iBlog2 Presenation Links

Thanks to all the bloggers (and soon-to-be-bloggers) who attended my talk at iBlog2. For your reference, here are links to some of the things we talked about.

The Long Tail
The Global Microbrand
State of the Blogosphere, April 2006
Shish Kabob
Purple Cow
Getting Started with RSS
Standard Feed Icon
FeedBurner
TrackBack
Backlinks
Wizbang Standalone Trackback Pinger
Social Bookmarking
Socializer
The "Blogs on Mike" Mashup (comment #3)
Social Technology List
Video Sharing Services
Google Analytics
Performancing Metrics
StatCounter
Sneezer

'Til next time, keep spreading your virus.

PowerPoint and Spotty WiFi are Evil

PowerPoint is evil. It's crashing so much that it's taking me twice as long to finish my visual aids for iBlog2 -- and I'm not even trying to do anything fancy.

I'd use Thumbstacks if I weren't warned that the wifi might be spotty. Heck, most restaurants in the Philippines think wifi is food.

Maybe that silly web-on-a-hard-drive idea will find a small market here after all.

34.5 Million Blogs

34.5 million blogs, doubling every six months.

A new blog created every second of every day.

19.4 million bloggers (55%) still posting 3 months after their blogs are created.

1.2 million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour.

Wow.

YouTube Director Program Cuts Legit Users Some Slack

Good to see YouTube do something to prevent the legitimate user exodus I predicted when they put a length cap on uploads.

I've just been accepted into the new YouTube Director program, which allows uploads beyond 10 minutes in length for legitimate users, plus cobranding options.

Titanic 2!

This has to be the most creative, most seamless movie mashup parody I've ever seen.



Titanic 2!

This actually looks more seamless than (and almost as silly as) the critically-panned mainstream local timewarp romance Moments of Love.

(Via Steve Rubel.)

IPac Lobbies for Information Freedom

IPac is a nonpartisan group dedicated to preserving individual freedom through balanced information policy. They just shipped 12 iPods loaded with Creative Commons content to US Senatorial campaign committees.

I just signed on to support their statement of principles, as stated below:

1. Creators of ideas and inventions have the right to be compensated for their work, but not to limit political expression, veto technological innovation, or restrict education and scientific research.



2. Information policy laws should be judged by their potential to foster new creativity, as required by the U.S. Constitution.



3. Information policy laws should be clear and explicit, so anybody can create without fear of lawsuits.

I encourage you to do the same. Too many Filipino politicians just ape American politicians on information technology issues. Influencing American politicians on these issues indirectly influences said Filipino politicians.

(Via Shel Holtz.)

Ex-US Marine to Host on Al Jazeera International

Tired of being muzzled by his superiors after speaking out against Bush's propaganda machine, this captain resigned from the US Marines, the only institution he had ever known since high school.

Sixteen months later, Josh Rushing is set to host on the upcoming Al Jazeera International. Al Jazeera, the Arabic channel based in Qatar, is the station that showed the ugly side of Bush's war in the Middle East.

Right-wing American bloggers suggest a special ops team "take him out". Fox calls him a traitor. Strange as it may sound to some, this man's courage to exercise his First Amendment rights may be just the ticket to save America's image.

Oh, and SkyCable: I don't normally watch TV, but I want Al Jazeera International when it comes out.

New Photobucket Front Page

Photobucket's a bit of a hit in the Philippines, perhaps because we like the simplicity of embedding remotely-hosted media in the information taxonomies of our own preferred social media services instead of sharing it on a new one. On Pinoy Cosplay, for example, more people prefer Photobucket over Flickr. This is consistent with the peculiar, insular-yet-collaborative Filipino pattern of social media adoption.



That's why I couldn't help but notice their snazzy new front page and its nod to anime culture. Anime consumer evangelism is big in the Philippines.

The Easter Bunny Hates You!

The Easter Bunny is about rebirth on Easter Sunday...



...but before that, he's all about death!

Happy Easter, everyone!

(Via Robert Scoble.)

Indian Arrested for Song Choice

The culture of racist paranoia promoted by Bush and Blair has created a world where someone of the wrong race can be arrested for his musical taste.

No, I'm not kidding.

(Via John C. Dvorak.)

Why Your Employees Should Use RSS

It's not just the social media evangelists saying it. Listen to HR specialist Regina Miller on why your employees should use RSS -- in bullet-point form for all you upper management PowerPoint junkies.

• RSS feeds may actually increase employee productivity - info about customers, competitors easily and quickly accessible.


• RSS feeds may actually increase employee understanding of your company's media attention, brand, reputation, new products and services, etc.


• RSS feeds may be used internally to enhance your key company messages but if employees can only subscribe to internal feeds it seems hypocritical to only pump out company propaganda


• RSS will be built into future technology and become part of the way people manage their lives (attention) and information - it will become harder for companies to control in the future.


• If your company culture and brand prides itself on being smart, fast, all-knowing, etc., without RSS as a way of accessing the most current information, your internal culture and brand may feel slow, and out of the loop. And this feeling will be disappointing to customers and employees.

There's also the small matter of RSS being integrated into the next Windows.