Category: Tech

Could This Be the Killer RSS App?

rsslogoWhen talking about RSS aggregators the other day, one of my themes was that no one has come out with the ultimate RSS reader yet, so the race is still wide open. I also noted that a new product generally needs to be viewed as an evolutionary advance for most users to abandon the application they know and use for one they don’t and don’t.

Now comes word that Dave Winer is working on a new RSS aggregator. For those who don’t know, Dave is one of the pioneers of the whole RSS movement. So if he is working on a new way to read RSS feeds, you can be sure it will be newsworthy and very likely evolutionary. The fact that he’s creating it may be enough for most people to view it as evolutionary.

One of the features of his new aggregator he has talked about is the “river of news” approach to aggregation. Dave describes it like this: “To me, this more approximates the way I read a print newspaper, actually it’s the way I wish I could read a print newspaper — instead of having to go to the stories, they come to me.”

One of the reasons I believe the RSS application race is still very much on is because of the difficulty in presenting the information in a logical, intuitive and easy to navigate manner. I constantly find myself scrolling up, down and sideways, opening stories in new tabs and having to retrace my steps back to the topic list. If Dave’s new aggregator can make this process easier and move intuitive, it could be the killer RSS app we’re looking for.

I hope so.

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One More Top 10 List

I thought I was done with top 10 lists for 2005, and I have resisted talking about a few of them I have found interesting, but I have to bend for one more.

J.D. Lasica posted his Top 10 Tech Transformations of 2005 and I find a few of them as well as the overall tenor of the list to be very telling about what’s in store for 2006 and beyond.

top10He titles his item number 1 “The Edges Gain Power,” which is his way of describing the power flow away from the traditional media outlets and towards ordinary users and citizen programmers and journalists. This is a first cousin of the decentralization I have been talking about with respect to the music industry- where technology and the internet have become the great equalizer that obviates the need for the traditional gatekeepers (i.e., the record label cartel). With some reasonably priced technology, a little technical skill and an internet connection, musicians can make, distribute and sell their product directly to the public. That is a big win for the musician and the consumer. The only ones who complain about it are the record labels who fear the pending demise of the golden goose.

The same thing is happening with other media. A year and a half ago, I didn’t really know what a blog was, yet today I get most of my news from blogs. The traditional media outlets (such as the daily newspapers and nightly newscasts) lost their purchase in a two-part battle. First people began getting news online as opposed to via the delivered newspaper (we haven’t subscribed to a newspaper in many years and I rarely watch the 10:00 newscast becase I already know from reading online sources what it’s going to be about). That was a heavy blow, but it was just the beginning of the exodus. Now people are moving away from the tradtional online sources in favor of citizen journalists and their blogs or blog-equivalents. There will always be a place for websites pushing content from the traditional outlets, but more and more those web sites are being thrown into the source bucket with a lot of other less traditional sources and read either via an RSS aggregator or an html aggregator (such as My Yahoo or a personalized Google page). Again, the days of the gatekeeper are over. The only thing holding the traditional media outlets together is the lack of computer savvy inherent in the older generations. Once that last fortification is overrun by the passage of time, the castles, now under siege, will fall completely.

As J.D. says, this is a thing of “pure beauty.”

This move to the “edge” permeates J.D.’s list, with at least 7 of his 10 items having something to do with this trend.

I am always happy to go to the source, whether that’s a musician or a blogger who interests, educates or motivates me. A level playing field is good for everyone who matters. The former gatekeepers will eventually have bury the goose and adapt to this new reality. Those who do it willingly will be ahead of those, like the record labels and some of the traditional media, who put their heads in the sand and hope the golden goose will rally.

Go tell Aunt Rhody, the golden goose is dead.

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CDs for IPods?

