The insanity of the South by Southwest crowds and popularity of location-based services (LBSs) such as Foursquare and Gowalla have me thinking about the future of popular conferences and unconferences.

Do we still need the confines of a massive convention center?

SXSW has already outgrown the Austin Convention Center, spilling sessions into neighboring hotels. When the conference takes over the town, why doesn't the town take over the conference?

We were all glued to our mobile devices and the aforementioned services to track where the parties and people were, why not do the same with the sessions?

When so much value is in the hallway conversations, why not make the streets the hallway?

I realize this may be too insane to imagine for SXSW, but what about your local unconferences?

PodCamp and BarCamp Nashville have just about outgrown the Cadillac Ranch due to attendee numbers.

Why not reserve several neighboring bars, restaurants and cafes? Depending on weather, a city park would also suffice.

Then LBSs could be used to let you know where the people are using awesome services like vicarious.ly and SitBy.Us.

Thoughts?

Photo from Flickr by: Visualist Images

Related posts:

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3. 5 tips for SXSW I am very excited to be attending SXSW Interactive!...

Today, Rescuecom issued a press release declaring victory in its litigation against Google. But it's an odd definition of "victory" given that Rescuecom has apparently voluntarily abandoned its 6 year litigation effort without any new concessions from Google. The dismissal notice.

This development reminds me a lot of the American Blinds v. Google denouement, where American Blinds also simply gave up and dropped its multi-year lawsuit without any concessions from Google. Note to future plaintiffs: if you're going to threaten Google's $20B/year cash cow, chances are pretty good that they have the resources to outlast you.

Why did Rescuecom give up? According to Rescuecom's press release, "Google has recently confirmed to Rescuecom that it has removed Rescuecom's trademark from its Keyword Suggestion Tool." That, plus the fact that Google blocks trademark references in ad copy, means that Rescuecom feels it has "obtained two of the three things we initially sought in our complaint against Google." And if two out of three is good enough for Meat Loaf, apparently it's good enough for Rescuecom. At minimum, having low standards makes it a lot easier to declare victory when you give up.

However, this explanation is pretty hollow. Although the press release treats Google's removal of Rescuecom from the keyword suggestion tool as a new development, it appears that Google made this change IN 2005. Wendy Davis reports:

[Rescuecom CEO] Milman says he only learned last week that Google had stopped suggesting Rescuecom as a keyword. "Who knows what would have happened if they had told us back in 2005 that they had taken our name out of their keyword tool?" he said.

Hmm...I think I know the answer to that question! Then again, if getting out of the keyword suggestion tool really was one of Rescuecom's Big Three objectives all along, maybe they might have asked Google about it in 2005...or 2006...or 2007...or, well, you get the point. Spin it however they want, it's hard for Rescuecom to look good while dropping a lawsuit based on a 5 year old fact.

Nevertheless, I'm interested in knowing more about this removal. Does Google have a way for trademark owners to "opt out" of having their trademarks in its keyword suggestion tool? I would expect that option to become very popular if it were well-known. If anyone has information about how trademark owners can make an election with Google, please share it.

Given the completely disingenuous nature of declaring victory based on getting out of the keyword suggestion tool, there may be a better--and more self-interested reason--for Rescuecom to give up. Rescuecom is defending a trademark lawsuit brought by Best Buy over Rescuecom's competitive AdWords purchases of the "geek squad" trademark. Rescuecom was caught in the duplicitous position of making plaintiff-side arguments against Google while making highly contradictory defense-side arguments against Best Buy. As a result, every positive step in its Google case had the potential to degrade its position in the Best Buy case. By abandoning the Google fight, Rescuecom avoids this difficult dilemma.

As an odd byproduct of this development, Google and Rescuecom are now aligned in advancing the arguments that competitive keyword advertising in AdWords is legitimate. Isn't there a passage in the Bible about the lion and the lamb lying down together?

The roster of pending AdWords cases (I most recently double-checked the status of these cases on February 20, 2010):

* Ezzo v. Google
* Rescuecom v. Google
* FPX v. Google
* John Beck Amazing Profits v. Google and the companion Google v. John Beck Amazing Profits
* Stratton Faxon v. Google (not initially a trademark case). Check the status.
* Soaring Helmet v. Bill Me
* Ascentive v. Google
* Jurin v. Google 1.0 (voluntarily dismissed), succeeded by Jurin v. Google 2.0
* Rosetta Stone v. Google
* Flowbee v. Google
* Parts Geek v. US Auto Parts
* Dazzlesmile v. Epic

Now that AT&T has joined the Android revolution, the first question new Android users will ask is what Android apps should I download? Luckily we've created a simple guide to get you started:

First we'll start with the operating system version of the Motorola Backflip at launch, which is version 1.5 the latest and greatest to date is 2.1 (with majority of users on 1.6). This may affect your ability to download some apps as they are compatible with higher versions of the OS. Why is the OS version so out of date? Motoblur Motorola tricked out the software for social networking ease however they have not released Motoblur on the latest and greatest Android OS. Don't fret an update is coming soon.

Now that we're over the OS hump, we'll recommend some of the best Android apps for your Motorola Backflip many for free!

ASTRO File Manager

Browse and Search files on your SD Card and phone with Astro File Manager.

Advanced Task Killer

Close individual or all apps and background services with Advanced Task Killer.

Meridian Player

Meridian Player for Music & Videos.

Dolphin Browser

Dolphin Browser allows you to browse the web using Tabs and create shortcuts using Gestures.

Handcent SMS

Handcent SMS offers text messaging like on iPhone, get T9 text capabilities and text signatures.

Shazam

Shazam... simply awesome! Get any song by simply letting your phone listen to it!

i Music Tao

i Music & i Music Tao allows you to download free MP3s.

Pandora Radio

Stream music for free with Pandora Internet Radio.

Gmote

Turn your AT&T Backflip into a media remote with Gmote and even control your computer via phone!

ShopSavvy

Scan bar codes of products in stores to find best pricing nearby or online with ShopSavvy.

Google Shopper for Android

Photo scan products to get pricing and details with Google's Shopper

Aloqa Always Be A Local

Aloqa location-based app finds places nearby you versus you searching for it.

Abduction!

Abduction! Is an additive game using your phone's accelerometer.

Robo Defense

Robo Defense is a classic tower defense game for Android phones.

Mystique. Chapter 2: The Child

Check out parts 1, 2, and 3 of the Mystique 3D horror puzzle game series.

Wixel

Like words games? Try Wuzzle for hours of fun!

Jewellust

Kill time with addictive Jewellust game

Solitaire

You can't forget a classic time-killer like Solitaire.

What the Doodle!?

Guess what others are drawing while they guess your drawing all online with What The Doodle!?

BlackJack Pro

Satisfy your Vegas crave with Blackjack Pro!

If you download all these apps you might run out of space on your Backflip! Do check these apps out and tell us what you think in the comments.

As more wireless carriers adopt Google Android, many new consumers ask frequently how to do common tasks on their Android phone. This section is dedicated to offering Android Advice to new and experienced Android consumers. There will be more to come, however here are the top 6 frequently asked questions by new Android users:

1. What Android apps should I download?

There are many list all over the web, even many on our website (coming from Blackberry to Android see this list). We'll list a few must have best Android apps to get you started:

• Must Have: Astro File Manager, use this app to browse files on your SD card. Bar Code Scanner, use this app to scan the QR bard codes with all of our reviews to quick link you to apps in the Android Market!
• Task Management: TasKiller
• Battery/Power Management: Power Manager or Screebl
• Email: K9 Mail or Exchange by Touchdown
• Music: Pandora or Meridian Player
• Home Screen Customization: aHome or SlideScreen
• Productivity & Note-Taking: Astrid or Evernote

Keep visiting www.AndroidTapp.com for the best Android app recommendations.

2. How do I setup email accounts?

First gather your POP3 or IMAP protocol access information. Launch Email > type email address and password > Choose either POP3 or IMAP account > enter Incoming POP3 or IMAP protocol information > enter Outgoing information > choose whether email account is default.

