Collaboration & Getting What You Want

In Wikinomics, the authors claim that the science field will see a vast improvement if the publishing process speeds up and scientists begin to collaborate on research projects (pp. 159-160). I do not find this method unrealistic, as some may embrace it for the improvement of humankind, but I do believe that it will prove to be difficult to get scientists accustomed to this way of doing research. My brother is a chemist, and when he is working on a project and knows of another lab doing a similar project, him and his group are challenged to work harder and faster to find and publish their results before the other group does so. Some fields are all about the competition – getting there first to attain the honor and reputation. While it is indeed in the best interest of everyone for various groups to work together, the fact that this has not been the normal practice for decades will be a challenge to change.

Collaboration in times of emergency situations, however, is a completely different story. This type of collaboration can be remarkably powerful. Tapscott and Williams provide the example of volunteer online collaboration during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (p. 186). I believe that such collaboration and information sharing is not only smart, but it is essential. Unlike in the field of science, collaboration during crises can only benefit every one involved.

Wikinomics shares many similarities with Smart Mobs. The authors of both books recognize the power of collaboration. Rheingold argues that it is in our nature as humans to want to form communities and remain connected to one another. Tapscott and Williams’ argument is along the same lines, but states that everyone should collaborate globally. The communities discusses in Smart Mobs are on a more local level. I believe all the authors would agree that technology has enabled the world to become smaller and that we should use the ability to connect to our advantage. Smart Mobs traces the trends of the past while Wikinomics looks more toward the future and the potential of technology.

The Long Tail

Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail discusses the power of the Internet to revive niches with the development of a virtual world. The physical world limits what consumers can be exposed to, but the Internet has created a virtual long tail that serves as a database for anything and everything ever sold. Amazon.com and Rhapsody.com are just two examples of what has developed since the creation of the World Wide Web to facilitate the lives of users. Anderson defends the long tail system because it caters to everyone, not just those who buy into the top 40 lists in music, books, and movies. If I want to purchase The Karate Kid, for example, I cannot go to Blockbuster to get it. The store can only hold so much, and the items it chooses to keep in stock are generally those that are most popular. According to the theory of the long tail, however, there just as many people that want to purchase other, less popular items, just not to the same scale.

The theory of the long tail is fascinating – it really portrays the ability to break through the barriers that top 40 lists and sales numbers create. The first four chapters of the book are logical and thorough – not to mention extremely easy to read. I wonder, however, how this system will affect future generations. I believe that the younger generation already takes for granted their ability to use the Internet for purchasing and looking up any information they need. I can only imagine that in several years we will be able to do extraordinarily more with the Web. Many stores may disappear altogether in the physical world. Who needs to drive somewhere for a book or movie if it can be delivered to their front door? New technology will likely make purchasing and delivery even faster and easier than it is already. If stores all go online, what will happen to our privacy? Will identity theft become a bigger problem? We can only hope that as we move online, the experts will create greater security measures to protect online users.

From Mobs to Wikis

Smart Mobs, groups of people that have the ability to create large communities through technology, continue to grow in power and in number around the world. Howard Rheingold’s book discusses the ways of cellular phones and the Internet as of 2002. A number, 802.11b, is recognized worldwide as the wireless network access protocol. Rheingold does not mention 802.11g in his book. This number was adopted by users in 2003 and is faster than its 802.11b for wireless connectivity.

What does a wireless connection mean in terms of what people can accomplish? It is more than just the ability to surf the Internet and check electronic mail (email). The author explains what happened in Manila, Philippines, when millions of citizens gathered together in a square to overthrow the President in 2001. They used their cell phones to text message each other with the plan to meet wearing all black at a certain time. In a country where texting is significantly cheaper than making voice calls, the citizens used their available technology to their advantage and were successful in making their president step down.

In the United States, people are joining many different virtual communities, such as New York City’s “nyc celebrity sightings” or “nyc terror alert,” which are made up of many members that text each other regularly to report sightings and important safety information. The company Upoc was able to use this technology on September 11 when other forms of communication were down. But what happens when this system becomes too popular and overloaded during emergency situations? The nice thing about SMS is the ability to reach many people at once, allowing information to travel faster through groups. Reed’s Law comes into play in these types of situations—instead of person to person communication, the technology becomes exponentially more useful when we can connect to more people through group to group communication.

At the end of chapter seven, Rheingold states that “smart mobs aren’t a ‘thing’ that you can point to with one finger or describe with two words” (p. 182). The ways in which people use the Internet are numerous and how they will use technology in the future is yet to be determined.

