With the announcements of Facebook's "frictionless sharing" and Amazon's Fire color Kindle, my colleagues Joe Brockmeier and Richard MacManus have both weighed in on their thoughts about where the modern Web is going. I think both opinion pieces hold some worthy points, but I have my own fears and thoughts. It comes down to whom do you trust more to own your data: Facebook, Google or Amazon. And while there are other choices (notably Microsoft and Apple, plus numerous smaller entities), my conclusion is that none of Big Three has the ideal set of circumstances here.
The answer is to moderate our use of and dependence on social media, especially Facebook.
Frictionless sharing, the act of passively notifying social media of all manner of activity, scares the hell out of me. Not just because of the obvious privacy implications. Frictionless sharing turns up the volume on useless information and simultaneously threatens user privacy and control of online identity. Not only is Facebook becoming too central to our online discourse – it's becoming too crapified to even be useful. We have a social media problem, and the time to turn back is now. And the answer isn't regulating Facebook.
Last week's issuance by the Federal Communications Commission of rules to protect what some still call "net neutrality" was destined to be legally challenged by someone, on some grounds - that's the nature of regulatory government. (In a pre-emptive strike, Verizon filed its challenge last January.) But in the first of what will probably be several challenges since the order, the advocacy group Free Press makes one and only one argument.
It cuts to the quick, and then stops: The FCC can't adopt two sets of rules for a "mobile Internet" and a "fixed Internet," while pretending to uphold "one Internet" to the public.
Tired of tracking down when you need to refill your printer supplies? Then check out the latest innovation that IT management vendor Spiceworks has implemented today: an automated printer ink and toner reminder and restocking program. The company claims its users are responsible for maintaining more than 10 million printers, and that adds up to a lot of toner cartridges.
Many of us remember when the new fangled fax machine was first called a telecopier and was going to revolutionize office communications. How far we have come since then. But with all the various waves of tech to revolutionize our offices, I think we have almost come full circle back to the lonely telephone. (You can still buy one at Amazon, of course.)
When was the last time your food tweeted you? In the case of many well-known food brands, an embarrassingly long time ago, as Chris Brogan found out in a post today. He researched food-related Twitter accounts and commented on those that were more suitable for the dumpster along with those that belong squarely front and center on the dinner table. Let's take a closer look at his analysis and also talk about some takeaways for you to, ahem, beef up your own Twitter customer service and make your social media engagement tastier.
Leading enterprise social software vendor Socialtext announced today v5.0 of their service that updates their user interface and packs a bunch of new features. In addition, they have released SocialRadar, a people recommendation and profiling engine that identifies the most relevant people to connect with and solve business challenges together in real-time. V5 also includes a simplified content editor along with a theme selector and other UI enhancements. It is available now.
The then-newly installed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, said in October 2009, "We are fast entering a world where mass-market mobile devices consume thousands of megabytes each month. So we must ask: What happens when every mobile user has an iPhone, a Palm Pre, a BlackBerry Tour or whatever the next device is? What happens when we quadruple the number of subscribers with mobile broadband on their laptops or netbooks? The short answer: We will need a lot more spectrum."
Yesterday, a systematic and mathematical analysis of U.S. spectrum allocation blatantly called Genachowski's statement to the 2009 CTIA Wireless conference flat wrong.
If you travel frequently, you might have noticed that hotel lobbies have become more social, and it isn't just the free Wifi. As we become more interested in working in shared spaces, the hotels are trying to become more like the coffeeshops and other hangouts where we work. The trend is happening from lower-priced discount hotels to the higher-end properties, and includes A-Loft (Starwood's lower-end designer label), Hyatt (both their restaurant-less Hyatt Place, and extended-stay Hyatt House brands), Marriott Courtyards and Hilton's Home2 Suites extended stay brands. The idea is to remake the sterile hotel lobby into a "social hub" that is more living room than just a place to check in and grab a free newspaper and wait for a cab. Call it the Facebooking of the hospitality industry.
Intranets are supposed to be a source of information that employees can use to be more effective in their jobs. They're supposed to be but the fact is, intranets tend to be unloved and ignored. Socialcast has pulled together an infographic that demonstrates how intranets are failing to live up to their promise in most environments.