3. How do I save battery power?

Try turning off Bluetooth, Wifi and GPS when not needed. Try to minimize update intervals of some apps such as Facebook and Twitter from the settings menu. There are apps to help manage battery power for you such as Power Manager.

4. How do I Customize my phone?

There are many home screen customization apps to give a completely different experience; popular apps include aHome, Open Home and SlideScreen.

5. How do I set Ringtones?

Either purchase them from sources like Amazon MP3 or download free with Mabilo Ringtones.

To place your own MP3 songs as ringtones go to the Android Market to download Rings Extended. Plug your phone to computer via USB cable. An icon will appear in the top left notification bar, slide the bar down (this is called the window shade). Tap USB connected > Mount > on your computer a new drive will appear > drag your own MP3 files to the drive > tap home button > Menu button > Settings > Sound & display > Phone ringtone > choose Rings Extended to browse your MP3 files on the phone.

6. How do I import my Contacts from SIM card?

From home screen tap Menu > Contacts > Menu > Import contacts > Import All (Import allows for single imports)

Have more questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or Contact Us!

Now picture our perspective leaving our own experiences, zooming out and up until we can see how all the different groups are interacting on a worldwide social network. That bird's-eye view could be both beautiful and horrible if the resolution was clear enough. That's what a Ramen-eating, ex-Apple engineer named Pete Warden is about to release to the public this week.

Sponsor

This Wednesday, Warden will make Friend, Fan page and name data from hundreds of millions of Facebook users available to the academic research community. It's a move that Facebook has to have seen coming, a move that many in the data-centric community have been calling on the company itself to do for years, and an event that's been complicated by Facebook's recent privacy policy changes, which have muddied the waters of right and wrong but rendered even more data available for outside analysis.

If what people call Web 2.0 was all about creating new technologies that made it easy for everyday people to publish their thoughts, social connections and activities, then the next stage of innovation online may be services like recommendations, self and group awareness, and other features made possible by software developers building on top of the huge mass of data that Web 2.0 made public. It's a very exciting future, and Warden is about to fire one of the earliest big shots in that direction.

Nerds in Space: Social Graph Analysis For Solving Large-Group Problems

Warden studied Computer Vision in college in the U.K., then got into game development. After moving to L.A., he spent six years building graphics drivers for the original Playstation and the XBox. Then he started his own independent business, where, thankfully, he open-sourced much of his work (something he's still doing today).

When he found out that starting his own business wasn't going to work with his immigration status, he was very fortunate to have also caught Apple's eye with the software he had been releasing to the public. Apple bought his company in order to bring him on board. The proceeds of that small sale are now sustaining his next project after going independent again.

After spending five years at Apple struggling to navigate the maze of people and connections and types of expertise in order to get the information he needed, Warden decided to go independent and build a company that solved exactly that kind of problem. "I can't think of a better big company to work for, but it was still a big company," he says. "It was hard to find the right people to talk to, whether for particular expertise or for contacts at external companies." And so Warden left Apple to build a company that would use social graph analysis to solve problems like that. He called the company Mailana, a play on "mail analysis" since he was initially focused on email social graph analysis.

We've written here a number of times about Mailana's tool that analyzes the social graph of any Twitter user. Enter the username of someone on Twitter and Mailana will show you which 20 other people the user has exchanged the largest number of reciprocal public @ replies with. Find someone interesting or important? Mailana's Twitter analyzer will tell you who they most regularly interact with. See, for example, The Inner Circles of 10 Geek Rockstars on Twitter.

Pulling Down the Facebook Social Graph

Now Warden is about to unveil a much larger project along the same vein. For the past six months he's been crawling public profile pages on Facebook. He now has more than 215 million of them indexed and updated about once a month. When he began he was using the Web crawling service 80legs, but over time he had to build his own crawling infrastructure.

When I talked to him this afternoon, he had already begun uploading 100 GB of user data onto his server to make it available for academic research starting on Wednesday. Warden says he's removed identifying profile URLs but kept names, locations, Fan page lists and partial Friends lists. All those fields of data are just waiting to be analyzed and cross referenced. That's one very rich resource.

Yesterday Warden posted some of his own initial observations from the data on his personal blog. Those included:

• In almost every state in the Southern U.S., God is number one most popular Fan page among Facebook users. Among people in the L.A., San Francisco and Nevada regions? "God hardly makes an appearance on the fan pages, but sports aren't that popular either," Warden writes. "Michael Jackson is a particular favorite, and San Francisco puts Barack Obama in the top spot." In the Oregon and Idaho region? Starbucks is number one.
• In the Mormon-influenced areas of Utah and Eastern Idaho, the most popular Fan pages are The Book of Mormon, Glen Beck and the vampire book Twilight, which was authored by a Mormon.
• The bulk of Warden's posted analysis yesterday was about location networks. People in the western U.S. tend to have Facebook friends all over the country; people in the southern U.S. tend to mostly be friends with people who have remained in the same area.

Taking a Deeper Look

These observations are interesting, but they are only the beginning of what's possible. Name, location, friends and interests are great data points to analyze. Warden has written a program that will estimate gender as well, based on names. All these data points can be cross-referenced with outside data, too. Members of Facebook's own staff did this kind of analysis when they compared user last names to U.S. Census data, which allowed them to estimate changes in Facebook's racial composition over time based on the likelihood of people with particular last names to report a particular racial backgrounds.

"I'm mostly thinking 'What do I try first?'," Warden says. "There's so many interesting ways to slice the data - especially as I'm starting to get changes over time. I'm also trying to map out political networks in aggregate; how polarized the fans of particular politicians are - so how likely a Sarah Palin fan is to have any friends who are fans of Obama, and how that varies with location too. One of my favorite results is that Texans are more likely to be fans of the Dallas Cowboys than God."

Warden says he hasn't talked to anyone from Facebook since he started crawling the site, but he did get an email from someone on the security team asking him to take down instructions he'd posted that exposed a security hole that made harvesting peoples' email addresses easy. So the company is paying attention. "I'd love to see them put me out of business by putting decent data out there," Warden says. He says his Amazon Web Services bill was over $5,000 last month.

Why is he indexing all this content and why is he going to hand it over to the academic world later this week? "I am fascinated by how we can build tools to understand our world and connect people based on all the data we're just littering the Internet with," Warden says.

"Nobody thinks about how much valuable information they're generating just by friending people and fanning pages. It's like we're constantly voting in a hundred different ways every day. And I'm a starry-eyed believer that we'll be able to change the world for the better using that neglected information. It's like an x-ray for the whole country - we can see all sorts of hidden details of who we're friends with, where we live, what we like."

For a great example of the kind of social impact that data analysis can make, Warden points to some of the fascinating ways that GIS data is illuminating the intersection of race and public services. Data has shed light on social injustices for decades, and measurable information about the interactions of hundreds of millions of people every day on Facebook offers opportunities to discover both good and bad news about the contemporary human condition.

Warden says he's not yet been able to interest any investors in his ideas for businesses based on this data, so his girlfriend Liz Baumann, a former insurance actuary, stepped in to help and is now running much of the crawling. He says he's now focused on "working on ways of presenting all this information in a form that answers questions for people willing to pay." His first experiment along those lines is the very interesting FanPageAnalytics.com.

What does Pete Warden hope for from this week's public release of all this Facebook data? "Hopefully I'll get to see a bunch of interesting [academic research] papers come out of it, worst case. And I'd like to be the guy people turn to when they need stuff like this."

Already well-respected among a fringe group of bleeding-edge geeks, we hope that Warden's work on social graph analysis will end up impacting a far larger number of people than may ever know his name.

The move would further turn Gmail, which revolutionized online e-mail, into a comprehensive communications hub. The intent is to keep people's attention centered on Google, by making Gmail, not Facebook, people's first stop online and their default place to send and receive messages. Gmail users can already chat via Jabber or AIM, make video calls, and send SMS messages from Gmail's web interface.

As the Post reports:

Google has been trying to fashion Gmail into more than an e-mail service for years. The service currently lets users set an away message, which can be a link to a Web page, that their friends see when they instant-message them. Now, it plans to launch a new interface that will aggregate updates from more friends in a stream.