Here’s an interesting proposal. An independent music store in Charleston, SC is offering to trade an iPod for your CDs. For 45 CDs you get a 512 MB iPod and for 175 CDs you get a 60 GB iPod. Granted, the CDs have to meet some pretty reasonable criteria, but this in a novel program that is sure to get some takers. In fact, if I were in Charleston, I’d grab some from my storage boxes and head on over to collect my iPod.

The math can get troublesome when you think about how much you paid for those CDs- 175 CDs at $13 a pop is $2,275. But that’s a sunk cost since you can’t sell them for what you paid. The real question is how much you could sell them for on eBay and whether it’s worth the time and effort of doing so. Sell 175 CDs on eBay for $3 a piece and that’s $525. You can get a 60 GB iPod for less than that, but to sell them you have to add them to eBay, administer the auction and ship them (that’s a hassle, but not a deduction, since the buyer pays the shipping on most eBay auctions).

So would I rather sell them or trade them? For an average price of $3, I’d trade them and avoid all the work of selling them. For say $6 (for a total of $1,050) I’d probably sell them (but honestly it’s a close call because it would be a royal pain to have to box and ship 175 CDs individually).

So my conclusion is that this is a pretty fair offer.

On a related note, I wonder how many people will delete the songs they have ripped from these CDs before trading them in?

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Top Underrated Apps of 2005

Gina Trapani over at Lifehacker has posted her list of the top underrated applications of 2005. I love lists like this because it helps me find out about good stuff I don’t know about.

Of the eight things on the list, I have only heard of half of them. Of the others, I am going to check out Instiki and GTDTiddlyWiki first. I need a good list management tool and these seem promising.

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Are Podcasts Really Just a Guy Thing?

Jonathan Skillings posts over on C|Net today that a survey has indicated that 78% of those who have ever listened to a podcast are male? Could that be right? Is podcasting really just a guy thing?

First of all, I wonder what the numbers are for music buying in general. I have no empirical data to cite, but over my 45 years it has been my experience that guys are generally, for whatever reason, more into music than women. My wife listens to the radio all the time in the car and she’s been married to a musician/songwriter/music nut for 12 years, but she doesn’t care enough about music to go out and buy a CD. In fact, I don’t believe she has bought a CD for herself since I’ve known her. Her friends are mostly the same way as far as I can tell. Most of my non-musician male friends buy at least a couple of CDs a year. Some many more.

So my question is: are the numbers for podcasting different from the numbers for music as a whole or merely representative of the numbers for music as a whole?

I can add two podcast-specific points. First, the only people I know who actually own an iPod are both women. While I have no idea if they listen to podcasts, they have the gear to do so, which puts them at the musical frontier of my little world. Second, 3 of the 4 people who have ever commented to me in the real world about my podcast have been women. And all of them wanted to know how to listen over the internet- without having to download something into a computer program and then move it to a music player. Again, I think most people want easy and clicking the play button is easier than downloading and moving. Especially when you listen at a computer. And I bet more podcasts are listened to at a computer than in the car (again, I have no empirical data; this is just my hunch).

So I don’t think podcasting is only a guy thing. I hope not. Either way, the generation of very tech savvy girls that are growing up here in my house, in my neighborhood and the world will have something to say about that one day. If podcasting becomes a permanent part of our culture, I believe that “girl power” will have a lot to do with it.

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TIVO Deathwatch: Clash with a Titan?

Variety reports that TIVO, through its new deal-a-day CEO, is moving towards a showdown (cue Archie Bell song). Seems the TV networks, who presumably are the requiring force behind the DRM functions TIVO has been experimenting with, are all a tither about the forthcoming feature (or maybe it’s already here- I have a $1000 HD-TIVO/doorstop that doesn’t get any of the new features rolled out to the $100 boxes) that will allow people to download network TV shows to their iPods (really- will anybody actually do this?). Of course the networks are also worked up about the fact the TIVOs allow you to fast forward through commercials, even though (a) VCRs have allowed this for decades and (b) that’s one of the main reasons people buy TIVOs (along with the ability to hold doors open once they are pre-maturely obsolete).

