SOMEWHAT FRANK

The Unconference Wiki Book Project

The term "unconference" first surfaced in the late 1990's but has recently become more popular among geeks as a result of events like BloggerCon among others. According to Wikipedia an unconference is defined as:

"A conference where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants, generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by a single organizer, or small group of organizers, in advance."

But what is the impact of the unconference? Unconference The Book was announced this week by Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales at WikiCamp in India. Unconference The Book aims to pick the minds of unconference organizers and attendees from around the world by enabling anyone to contribute via a wiki. Unconference The Book is a six month global project which should be an amazing case study in online collaboration as it is one of the first few books in the world to be authored collaboratively via a wiki. 

Currently, the book is still in the brainstorming mode and you can contribute chapter ideas based on your unconference experiences. You can see a list of authors here. Also you can stay tuned to project updates via the Unconference The Book Blog.

OpenCongress Aggregates U.S. Politics

OpenCongress, a political information mashup, is a great resource for anyone strongly interested in politics on Capitol Hill.  By cataloging information (and there is a lot information) in an easy to navigate format, users have access to voting records, and statements by Senators and Members, including the always interesting breakdown of who or what is donating to a particular legislators campaigns. 

OpenCongress, a project by Participatory Politics Foundation and The Sunlight Foundation, leverages Google News to obtain news articles about Congress, and Google Blog Search and Technorati to obtain blog posts about Congress. OpenCongress also uses these automated services to search the internet widely for relevant search terms to display on OpenCongress pages for bills and Members of Congress. For example, if you are looking to find out about the latest status on the bill S.574, OpenCongress offers pretty healthy aggregation of blogs and other information and even offers a feed about it.

For those interested more in issues than politicians, the site offers a wide-angle lens look at the big issues such as health care or criminal justice as well as tracking of legislation before the House and Senate.  The site is a must stop after reading any news article to give readers access to all the information the political reporters, operatives, or politicians themselves have. Hopefully OpenCongress expands into polling information.  The community continues to lack a refined and sophisticated website providing detailed and extended polling data, not merely concerning which candidate is polling ahead, but also how certain issues are playing as well.  Overall, OpenCongress is a great resource for serious political junkies.

Clipmarks: Save & Find Bits Of The Web

Clipmarks, a New York-based company, is a social bookmarking site that allows users to contribute the most interesting bits of information they find on the web. The site is moderated by the community as users "pop" items they find most interesting to help bubble them to the top, similar to Digg, Netscape and Riffs.  Clipmarks differs from most other social bookmarking sites because instead of posting links to entire web pages, Clipmarks offers a clipping tool that lets users extract pieces of compelling content, including video, from within pages and post the select pieces for everyone to see. Check out the Clipmarks demo video below for a quick preview of how the Clipmarks tool works.

Clipmarks strives to offers a platform for people to showcase the most interesting information found on the web. Some of the most popular clipmarks can be found here. Clipmarks recently published a pie chart of the top 25 topics on Clipmarks which I have included below.

Bottom-line: Clipmarks is a social bookmarking site with a Digg-like rating system that offers a unique way to save portions of websites to offer bite sized highlights of the web for others to discover.

Google vs. Microsoft, Hollywood Disrupted, OpenID Explained, BitTorrent Video Store and the Feed Reader Market

Photo of the week: With the 79th Academy Awards tonight I felt this photo title Over Hollywood Sign by Jorge Mir offered a good point of perspective.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.25.07

Hollywood Disrupted By Social Media?
An opinion piece in the LA Times, titled “The Movie Magic is Gone”, explains how Hollywood is losing its place as the epicenter of cultural products and how movies are losing their relevance as the "barometers of the American psyche". Personally, social media has definitely pulled me away from more and more television and movies the last couple of years.

BitTorrent.com Launches Video Store
BitTorrent Inc, the popular peer-to-peer file sharing software, has released the final details of their long awaited video store. The store itself will go live this Monday, and will offer movie rentals at $2.99 - $3.99, and “download to own” TV shows.

