get more computers into the schools. But that is another story . . .

No tag for this post.

posts that might have something to do with what I just said:

  • darn bots can't compute - try the search up top for more posts

22 ways to leave your writer

Published at February 22, 2004 in pre-wp. 0 Comments Print Email This Post AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Graphic Novels have been this weekend’s theme. I’m writing an article about them and putting the finishing touches to the latest Max Finder Mystery. So, I was happy when I came upon an interesting post in Prentiss Riddle’s blog that captured how my long-suffering illustrator must feel about me sometimes (okay all the time.)

It’s a copy of the great Wally Wood’s classic guide to illustrators: “22 Panels That Always Work”.

wally wood's 22 panels



Comic strip writers who don’t draw (ie me) love words in a medium where images rule. So, often we make illustrators want to throw out their pencils in frustration. For those moments, Wood offers his famous 22 Panels, which he explains as:

“Some interesting ways to get some variety into those boring panels where some dumb writer has a bunch of lame characters sitting around and talking for page after page.”

Yep, that’s sounds like me.

No tag for this post.

posts that might have something to do with what I just said:

  • darn bots can't compute - try the search up top for more posts

billy blogwatches too

Published at February 19, 2004 in pre-wp. 0 Comments Print Email This Post AddThis Social Bookmark Button

There’s a definite Billy Bragg theme running through my blogexistence recently and it seems that I’m not the only one. Demian over at Guild of Ghostwriters was inspired to create a Karoke Doodle for Billy’s song She’s Got a New Spell and it turns out that Billy noticed.

So impressed was Billy Bragg that he asked to link from his site to Demian’s great comic strip. So, the Ghostwriters’ server has been groaning under the attention of Braggers everywhere.

Congratulations Demian! I hope the three readers I send your way won’t put your server over the edge.

No tag for this post.

posts that might have something to do with what I just said:

  • darn bots can't compute - try the search up top for more posts

why billy is still cool

Published at February 18, 2004 in pre-wp. 0 Comments Print Email This Post AddThis Social Bookmark Button

“You’ve got to hand it to Billy Bragg. Most of his peers are either playing the Bournemouth Pavilion in an eighties nostalgia night or they’re resuscitating flatlined careers eating caterpillars in the Australian outback. But Bragg, the troubadour of the Kinnock years, has his gaze fixed on higher things than a reunion tour with The Human League or a dose of C-list reality TV. He still believes a pop star can change the world – just a little bit.

Bragg’s cause is the reform of the House of Lords (you can see why a three-minute pop song has so far proved elusive). ”

- Guardian Unlimited

Even though his last album of original songs had a few clunkers on it, I still go to Billy Bragg when I’m feeling particularly scared about the state of the world. Since he started singing about the power of a union in his early twenties, Bragg has used his music to fight for the politics he strongly believes in. He’s never wavered and has always brought his beliefs to every project he’s worked on. He’s an artist in the truest sense. And now it appears that the politicians are listening to him.

According this Guardian article, last week Billy participated in an hour-long session with the minister responsible for cabinet reform. He pitched to him his plan to reform England’s House of Lords. Now that is a celebrity sales pitch I can support.

When you think about how far music’s former rebels have travelled from their radical roots just for a few bucks, and how other stars waste their “star power” on selling cola and cars, Bragg’s efforts make me feel slightly better about the power we bestow upon celebrities.

Thanks Billy.

FYI: Billy will be debating his proposal at the upcoming forum “A Democratic Lords: the Third Stage?” hosted by the Fabian Society on February 25 at 7pm-9pm in the Grand Committee Room, House of Commons.

No tag for this post.

posts that might have something to do with what I just said:

  • darn bots can't compute - try the search up top for more posts

don’t forget to love

Published at February 13, 2004 in pre-wp. 0 Comments Print Email This Post AddThis Social Bookmark Button

I love my partner and the above card from meish.org is why. Sickening isn?t it. But it captures my feelings about V-day perfectly. The following rant, however, rambles a bit and I apologize for that.


Once again, another date looms dictating how we should be feeling. Having just clawed our way to sobriety after our joyful blow-out of the Holiday Season, it?s been decreed by those forces from the chocolate/greeting card/flower mafia that this month?s feeling is: Love.


It?s time when everything from your drugstore to your dentist’s office is draped in hearts and cupids, telling us that we should be thinking about romance, love and all that other stuff.


I am so glad that our year is divided into monthly parcels of emotion by those loving corporations. I?m glad Valentine?s Day is here to tell me to love my partner. Without the good people at Hallmark to give me the nudge, I would never express my love for her.


And when we?re all loved out and the 14th is just a memory, those hearts and cupids turn into shamrocks and leprechauns telling us to be thankful that we?re Irish ? even if you?re not. And let me tell you, there is nothing more annoying than being Irish on St. Patrick?s day. In March everything is green (and no one hears the Irish scream.) It?s time to buy green greeting cards, green chocolate and green beer.


March?s shamrocks become April?s eggs, and even if you are not Christian ? it?s time to celebrate Easter. If Jesus ain?t your style, thankfully we?ve been given a little bunny to help us buy cards, chocolate and flowers again.


When we?ve gorged ourselves on christ and chocolate, May rolls around and the big stick comes down from the sky (or maybe it?s from Hallmark?s HQ?) to whack us into thanking our mothers for being around. How do we show our love: cards, chocolate and flowers.