As the other books we have read so far have brought up, Smart Mobs discusses the issue of privacy in the future of technology. People are already willing to sacrifice some privacy for convenience online. For example, Gmail—Google’s free web-based email—collect personal information on their users for their advertisers. If one mentions Boston in an email, it is not a coincidence that an ad will pop up that is offering reduced airline fares to Boston. Because Gmail has become so popular (and is often deemed the most advanced web-based email software) not many people seem to mind that their emails are being monitored by a computer. So, when will Orwell’s 1984 really come true? What type of information are people not willing to share? In my opinion, it will depend on who is gathering the information and the intentions of that gatherer. If it becomes eerie to look up at a billboard that is displaying an advertisement that is directly related to me, then I might start to disapprove of the uses of technology. Ads that are irrelevant to me are annoying, but they are easy to ignore and thus, not worrisome. But if I start to see too-relevant ads in my email box and on my cellular phone, I will undoubtedly start to feel stalked, followed, and personally targeted.

Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, discusses mass collaboration as a method of endless possibilities. The authors demonstrate to the readers through many examples that many people and ideas working together are almost always better than few; mass collaboration proves to be very powerful and informative. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone, puts this fact to the test. Throughout my blogs I have linked to Wikipedia entries because it is essentially a huge database that provides a substantial amount of information on virtually every topic. While some entries may not be complete, well cited, or perfectly correct, the vast majority of them are. People contribute to the entries to provide knowledge and act as social beings. The popularity and effectiveness of Wikipedia demonstrates that people are willing to share with the world information about which they are experts.

Tapscott and Williams provide the example of the events that occurred in the London underground system in 2005 as a testament to the power of Wikipedia. Within a short time, the online encyclopedia contained information on the topic, which many added to over several hours. The information was imputed on Wikipedia faster than many mainstream media news sources reported on the event. Can the Web site be considered a breaking news source? Probably not yet, but I imagine that it has the power to come chose in the future.

Critics of the open source system and information sharing assert that if information becomes free and public, companies will not makes as much profit as possible.

The authors encourage companies to work together to create a powerful information exchange. If two companies share their secrets they have the potential to grow more quickly than by working alone. Web sites such as InnoCentive offer a company the chance to seek help from outsiders on a certain project, costing them some money for the solution, but producing more profit for them in the long run. With so many people in the world, this type of business seems logical. Information is not meant to be held in secrecy. The best way for information to become worth something is if it can be useful, or shared.

While the idea of information sharing has not yet permeated the world, I agree that it will soon become the way of the future. Little by little people and companies will join in the global system of information sharing. The proof that it is in everyone’s best interest is in the success of Wikipedia. When there is more at stake, however, people are more hesitant to trust the system. It will take some time, but I have no doubt that it will be successful once more and more information becomes open source.

Smart Mobs – Part 1

Howard Rheingold’s book, Smart Mobs, discusses the evolution of the Internet as stationary to the Internet on the go. The first five chapters of the book reveal the infinite possibilities that arise with a mobile Web. Users can control, look-up, and purchase an endless amount from their wireless technology devices.

All over the world technology has been evolving at an extremely fast pace. Rheingold mentions Japan and Finland, in particular, two countries that have been home to several significant advancements in the mobile Internet arena. Rheingold describes Tokyo, Japan as a place where the youth rely on their cellular phones for virtually everything. Texting, especially, is extremely popular in Japan, where teens can keep in contact with their friends from wherever they are, whenever they want. Some even hold dating relationships through text messages.

What are they consequences of such cell phone-reliant behavior? According to graduate student Tomoko Kawamura, “Kids have become loose about time and place” because they have cell phone (p. 5). People are so connected that they have virtually no worries about punctuality anymore. That is quite a strong effect of mobiles, and it is one that is worrisome in itself. Have we started to disregard the values that we used to hold as priorities?

NTT DoCoMo, a subsidiary of Japan’s telephone operator NTT, leads the wireless cellular industry in Japan. Across the globe in Finland, Helsinki, as of 2002, led the world in the number of Net connections and cell phone users. To be honest, I would not have predicted that to be true. I was always under the impression that Tokyo, Japan was far more connected that any other city in the world. From Sweden come a variety of virtual communities, such as LunarStorm. Ultimately, people between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four are those dominating Web communities. The Swedes are also the creators of many innovative technological devices used around the world.

Rheingold makes statement after statement that the world is advancing to quickly technologically. He’s correct to the point that his own book comes with an expiration date: 2002, the year it was published. The author states, for example, that text messaging with cell phone can only be transmitted to the holders of cell phones who subscribe to the same operator as the sender is not longer the case. While texting has grown increasingly popular in the U.S., it still does not compare to the popularity in Europe and Asia. This probably has a lot to do with the cost of texting—which was created cheap to begin with in other nations.

Rheingold discusses in detail game theory, which explains the popularity and uses of the mobile Web. Those who belong to mobile virtual mobs are smart to employ the “tit for tat” strategy, which allows for equal gain of each player. This type of game strategy is applied to software as well.  Shawn Fanning, for example, created Napster to allow users to share music files through a large network. Those songs that one downloads to one’s personal computer become available to others, working as a give and take relationship.