The new stream will also eventually include content that a user's connections share through its YouTube video site and Picasa photo service, according to one person familiar with the matter. But whether those features will also be announced in the coming days remains unclear.

The full extent of the new features remain unclear, but Google is inviting reporters to a launch event Tuesday on its Mountain View, California, campus promising some innovations in two of our most popular products, according to an e-mail sent to reporters.

Yahoo has included similar features in its e-mail service, letting users see what photos their contacts have uploaded to Flickr, for example.

Google could integrate updates from a user's Twitter account, since most of that is public. And it could likely make it easy for Gmail users to post to Twitter as well, due to Twitter's liberal API policy.

Facebook, however, will not likely let its rival re-publish status updates, or allow users to publish to their Facebook pages through Gmail. Facebook, much like AOL and Compuserve back in the early '90s, is a controlled and sanitized version of the larger internet, but it relies on closed protocols.

via Google to Add Social Feature to Gmail - WSJ.com.

See Also:

• April 1, 2004: Gmail Hits Webmail G-Spot
• Google Turns on Gmail Encryption to Protect Wi-Fi Users
• Gmail's New 'Undo Send' Feature Saves You From Outbox Regret
• AOL Announces Lifestream App for Twitter, Facebook, SMS
• Walled Garden No More, AOL Adds Social Networks to Homepage

My Thoughts On Techcrunch And Daniel Brusilovsky

We're not going to see the iPad hit stores for another two months, but it is already changing the e-book game and forcing publishers and consumers to pick sides.

Last night, several blogs including Venturebeat and NYT's Bits Blog noticed something was amiss on the website of the world's largest retailer: Amazon suddenly stopped selling books from Macmillan, one of the world's largest book publishers.

Not every Macmillan book is gone, but popular ones such as The Gathering Storm are no longer sold by Amazon, either in physical or Kindle form. You can still find the Amazon pages for Macmillan's books you just can't order the actual books.

According to The New York Times, the reason the books were pulled was the iPad. Macmillan told Amazon that it wanted to change its pricing and compensation agreement, upping the price of some books from $9.99 to $15 and splitting sales 70/30, the same model Apple uses for the iPhone app store and its upcoming iBooks store. Amazon's apparent response was to flex its muscle and pull countless Macmillan books off the virtual shelves.

The Dynamics of the New E-book War

Ever since we got word of the iPad's existence, we've known that Amazon and Apple were on a collision course. Apple saw an opportunity to not only create a new category of device, but to get its hands into the publishing market. In the same way Apple has transformed music, the computing giant would reshape books and become the primary distributor of e-books worldwide.

Back in September, we wrote a lengthy piece explaining why we believed Apple's tablet would eat the Kindle's lunch, displacing Amazon's lordship over e-books. We argued that its multipurpose functionality, color screen, and sexier interface and look would put it over the top. Now that we know the iPad's starting price ($499), our opinion hasn't changed. While the Kindle will survive, its sales will likely never be the same.

Publishers like Macmillan apparently agree with us as well, otherwise it wouldn't so boldly demand price changes from Amazon. Before the iPad was revealed, Amazon was the only player in the game. You played by its rules or you could take a hike. Now with a viable alternative only months away, publishers can run to Apple, where they will have more freedom over its e-book prices.

Amazon's clearly worried, which is why it's launching an app store and used its earnings report to remind us that the Kindle is far from dead. But if publishers decide to abandon the Kindle, then Apple will have won the war by default.

That's why Amazon decided to use its biggest weapon, Amazon.com itself, against Macmillan to send a message to every publisher: If you don't play by its rules, then you can't be in its store. While a publisher can likely survive without the Kindle, the same cannot be said for Amazon.com. Publishers simply cannot afford to leave the world's largest online retailer.

The Kindle and the iPad offer different experiences. The Kindle's battery life and e-ink are strong selling points for the device as a reader, but the iPad offers so much more. Apple's banking on those extra features and its undeniable reach to turn the Kindle into an endangered species.

Publishers now have to either choose a side or walk the tightrope between the two companies. The end result will be a long, drawn-out war that will both help and hurt consumers. How it will end is anybody's guess.

Tags: amazon, apple, Apple iPad, Apple Tablet, ebooks, iBooks, ipad, Kindle, Macmillan, Tablet, trending

The Samsung X120 falls in the CULV category as it features the Intel CULV processor. The X120 features an 11.6 inch display and a full sized keyboard. The left and right mouse buttons are located either side of the trackpad, which for some may hinder the use of the built in mouse, especially if you're used to the right and left buttons being located under the trackpad. The guys over at Netbook News received the X120 and have posted an unboxing video along with first impressions design wise. Like the other Samsung netbooks, the accessories include a neoprene sleeve to protect the netbook, however it's noted that no manual is included, not even a quick start guide. The X120 also has the trademark chrome border. Looking at the underneath, it appears that the HDD and RAM are easily accessible for those who wish to upgrade either. You can view the full unboxing and first impressions video after the jump.

via

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Samsung X120 unboxing video

We're not going to see the iPad hit stores for another two months, but it is already changing the ebook game and forcing publishers and consumers to pick sides.

Last night, several blogs including Venturebeat and NYT's Bits Blog noticed something was amiss on the website of the world's largest retailer: Amazon suddenly stopped selling books from Macmillan, one of the world's largest book publishers.

Not every Macmillan book is gone, but popular ones such as The Gathering Storm are no longer sold by Amazon, either in physical or Kindle form. You can still find the Amazon pages for Macmillan's books you just can't order the actual books.

According to the New York Times, the reason the books were pulled was the iPad. Macmillan told Amazon that it wanted to change its pricing and compensation agreement, upping the price of some books from $9.99 to $15 and splitting sales 70/30, the same model Apple uses for the iPhone app store and its upcoming iBooks store. Amazon's apparent response was to flex its muscle and pull countless Macmillan books off the virtual shelves.

The Dynamics of the New Ebook War

Ever since we got word of the iPad's existence, we've known that Amazon and Apple were on a collision course. Apple saw an opportunity to not only create a new category of device, but to get its hands into the publishing market. In the same way Apple has transformed music, the computing giant would reshape books and become the primary distributor of ebooks worldwide.

Back in September, we wrote a lengthy piece explaining why we believed Apple's tablet would eat the Kindle's lunch, displacing Amazon's lordship over ebooks. We argued that its multipurpose functionality, color screen, and sexier interface and look would put it over the top. Now that we know the iPad's starting price, ($499), our opinion hasn't changed. While the Kindle will survive, its sales will likely never be the same.

Publishers like Macmillan apparently agree with us as well, otherwise they wouldn't so boldly demand price changes from Amazon. Before the iPad was revealed, Amazon was the only player in the game. You played by its rules or you could take a hike. Now with a viable alternative only months away, publishers can run to Apple, where it will have more freedom over its ebook prices.

Amazon's clearly worried, which is why it's launching an app store and used its earnings report to remind us that the Kindle is far from dead. But if publishers decide to abandon the Kindle, then Apple will have won the war by default.

That's why Amazon decided to use its biggest weapon, Amazon.com itself, against Macmillan to send a message to every publisher: If you don't play by its rules, then you can't be in its store. While a publisher can likely survive without the Kindle, the same cannot be said for Amazon.com. Publishers simply cannot afford to leave the world's largest online retailer.

The Kindle and the iPad offer different experiences. The Kindle's battery life and e-ink are strong selling points for the device as a reader, but the iPad offers so much more. Apple's banking on those extra features and its undeniable reach to turn the Kindle into an endangered species.

Publishers now have to either choose a side or walk the tightrope between the two companies. The end result will be a long, drawn out war that will both help and hurt consumers. How it will end is anybody's guess.

Tags: amazon, apple, Apple iPad, Apple Tablet, ebooks, iBooks, ipad, Kindle, Macmillan, Tablet, trending

Less than 100 tickets remain for Mashable's Social Media Week event, NextUp NYC The Future Journalist on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 92YTribeca.

