Wish I could take credit, but I can’t. Lovely work done by Student Hacks (Thanks, Audrey!)

[tags]The Web Outside, Student Hacks, Halloween, Firefox, pumpkin carving, geek halloween[/tags]

What happens if I click on that creepy barcode on the left?

Will I be entered to win a 6 day, 7 night stay at the Turtle Bay Resort in Oahu? (Yay!)

Or get a terrible worm that will suck the life out of my hard drive? (NOOOOOO!)

Or… or… or… will LonelyGirl15 come to my birthday party? (Huh? Sicko.)

All excellent guesses, but no… the whozimajiggie on the side there is actually a Augme datamatrix barcode containing an encoded URL of this website, which can be displayed on MySpace, Facebook, t-shirts, posters, you name it. (And, btw, clicking on it will do you no good.)

Come again?

Maybe I should start over…

Augme is a Florida-based company looking to get ahead of the curve on mobile barcoding technology. While most Japanese phones already have barcode readers (and most owners actually use them), such technology is still seen as a unnecessary novelty in European and US markets… at least for now. Augme wagers that because Nokia has begun installing barcode readers in many of their higher end models (N95, N93, N93i or E90), the trend is primed to spread.

Don’t have a Nokia? (Yea, me neither.) You can download barcode-reading software on an affiliated Augme page.

So, the all-important question arises: Why would I want to do this?

Well, for starters… as an aspiring band, you could have your customized barcode link to a downloadable MP3… for a hopeful model or actress it could lead directly to your portfolio. Users also have the option to create a profile within Augme itself (with or without direct contact info) that can be easily encoded.

Augme’s revenue model is reliant upon an online store selling t-shirts emblazoned with your barcode(s).

If the market for mobile barcode readers takes off, Augme is definitely in a great spot– far ahead of the curve. However, if the turtle-like uptake of the technology outside of Asia is any indication of the trend’s stickiness potential, this could quickly become a rocky business path.

The site is super easy to navigate (it took me five minutes–tops–to register and create the customized barcode shown above), and the idea is boldly forward-thinking, so I certainly wish them well.

[tags]The Web Outside, Augme, mobile, technology, barcode, tagging, QR codes, datamatrix codes[/tags]

I was excited to receive an email last night letting me know that a limited number of Chumbys were available for purchase, and I should pony up and get one.

You say: Chumby whaaa?

I say: A Chumby can best be described as a device that looks like an alarm clock and behaves like a laptop. Chumby displays your custom widget loop on its 3.5″ color LCD screen, all the while decked out in some slick leather casing.

Awesome, right? Well, almost.

I was all set to blog about the Chumby as a neat new tool to carry forth the message of the web outside, until I learned…

IT NEEDS TO BE CONTINUALLY PLUGGED IN.

*sigh* We still purchased one to play with in the office, but man… so close to so cool. I understand the rationale (a battery can’t power an LCD–even a teeny one–for very long), it’s just really hard for me to get excited about something with a cord.

Being tethered is so 1985.

[tags]The Web Outside, Chumby, wireless devices with cords[/tags]

Burn Free, as Free as the Source Flows…

The tagline for Freedom Toaster reads like a bad rally sign from the 70s, but the awesomeness of the technology makes up for it. Okay, almost.

So, Jayne, what’s a Freedom Toaster… and, more importantly, should I want one?

Glad you asked. A Freedom Toaster is like a candy machine– except instead of doling out Skittles and Snickers, it dispenses digital products (e.g. popular Linux versions, music downloads, ebooks, free Windows apps)… and yes, you should want one.

The idea for the Freedom Toaster grew from the discrepancy between the huge number of computer-savvy citizens of South Africa and the scarcity of reliable internet connections; therefore, access to open source software (Linux, in particular) is greatly stunted.

Freedom Toasters are currently up and running in a variety of public spaces in South Africa, and –in a notable demonstration of practicing what they preach– instructions for building your own Freedom Toaster are available on the company’s home site.

[via Springwise]

[tags]The Web Outside, Freedom Toaster, Linux, South Africa, open source software, Springwise.com[/tags]

“Treat your cell phone like a mouse…”

“Treat your cell phone like a remote control…”

The Web Outside feeds off similes such as these like a llama gobbles alfalfa. As I’ve put forth on our About page, people are beginning to expect the same immediacy, accessibility, and customization in their real lives as they experience on the web. And what better tool to make this happen– wherever, whenever– than the cell phone?