Not only is technology now portable, but it is wearable. Rheingold describes the way in which people are developing completely customized computer that collect data based on where a person is and what he or she wants to do. Steve Mann, University of Toronto professor who has wanted to be a cybernetic organism (cyborg) since a young age, defends human intelligence for the purpose of learning about our surroundings. He argues that each person should be able to control his or her own environment, which is what wearing a computer entails. Analyst Gartner Consulting “predicts that 40 percent of adults and 75 percent of teenagers will use wearable computing devices by 2010” (p. 112). Considering that is only two years away, I’m not sure the mobile Web is advancing that quickly. The introduction of Apple’s iphone in the U.S. has caused a leap in that direction, but the cost of such devices still do not seem to be attracting as many users as possible. Though as more and more advanced devices begin circulating, prices will go down, and more people will begin to join the trend. Only time will tell what the future of technology holds.

The Search Continues

John Battelle describes the control Google has gained on the Internet in his book The Search. The search engine has the power to help businesses prosper or send them into utter ruin. Neil Moncrief, for example, a man who owns a plus-sized shoe business on the Internet, relied on Google’s accurate search algorithms to attract customers to his site. When searchers typed “big feet” in the Google search box, Moncrief’s business of large-sized shoes would come up on the front page, sending many customers his way. One day, however, Google—in hopes of rectifying a spam problem it was having—changed their algorithm.  Businesses, like 2BigFeet suffered tremendously.

Google not only has control of present-day businesses, but it holds part of the future in its grasp as well.  Battelle provides some interesting predictions as to how technology and the Internet will be used in years to come.  He discusses how advertising will follow us from one device we use to another, tracking our searches to determine what we are interested in purchasing.

Is privacy an issue here? Some argue yes, while others say no—we are being targeted with ads and that should be more welcome than annoying advertisements that don’t matter to us in the least. In addition, such targeted advertising is likely to bring down the rate of random ads on webpages on the Internet that serve as distractions, and not in a good way.

Click fraud became a problem with Google as the search engine gained popularity. Google and others recognize this as a problem and are constantly working to prevent it.  Currently, Google charges its advertisers (through AdWords) only if a visitor clicks on their ad. What if Google took this a step further by charging their advertisers only when a purchase is made as a direct result of the posted ad on Google. Surely Google can track such things.

Battelle discusses the way in which Google has taken an enormous amount of public information and put it online. Examples include the yellow pages and the white pages, which are convenient for the web searcher, but present privacy issues as well. What was always public information has now been put into a format that requires little energy/resources to pull up. Home phone numbers, for example, can now be searched effortlessly. Not only does Google provide a name, number, and address of a listed resident like the white pages does, but they also provide a map to the exact location of a house. The privacy argument states that Google has facilitated one’s search of public information to an extreme: why provide the map? People may think twice about wanting to be listed in the white pages and that is their right. Google has not violated any laws by doing this.

But Google has lingered on the verge of the law in other ways. They have used their ability to change their search algorithm to save the company while on trial for allegedly inaccurate search results. They changed a search result in one region for one day, which happened to be the place and day of their trial. Google has undoubtedly had hundreds of lawsuits files against them due to one reason or another, but through it all, the company’s motto remains “Don’t Be Evil” and their loyalty remains to their users. 

Battelle provides an insightful chapter on the future of search and what he calls “the perfect search.” It entails users being followed by tracking systems that memorize their searches and get to know the users on an individual level.  So that when we type a keyword or series of words into a search box, we get results that are perfect to us. I agree that search is headed in this direction. It seems that soon privacy will be just an added bonus on the Internet and we will slowly learn to give it up a little at a time. People are already willing to use applications like Gmail that provide personal information to their advertisers. Why? Because it is an innovative web-based email application and it is free.

The Search is really a great book. It’s well-written, well-researched, and it provides insight into issues with Google that I previously didn’t know about. I am not a regular Google user; I have always been true to Yahoo! To be honest, this book leaves me surprised with the seemingly endless products that Google has to offer, but it does not make me want to convert. I have often found that Yahoo gives me the search results that I seek and I have grown better at understanding Yahoo’s search feature.

John Battelle’s blog this week presents a new feature Google has implemented in its search capabilities in the post about second clicks. When a user searches for a website that is itself searchable (such as Amazon.com), the user is provided with a second text box under the particular website that came up as the search result. This provides the user with a quick way of searching a website without having to open it. Is this a good thing for these websites? In addition, the secondary search results have listed on the right side of the screen the ads that Google users have paid for through an AdWords account. Wait a minute – who is actually profiting here? Seems like it’s Google by all counts. 1) By not visiting Amazon’s homepage, users do not see Amazon’s ads and promotional items. 2) On top of that, Google AdWords purchasers have their ads listed on a secondary search page that people are less likely to use for the reason stated in number 1. I don’t like it. I haven’t used it and I probably would not begin to do so.