Join us for networking and a conversation and Q&A with Sree Sreenivasan (Professor and Columbia Journalism School Dean of Student Affairs and contributing editor of DNAinfo.com) and Vadim Lavrusik (new media journalist and digital media graduate student at Columbia University Journalism School).

Details

Location: 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013

Socialize: Facebook Event Page

Pricing: $20 in advance, $25 at door. Tickets on Sale Now.

Food and drink: Full cash bar and food menu available

Schedule

• 6:00 7:15 = Open Networking
• 7:15 8:45 = Conversation and Q&A with Sree Sreenivasan and Vadim Lavrusik
• 8:45 Bar Close = Open Networking

A Conversation and Q&A with:

Sree Sreenivasan Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia Journalism School Dean of Student Affairs and contributing editor, DNAinfo.com.

Sree Sreenivasan is a tech evangelist and skeptic specializing in explaining technology to non-techies. He is a professor and dean of students affairs at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where he teaches in the digital media program. Sreenivasan is contributing editor at DNAinfo.com, a Manhattan-news startup he helped launch in 2009 with Joe Ricketts, the founder of Ameritrade and whose family just bought the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. He also has been a fixture on NYC-area television. For more than eight years, he served as technology reporter for WABC-TV and WNBC-TV and now occasionally appears on various TV shows (on CNN, NBC's Today Show, CNBC and elsewhere) to talk tech. He has written articles for The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Rolling Stone, National Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes and Popular Science. You can find him on Twitter at twitter.com/sreenet and on the Web at sree.net.

Vadim Lavrusik Online journalist and M.S. candidate in Digital Media at Columbia Journalism School

Vadim Lavrusik is a new media journalist and social media consultant studying digital media at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where he is launching NYC 3.0, a tech start-up news site as part of his Master's project. He's reported for publications like the Star Tribune, The Minnesota Daily, the Mpls./St. Paul Business Journal and most recently was a guest feature writer for Mashable.com, where he covered trends in news media, and contributed to Poynter Online's E-Media Tidbits. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/lavrusik and the Web lavrusik.com.

Thanks to our Sponsors

Pepsi believes in the power of people and their ideas to make positive change. That's why Pepsi is giving away more than $20 million this year to fund good ideas, big and small, that move communities forward. The Pepsi Refresh Project invites individuals to share their ideas about how they can refresh the world. The public votes for their favorite ideas and Pepsi will give out up to $1.3 million each month to fund the winning ideas. Pepsi is leveraging the power of social media platforms to inspire ideas and encourage individuals to participate.

Zemoga is an award-winning digital innovation agency that specializes in the creation of meaningful and engaging interactive experiences and applications. With offices in the US and Colombia, Zemoga empowers customers with groundbreaking solutions through a model that provides efficiencies at every level. Zemoga's clients include Sears Holdings, HBO, ING, Yahoo, Viacom, A&E Television Networks, Toyota, SONY Music, and Rodale.

Thanks to our Partner

Tags: Events, nextup-nyc, social media week

• Aldiko: outstanding e-book reader (better than Kindle on the iPhone in terms of feature set; obviously the book store is not quite as good, but the integration with free eBook download sites is a plus). Currently reading Makers by Cory Doctorow.
• Amazon: search the full Amazon catalog (can use barcodes or photos in addition to typing or speaking your query), track orders in my account.
• APNDroid: useful if you want to disable your phone's cellular data connection (useful if you're often on WiFi and want to turn off your EDGE or 3G data connection)
• AppReferer: builds a QR code (a 2D barcode) that makes recommending an app to another Android user in person a one-click affair.
• Battery Graph: shows a nice chart (exportable, even) of battery usage, which is helpful if you're trying to isolate when the battery started to drain.
• Coin Flip: silly app that lets me flip a coin. Use it mostly to settle disputes between the kids. :)
• Congress: built by Sunlight Labs, a phenomenal "pocket Congressional directory" that includes contact info, committee memberships, news, and YouTube vids of every Senator and Representative.
• DroidLive Lite: Streaming radio (via Shoutcast) from 1300 radio stations around the world.
• Facebook: news feed, photos and profile info for friends
• Fandango: Order movie tickets from movie theaters so I can bypass lines at the ticket counter.
• Finance: Google Finance app
• Flashlight: turns screen bright white to use in dark rooms
• Foursquare: app for playing Foursquare, also has a nice widget for my home screen
• Gmote: turns my Nexus One into a touchpad remote (when paired with a computer running the Gmote server software). Handy for giving presentations, or just doing something nerdy and cool.
• Google Goggles: search Google by taking pictures.
• Google Sky Map: the one app that consistently blows people away. Load it up, turn your camera toward the night sky and you'll get a real-time view of which stars, constellations and planets are above you. An awesome accompaniment to a telescope.
• Jewels: Bejeweled-like game.
• Layar: Augmented reality app that displays info on screen in realtime through your phone's camera.
• Locale: very sophisticated app for scripting events to happen based on certain triggers. (When I'm at home, disable the data connection and connect to my home wifi access point. At 11pm, turn off the sound and put the phone to sleep; at 6am turn the sound back up; when I'm at work, put the phone in vibrate mode; etc.)
• Metal detector: actually works.
• Movies (aka Flixster): Lots of info/trailers/reviews about new and upcoming movies, also integrates with Netflix for DVDs
• My Tracks: built by some Googlers, great app for keeping track of runs/bikes/ski runs you've done; captures altitude, distance, etc., then uploads to Google Maps My Maps.
• OpenTable: make restaurant reservations from the phone.
• Owner: adds my contact info to the unlock screen ("If found, please contact Rick Klau...")
• Pandora: streaming music channels.
• PapiJump: great little game using the phone's accelerometer.
• Pintail: monitors your phone's SMS messages for a message that says "locate" (plus a PIN); once received, activates the GPS and replies with the phone's location. Helpful if you've got a lost phone.
• Robo Defense: addicitve game.
• Scoreboard: Tracks scores of your favorite teams, with realtime updates and notifications as score changes.
• Seesmic: Great Twitter app.
• Shop Savvy: grab a barcode, find out who sells it and for how much.
• TiVo Remote: works with any TiVo HD unit over WiFi.
• TripIt: phenomenal itinerary manager for all travel info.
• Voice Recorder: does exactly what it says it does.
• Yelp: Local reviews.

Quite possibly in popular vernacular or in the agency world, yes. I'm not sure that people have meant to do it but it is happening.

comScore released a small set of data from a survey that they performed about holiday this year online. Not surprisingly, it is up compared to previous years. The surprise comes in the form of how this data is displayed in a Social Media Influence table.

I think somebody pulled up in a semi truck loaded with hype.

Or, maybe, it is that the respondents now identify social media simply as talking with friends. Have a look at the table:

At face value, 28% of online Holiday shopping being influenced by social media is believable and insanely large number. Good for all those social media experts out there! But looking a the rest of the data in the chart, which covers every major form of social media Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Fan Pages, Blogs and generic status updates, something is missing.

Did the respondents want to feel cool by responding yes to this? Were all the respondents extremely dialed in to social media? Does standing around the water cooler talking about Lego sets equate as social media?

I raise these questions because the subsequent percentages that have taken this type of action based on social media doesn't add up to me. I fancy myself a stats guy but these numbers sound like they are missing something from this public release. It sounds like a lot of hype.

It may not be, and I am not doubting that comScore performed a valuable and accurate survey. I'm just not sure that this data is being represented to its fullest due to missing information. Or a cultural shift to think of word-of-mouth as social media.

Does this sound accurate to you?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Holiday shoppers turning to Facebook, Twitter to chose gifts (seattlepi.com)
• Introducing Social Media Pro (ducttapemarketing.com)
• The chain reaction within social media (slideshare.net)
• Dealing with negative WOM online (heidi-miller.com)

Is Social Media Taking Over Word of Mouth? is a post from: TechStartups.com

Fring is an Israel based startup that has been offering its signature VoIP application for mobile devices is now available for Android phones in the Android Market. Fring is an app that allows users to connect via popular chast and VoIP tools like Skype and Google Talk.