Well, now it appears that we have a new (and unknowing) conceptual backer: Steve Ballmer.

Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft (for those of us who haven’t been keeping score), gave the keynote speech at Tuesday’s CTIA Trade Show. His core statement (”core” from where I’m sitting, at least): “In a sense we have to think about the phone as almost a universal remote control for your life.”

At the risk of patting this blog on the back… touché, Steve.

[via CNet]

[tags]The Web Outside, Steve Ballmer, CTIA Trade Show, phone as a remote control[/tags]

The Bzz Outside

AdAge reports this morning that holding company Interpublic Group has entered into a strategic partnership with Boston-based word of mouth marketing firm, BzzAgent. To be clear, the deal isn’t an investment, nor is it exclusive; but, what it certainly will do is grease up relationships between Interpublic’s agencies (e.g. Draft FCB, Hill Holliday) and BzzAgent.

BzzAgent’s network of volunteers is over 300,000 strong (and, for full disclosure, I happen to be one of them), so this is no small deal on the social media front. I can’t say I’m surprised– as the web shifts outside, the savviest agencies will increasingly follow.

[tags]The Web Outside, Interpublic Group of Cos., Draft FCB, Hill Holliday, AdAge, BzzAgent, buzz marketing, word of mouth marketing[/tags]

Akamai Technologies, our Cambridge neighbors, have landed an impressive content delivery deal with Starbucks. The program is set to roll out in San Fran, Seattle, and NYC, and will basically allow Starbucks to serve itunes downloads from Akamai’s local servers, rather than from Sbuck’s central servers (as is the case currently). This shift is said to reduce download time for customers from 30 seconds per song to 2 seconds.

Although Starbucks (and retailers in general) may seem to be an unexpected target for an Internet content delivery company like Akamai, the move isn’t all that surprising given the state of the marketplace. According to business analyst Mukul Krishna, Akamai has led this sector for years, and is only now facing competition from multiple angles. This increased traffic in the space is bound to have at least one positive side effect: the Web Outside is about to become quicker… quickly.

[via Boston.com]

[tags]The Web Outside, Akamai Technologies, Internet content delivery, Cambridge, Mukul Krishna, Starbucks[/tags]

Harbinger of a Healthy Social Operating System?

When Facebook announced their open platform back in May, they urged their partners to refrain from using the words “MySpace” or “social network” in reference to the launch. Why the selectively tight lips? My best guess is that they were trying to establish themselves as the thought leaders in defining the Social Operating System; in the crowded SN space, follower has become a dirty word.

Unfortunately for Facebook (but fortunately for the developer community), MySpace now appears primed to flesh out the still incipient “Social OS” concept themselves.

Read/WriteWeb details MySpace’s plans in their recap of yesterday’s Web 2.0 Summit. The agenda starts innocuously enough: a catalog of available widgets and tools, industry standard APIs coming within a few months, an opt-in beta program for end users, and the rise of a widgetocracy– in which users can vote their favorite apps to the top of the pile.

Ok, fine…
It’s the next step concerns me: “MySpace will formally introduce the best widgets into the community, with what they term highly developed integration.”

Ehm? Does this sound eerily like another famous MS to anyone else?
Right… the “Ya’ll Create…We’ll Tweak and Take Credit” Model.

Not to be overly pessimistic and paranoid… There are certainly bright spots in this that even a doubting Jayne can’t downplay. Not incidentally, it’s the social aspect of it all that has me eying that shiny lining. Go figure, eh?

Case in point: As Richard MacManus of R/WW writes of the commingling of “geeks and media,” I can’t help but get giddy.

MacManus describes the Summit’s gala social event:

At tonight’s party it was a strange experience seeing geeks with glasses (I was one of them) mixing with trendy and beautiful people. a.k.a. technology mixing with media. Perhaps that’s a sign of things to come with the MySpace platform.

Jouissance v.2.0, oui? As long as MySpace keeps social issues in the forefront of their Social OS roll-out plan, I’ll attempt to hush my paranoia. Sounds like a given… but I’m not yet convinced.

[tags]The Web Outside, Read/WriteWeb, Richard Macmanus, Social Operating System, social networking, widgets, open platform, MySpace, Facebook[/tags]

Okay, “gives birth” was a bad choice of phrase; please read on.