It’s G-Day: Google Launches Apps Premier
Google has Microsoft squarely in its cross-hairs as it launched Google Apps Premier, its subscription package of premium, hosted business applications in direct competition with Microsoft. It does not surprise me. Interestingly, this past week I also heard a radio advertisement for "Breakfast with Google," an event setup to showcase Google @ Work for government organizations.

How does OpenID work?
Good question, this video post offers some perspective on just how OpenID works as explained by Simon Willison. Also Digg announced this past week that they are going OpenID.

How Many Founders Does A Startup Need?
Brad Feld looked at number of founders in successful Internet businesses. The average is 2.09 founders and Brad discusses this number and gives his input.

Netvibes2Go, Pretty Good Actually
GigaOm takes a look at Netvibes mobile experience and reports back on it. Basically, Netvibes setup is easy: create a tab in Netvibes called “Mobile,” and drop in some of these modules.

The State of the Web-based RSS Reader Market
FeedBurner released a great look into the feed market and Read/Write Web took it a step-further by examining the web-based feed reader market. The article also pulls in some numbers from another feed-based business called Pheedo.

Next Net: 25 startups to watch
Business 2.0 has once again listed 25 startups to watch in 2007. Here are last years 25 hottest startups.

Stop Motion Style Used In Web 2.0 Video

The stop motion film style is an animation technique made popular by in the original 1933 version of King Kong and claymation classics Gumby and Wallace and Gromit. The technique makes static objects appear to move by making items move very small amounts between individual frames, producing the effect of motion when the film is played back, as in conventional drawn and painted animation.  The one minute video below was described as "web 2.0 stop motion style" on the web 2.0 page of FunMansion.com where I found it posted. I don't agree with the naming or definition of this video as it really doesn't cover anything related to web 2.0 but I do think it is an entertaining piece of video due to its animation style.

The Feed Market View From FeedBurner

FeedBurner released a feed market analysis report yesterday (February 22, 2007) which offers an unprecedented look into the syndication industry. This is the most comprehensive feed report of its kind to date. According to the report, Google, MyYahoo and Bloglines currently offer the most popular web-based feed aggregator products. It appears Google has the most feed reading users. A number of publications have already dissected the report but here are the highlights:

• MyYahoo reports the most click-throughs via feeds which makes sense since it only offers links
• Google (combo of Google Reader & Google Personalized Homepage) reports the highest number of read items
• Google also pulls in the most FeedBurner feeds

I found the web-based aggregator reporting information to be the most interesting as it shows the differentiation between reporting methods of top web-based feed aggregators (see diagram below). It brings to light the fact that not all products are reporting metrics in the same fashion which could affect the metrics FeedBurner is able to report. For example, Google reports item views on visible items while Bloglines reports all items on a page when it loads. If both Google and Bloglines load the Somewhat Frank feed, Google will report views only on items that are visible to a user via the scroll bar while Bloglines will report views on a page when it is loaded. Scrolling down to make two items visible in the Google Reader two views will be reported to FeedBurner while making two items visible in Bloglines will report still on all items on the page when it was loaded as viewed. In the same respect, there also could still be products that are missing from FeedBurners metrics as Google did not report subscriber information until just last week and there could be other companies still excluded.

For additional perspectives on FeedBurner's latest report check out articles on Olson's Observations, TechCrunch and /Message.

Yourminis Flashy Personalized Homepage

Yourminis, a Flash-based personalized dashboard of widgets created by Mark Cuban-backed Goowy Media, has been making some aggressive changes since its launch late in 2006. Yourminis offers users one of the most customizable homepage experiences I have seen to date as it leverages Flash to present desktop-like features on the web.