It was first introduced a little over three years ago in beta for handsets that were running Symbian OS. Since that time it has spread across the other popular platforms to gain a foothold in the instant messaging space on mobiles. Not to mention cornering VoIP though API development with some of the most popular internet based messaging software.

Fring allows users to aggregate their connections across networks and easily send text, photos, files and now video. And yes, like anything else being released today, Fring will allow you to tweet. Happy?

The two most robust platforms for using Fring are on Symbian 9 or higher and Windows Mobile phones. The newest, Android, has a few features for now like text chat, mobile calling and personalization settings.

Using the application is fairly straight forward as you need to download and install for your phone, register and then wait for Fring to connect the together your networks and contacts. Once this step is done you can begin getting in touch with your posse(s) via your mobile.

I've had good luck with Fring when I needed to get in touch with a contact that I didn't have handy in my phone contacts and for Skype text based chats. Now that it is ready for the new kid, Android, I would suspect that more features like those for the iPhone will make their way into the app.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Android Market VoIP by Fring is a post from: TechStartups.com

Linking words together online is an hobby. Creating context from those words is an art. Making them work in harmony is a gift. The team at Thomson Reuters have done this for some time with their Calais project and the first consumer product from it OpenCalais.

OpenCalais is a monster database filled with linked data that can be accessed by anyone via a special API. Currently it works on an individual application level and as plugins with other popular CMS and blogging platforms. In tandem they create a more powerful experience for the publishers of new content by allowing the integration of linked data for linking, tagging and finding optional third-party resources for inspiration.

Word on the street and from a trusted source is that the Calais team has something new on the horizon their own CMS. A release of a CMS that has semantic technologies built right into is a powerful addition to the marketplace. Many blogging platforms and CMS products available today have stagnated under the weight of their own popularity.

It is hard to innovate when you are leading the pack or trying to figure out how to make money from your product that is free. Time and resources become devoted to maintaining the status quo, patching holes and community relations and support. Not to mention that many of these tools have crept out from the minds of developers and not publishers.

The same can't be said for Thomson Reuters Calais Initiative. With a business model built in from the inception of the project they have the ability to create value from the wealth of content that is entering their system. It is treated to some natural language processing, machine learning and prepared to link with other content. As the initiative currently exists it is the side car to better publishing as there is no status quo or hole patching. They realized this.

Throwing a CMS on top of this type of foundation is a logical move for OpenCalais to extend development and create publisher relations. There has been so little innovation in core CMS offerings that most rely on third-party developers to create additional functionality or implement API's like OpenCalais, Zemanta and other discovery products.

An OpenCalais CMS, blogging platform or whatever comes from this group is going to be a welcome addition to the choices that publishers have available today. The closest opportunity today to creating a true semantic experience in a publishing platform that is readily available would be to install the Zemanta plugin in WordPress. It transforms the writing experience. An offering from Calais could transform the writing and CMS experience.

Update: Krista Thomas (@kristathomas) from OpenCalais got in touch to say that there is a fully integrated CMS based on Drupal called OpenPublish available now.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

CMS Innovations from Thomson Reuters? is a post from: TechStartups.com

Thanks to a soft launch from an iPhone app, thingd, is now open to the public. You can begin to add your things!

The app arrived earlier this week and I've been playing with it for a couple of days. I wanted to give it, the site and the overall model of thingd a longer review, but time is of the essence. I'll stick with the iPhone app for now.

This way if you install it and start using it you'll be able to provide feedback to the thingd team. Wouldn't it be cool if your idea makes it into production?

And wouldn't be especially timely so that you can add your new Black Friday goodies!

What is thingd?

It is a massive collection of things that are linked together first by you, then by the data known about them and then by your thingd network. Thingd facilitates commerce, commenting and sentiment about particular things. It is also a discovery tool for new things.

How can I use the iPhone app?

First you need to get a thingd account. Once you have acquired that you'll need to begin by taking photos of things, preferably, those in your own possession. If the item is popular it will be tagged by thingd and as you to verify the right information. If the item isn't so popular or old you can add a model number and your own specs.

Once the photo of the thing leaves your phone it will head to the thingd website for inclusion into the data pool and be added to your My Things' list. It is here where the multiple levels of metadata can be added to a thing. Think of it as a semantic engine for things that is equally machine and human powered.

What do I do with thingd iPhone app?

The first step is add your things. The second is to look to it for creating structure around your items. Most likely the items you photograph first will be the ones that you like the most. Think of thingd as the expanding catalog of things and the iPhone app as the best way to make additions to the catalog.

For now, you can push your photos and things to thingd and test the out the site. At this early stage give the site and the iPhone app a thoughtful review and pass on those thoughts to the team that developed it.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

thingd iPhone App Is Here is a post from: TechStartups.com

When developers get their hands on a social media platform, amazing things tend to happen. For example, Facebook transformed web apps when it launched the Facebook platform. The result has been everything from Facebook Connect to FarmVille. Twitter's an even better example when you start thinking of the countless Twitter apps for mobile phones and the desktop.

That magic is exactly what LinkedIn is hoping will happen with today's launch of the LinkedIn Platform, which opens up outside applications to use LinkedIn's data. Oh, and TweetDeck will be launching LinkedIn integration this week.

The company has been experimenting with a developer platform for a while. Most recently, LinkedIn announced integration with Microsoft Outlook 2010. However, until today only select developers could access LinkedIn APIs. Now any developer can work with the data, much like Facebook and Twitter.

You're about to see a whole new wave of LinkedIn web applications. When I spoke with LinkedIn, I learned that a little less than a dozen apps would be launching LinkedIn integrations this week, including TweetDeck, Twitter's most popular app (we'll have another post detailing the new features soon, along with screenshots).

This is an important but long overdue move for LinkedIn. We can understand why it took longer business users would have likely reacted badly to this a year ago, but with social media permeating the workplace, it's probably the right time now.

Tags: api, linkedin

Social media is a double-edged sword. Due to its unfiltered nature, it can be a powerful promotional tool. However, it can also publicly expose our problems. Former reality TV star Tila Tequila is an unfortunate but prime example.

Some backstory: Tila Tequila is one of the most popular artists on MySpace, was the subject of an MTV reality show, and most recently filed assault charges against San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman, which were subsequently dropped.

Fastforward to Wednesday, November 18th. That night, Tila had a very public meltdown on her Ustream page. She waved around a gun, played around with a knife, ranted about Shawne Merriman, and stripped naked, all live for thousands of people to see (the video was immediately taken down).

Despite claiming that she would never use her Ustream ever again, Tila is back on live video, and this time it's even more bizzare. She is streaming as Jane Cordovez, which seem to be her alter ego for the evening. She is not only waving around a gun once again, but is dancing around with a sword. Yes, a sword. And that's only half an hour into the live stream.

It's unfortunate that she's allowing her breakdown to be publicly streamed. While her brand has always been racy, the last few days have been simply bizzare. If she indeed has issues, we hope she gets some help.

The live, unfiltered video stream is below:

Tags: live video, Tila Tequila, ustream, video

In 2006 I proudly started my first blog, DigMo! It was technology, it was creativity, it was music and it was education. Despite it being a bit of blog soup I was pleased at how quick the site grew but within a few years it reached a critical point beyond which I really couldn't get the traffic to grow. The site was frankly far too general to appeal to a specific community.

The site had a massive 80% bounce rate and taking advice from reading the great advice on this site I decided to take stock and critically re-evaluate the future of DigMo!

As a result I decided to split the site and create two separate niche blogs, DigMo! To focus on educational technology and I launched a new site, TotalApps, to focus on Mac and iPhone App reviews. The thought of starting from zero scared me and I looked at ways to get the site up and running quickly.

I decided the best way to draw attention to the blog was to offer regular site competitions. Finding companies willing to sponsor prizes was actually much easier than I initially expected. I tend to target companies whose product I have reviewed and especially if the review has been popular with readers.

With blog authors being urged to declare any products they are able to keep once a review is published what better way to retain your creditability but by passing the review samples on to your readers as a competition prize ? It seems to me like a logical benefit that will add value to your site and grow the community.