Dad gets his turn in June and that?s great, because you probably haven?t thought about him in last 12 months. This time chocolate and flowers take a break but the cards still make a strong showing.


We?re only halfway through the year, but you get the idea.


I hate being told who I should love each month. I love my partner, my parents and that little damn bunny all year round. I feel I display that every time I see them (well, maybe not every time.) These fixed dates of love and recognition only serve as ritual bowing and scraping at whichever altar the card/chocolate/flower companies have decreed for that month. How different will this afternoon?s rush to get a last minute gift be from my last minute rush to the store on December 23rd?


I know, I know, there?s an easy solution: make a card, bake a cake. Reclaim the holiday from the corporations. It?s our laziness that keeps us buying their pre-fab, we-planted-trees-to-replace-this-card cards.


You?re right. I?ll go do that. Sorry for bothering you.

No tag for this post.

posts that might have something to do with what I just said:

  • darn bots can't compute - try the search up top for more posts

internal editor be gone!

Published at February 11, 2004 in pre-wp. 0 Comments Print Email This Post AddThis Social Bookmark Button

“What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from your novel at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.”

– What is NaNoWriMo? – from nanowrimo.org

50 000 words in a month?! That?s crazy but it sounds like fun. And that?s the idea behind the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo ? to you and me.)

I first heard about this idea from Richard MacManus (whose 2003 NaNoWriMo effort is on my hard drive waiting to be read) and I immediately loved it.

Writers are in constant battle with that nagging internal editor that shouts, hisses and spits ?This sucks, that sucks, you suck!? with every punch of every key. He?s whispering in my ear right now, if you?re real quiet you?ll hear him ? shhh, listen.

The bastard.

NaNoWriMo shuts up the internal editor and lets you get on with the job at hand ? producing your masterpiece. Okay, it won?t be a masterpiece. Chances are it will suck. But it?s a 1st draft. A start. Something to build upon. (Alternatively, you could screw the rewrites and just publish it as an ebook, as everyone else seems to do.)

If you?re a writer (even if you aren’t) and you have an idea just waiting to get out, November is your chance. Unplug the phone, cancel the cable, buy some whiskey and get writing.

No tag for this post.

posts that might have something to do with what I just said:

  • darn bots can't compute - try the search up top for more posts

star-bellies revisited

Published at February 9, 2004 in pre-wp. 0 Comments Print Email This Post AddThis Social Bookmark Button

After much debate and much snooping over my partners shoulder, I?ve decided to accept her invitation to Orkut.

You want stars like a star-bellied sneetch? My friends, you can have them for three dollars each!

Despite my Sneetches rant from the other day, I still feel a bit weird about being in something that is ?invite only.? But after seeing some of the other people in there, I realised that exclusive is not a word I?d use to describe it.

What really got me were the Communities. I thought Orkut was simply going to be a database of people like LinkedIn (which I haven?t really explored either) or Friendster. But I was wrong. In addition to profiles, friends, etc there are forums that are open to discussion. Now that I can get interested it.

Right now, it seems that everybody is leaving their A material for their blogs. Some communities have 65 members and only one topic thread. Hopefully some interesting debate will be created (I know things in the Tron forum are really heating up!)

So, it is with a bit of humility that I step off my soapbox and into the world of Orkut. I?m on the 30-day trial version, so we?ll see where it goes. So far I?m impressed with the topics but not with the calibre of conversation. If it doesn?t pick up, I think I?ll drop out and buy a cat.

No tag for this post.

posts that might have something to do with what I just said:

  • darn bots can't compute - try the search up top for more posts

access is king

Published at February 7, 2004 in pre-wp. 0 Comments Print Email This Post AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Jumped over to Douglas Rushkoff?s blog today and that led me to this interesting article he wrote for TheFeature.com about owning data.

The traditional view held that when you buy a book, CD, DVD or any other form of content, you own that content (and are thus responsible for storing it.) But the truth has always been that what you are buying is the right to access that text or those tunes.

And while this truth hasn?t changed, delivery methods have. This is dispelling the illusion, and hopefully the appeal, of data ownership and management. Having access to data, becomes more desirable than actually having the data.

The point of access over ownership is driven home by millions of Kazaa users everyday and now by some major players in the music industry. By emphasising access over ownership, Peter Gabriel?s Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists seeks to define the music label of the future without trying to own the music.

Cory Doctorow is doing the same with print. By downloading his latest book online readers don?t get any less ownership of the book?s data as they would if they paid money for the nicely printed and bound version at a traditional retail bookstore. Same data, same rights, different delivery method.

As a freelance writer, I am constantly dealing with rights, but I am only realising this very recently. And I?m wondering how I can use these new delivery methods to my advantage. As with the old delivery systems, wide distribution is still the key to success ? people will only download if they know where to find you (and who the heck you are.)

A few posts ago, I gave ebooks a bit of a bashing despite the record growth in sales they experienced in 2003. I do respect ebooks for the way they address ownership of content. When digital delivery systems are more refined, ebooks, libraries and publishers will be able to take full advantage of data access over ownership.

The libraries already have a head start. They were built on access over ownership. Publishers were too. They just never wanted to break it to the customer.

No tag for this post.

posts that might have something to do with what I just said:

  • darn bots can't compute - try the search up top for more posts