LiveJournal Sells Out

Which is fine but I think the community expected something different. LJ just announced Sponsored Communities and Sponsored Features. A Community on LJ is a group journal where anyone can post but there is a Maintainer who is in charge. For example the maintainer of the scienceofsleep Sponsored LJ Community, is a person or team who works at Warner Independent Pictures. It might be the same person or team that maintains scienceofsleep on MySpace or scienceofsleep on the Warner movie site.

A Sponsored Feature is a promotional partnership wrapped around a new tool or feature of LiveJournal. For example, LJers will be encouraged to "Hit the streets in style!" with MTV's Amp'd Mobile in return for an SMS-to-blog integration feature. The part that says "Hurry! This offer is for a limited time only!" refers to the pay-as-you-go offering from Amp'd, not the sponsored feature from LiveJournal.

It's taken LJ along time to come around to selling out but they finally did. Xanga has been cashing in or killing it in this arena for years to steal a phrase from Ted Rheingold of Dogster, which by the way, is best-of-breed when it comes to delivering sponsorships that serve their community while delivering profit. Remember the 50th Anniversary DVD Release of Lady and The Tramp when Lady, Tramp, Jock, Trusty and Peg all got on Dogster and wanted to make friends? That was good stuff.

The thing is, I think LJers expected something different when the time finally came for parent company Six Apart, Ltd to make money from this community. Especially the paid members who were assured in writing that they "will never see any advertising on LiveJournal as long as they're logged in to their account." These users will learn about Amp'd Mobile's policy of "No credit checks, no bills, no promises to keep." but they might wonder if that bit about promises being kept is unique to Amp'd Mobile's marketing slogan. I wonder if LJ administrators could have taken more time to gather consensus from the community and come up with a different sponsorship model.

When Facebook suddenly announced new features that the community did not like, they told users to "calm down." Later, they were forced to apologize and deeply address the issue. Similarly, LJ announced this big news and received a resoundingly negative reaction. LJ representative rahaeli responded by suggesting to the users that they are confused and they need to understand that the new sponsorships are about getting "free stuff!" She went on to tell users "You don't have to use sponsored features" even though they have been asking for this particular feature for years and personally, she can't wait to use it.

RSS Feeds for Public Twitters

I just blogged about it over at Twitter Blog. Last night we put RSS on the public timelines at Twitter so it's now possible to follow your friends (if they are not protected) in an RSS reader. Also, every update at Twitter has a permalink page which is wacky and fun.

Flickr in Space

Anousheh Ansari, the Iranian-born U.S. entrepreneur who paid $20M for a trip to space has a Flickr account with actual space photos.

Amazon Comments

Now that Amazon lets folks attach comments to reviews of books, I can get in there and start a discussion with people who reviewed my two books, Who Let The Blogs Out? A Hyperconnected Peek At The World of Weblogs and Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content. This is very cool.

Genetically Krafted

Check out this short cartoony flash video about Kraft foods. If you're already for organic foods and against genetically engineered foodstuffs from large tobacco companies then it's kind of preaching to the choir but it's a well done campaign.

In The Beginning

Three years and 17 days ago I was blogging about how it would be neat if RSS could sync audio to my iPod:

9/06/2003: "It would be so cool if I could sync all my RSS feeds up with my iPod but instead of reading them, my iPod would read them aloud to me..."

A couple of weeks and some days later, as Dave points out, he and Chris began collaborating on what would eventually become just that only better: a birth of podcasting. Something that today is quite commonly accepted as a way to get lots of not-just-music content for your various digital audio visual player devices.

Another BoN Nomination: DriveTime

DriveTime is a weekly video blog produced during Ravi's commute. The guests are scientists and artists who have something to say--and need a ride! I love it. And yes, I like chocolate. (I also know the true identity of Dr B and could reveal much about him were I to take a ride with Ravi.)

The Scoop on Twitter

This is not really a scoop, because Mike announced it five days ago at a conference in SF. If Valleywag followed me on Twitter he would have had this post last week. Doh!

Urban Planning in The Future?

Using algorithmic processes applied to height maps made from satellite imagery Shelden Brown conjures up playful spiral patterned road systems that become the bones of what he calls a scalable city.


Scalable City: "The Scalable City is a set of projects that explore the externalization of algorithmic approaches to urbanization which intersect with geographic, political, economic and aesthetic zones of conflict. "

Blogspot Stores

The Boing Boing Digital Emporium is a great example of how blogspot along with PayPal is an easy and free way to set up a simple ecommerce site. There are no ads, no hosting fees, and blogspot can handle any traffic load. Not a bad deal, really.

Humpback

We spent a lot of time up close and personal with a 50 foot humpack whale today. I'm glad I brought my little camera. It was good times!

The Tested Wins "Best of Fest"

My good friends Russell Costanzo and Melissa Miller have recently taken home the top prize at the 10th Annual Los Angeles Short Film Festival. Their film, The Tested beat out 650 other films for this prize and is now eligible for an Academy Award nomination.
Last I heard, their production company Shoebox Pictures was putting together funding for a feature with one of my favorite actors attached. After this, they'll probably cruise right into shooting. This is such cool news, congratulations Mel and Russ!

Here's A Good Blog

I nominate ARLOO - Cool Links, Funny Texts and Jokes for Blog of Note at Blogger. Hey, that gives me an idea. Blogger should designate a label to be used when bloggers want to nominate a blog of note. That could be a thing.