The Mistakes

I think it is best to share my mistakes with the Problogger readers and the initial competitions I ran simply required visitors to leave a comment on a post. This didn't grow the site and managed to result in a massive 70% bounce rate i.e. the users came, entered, and left knowing we would email them if they had won.

The Successes

I decided if I was going to make competitions really work they needed to be of benefit not only to the visitor but also the site and thus I needed to limit entry to RSS subscribers (both email and reader)

The solution was simple and surprisingly successful and will basically work for anyone running a Wordpress blog even with a custom theme.

Setting the competition up takes a tiny bit of code adjusting but nothing too difficult.

The Concept

The competition works by placing a code at the bottom of blog posts that will only appear when the entry is read in an RSS reader, i.e. it does not appear on site.

To do this I used a known solution that was pointed out to me by fellow blogger Thaya Kareeson.

There are a few versions of this idea around but this solution works brilliantly on TotalApps. As I haven't come across any plug-ins that can run competitions this bit of code fiddling is the ideal solution for now.

Getting Started

Open the functions.php file in your current theme folder (I would back this up before adding the code just to be on the safe side).

Paste the following code into the text :

function contest_post_filter($content) {
if ( is_feed() )
return $content.'TotalApps Competition Code (Please note it is case sensitive) : a12221s';
else
return $content;
}
add_filter('the_content','contest_post_filter');
function contest_comment_filter($comment_text) {
return str_replace('a12221s', '[code hidden]', $comment_text);
}
add_filter('get_comment_text','contest_comment_filter');

There are two lines you need to change - 1. the line that says TotalApps Competition Code and 5 lines down the code is repeated (a1221s).

I recently ran a competition where visitors could win a copy of Screenflow 2.0. The following screenshot shows the bottom of the post as it appeared in the browser.

. and this is how it looked in the RSS reader. You should note your RSS Feed must be the full article view (i.e. not just the abstract) for the code to appear.

When the competition closes as I generally ask the sponsor to select a number between 1 and the number of comments and then contact the lucky winners using the email address in the comment.

When a competition closes you can either comment out the code in functions.php by adding /* before the code and */ after or alternatively is simply change the text to "No competition at present"

Offering a reason to sign up to the RSS feed resulted in the number of TotalApps RSS subscribers growing in one month to double the number of readers DigMo! had after 3 years.

Tips :

• Know what your readers want and try and target prizes appropriately.
• Make sure you link to your RSS and RSS by Email Feeds in the post to make it as easy for visitors to subscribe as possible.
• Make sure you make the rules clear and post the winner's name publicly on site.
• Where possible have the competition sponsors look after the postage. This not only saves you time and hassle but it is also assures the sponsor the competition is above board.
• Don't run competitions for more than a week as most of the comments tend to happen in the first week after that it dries up quickly.

I have to say I am certainly no expert in coding or blogging but am really excited to find a solution that really works for managing the competitions and I am equally as excited to see the number of subscribers grow.

There may even be better solutions out there and if you know of any I would be keen to hear them.

David Cleland is a teacher based in Ireland who runs three successful blogs (TotalApps, FlixelPix and Digmo.co.uk)

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How To Run Subscriber-Only Competitions on Your Blog

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The iPhone and Google changed our life. What's next?

Whatever it is, it might be predictable. After looking at a 30 year analysis of 300 products in 225 countries, Ad Age concluded that a product's success can be predicted. Business dynamics; consumer insights; creativity and design; and innovation patterns drive the success. Of the four, you really need to look at innovation patterns before you can make good predictions about the future.

Consumer needs are also predictable. This is not surprising, considering our every decision is tracked online. But innovation is evolutionary. A good idea is inspired when someone thinks about previous ideas and thinks about ways to introduce a small change. Pretty soon this new product has competition. When the product reaches a tipping point, it hits critical mass.

That's what happened with Crest Whitestrips. Who would have thought a decade ago people would want to put strips on their teeth so they could make their teeth whiter? But nicotine and estrogen patches and breath strips created a market for Crest Whitestrips.

The same goes for the music industry. There was portable music before the iPod. (You probably have an old Sony Walkman laying around your house somewhere). We got used to being able to carry our cameras and computers around with us. When the iPod hit the market in 2001, we went crazy for it.

Then we went crazy for the iPhone. Esquire discussed how Steve Jobs' idea transformed into a wildly, popular gadget:

First, for the first time in his life, people understood one of his products better than he did. And second, he began to die.He wanted to build a device that moved the world forward, that would take people further. He wanted to build a reality that wasn't there.The first was that people realized that the iPhone wasn't primarily a phone; it was a computer a powerful one, with a full OSX operating system that could make phone calls.

The iPhone soon evolved beyond what it was designed for. And it all began with a small idea.

Image: flickr/ csitscenter

Success is Predictable is a post from: TechStartups.com

So who is the best iPhone app developer? You.

Get your iPhone startup rolling by making it happen all by yourself well, with some help, but you can claim the blood, sweat and long hours needed to build your biz from the ground up.

What follows is a mock interview that I just had with you five minutes ago.

Kris:

• That's right you. And I said it to your face.
• Okay, the criteria for best in this case being the most motivated, cheap and geographically close developer. Face it, you can't get any closer to your coder than yourself.

You:

• Kris, listen . . . I can't make an iPhone application or write a program in Objective C, let alone in any other language.

Kris:

• Shut up and teach yourself to fish.
• Learning this will save you the hassle of finding a developer, translating your idea and getting stuck because you don't understand the iPhone developer spec or limitations of the device before masterminding the next greatest iPhone app.

You:. . .

• You're crazy.
• Am I supposed to buy a book and sit a dark office after my kids are asleep and figure this out?

(You see where this is going, right?)

Kris:

• Sure, you can do that.
• But if you want to jump start this process and make your app a reality without paying $30k or spending that much of your time translating your ideas to a developer go to an iPhone Boot Camp.
• They're happening in major US cities.
• And, seriously, it might be something that you think is out of your league but taking a day to spend with the authors of two of the most popular iPhone development books will shorten the time you're going to spend in that dark room trying to sift through this.

You:

• How do I make it happen?

Kris:

• Find the iPhone Boot Camp nearest you or one that matches your schedule.
• Get the scratch to pay the registration fee (under $3k), flight, hotel and if Chicago enough for dogs and Italian beef sandwiches from Portillos.
• Sweet shit, I miss those.

This interview is over. I've gotta go punch a papper in the face, drool about a Portillos and look for money in my couch cushions to get myself to one of these events.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Best iPhone App Developer is a post from: TechStartups.com

You can think of KRonikle as krack for designer vinyl toy collectors.

And before you go off thinking that I'm talking about something else, this is a family friendly blog most of the time.

The KRonikle is the official blog for all things Kidrobot. They cover toy news, product releases and events that are being held at their various stores. This is standard fare these days but what Kidrobot has been able to do with their blog alone is a testament to building community around a passion designer toy collecting.

Designer toy collecting is something that Kidrobot helped to make popular by introducing street artists to the public vinyl toys. Often cute figurines that were swathed vibrant colors and a counterculture that prizes individuality. Mix good marketing on top and you have a combination that leads to a viable revenue stream.

Kidrobot has been growing at a steady pace over the last three years. What the KRonikle represents is their recent entry into blogging and community building online. By creating a central point that allows them to break news on their own sought after products they have the ability to be shape the conversation about the toys and their brand. The two are inseparably tangled since they manufacture most what they sell.

This allows them control with great accuracy images and news about these items. What it also does for them is allows them to have direct contact with the artists that work with them. These artists often make in-store appearances to do signings, customs one-offs and take questions from fans and up and coming artists alike.

The KRonikle is also an entry point for newbies to get accustomed to the culture by dipping their toe in it. Hanging with regulars and advanced collectors can be intimidating as they talk about the artists, the releases and the prices which can be astronomical. Often they are not so high but for a very limited piece or a one-off from an artist, like the stereotypical art world can has a higher cost.