Google’s Story

John Battelle’s The Search discusses the creation and growth of a search engine started by two Stanford graduate students—Google.  The first six chapters of the book are well researched—Battelle outlines the major events that Larry Page and Sergey Brin underwent in their creation of a new search engine.  Battelle provides an in-depth history of search engines prior to the creation of those we use today.  Among them are Archie and AltaVista.  Not only does the author offer insight into the creation of Google, he also adds a certain human aspect to the story, revealing the hardships and hurdles Page and Brin had to overcome to end up where they are now.  Battelle describes the features of Google that set it apart from other existing search engines, like Yahoo! and MSN.  The innovativeness of Google comes from the unique link tracking that it employs.  Instead of a search engine merely retrieving information from a large database, Page and Brin had the bright idea to display results in order based on the popularity of each site or document.  To determine the popularity, the founders developed an algorithm that tracks how often each of these sites are linked to.  The more links in cyberspace that a website has, the higher on the search results list it climbs.  From this idea, PageRank was born. 

While successful in the search business, Google struggled for some time to come up with a viable business model.  Page and Brin had little trouble convincing people to give them money to launch Google on the Internet, but once they had the money, they could not figure out how to sustain the search engine through a new way of advertising, which other search engines were using to make a profit.

Eventually the growing company came up with an innovative, customer-friendly business model: they would charge advertisers only if their ads were clicked, attracting more and more companies wanting to advertise on Google.  To keep to their policy that their customers are their top priority, Page and Brin chose to keep Google’s homepage completely free of ads.  It is essentially a white screen with a colorful logo and a search box.  Google figured that by making their search function so powerful, they could afford to avoid busy-looking homepage ads—they were, after all, attracting thousands of visitors a day.

Currently Google is the most used search engine worldwide (and by far).  Fifty-one percent of Internet users go to Google to perform their online searches.  The next popular search engine is Yahoo!, which follows at twenty-four percent.  That’s a significant disparity.  It certainly causes one to wonder why there’s such a large gap.  Google’s features are user-friendly, its search style is unique, and its mission is to serve its visitors and organize information in the best way possible.  Could it also be the simple layout of the homepage? Or the fact that one can customize the homepage? How about the fact that there are no advertisements on the homepage? All of these features contribute to the reason that Google stands as the number one search engine in the world. Not bad for a couple of twenty-somethings (now 34) from Stanford to have come up with.

What’s interesting about this book is that Battelle provides in-depth information on the company’s timeline form its birth to the present.  He also discusses the personalities of Brin and Page, describing them as having caught “entrepreneur’s syndrome” (p. 141).  Until the time of Battelle’s writing, in 2005, Page and Brin were known as the founders who needed to be a part of every decision of their company.  You cannot blame them for this – why wouldn’t someone want to keep a close watch on something they created that has made them so successful?

Google is largely talked about in the blogosphere.  Search Engine Watch and Jeremy Zawodny’s blog are just a couple of blogs out there that have posted about Google this week.  Good or bad, if people are talking about the search engine, it’s giving them great publicity.  Every time Google comes out with a new feature (or changes something about one) there are people discussing it.  They want to know how it affects Google’s public and what others think. These types of blogs are great reading for someone wanting to stay afloat of what’s going on with the big Web companies.

Does Google blog? Yes. Scoble and Israel would be proud, as they advocate a company’s blogging to stay in touch with their customers.  Google’s blog consists of many individual posters who generally discuss what the company is up to and how they are aiming to better serve their visitors.  It’s certainly more formal than other types of blogs you may see out there, but it does serve the purpose of staying connected with their users.  It doesn’t seem like Larry Page or Sergey Brin have blogs (at least I couldn’t find them through a Google search).  They probably don’t have the time.  I think if they did start to blog, they would likely dispel the idea floating around that they are arrogant entrepreneurs who are overprotective of their company.  The founders could discuss their plans, provide tips, and respond to readers (I’m sure of which they would have many). 

GigaWhat?

Scoble and Israel adamantly support blogging throughout the first eight chapters of their book Naked Conversations. Not until chapter nine do the authors provide a hint of blogging’s dark side.  The authors assert that some companies and individuals should not blog due to the nature of their business. In fact, the first few paragraphs of the ninth chapter contradict the entire rest of the book. Perhaps the authors could have stated earlier that there are a few exceptions to the blogging rules.  They claim that “certain material is not bloggable” (p. 137). Undoubtedly many companies deal with such material; therefore, those companies should not blog. Then the authors claim that there are companies for which blogging is not a necessity. I would have liked Scoble and Israel to elaborate on this point, instead of assigning only companies with so few customers to this category. Surely there are many more types of companies that do not need to blog. CVS, for example, has absolutely no need to blog, but serves thousands of customers daily throughout the country. What do the authors have to say about that?