Here’s my thing:

1) People can record network shows for their own use. The networks fought and lost that battle a long time ago.

2) No one is going to do this purely to rob the TV networks of their rights. While I will never experience it firsthand, I’m pretty sure a show on an iPod is less fulfilling experience than a show on an HDTV big-screen.

3) These shows are broadcast for free. I get most of my network HDTV over the air and so do most other DirecTV customers. It’s not like people are stealing unreleased movies and putting them on the internet.

I honestly believe that the networks and the record label cartel are so freaked out by the gradual decline of the goose that has laid golden eggs for so long that their knee-jerk reaction any time they hear the word download is to start screaming and flailing around wildly.

The cat is out of the bag as far as media distribution goes. These companies need to start adapting to the world, because I don’t think the world is going to stop turning just because their gravy train has slowed down a little.

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2006 Tech Trends

top10The Mercury News published its predictions for the Top 10 Tech Trends for 2006 today. It’s a broad list that covers some areas I know something about and some I don’t.

WiFi expanding seems like a sure thing. The big hurdle will be city-wide wifi, which would level the playing field and free us from Starbucks, McDonalds and price gouging hotels. Here in Texas the phone companies are trying to get the legislature to prohibit municipal wifi. Hopefully they will not be successful. If ever there was a bill that should result in an immediate cleaning house (and senate), that would be it. If municipal wifi gets legs, it could be the story of 2006.

Internet phone calls may be a trend, but someone has to convince millions of people like me that if we dial 911 on VOIP, someone will answer who can help and knows where we’re calling from. There are often no mulligans when it comes to a 911 call, so creating certainty in the minds of the masses will be critical to the trend-ablility of internet phone service. Otherwise it will be a utility for a few and a toy for many.

Video blogging seems like a good bet too. I suspect video blogging will become a complimentary feature to a blog (much like a podcast is now), as opposed to a substitute.

I’m a bit mixed on office moving to the web. Yes, Microsoft Office will be more “web like,” which is a very good thing, but no major corporation (and certainly no law or accounting firm) is going to allow mass storage of documents online for two reasons: one, liability; two, the fear of a bad decision (“if it’s always been done this way and I keep doing it this way, I’m not responsible if it doesn’t work; but if I change how it’s done and it doesn’t work, I’m toast”- I’ve actually had clients say this very thing to me before on more than one occasion).

I hope clean technology is a trend, but unfortunately the environment loses to the almighty dollar like the Generals lose to the Globetrotters.

I agree with Frank Gruber that RSS will also be a trend for the reasons I have already mentioned. RSS and the open-source movement are creating some incredible technology, and this trend is in its infancy. A lot of the great technology in 2006 and beyond will come from the cyber-garages that brought us Firefox and all of its extensions and add-ons. If I was trend hunting, that’s where I’d start.

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Blogosphere’s Most Interesting People

interesting

Duncan Riley over at the Blog Herald has listed his Top 10 Most Interesting People in the Blogosphere for 2005.

It’s a good list and it’s hard to come up with the Top 10 in anything. In no particular order, here are some of the people I found the most interesting in 2005. The ones in italics are on his list as well.

Robert Gale: I find A Welsh View to be a compelling, every day read.

 Jason Calacanis: I like the way he speaks his mind with little reservation. It will be interesting to see if he will continue to do this now that he’s with AOL.

Robert Scoble: A lot of what I have learned about blogs and RSS came either from his page or from links on his page. The place to start to learn the who, what, why and how of blogs.

David Sifry: I say it over and over- Technorati is the backbone of the blogosphere. Someone is going to pay a lot of coupon for Technorati in 2006. Imagine the blogosphere without Technorati and you imagine a colder, darker, disconnected place.

Gabe Rivera: Memeorandum is generally the first place I read every morning. The New York Times of the blogosphere.

Improbulus: A Consuming Experience has the best blogging tutorials I have ever seen. Much of what I have implemented here was learned there.