This blog is a good example to show clients that may come to you to help them sell products from their real world business. It is a combination of community, news and products. It represents exclusivity as much as it represents the culture that covets its heroes.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Kidrobot Krushing with KRonikle is a post from: TechStartups.com

I was asked to review a scenario for a friend this morning that deals with competition for mind share in an ongoing row between disparate entities. Ahem, feuding like Hatfields and McCoys as Waylon Jennings would say, and they're doing it primarily online.

Most of us choose to go about our business online without causing confrontation. You might not choose to be involved in a situation like this.

However, if you are put in this position tactics for a remedy are below:

1. Make sure all of your sites where dynamic content is being created on have RSS feeds
2. Make sure the sites are being indexed by Google . . . and recently cached by going to Google and typing in site:blogdomain.com blogdomain.com being the site URL
3. Most of the sites below (I was furnished with list including Topix and Blog Catalog to mention a couple) require registration and some code editing to claim the sites. Register with them and follow their protocol for submission into their directories for partner programs and additional synidcation
4. Create a press release(s) that contains links, not just copy, but links to the RSS feeds from clients site(s). Example, For more information on this ongoing issue subscribe to: http://www.blogdomain.com/rssfeed. The popular outlets have wide syndication
5. Use this tool from Google http://www.google.com/sktool/# and enter your sites and the sites of the competitor into it. Disregard the pricing listed on the page for AdWords and focus on the keywords. Compare the the keywords of your competitor with those of your sites and adjust accordingly in all digital communications. Organic search is king.
6. Next use this too from Google https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal once your keywords are set to see how you are doing
7. Depending on the blog or site platform you should have the ability to create keyword RSS feeds. Do this. Robots like structured data and favor feeds. Most, if not all, Google real-time alerts come from RSS feed links back to the source site.
8. Commenting on local (this is a regional battle for mind share) blogs with links to client site(s) and feeds is another way to increase chances of indexing and more favorable search results

If I were fighting this battle or one like it these are exact steps that I would take. So dear reader, if we ever lock horns, we may duel to a draw since you have my playbook.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/4

How to Win Mind Share in Online Battles is a post from: TechStartups.com

Database normalization is a technique for designing relational database schemas that ensures that the data is optimal for ad-hoc querying and that modifications such as deletion or insertion of data does not lead to data inconsistency. Database denormalization is the process of optimizing your database for reads by creating redundant data. A consequence of denormalization is that insertions or deletions could cause data inconsistency if not uniformly applied to all redundant copies of the data within the database.

Why Denormalize Your Database?

Today, lots of Web applications have "social" features. A consequence of this is that whenever I look at content or a user in that service, there is always additional content from other users that also needs to be pulled in to page. When you visit the typical profile on a social network like Facebook or MySpace, data for all the people that are friends with that user needs to be pulled in. Or when you visit a shared bookmark on del.icio.us you need data for all the users who have tagged and bookmarked that URL as well. Performing a query across the entire user base for "all the users who are friends with Robert Scoble" or "all the users who have bookmarked this blog link" is expensive even with caching. It is orders of magnitude faster to return the data if it is precalculated and all written to the same place.

This is optimizes your reads at the cost of incurring more writes to the system. It also means that you'll end up with redundant data because there will be multiple copies of some amount of user data as we try to ensure the locality of data.

A good example of a Web application deciding to make this trade off is the recent post on the Digg Blog entitled Looking to the Future with Cassandra which contains the following excerpt

The Problem

In both models, we're computing the intersection of two sets:

1. Users who dugg an item.
2. Users that have befriended the digger.

The Relational Model

The schema for this information in MySQL is:

CREATE TABLE `Diggs` ( `id` INT(11), `itemid` INT(11), `userid` INT(11),
`digdate` DATETIME, PRIMARY KEY (`id`), KEY `user` (`userid`), KEY `item` (`itemid`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;   CREATE TABLE `Friends` ( `id` INT(10)
AUTO_INCREMENT, `userid` INT(10), `username` VARCHAR(15), `friendid` INT(10), `friendname`
VARCHAR(15), `mutual` TINYINT(1), `date_created` DATETIME, PRIMARY KEY (`id`), UNIQUE
KEY `Friend_unique` (`userid`,`friendid`), KEY `Friend_friend` (`friendid`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB
DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

The Friends table contains many million rows, while Diggs holds hundreds of millions. Computing the intersection with a JOIN is much too slow in MySQL, so we have to do it in PHP. The steps are:

1. Query Friends for all my friends. With a cold cache, this takes around 1.5 seconds to complete.
2. Query Diggs for any diggs of a specific item by a user in the set of friend user IDs. This query is enormous, and looks something like:

   SELECT
   `digdate`, `id` FROM `Diggs` WHERE `userid` IN (59, 9006, 15989, 16045, 29183, 30220,
   62511, 75212, 79006) AND itemid = 13084479 ORDER BY `digdate` DESC, `id` DESC LIMIT
   4;

   The real query is actually much worse than this, since the IN clause contains every friend of the user, and this can balloon to hundreds of user IDs. A full query can actually clock in at 1.5kb, which is many times larger than the actual data we want. With a cold cache, this query can take 14 seconds to execute.

Of course, both queries are cached, but due to the user-specific nature of this data, it doesn't help much.

The solution the Digg development team went with was to denormalize the data. They also went an additional step and decided that since the data was no longer being kept in a relational manner there was no point in using a traditional relational database (i.e. MySQL) and instead they migrated to a non-RDBMS technology to solve this problem.

How Denormalization Changes Your Application

There are a number of things to keep in mind once you choose to denormalize your data including

1. Denormalization means data redundancy which translates to significantly increased storage costs. The fully denormalized data set from the Digg exampled ended up being 3 terabytes of information. It is typical for developers to underestimate the data bloat that occurs once data is denormalized.

2. Fixing data inconsistency is now the job of the application. Let's say each user has a list of the user names of all of their friends. What happens when one of these users changes their user name? In a normalized database that is a simple UPDATE query to change a single piece of data and then it will be current everywhere it is shown on the site. In a denormalized database, there now has to be a mechanism for fixing up this name in all of the dozens, hundreds or thousands of places it appears. Most services that create denormalized databases have "fixup" jobs that are constantly running on the database to fix such inconsistencies.

The No-SQL Movement vs. Abusing Relational Databases for Fun & Profit

If you're a web developer interested in building large scale applications, it doesn't take long in reading the various best practices on getting Web applications to scale such as practicing database sharding or eschewing transactions before it begins to sound like all the advice you are getting is about ignoring or abusing the key features that define a modern relational database system. Taken to its logical extreme all you really need is a key<->value or tuple store that supports some level of query functionality and has decent persistence semantics. Thus the NoSQL movement was borne.

The No-SQL movement is a used to describe the increasing usage of non-relational databases among Web developers. This approach has initially pioneered by large scale Web companies like Facebook (Cassandra), Amazon (Dynamo) & Google (BigTable) but now is finding its way down to smaller sites like Digg. Unlike relational databases, there is a yet to be a solid technical definition of what it means for a product to be a "NoSQL" database aside from the fact that it isn't a relational database. Commonalities include lack of fixed schemas {TODO}. Below is a list of some of the more popular NoSQL databases that you can try today along with a brief description of their key qualities

1. CouchDB: A document-oriented database where documents can be thought of as JSON/JavaScript objects. Creation, retrieval, update and deletion (CRUD) operations are performed via a RESTful API and support ACID properties. Rich querying is handled by creating Javascript functions called "Views" which can operate on the documents in the database via Map/Reduce style queries. Usage: Although popular among the geek set most users seem to be dabblers as opposed to large scale web companies.

2. Cassandra: A key-value store where each key-value pair comes with a timestamp and can be grouped together into a column family (i.e. a table). There is also a notion of super columns which are columns that contain whose values are a list of other key-value pairs. Cassandra is optimized to be always writable and uses eventual consistency to deal with the conflicts that inevitably occur when a distributed system aims to be always writable yet node failure is a fact of life. Querying is available via the Cassandra Thrift API and supports fairly basic data retrieval operations based on key values and column names. Usage: Originally developed and still used at Facebook today. Digg and Rackspace are the most recent big name adopters.