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt exist as deterrents to blogging (p. 140). Blogs should not be used to disclose confidential information, of course, which eliminates several more companies from becoming part of the blogosphere. 

The authors briefly discuss blogging-gone-bad type cases, including companies—such as Mazda—that were involved in deceiving their readers. Employees have also gotten fired for the content of their blogs. But the authors sugar-coat blogging when they claim, “The point is that the risk of employee misbehavior is so remote, based on what has actually occurred so far, that it seems safe to assume blogging’s benefits outweigh its risks” (p. 145). This weak argument makes little sense. How can past statistics accurately predict future behavior? According to what the authors have already said, one person is capable of leaking confidential information or making a single negative comment that could ruin a company. Shouldn’t, therefore, companies be extremely reluctant to let their employees blog if their demise is a possibility? The benefits of blogging are great, but the risks are great as well. While the risks may be outnumbered, they are certainly not outweighed.

Scoble and Israel discuss poor blogs—those that did not survive in the blogosphere due to their use of deception. The authors make a valid point: those who want to lie to their customers should not choose to do so through blogging. The deceit (and customer response) travels fast on the Internet, and one does not want to be branded as a liar forever.

Another major fault that may occur in blogging is prolonged silence.  If an issue arises and a company does not respond to its public quickly, the company will not likely be well regarded by the public for some time. Attempting to hide information is equally detrimental to a company, considering the public will find out anyway.

The authors provide eleven tips for creating and keeping a blog. The importance they assign to the blog name surprised me at first. It does make a lot of sense, however. I didn’t stop to think that my blog might not show up on a Google search if I didn’t title it to match what I thought others would be searching. I would have thought more about my blog name had I read chapter 11 prior to beginning the blog (maybe it should have been called A Time To Blog About Blogging). The authors’ passion for linking becomes clear as well. They seem to be saying: Link to others and they will link to you. That way, everyone gets a little Google juice.

Responding quickly to questions and comments is highly recommended by the authors. In the blogosphere, there is really no excuse not to do this. Unlike writing, clearing, and releasing a press statement, blogging takes minutes. Even a post explaining that a company is acting upon an issue is enough to prove to the readers that their interests are a company priority and that the comments and questions from the readers are being heard. Ignoring one’s readers can certainly backfire.

For the sake of further exploring the validity of the authors’ thoughts, one might wonder how an author like Dan Gillmor would react to the statements made in Naked Conversations. My thought is that the authors would agree in many aspects, but Gillmor would not go so far as to write an entire book on blogging. Rather, he explores the changing era for all media and the effects technology has on the future of journalism. Gillmor offers a wide range of topics upon which to ponder, while Scoble and Israel become repetitive half-way through the book.

Putting Naked Conversations into motion…
Reflecting on a post from GigaOm.

Om Malik blogs about what he deems a mistake of a cell phone company and its offer of a cheaper plan with unlimited minutes. Om Malik argues that he ends up spending roughly $150 per month for the phone, overages, and extras anyway. Therefore, AT&T is just losing money by offering a $99 deal to customers. What an excellent example of a point discussed in Naked Conversations. Here’s a loyal customer calling the company he uses as a cell phone provider “dumb.” In this case, should AT&T link to his post on their blog? (They don’t have one.) According to Scoble and Israel, yes! The company should start a blog, link to the post, and offer up an explanation—something along the lines of how they intend to attract more customers and keep their loyal customers happy. After all, GigaOm is widely read on the blogosphere and people are going to start talking. Well, the post drew in 37 comments, most of which disagree with Om Malik. But the readers were civil and provided thoughtful explanations for their disagreement.

Obviously, Om is a well-liked blogger, since comments can be quite brutal.

Conversations, naked or not

Scoble and Israel’s book Naked Conversations discusses the impacts that a company that blogs can potentially experience.  The authors support blogging tremendously, claiming that every company should have a blog, as it is the modern method of talking to and listening to one’s customers. The authors provide several examples of how blogging can resuscitate a company on the brink of failing, or a company that is poorly viewed by the public.  For example, before its employees began to blog, the public regarded Microsoft with animosity.  Customers did not have an insight into the minds of those working at Microsoft—as a result, the public grew more and more suspect of their actions. Joshua Allen began blogging as a way to connect with the company’s customers and the mood changed drastically as more and more employees did the same.