Duncan Riley: He can’t put himself on his list, but he’s an easy inclusion on mine. The Blog Herald has been a daily read of mine for a long time. Along with A Welsh View, it’s one of the few blogs that can always be counted on for new and interesting topics.

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Looking for a Few Good Blogs

Thanks to the wonder of the blogosphere and the kindness of my fellow bloggers, I have already received 4 of the 10 things on my blog-related Christmas list (thanks Fred, JK, Flickr commenters and Memeorandum). Thomas Hawk is a sure bet to take more great photos, so we’ll count me at 50%.

My numbering is hopeless (I actually had to go back and ADD a number 4 because I skipped it (again)).

Kevin, J.P. and Dwight are still out shopping.

So tonight I want to focus on number 10- more good blogs to read. If you write or know of a good, regularly updated blog that would fit in on my blogroll, drop me an email. I’ll take a look and if I add it to my blogroll I’ll post a note about it here.

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Thinking Backwards, Looking Forward

Ray Ozzie has an interesting post today summing up 2005 and looking towards 2006. It got me thinking a little about the past and pending year.

2005:

Day Job: I did some stuff right and some stuff less than perfectly. Brand building was my focus, and we did some good there. Politics and diplomacy are my challenges pretty much 24/7/365. My challenges are to learn what I can fix and what I can’t and to focus more of my efforts on the former. I think too many of us obsess on the broken stuff at the expense of the places we can make a positive difference.

Music: I suspect my completed song output in 2005 was about as low as it’s been since I was in my 20s. I finished one song and co-wrote maybe two. I did get three songs recorded and had one chart in Europe. I need to either write more in 2006 or stop thinking of myself as a songwriter.

Internet: I renewed my ACCBoards.Com affiliation with Scout.Com. It’s not a perfect relationship but it’s one that benefits both companies. I moved Newsome.Org to a blog platform, first as a content management tool and then as a full-fledged blog. I have worked harder that I thought I would have to to generate traction, but I’ve actually got a bunch of readers- thank you, each and every one of you.

Family: Saving the best for last, this was a fun year for us. The girls are doing great. They have a little brother who will be born literally any day now. We bought the property next to us and built a play area and a soccer field. We are going to really enjoy it over the years.

2006:

I’m not going to make a lot of predictions, but I will say a few words about my plans and then make a couple I feel pretty sure about.

My Plans: As mentioned above, I need to adjust my sphere of concern a little- to encompass what I can change and not what I can’t. This covers a lot of areas, but can be boiled down to this- try to be very, very good at a few things instead of pretty good at a lot of things.

My Projects: As we all know, Project Flickr was a failure. I will still do a little Friend Fishing. Everything else here will be more or less the same- maybe a little tweaking to write in a little more depth about things that interest me. I will also start a year long self-improvement project in early January, which will be updated regularly here. More on that later.

My Predictions:

I just can’t help it, so here goes:

1) The new version of Internet Explorer will impress almost everyone. Tabbed browsing will help close the feature gap. But over time, Firefox will own the “geek” market and IE will be the choice of the (still large and worthwhile) non-geek market. Eventually, Firefox will make inroads there, but not so much in 2006.

2) Someone will release the killer podcast creation, publication and management application in 2006. I’m not talking about a website; I’m talking about desktop software. Maybe it’s a better version of Audacity; maybe something else. But it will happen. Also the RIAA will loose the hounds on podcasting in 2006 in another futile effort to stuff the cat back in the bag.

3) RSS will gain widespread acceptance with the new version of Outlook (as we discussed earlier this week). More and more news services will start to distribute news that way. Some media source I read will try paid feeds and it just might work. If I am going to pay for a site, I’d rather read the stories in a news reader than a browser.

4) Someone, probably Google, will buy Technorati and pay a fortune for it. Google simply can’t afford to let Yahoo get in front of it again.

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