3. Voldemort: Very similar to Cassandra which is unsurprising since they are both inspired by Amazon's Dynamo. Voldemort is a key-value store where each key value pair comes with a timestamp and eventual consistency is used to address write anomalies. Values can contain a list of further key value pairs. Data access involves creation, retrieval and deletion of serialized objects whose format can be one of JSON, strings, binary BLOBs, serialized Java objects and Google Protocol Buffers. Rich querying is non-existent, simple get and put operations are all that exist. Usage: Originally developed and still used at LinkedIn.

There are a number of other interesting NoSQL databases such as HBase, MongoDB and Dynomite but the three above seem to be the most mature from my initial analysis. In general, most of them seem to be a clone of BigTable, Dynamo or some amalgam of ideas from both papers. The most original so far has been CouchDB.

An alternative to betting on a speculative database technologies at varying levels of maturity is to misuse an existing mature relational database product. As mentioned earlier, many large scale sites use relational databases but eschew relational features such as transactions and joins to achieve scalability. Some developers have even taken that practice to an extreme and built schema-less data models on top of traditional relational database. A great example of this How FriendFeed uses MySQL to store schema-less data which is a blog post excerpted below

Lots of projects exist designed to tackle the problem storing data with flexible schemas and building new indexes on the fly (e.g., CouchDB). However, none of them seemed widely-used enough by large sites to inspire confidence. In the tests we read about and ran ourselves, none of the projects were stable or battle-tested enough for our needs (see this somewhat outdated article on CouchDB, for example). MySQL works. It doesn't corrupt data. Replication works. We understand its limitations already. We like MySQL for storage, just not RDBMS usage patterns.

After some deliberation, we decided to implement a "schema-less" storage system on top of MySQL rather than use a completely new storage system.

Our datastore stores schema-less bags of properties (e.g., JSON objects or Python dictionaries). The only required property of stored entities is id, a 16-byte UUID. The rest of the entity is opaque as far as the datastore is concerned. We can change the "schema" simply by storing new properties.

In MySQL, our entities are stored in a table that looks like this:

CREATE TABLE entities ( added_id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY
KEY, id BINARY(16) NOT NULL, updated TIMESTAMP NOT NULL, body MEDIUMBLOB, UNIQUE KEY
(id), KEY (updated) ) ENGINE=InnoDB; 

The added_id column is present because InnoDB stores data rows physically in primary key order. The AUTO_INCREMENT primary key ensures new entities are written sequentially on disk after old entities, which helps for both read and write locality (new entities tend to be read more frequently than old entities since FriendFeed pages are ordered reverse-chronologically). Entity bodies are stored as zlib-compressed, pickled Python dictionaries.

Now that the FriendFeed team works at Facebook I suspect they'll end up deciding that a NoSQL database that has solved a good story around replication and fault tolerance is more amenable to solving the problem of building a schema-less database than storing key<->value pairs in a SQL database where the value is a serialized Python object.

As a Web developer it's always a good idea to know what the current practices are in the industry even if they seem a bit too crazy to adoptyet.

Further Reading

• How FriendFeed Uses MySQL to Store Schema-less Data by Bret Taylor
• Looking to the future with Cassandra Digg Blog

Now Playing: Jay-Z - Run This Town (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West)

eBay may have sold the majority of Skype earlier this month, but that may not matter if the two original founders of Skype get their way. They have just sued eBay and Skype's new investors for damages that they estimate total a rate of more than $75 million daily.

The case pits eBay against Joltid, which is owned by Skype's founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom. The issue is around a core piece of peer-to-peer technology utilized in Skype. Joltid seems to have the rights to it and has been seeking to yank the code since at least March. Now, they have filed an injunction and are seeking damages in U.S. District Court.

The lawsuit cites eBay, Silver Lake Partners, and its investment partners, who combined own the popular peer-to-peer calling service. The potential damages cited by the lawsuit are stunning, though. They claim that eBay's altering and misuse of their code could total to more than $75 million per day in damages, as each download of Skype is considered by them to be copyright infringement. If you do the math, that's over $27 billion per year. How they came up with that extraordinary number we cannot even begin to comprehend.

Apparently this is not all that unusual for the Skype founders, according to The New York Times, who reports that they've developed a reputation for litigation, stemming from three lawsuits they filed against an investment banker who represented them in the original Skype sale to eBay.

Tags: ebay, Skype

I was at a Kurt Vonnegut talk in New York a few years ago. Talking about writing, life, and everything.

He explained why people have such a need for drama in their life.

He said, People have been hearing fantastic stories since time began. The problem is, they think life is supposed to be like the stories. Let's look at a few examples.

He drew an empty grid on the board, like this:

Time moves from left to right. Happiness from bottom to top.

He said, Let's look at a very common story arc. The story of Cinderella.

It starts with her awful life with evil stepsisters, scrubbing the fireplace. Then she get an invitation to the ball! Things look up. Then the fairy godmother makes her a dress and a coach. Even better! Then she goes to the ball, and dances with the prince! This is great! But then it's midnight. She has to go. Oh no. Sadness. Back to her humdrum life scrubbing the fireplace. But it's not as bad as before, because she's had this encouraging experience. Then, the prince finds her, and the happiness factor is off the chart! Happily ever after.

People LOVE that story! This story arc has been written a thousand times in a thousand tales. And because of it, people think their lives are supposed to be like this.

He wiped the board clean and said, Now let's look at another popular story arc: the disaster.

It's an ordinary day in an ordinary town. But something horrible happens! A child falls down a well! The whole town gathers to save her. Old grudges surface, but are belittled in the light of this tragedy. Rifts are bonded as people work together. The child is saved, and all is well. But notice it's a little better than it was before, now that this incident has brought them all closer together.

People LOVE that story! This story arc has been written a thousand times in a thousand tales. And because of it, people think their lives are supposed to be like this.

But the problem is, life is really like this...

Our lives drifts along with normal things happening. Some ups, some downs, but nothing to go down in history about. Nothing so fantastic or terrible that it'll be told for a thousand years.

But because we grew up surrounded by big dramatic story arcs in books and movies, we think are lives are supposed to be filled with huge ups and downs! So people pretend there is drama where there is none.

That's why people invent fights. That's why we're drawn to sports. That's why we act like everything that happens to us is such a big deal.

We're trying to make our life into a fairy tale.

• 7,130,389: Digital notification and response system
• 7,496,183: Method for providing digital notification
• 7,519,165: Method for providing digital notification and receiving responses

Yahoo's social bookmarking service Delicious launched a new home page this morning, combining recent tagging activity and cross-referenced links on Twitter to deliver what it calls the hottest news from around the web in real time. While the exact formula behind the front page remains unclear, its contents are clearly changing minute by minute.

It is something the site probably should have done a while ago and if done correctly could make other services, like Digg, look all the more behind the times. The move could also help Delicious survive the coming Yahoo Search purge at the hands of Bing.

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The new front page is focused on political and tech news instead of the most popular topic on Delicious, web design. There also appears to be some smart filtering of the Twitter messages being counted, as the numbers are far lower than other services' counts and seem to exclude the spammy retweeting bots that pump up big news sources in other retweet counting services.

We've long believed that Delicious is one of the most under-appreciated social media services remaining from the early days of the social web. This new version could help win back some of the early love, but it does represent a radical shift away from the original vision most people have of the service as a tool for bookmarking things you want to return to later. The founder of Delicious, Joshua Schacter, said on Twitter last night "i hate the delicious twitter integration (sharing != saving) but i like the new search a great deal."

The pressure on Digg to find a way to speed up the pace with which it surfaces news on its front page has got to be growing. Note that Delicious hasn't decided to put its links inside a toolbar as Digg, StumbleUpon and many other services have. That's nice.

For a closer look at Delicious and the real-time web, see our recent posts Five Great Delicious Hacks, in Five Minutes, for Delicious's 5th Birthday and our Introduction to the Real-Time Web.