Text Me Darling

Be sure to visit or subscribe to the Twitter Blog for official info about Twitter and news about interesting texting related info in general.

'No Need To Worry'

BBC NEWS: "After death, this parasite is able to restart the heart of its victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believed to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during 'resurrection.'"

Neat Blog for Music Lovers

Free iTunes Downloads: "We will keep you up to date with the latest free downloads at the US iTunes Music Store. Subscribe to our feeds to find out when you can download music you're interested in for free!"

Xanga to Pay $1M Fine

Washington Post: "Social-networking site Xanga.com Inc. and its operators said yesterday that they would pay a $1 million fine for alleged violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, at a time of heightened parental and government concern about children's safety online."

Xanga CEO John Hiler: "Xanga had in place a registration system intended to screen out underage users – reflecting our longstanding policy that no one under 13 is allowed to create an account. That system was inadequate because users were able to initially indicate that they were at least 13 years old when registering for the site, and then afterwards post a younger age on their profile."

Twitter / Buzz

Buzz is Twittering from the Apple press event. He says there's cool new aluminum nanos.

Now We're Surfing with Gas

You've heard of broadband delivered via electric wires but have you heard of this company that wants to serve broadband and tv by sending wireless pulses of data through our gas pipes? Giga-om wrote about them in may.

I'm just now reading about them in USA today Gas-line broadband a pipe dream?: "Nethercomm, a San Diego-area start-up, says it has developed technology to send lightning-fast broadband and TV services via wireless signals through the pipes that deliver the fuel used to heat homes and fire up stoves."

Do You Like Quotes?

Vote on which quotes and fortunes you like best at I Heart Quotes. If you're geeky enough, use the API to integrate quotes into your site.

Vegemite Vindaloo

David McMahon is the author of the novel Vegemite Vindaloo. Check out his authorblog, he is the post title pun master.

Nice Overview

Twitter - Chirp your life away: "Ever thought that blogs are way too much effort just to relay your day to day activities to a couple of strangers? Well, Twitter’s your answer."

Twitter Me This!

Ev used the Wheel of Fortune reference before I could but yeah: We updated Twitter. Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing. For some friends you might want instant mobile updates—for others, you can just check the web. Invite your friends to Twitter and decide how connected you want you to be. Sign up!

Meme Time - URL Alphabet

I don't usually catch these blog meme bugs but this one is kinda neat. You go to your browser's URL field and see which address auto-completes for each of the letters of the alphabet. Here's what turned up when I did it.

A. amazon.com
B. bizstone.com
C. chumby.com
D. dictionary.com
E. en.wikipedia.com
F. flickr.com
G. gmail.com
H. hellodeo.com
I. images.google.com
J. jasperfforde.com
K. knowledgeforthirst.com
L. linkedin.com
M. myspace.com
N. news.google.com
O. odeo.com
P. planetdan.com
Q. Bupkis!
R. ratemydancemoves.com
S. simplebits.com
T. twitter.com
U. Bupkis!
V. verizonwireless.com
W. widgetbox.com
X. xanga.com
Y. youtube.com
Z. zoominfo.com

Whew. Okay, now you do it.

59,100 Confidential Documents

Via BoingBoing comes this Google query: confidential "do not distribute". It's not a good idea to post confidential information on your website. To tag your confidential information as such? Also, not recommended.

Facebook Crosses Into the Creepy Zone?

Facebook launched new features that package up various "happenings from your social circles" and stream them straight to your homepage. Founder Mark Zuckerberg tells users to "calm down" because, "This is information people used to dig for on a daily basis, nicely reorganized and summarized so people can learn about the people they care about."

But Mark, the Facebook community formed around the fact that people had to go digging for these bits of info. Just because you can progamatically make it easier to get this info, doesn't mean you should. Maybe let folks try an open beta for a couple weeks first. Valleywag demonstrates how these new features can cross the line into the creepy zone—for some people.

Update#1: danah boyd says it with more authority: "The problem is that sometimes people don't want information to be easier to access."

Update#2: Cameron Marlow has a similar take: "The system has now made peoples actions too transparent, in a way that would limit their ability to express themselves without fear of their privacy being breached. "

Update #3: Facebook founder apologizes and works to fix mistake: "We really messed this one up."

Big in Japan Makes Various Things

Big in Japan: Powertools for Bloggers: "Use these prosumer blogging tools and you can be Big in Japan. Big in Jersey. Big to all those who matter to you. Loom large with our simple toolkit. Host and create podcasts in a whole new way, manage multiple feeds, make your URL's work harder, keep your reading lists safe, make your feeds available via mail, IM & SMS, convert email into RSS and much, much more. Mix it up. Mash it up. You, too, can be big in Japan."

Indexed!

This blog is funny. It's lots of everyday situations illustrated on index cards to help us think "rationally" about stuff.

Say Vandelay Industries!

This bumper sticker has seen better days. Still! It's good stuff.

People Like Doing Stuff

Just had me a peek at the Twitter public timeline. This afternoon there are people playing tennis, jumping out of airplanes, experimenting with psychedelic colours, catching a Breughel exibition at the Getty, drinking tea, eating chinese food with people named dan, celebrity spotting, out shopping, playing with knives, trying on jeans, going through bills, wearing unsuitable shoes, and lots of other things.

Nice Blog

I like the simplicity of this blog design: *drinkcold. And a Twitter user too! Nice.