According to Scoble and Israel, “Google juice” is important for a blog to become prominent on the Internet.  To build “Google juice,” a blogger should post often and hope that others link to their sites.  When this happens, the likelihood that the blog will come up on the front page of a Google search grows. Company executives should know that blogging can boost their ratings—and there’s no excuse that any company should not become part of the blogosphere. 

So how do companies get others to link to their blogs? How do they market themselves?  The process is similar to what happened with a small-budget movie that became a huge hit in theatres. I heard from my uncle that I should go see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. He had heard from a coworker. That coworker heard from a friend. This word-of-mouth system also occurs on the Internet, except at a much faster rate. Bloggers are not limited to a small town, or city, or even a state. The whole world has access to what a blogger says online. The word-of-mouth method, therefore, can travel faster than ever.  Creators of ICQ, the buddy chat software, recognized the potential to spread information so quickly on the Internet and acted upon it to create a huge number of users in no time. They told some friends, who told more, and so on.  Part of creating a successful word-of-mouth trail is creating something worth discussing and sharing with others.  Imagine how quickly word can spread about something with so many millions of bloggers making up the blogosphere.  Scoble and Israel recognize the human nature to want to share information with others. We enjoy discussions, lengthy conversations on a given topic, and sharing “insider” information with others.

The authors touch upon an aspect of blogging that Gillmor’s We the Media also mentions. Bloggers can make speling errors and that’s considered acceptable.  There’s a real person behind every blog and the fact that blogs are not written in perfect English nor are they free from typos creates an informal dialogue between the blogger and his or her audience. Blogs, for this reason, are not nearly as intimidating as official press releases or newsletters. They are essentially conversations between people.

Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mike Cuban, blogs to rant about many different issues and has developed an audience curious about his opinions.  In contrast, Dave Winer’s blog is more tech-savvy, discussing different topics, but with the same sense of informality as found at Cuban’s blog. These are big names and Scoble and Israel encourage executives to blog to develop a closeness with their audience.  Small companies are catching on quickly, too. Businesses grow faster when the public is exposed to their presence through blogs.  For example, Horsefeathers Restaurant co-founder Ben Williams started a blog to develop an intimate relationship with his existing customers, discussing anything that he may bring up with them in person if they came into the restaurant. Scoble and Israel claim that these types of relationships keep people coming back.

The authors provide five “success tips” when blogging, which encompass the essence of the first several chapters of the book. They encourage bloggers to just chat with their audience instead of trying to sell to them, to post often, to post about issues they care about, to recognize that while free blogging takes time, and to listen to their audience.  The authors also explain the difference between the process of blogging and that of producing a press release.  While press releases go through edits and checks before being released to the public, a blog post is created by one person, released to the public, and then edited (if necessary) by the readers of the blog. 

It was particularly interesting to read about the existence and trends of blogs in foreign countries. Culture does influence the number and types of blogs around. In France they are prevalent because the culture is comfortable with sharing opinions and ideas on different topics.  In contrast, Germany has significantly less blogs because the people are more reserved talking about themselves. The Chinese government regulates blogs and their content, not allowing for freedom of speech, while Japan surprises Scoble and Israel with the number of blogs in the country. 
 
Scoble and Israel’s main point is that companies should let their employees blog. It’s an excellent way to stay connected with and listen to the public.  Dan Gillmor advocates blogging in more of an individual sense. He believes that bloggers should let their voices be heard regarding issues that they are passionate about and they should help contribute to the information of the Internet. I believe the idea of “citizen journalism” does not exist for the authors of Naked Conversations as it does for Gillmor. Scoble and Israel advocate friendly, informal blogging as a way of developing a close relationship with customers, while Gillmor advocates individual blogging that allow people to take a stand, present new information, and make substantial contributions to society. Both have valid arguments and both understand the power of blogging.

So far, I agree with what Scoble and Israel say in the first several chapters of their book—I believe that blogs are a modern way of connecting with people and developing a friendly, approachable reputation.

On Rosen’s PressThink

Although Jay Rosen hasn’t posted to his blog, Pressthink, since January 20, the content of his most recent post—and the link that he provides to his main article—is ongoing.  He discusses the role that the campaign media plays in the presidential primaries.  More precisely, he labels the media “a herd of independent minds” that hasn’t reported as well as it could have in the races.  How does it affect the public when they are getting “insider” information from the media and it turns out to be false?  Naturally, people will grow skeptical of the information they receive from the media. Anyone who follows politics, however, has a good idea of how predicting the outcomes of the polls works. Unless we can ask the majority of voters who they will vote for, we won’t have a good idea of how the numbers will turn out. And in defense of the media, politics is just about the only subject that the media may not get right. Otherwise, the media play an important role in society.