This past weekend, I stumbled upon a podcast interview with Leo Lorenzen, the CEO of Altura Ventures, a VC principally focused on funding Facebook apps. The interview proves the insane pace of the social networking world; although the conversation took place less than a month ago, the major takeaways are already severely outdated. To wit, Lorenzen is quick to draw a line in the sand between MySpace and Facebook, particularly when discussing open platforms. He posits that Facebook, as a SN open platform trailblazer, will make it much harder for MySpace to follow suit.

Well, apparently, not all that hard; it’s happening next week.

Lorenzen punctuates the divide by remarking that Facebook is more like “a proxy of how people actually interact with friends in real life,” whereas MySpace remains typically “web-like.”

The root of this dividing line, according to Lorenzen, is the concept of the Social Graph– a term rapidly becoming a hot industry buzzword (and, in true web 2.0 fashion, may already be on its way out).

So, what is the Social Graph? In a long-winded (yet alliterative) way, the Social Graph refers to the underpinnings of communication, coordination, collaboration, and commerce within a social network. In short, the Social Graph is defined not by the thousands of widgets bouncing around in Facebook-MySpace-Bebo-Land, but rather by what (and whom) lies underneath.

Put another way, the Social Graph can be thought of as a dynamic, constantly undulating Q&A session:
Who’s using all of these widgets, and how?

As I’ve been discussing in the past few posts, the idea of a Social Graph no longer belongs singularly to Facebook (even though it’s one of Mark Zuckerberg’s favorite phrases). In fact, it would even be foolhardy to apply it only to the social networking space as a whole. The Social Graph now appears to be busting at the seams and giving way to a new Term of the Moment: The Social Operating System.

It’s like Jargon Christmas! For the sake of blog space, look forward to thoughts on the S-OS later this week.

[tags]The Web Outside, Social Graph, Facebook, MySpace, Social Operating System, Lee Lorenzen, Phil Leigh, Altura Ventures, Bay Partners, widgets[/tags]

Yesterday, I posted about the thematic overlap of the Jaiku-Google deal and MySpace’s upcoming 3rd party developer platform. The analysis left me fidgety. And, when I’m fidgety, I ask more questions:

• Is this rapid shift toward open platforms and widget-mania resulting in thousands upon thousands of useless, hastily-hacked apps? [Okay, yes, but is there a germ of an idea somewhere in that mucky widgetpile that could actually change the way we live and compute?]

• Is this shift a burgeoning condition of web 2.0, or have we never grown out of the “Dancing Hamster Phase” of web 1.0, and we’re just now noticing the (widgety, microbloggy) shape of the new permutation?

OR

• Are we hesitant to assign any value to widgets because we too quickly deem them low-brow? Could the quickly expanding 3rd party developer space actually be a way out of the SN corporate mousetrap?

That said, I should bring to light another major SN player that’s part of the open platform party– following the example of Facebook, Linked In, and now MySpace. Welcome to the rager, Bebo.

Bebo has been “selectively open” for a while now, allowing a few hand-picked developers to exhibit their wares on Bebo Widgets; yet only since late-July have they jumped into this mosh pit. (Incidentally, they’re also rumored to be heading towards an IPO.)

Pete Cashman over on Mashable wonders what this means for revenue; I wonder what this means for end users.

There is a nugget of hope in this whole movement. Back in August, Facebook changed the way apps were ranked, based not only on number of users, but on how “engaging” they are – a move prodded by criticism that they were only highlighting popular, yet entirely useless, apps. This new method is still completely subjective, and doesn’t really solve anything, but at least it shows cognizance (on the end users part) that the Pick Ur Zit widget may be cool (for a second), but has no further resonance. In short, sticky is far from synonymous with useful.

So, does this simply leave us in a holding pattern? Not necessarily.

I’d be biased if I said the key to redemption in Widgetville (and ultimately culling out useful apps from the larger pile o’ bile) is some form of The Web Outside, but I’ll say it anyway. More specifically, bringing the most engaging apps into social places and making them part of the real world fabric can’t help but weed out the richest apps and weave them into our lives beyond our desks and dormrooms.

But, as I said, I’m biased… [see name of blog above]

[tags] the web outside, widgets, microblogging, bebo, myspace, facebook, 3rd party developer platform, open source[/tags]