Yourminis, nominated for the 'Best New Site' award at the upcoming SXSW Interactive conference, recently made some changes to focus more on the social aspects of the web by reconfiguring the URL for the personalized homepage from Yourminis.com to Yourminis.com/start. The former URL has been replaced with an html-based “community landing page” which highlights Yourminis’ personalized homepage, desktop widgets, featured pages, widgets and users. The “community landing page” enables users to interact with the widgets as well as with other Yourminis users, thus emphasizing the social aspects of the product. Users can create tabs and share tabs with the rest of the community and I quickly created a tab made up of few Somewhat Frank related items - it can be seen here. Another user configured tab that I am particularly fond of is the Chicago Cubs tab shown below (Go Cubs!).

Of the comparable personalized homepage startups like Netvibes and Pageflakes among others in the space, Yourminis offers the most whiz-bang experience with a number of slick widgets. However, Yourminis could be criticized for being too overwhelming, with its flair and countless configurations, to a first time user. Yourminis’ recent change to a “community landing page” for a first time experience might help to assist overwhelmed users, however it also puts users a click further away from adopting the personalized homepage.

Aesthetic shimmer aside, performance and accessibility are still important aspects of a personalized homepage. With Yourminis I have encountered a couple of hiccups in respect to both as I have had to re-save changes upon returning to see them reverted, and I also have tried to access Yourminis from a public computer and found it inaccessible due to the absence of a Flash browser plug-in. That aside I still find Yourminis a compelling dashboard experience.

Bottom-line:  Yourminis offers a Flash-based personalized homepage experience that might be your cup of tea if you are looking for a flashy approach.

Related Articles:
The History of the Personal Homepage
Widgets Live! Everywhere
Widgets and Web 2.0

Create A Photo Comic Strip With Comeeko

Have you ever dreamed of starring in your very own comic strip? You may have previously looked to Comic Life but now Comeeko offers an online option that makes it possible to create a comic strip with your photos or other images you upload to the site.

Comeeko, an Australia-based beta product, offers an Ajax interface that makes it easy to generate comic strips with limited drawing skills. Comeeko enables users to choose a comic layout by selecting the number of panes and the layout of the panes. Each pane can have photos added to it by uploading them directly or by tapping into Flickr photos. Users can add speech bubbles and effects and share the completed comic with friends and family. If you have a social network page or blog you could add some humor to your page with Comeeko. I created a comic strip and displayed it below.

Bottom-line: Comeeko offers an easy to use Ajax interface to create and share custom comic strips.

BrowseGoods To Visually Shop The Web

Is window shopping your thing? If so, you might like what BrowseGoods has to offer as it recently launched a new way to shop online. Rather than searching directly for the items you are looking to buy, BrowseGoods allows you to casually browse for items.

BrowseGoods enables users to shop visually by browsing over a number of items in a handful of categories. BrowseGoods is not a visual search in the same sense as Like.com which actually returns search results based of an image. Instead, BrowseGoods incorporates an drag and drop interface, similar to any Ajax map product, which allows users to easily move across a number of items very quickly. If you find something you like you can save it for later, email it to a friend or buy it immediately from Amazon.com. The screen-shot below was taken as I browsed the men's shoe selection.

The BrowseGoods experience may be something worth giving a try, especially if you don't quite know what you are looking to buy. For other perspectives check out Search Engine Journal, TechCrunch and Ajax Magazine.

Teqlo A Mashup Platform For Non-coders?

Are you mashup dreaming but don't know how to write code? Are you thinking about how you would like to blend a Google Map with an eBay search and plot the auctions dates on a calendar? If you answered yes to these questions you might want to check out Teqlo.

Teqlo recently launched a mashup platform that allows users to pull together a page consisting of a number of widgets or modules that communicate and work with one another. Teqlo has created a mashup builder application that enables users that do not know how to code to create mashups as mentioned on their site:

"We are committed to giving non-technical users the capability to create mashup applications that help them get things done without knowing anything about APIs, coding, and scripting."

It gives users a few dozen widgets to add to an application canvas. Each widget can then be setup to communicate with other widgets thus creating a mashup with interactive capabilities. I created a simple mashup and have included the screen-shot below. It is not the prettiest presentation but I find the concept interesting.

