Tom Altman’s Wedia Conversation

Wow - some big words from PC Mag talking about the new version of Apple’s OSX - Leopard.

“like truly automated backups, preview images in folders, and notes and to-do lists integrated into the mail program”

Here is a link to a “Windows Guy” (but one I have found very level headed) with his thoughts, Paul Thurrott.

And then a link to an Apple Fanboy - with a Leopard post - which really turns out to be a Microsoft bash.

Either way you cut - Apple is definetly making a stir in the “OS Wars”

What do you do when too many students are USING Wikipedia to write their term papers - throw out the term paper and make them write Wikipedia articles!  Freaking brilliant.

This is exactly the type of thinking we have to promote!  If people are cheating on their term papers - take the resource out of the equation.  You cannot plagiarize from Wikipedia if the assignment is to update Wikipedia.

I’m sending her an email right now - brilliant!

I wish this Social Media Today site would improve the UI a little - this site is really hard for me to read…everything runs together - but this article hits a subject Ihave been reading thinking about more and more, and even though it isn;t super great - it is “good enough”. The article is called: “5 BIG Reasons CEOs Should Blog”

If you skip halfway down the article where it says “Well, you may say that this is not a particularly relevant achievement since plenty of managers out there are already blogging” this is where it gets good.

Well, you may say that this is not a particularly relevant achievement since plenty of managers out there are already blogging away for a few years now, but what happens when your boss happens to be the VP executive from the Social Software Programs and Enablement Team? I guess that changes things a bit, doesn’t it? It surely does and that is why the whole day I have been very very excited, because my manager, Gina Poole, is already blogging behind the corporate firewall and diving into some of the different conversations going on at the moment.

I think it really has a good overtone of opening lines of communication. Blogs are the type of communication many people enjoy - very informative, yet unobtrusive and allows people to engage comfortably.

I’m not sure how much of the jockeying you’ve been following - but there has been an interesting topic I have been following with Republican candidate Ron Paul.

If you look at Paul’s number back in July from a USA Today/Gallup poll:

Neither former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore nor Rep. Ron Paul registered any support.

But, if you look at what online polls say - he’s much better off. (This from a USADaily article)

Polls that have been showing Ron Paul at 1% for months are slowly adjusting to reality with one poll showing Paul at 7.4% in New Hampshire. Paul’s campaign may prove that polling methods are obsolete.

So the interesting thing to me is that much of the mainstream media was so out of touch with reality and not giving the “internet people” their due justice. So it will be very interesting to see what comes of it.

Other Articles/Blog Posts:

• GOP State Leaders Are Beginning to Take Ron Paul Seriously
• Ron Paul Money Bomb Weblog

I found this on one of those quote sites and it really reminded me of banner advertising.

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” — Associates of David Sarnoff responding to the latter’s call for investment in the radio in 1921

And people really don’t want to pay for a blasted message anymore - they want a direct message sent to a laser targeted micro-set of people or a person.

Another great 37signal article talking about innovation which tries to address the idea that sometime you have to move a little outside the box, even if it makes people a bit uncomfortable.

“Companies that lead need to be willing to say that occasional growing pains are ok. If a company only listens to what customers think they need, it won’t be able to innovate. As Henry Ford said, “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

This feels like a conversation I had last week with some people in my company talking about different forms of searching. I wanted to push the user into using tag clouds for search - they wanted to use more traditional methods like search box and drop down boxes.

Sometimes it is hard to change. :)

This is a great article on the 37signals site which answers the question “OK - I have a cool new site/application…now what?”  Check out their ideas.

“This reminds me of the old ‘hosting a party’ metaphor for web apps. Just because you’ve invited someone over to your house/app, doesn’t mean your hosting duties are over. You still need to welcome your guests, show them around, offer some introductions, and make sure they get into the flow.”

Which then ties into the cool videos the team at commoncraft who have created a bunch of videos which explain how to use some of today’s cool technical gadgets and sites “in plain english”.

Jeff Jarvis is just hitting on all cylinders all the time!

His post today nails a point I know we’ve been talking about at the company I work for around the idea of “networked journalism” and building data repositories in a easy to use manner.

“Among the tools for networked journalism I’m wishing for is a simple one for creating collaborative data bases.”

and also this comment

“Here’s another one I want: When a reporter, pro or am, uses a camera phone to take a picture — or, for that matter, to upload text, video, audio, anything — wouldn’t it be wonderful to attach the data the device knows: time and date, of course, and also GPS. This then allows gangs of reporters to submit information that can be plotted on maps and timelines and then associated with other data.”

I just really like where this guy stands in terms of  “getting the job done”.

Web2.0, knowledge sharing and IT departments

“The wikipedia phenomenon brought finally the knowledge and collaboration dimension of web2.0 to the spotlight.

Ironically, in my opinion, the IT departments–responsible still–have often not taken the participative web as a top priority.”

The Real Value of Web 2.0 (Hint: It’s not Facebook)

“I was a little late to the game on Twitter, but it’s quickly becoming my favorite social network, and represents the best of what I think is the power of Web 2.0. Despite all the ‘exciting’ news about Facebook over the last 36 hours, I have to admit, I’m experiencing a bit of Facebook fatigue.”

I found both of these articles interesting - what I really like is it appears people are really trying to figure out Web 2.0 - not just going with the flow.

Wired magazine posted this article “Web 2.0 Project Taps ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’ to Probe Presidential Contenders” last week and although it seems to have a bit of the youtube debate flavor - it could prove to be very interesting.

The web-hip “community-driven” presidential debates touted by the television networks have been a disappointment so far. The events may use voter-submitted videos, instant messages and e-mails, but all that packet juice is poured into the same old, tired broadcast formula that appoints journalists as the arbiters of which questions candidates are asked — and relies on the usual small circle of pundits to analyze the answers.

We’ll have to keep an eye on it and see where it leads.