Blogs, Trolls, Australia, and the Law

In chapter seven of We the Media, Gillmor presents blogs as a new, better way to get news.  He discusses the role that the once-audience can now play in reporting news through the Internet.  In particular, Gillmor defends the idea of blogging in circumstances in which Big Media reporters cannot make it to the site in time to report.  For example, a blogger named Zeyad grew popular from his blog, Healing Iraq, which discusses the daily news of what is happening in the war zone.  While Zeyad is not a professional journalist, he provides the type of information that the public wants to read, both quickly and accurately.  Gillmor envisions bloggers as the news sources that professional journalists will one day consult for information.  To establish a useful, trustworthy blog, citizen journalists must build up a reputation among their readers.  Once this happens, Gillmor argues, anything is possible.

Not all boggers have the privileges of those who are American.  Some countries, like Iran, outlaw blogging and punish those who violate the nation’s strict rules.  I view this as a serious misfortune, especially in a time when the world has become more connected through the Internet. 

The author is fascinated by the Wiki world.  Frankly, so am I.  When given the opportunity to contribute to the editing of a website, one would think that its content would spiral out of control into a site full of fallacies.  Yet, this doesn’t happen. Gillmor’s explanation of the phenomenon: “People are generally good” (p. 150). 

Gillmor touches upon Metcalfe’s Law and Reed’s Law in the digital age.  In a nutshell, the Internet grows in power as it grows in size.  While this may seem obvious to some, it really is the essence of the purpose of the Internet.  The Internet would not be as efficient if it did not continue to grow; the more people and places it connects to, the more limitless the possibilities become.  This is why bloggers have so much power in the news world today. They can reach a huge audience for little or no cost.  According to Gillmor, however, the bigger the Net becomes, the simpler blog-set ups will need to become to attract and retain bloggers (p. 163).  I disagree with statement. I believe, instead, that people will become better at understanding HTML, setting up blogs, and communicating through the Internet in different ways.  Education of the topic is expanding, not diminishing.  This statement leads me to wonder what someone like Cory Doctorow would say in response.  I believe that Doctorow might disagree with this statement as well, since his first chapter of Essential Blogging already does educate readers about blogs its different parts.

If Gillmor claims that blogging needs to become much more simple for citizen journalism to survive, he contradicts himself later by mentioning Technorati, one of the sites that tracks links in blogs—which shows the popularity of bloggers and particular posts or stories that others have linked to in their own blog.  According to the website, the numbers are growing fast. As a side note, I had no idea about the existence of such a site, nor how popular it in itself is.  It sounds like a great place to go to find the real bloggers—those who post well, post frequently, and have many readers.

In chapter nine, Gillmor discusses certain ways in which people can take advantage of the Internet as an open book.  First, he discusses whether bloggers should post anonymously and how that may affect their readership or reputation.  I tend to agree with what the author says about anonymous blogging: it leads me to wonder what the person on the other side has to hide.  If a blogger wants to be taken seriously—particularly one that labels him or herself a citizen journalist—then there is no reason why they should want to remain anonymous. That would simply never work in a real job. You could not just walk into an interview one day and say, “I like to go by George, but will not reveal my real name. Just trust what I have to say is true.”  In all honesty, who would hire that person?  As informed readers, we want to know who you are, we may even want to look you up to better understand your past, your hobbies, etc.  It’s human nature.

Spins and trolls (no, not these kind) are also talked about in this chapter. I always thought hackers were the worst threat to the Internet, but realize now that trolls and “spinmeisters” can be just as dangerous to a corporation.  Those who mislead others, post false information, or try to berate a particular person or corporation are an example of how someone can take advantage of a great thing.  I believe they will always exist, but in time I believe there will be better ways of keeping them under control.  More alarming, however, is the fact that Gillmor believes someone will one day hack into a mainstream media site and post a false story (p. 189).  Once this type of misuse begins, there’s no telling where it may go from there.

The law comes into play.  Bloggers are subject to libel laws, just like anyone else.  It’s not easy to catch on the Internet, because there is so much information out there, but it happens.  There’s a fine line, however, between what constitutes illegality and legal play on the Internet.  The Australian court has deemed it unlawful for someone to post something that may be accessible to nations or cities in which the subject matter is illegal, no matter where the blogger is located.  I find this absolutely absurd.  If something is posted online in a place where it is legal to do so, that person is exercising their freedom of speech right.  No other location should be able to do anything about it. How can bloggers be held accountable for others breaking the rules?  The Internet transcends all boundaries, creating a unique issue regarding the law.  The idea of zoning—or posting different editions in different areas according to the law—may be possible for mainstream media, but how could bloggers do the same? This would require several different versions of a site.  Does that mean the bloggers should be expected to learn all the laws of each zone? Again, it’s absurd.