Teqlo reminds me of Ning, another mashup platform that enable users to create custom mashups with limited coding knowledge. However, I feel that all these platforms, Teqlo, Ning and Yahoo Pipes, are geared towards a 'geek-centric' crowd. They are still too complex to attract and maintain the interest of a mainstream user (i.e. my sister would NEVER use any of these products). You can get a quick demo of Teqlo in action by going here or by watching the video below.

For other perspectives, Mashable!, Up North Down South and EarlyStageVC have also published their takes on Teqlo.

Yahoo's New Patent, Google Reports On Feeds, Web 3.0 Explained, Mobile Examined, Dash & EggDrop Fun

Photo of the week: Create a 2 gigabyte ChapStick as explained by The Machinist.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.18.07

Patent Monkey: Yahoo Ready to Smash Up the Mash Ups
Yahoo was recently granted a patent that could cause a bit of a shake-up to other web portal companies if acted on. The patent covers the ability to give users control over customized templates that are saved and stored on a host server and the idea that real-time information is  stored on the host server and delivered to the user in the template.

Google Is Now Reporting Feed Subscribers
Google has started reporting subscriber counts for Google Reader and Google Personalized Homepage. What does this mean? This is one more data point to help you understand how many people have asked to receive your feed (aka "subscribers"). The number that Google is reporting is the total number of Google users who've subscribed to your feed in Reader or with Personalized Homepage. Somewhat Frank has seen a huge spike in subscribers via FeedBurner as Google products were previously not part of FeedBurner subscription counts. TechCrunch's subscriber count spike is even more glaring as it went from about 178K to 261K overnight. Thank you Google!

Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
Read/Write Web predicts the formula for the next web (web 3.0) will be as follows: 3C = Content, Commerce, Community | 4th C = Context | P = Personalization | VS = Vertical Search. Do you agree?

Xdrive Shows and Autocopy Beta Tests
Xdrive Shows is a new web-based application available on Xdrive that allows you to combine pictures and music into multimedia slide shows.  Watch a Xdrive Shows demo here. Autocopy, a new feature in the latest version of the Xdrive desktop client software, enables automatic uploads of music and photos directly from your PC to your Xdrive account. Give Xdrive Shows and Autocopy a whirl here.

Mobile Search Not That Hot?
Andy Beal looks closely at a recent UK survey of mobile phone users which suggests that there may be no where near the amount of people using their cell phones for search as previously thought. Do you search the web on your mobile device?

Building Social Applications at Climb to the Stars
Stowe Boyd presented this past week at Lift on the topic of Building Social Applications. He has put his presentation slides out on the web for your viewing pleasure.

Dash fills coffers for Web-connected car navigation
VentureBeat reports on a new GPS device that will be connected to the Internet too. That is pretty sweet if you ask me. The device is expected to be priced within the $500 to $800 range, along with the existing leading GPS devices.

Yahoo! Go 2.0 Goes Gamma
Yahoo launched a new gamma version of Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0, after the new service initially launched in beta just a month ago. The gamma version enables users to search directly from maps and share oneSearch results, news articles and the service directly with friends.

RSS Reader Triggers Airport Security
Josh Hallett recently found out the hard way that is you are using the paid wifi in the terminal and you open up a desktop-based RSS reader like NetNewsWire, the network assumes your flurry of RSS-grabbing activity is a suspicious event.

Bored? Organize An EggDrop
Make Magazine just created a handy .pdf and video explaining how to perform your very own EggDrop. I haven't heard about an EggDrop in years, it brings back memories of middle school.  So if you are bored or wants to do something different give an EggDrop a try.

Gates & Jobs Duke It Out In Apple iWorld

The "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials produced by Apple which consist of a war of words between two actors playing the roles of a Mac and a PC have created quite the buzz. With the release of Vista the most recent commercial describes the user "Allow/Cancel" prompts that might frequently bombard a Vista user. Current.tv decided to see what would happen if  one of these Mac commercials consisted of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Place your bets now, as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs square off and duke it out in the clean white virtual world of the Mac ads. Who do you think will win this "tech czar" duel?