Finally, Gillmor reacts to copyright laws, claiming that the big corporations are constantly putting the entertainment industry customers before the everyday customers (p. 229).  He encourages people to stand strong in favor of the fair use law being used, well, fairly.  He explains the reason behind his and his publisher’s decision to provide his book online for free.  It is an experiment that he believes will create more of a demand for the book.  I agree—while many people will opt to download and read the book for free, the book’s issues will likely spread more quickly and cause others to buy the book.  Gillmor states that he supports copyright laws and doesn’t want to see them eliminated.  But I think he is making a statement with the “partial copyright” attached to his book—that the public should be less interested in how something is used and more interested in what it says. 

Gillmor and Doctorow…thoughts

Gillmor’s We the Media discusses the revolution of journalism in the 20^th century, attributing the changes to a more connected world and the introduction of the digital age. The author provides a short comparison of how journalists reported news prior to this era and he claims that the news consumer now has much more control over their news consumption. We no longer need to sit through a news program on TV. The Internet has brought with it the capability of getting news when, how, and where we want it. Gillmor states, however, that this type of change must be accompanied by a similar change in the advertising business. 

In the 1990s, Internet users gained the power to become “citizen journalists,” able to report from their home computers through blogging. More and more blogs began popping up on the Internet (word of mouth—and  blog—travel fast in the digital age). Gillmor references several blogs in his first six chapters, one of which was started by Glenn Reynolds. Reynolds’ blog, InstaPundit.com, acts as a good example of how a blog can just take off, acquiring many readers and giving strangers around the globe a chance to voice their opinions in a lengthy discussion.

Internet users have the ability to request the news that they want to read to be delivered to them by email, through RSS feeds. Users can even edit or write/blog on commonly visited sites, like Wikipedia. 

Gillmor encourages Internet users to use blogs as a form of staying connected and contributing to a faster news source. He argues that citizens can report news if they witness an event that others might be interested in knowing about. The advantages that blogging has over what Gillmor refers to as “Big Media” include the absence of an editor, speedy news-publishing, getting feedback through comments, and the ability for news to travel just as fast as the Big Media can put it out into the public. Blogging have proved to be so powerful in the past that it has contributed to the building-up or tearing-down of a company reputation. Due to the fact that not all news on the Internet is correct, Gillmor still encourages users to verify the sources from which they get their news.

The author encourages companies to start a blog for their users/subscribers to read. Eventually, the comments option of the blog should be activated to allow consumers to ask questions and respond to what the company says. In addition, companies should address criticism against them in their blogs (and should even provide links to criticisms) in order to remain transparent and address what others say about them to their readers. The author stresses the importance of transparency in the digital age because people are usually unsuccessful at hiding news—with today’s technology, both good and bad news travels fast. 

My take on Gillmor’s first six chapters: I feel enlightened. I’ve considered myself “tech savvy” for some time, able to figure things out on the user-friendly web on my own. I did not, it turns out, know everything. I have not in the past used RSS feeds, though I’m astonished to realize their power now. Choosing the information you want to receive and allowing it to come find you instead of vice versa is simply amazing. I was also unfamiliar with the way in which corporations and people can track what is being said about them on the world wide web. This tool is particularly useful to stay on top of one’s reputation and understanding what people may be getting out of a product, service, or blog you are providing. 

Gillmor makes bold statements in his book. I am not completely in agreement about what he says regarding “citizen journalists.” He asserts that someone with a computer and a will to write about something they witnessed may assume the identity of a citizen journalist. This type of claim seems to belittle the real journalists—those who spend time researching, checking facts, and gathering information. As long as Big Media exists, so will there exist a difference between a real journalist and a blogger. That’s not to say that a former journalist in Big Media cannot take up blogging as a new job and be considered legitimate—they can. But they also have had training and understand the importance of relaying truthful information. Some bloggers do not fall into this category.

I’m not surprised at how quickly people and corporations have caught on to the benefits of blogging. It’s a quick, simple way to stay connected with one’s readers. It seems that the most successful blogs are those that remain transparent (particularly if it’s a corporate blog) and up-to-date. These attract the most readers.

Cory Doctorow et al. discuss blogs in their first chapter of Essential Blogging. The authors aim to identify the reasons for having a blog—among them, “personal rambling, technical discussion, social commentary, literary news, and current-events.” Doctorow’s own blog, Boing Boing, incorporates all these purposes into its posts. The chapter also discusses the power of freedom of speech that bloggers have in making or breaking a corporation, website, or the such. The Verisign example serves as proof of what bloggers are capable of accomplishing through posts. The authors mention several blogs—comparing their content—including, www.researchbuzz.com and www.whowouldbuythat.com. These blogs are very different in subject matter, but serve the same purpose: to keep readers informed. Finally, the chapter ends with a break-down of the parts of a blog and how they are used.

The chapter was a quick read—and not just because it’s short in length. Doctorow explains himself well and provides useful insight into blogging.

First post

Hello! Welcome to my blog for Intro to the Digital Age.