 

AOL Supports OpenID By Enabling Over 63 Million AOL/AIM User Accounts

Managing the login credentials for every web site or service you sign up for tends to be a daunting task. Remember your username is "somewhatfrank" on service A ,"franky-baby" on service B and "frankyhollywood" on service C can be somewhat troublesome. After exploring its options, AOL has decided to address the problem and support the movement to decentralize online identity by enabling anyone with an AOL or AIM screen-name to integrate with OpenID. OpenID is:

"OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity."

The AOL move is a huge show of support for the OpenID movement as the de facto standard in user credential interoperability as it has instantly added an estimated 63 million users to the OpenID system. AOL colleague,  John Panzer was one of a few instrumental in the movement to adopt OpenID at AOL and expressed his views in the blogosphere and explains what adopting OpenID does for AOL users today by saying:

• Every AOL/AIM user now has at least one OpenID URI, http://openid.aol.com/<sn>.
  
• This experimental OpenID 1.1 Provider service is available now and we are conducting compatibility tests.
• We're working with OpenID relying parties to resolve compatibility issues.
• Our blogging platform has enabled basic OpenID 1.1 in beta, so every beta blog URI is also a basic OpenID identifier.  (No Yadis yet.)
• We don't yet accept OpenID identities within our products as a relying party, but we're actively working on it.  That roll-out is likely to be gradual.
  
• We are tracking the OpenID 2.0 standardization effort and plan to support it after it becomes final.

So if you have an AOL  or AIM screen-name, your OpenID profile is linked to your AIM Pages profile at:

OpenID.aol.com/<enter your AOL screen-name here>

Obviously this process did not happen overnight and additional integration work will continue at AOL but nonetheless it is great to see AOL taking a leadership role in helping to solve online identity issues by supporting the OpenID movement.

Related Article:
The Web Profile Aggregators

Gizmoz For Customized Talking Heads

Gizmoz, an Israel-based company, offers a suite of tools for generating animated avatars and buddy icons thus enabling users to create messages to share over email, the web or even instant messenger. You can create an custom animated message by selecting an avatar to deliver the message and then either recording a 20 second message, typing a message to be converted into an audio voice or by selecting a pre-recorded message. Upon selecting an avatar and message option you can preview the animated video before sharing it with others. However, all messages that are created on the site are placed into a public gallery of Gagz for others to watch, rate and share. I created an animated avatar and have embedded it for viewing above or by visiting this link.

Aside from animated gag creation, Gizmoz offers a free plug-in to bring talking heads to just about every instant messaging client available (i.e. AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Google Talk). The software enables users to share gags and exchange instant messages via a Gizmoz talking head. Find out more here.

In addition, Gizmoz is working a product called Headz Maker that allows anyone to create a custom talking head from a facial photo. TechCrunch previously reported more details on the head maker. It sort of reminds me of Max Headroom, are we catching up with the technology forecasts of 1985?

Trixie Tracker: Log A Baby's Every Move

Trixie Tracker offers a simple online application for parents to keep track of their baby's various activities. While this may sound a little obsessive, I would have to say it may help parents to organize their baby's lives. Trixie Tracker aims to help parents keep better tabs on the various activities surrounding a baby so that they have a record to analyze and gain a better understanding of their baby's habits.

Trixie Tracker, which logged its 100,000 nap in 2006, is organized with a number of tabs with each set up for a different tracking category. The tracking categories are sleep, diapers, bottles, solids, nursing, pumping and medicine. Trixie Tracker is currently offering a free 2 week trial and then is $14.95 for 3 months billing periods or $8 per month if you go month to month. The current logged numbers are shown in the image below.

I do not expect to use this site anytime in the near future, as I do not have a baby, but a colleague of mine is preparing for twins so this might be the web's gift to him and others expecting an arrival soon.