Saturday, August 02, 2003

Fun with Friendster, Introducing Tribe.net 

Had dinner last night with good friends and their charming 20 year old niece. "Laura" goes to UPenn, is into shopping and fashion, belongs to a sorority, wants to go into marketing of some type, and oh, yes, is really bright.
Laura: So, you know I have a Friendster boyfriend?
Aunt: You do?
Laura: Well, not really, its a guy who emails me all the time. I haven't met him yet. But there are so many cute guys on Friendster!
She goes on to describe how her friends--including a whole gaggle of sorority sisters, have created Friendster profiles and are busy commenting and updating them..it's a thing among her circle.
When she asks me if I like Friendster, I tell her it's cool, but that I prefer Ryze--because I'm not looking for guys to date, the fact Friendster doesn't have last names is a major limitation.

Meanwhile, there's a new game in town that has the later mover advantage of being able to look at everything already build. Tribe.net
is a carefully planned, well-organized commmunity that offers not only social networks but the chance to buy, sell and colaborate--think Friendster and Ryze meets Craigs List. The service is in beta, and it looks really good.
What is interesting is the opportunity to use services like this to create local networks as well as national networks--no one has done that yet but it is the great opportunity. If I was an online newspaper COO, I'd look into how to localize this kind of social network/trading community, pronto.
PS To our great amusement, Laura shared her techniques for making prank phone calls: "You get the name of a football player or some idiot who's made obscene comments, then you call him and you use this site that has the voice of Arnold Schwazrtenegger and other celebs to make comments into thee phone, like "This is not a tumor" (Arnold, Total Recall)." She giggles. "It is soooo funny!"


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Have you seen? Recommendo & Hip Hop Blog List 

Kevin Kelly's Recommendo. If you ever wondered if the great and electic product reviews that marked the Whole Earth Review during its heyday had ever migrated to another outlet, you'll be thrilled to learn that they live on here in the hand of the master, Kevin Kelly. Find out why you might want:
Bernie Krause's sounds of nature CDs
The best non-stick baking pans
Guides on what seafood (not) to eat
And more.

Also, check out the list of Hip Hop blogs..if you want them, they are here. (How about trance and psychedelic music blogs, folks, where's that list?) (Via Move the Crowd)
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Here & Back Again: The New York/San Jose Shuffle 

Day 2 in San Jose. Get the keys to the new house tomorrow morning. Already have the list of what to shop for so I can camp out before the movers come with all the stuff. And I brought a pillow, sheets, towels, phone, answering machine...
It's great to be back in the Valley--the tone and texture of the place is so different from New York. For one thing, people are opening to starting conversations, not afraid to be friendly. I'm writing this from the new San Jose library, which offers free plug in your laptop network access to the web (and fast, too!), and people keep stopping to chat when they see me with my own machine. "Is that a wireless connection?" a fellow just asked. "Nope, you can plug in your laptop for free."
In addition to the friendliness, there is the markedly different ethnic mix. San Jose is full of Mexican-American, Vietnamese, Thai, Filipino, and Southeast Asian families. Plus a large number of Tongans, Somoans, and Hawaiians. Plus people who have settled here from all over the US and lots of long-time native Californians. So you see women on the streets in the hot sun wearing Vietnamese straw-brimmed hats, and moms in rebozos cuddling their kids, and so on. After the more limited diversity in New York, the variety is fascinating(as the are opportunities to eat great cheap ethnic food.)
But having said all this, there is a part of me that is delighted I will be back in NY in two weeks for a few days. So many of my clients are in the city, and the projects we're working on are fascinating.
And many of my strong ties to education and social service are there--have to build them here.

Somehow, I've created myself as this bicoastal person without ever having intended to do so.
Back in San Jose again! Wow.

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Friday, August 01, 2003

Yucky Stuff: Hogbelly's bulging hog belly 

Here's a fat guy who's proud enough of it to set up an AOL hometown page about his bulging, sloppy beer gut. He's been cited by bloggers six time in the last 6 months, with Anil Dash being the first.
I found him through the latest issues of the trashy b3ta, which you can subscribe to at b3ta-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Here's a pix...

This is so disgusting.
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Sex in the City: Baryshnikov to do a turn 

HBO has signed Mikhail Baryshnikov to play a love interest for Sarah Jessica Parker in the final set of episodes, airing this January.
While it is sort of neat that Carrie is going to actually out with someone older than she is (Parker is the most tiresome 35 year old pretending to be 26 that I have ever seen), I am actually getting tired of her serial dating. It's been 4 years, folks! How about a reunion show--"Carrie's Boys?"
or "Meet Cute Forever: The Men of Sex and the City?"
Yick, while it's fun to watch, this novel's been written about 1,000 times already.
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Made in China: A second life for the Netscape browser? 

Development of a Chinese-language, localized version of the Netscape browser is continuing in China, where SUN has a license from AOL TW to continue browser development.
Meanwhile, news comes via Zeldman that, not surprisingly, CSS wiz and reviver of the Netscape fishcam Eric Meyer is now out on his own. Here's the announcement from this very talented guy. His contact info here. Build your own browser--Eric can help.
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Blogging from Opening Day, the new San Jose Public Library 

The new $177 million-dollar new San Jose public library opened to day, and I am writing this, my first entry from California, from one of the 366 carrels with web access (this carrel, with green stickers, is for people who bring their own laptops and plug into the library network for free).

This new library is impressive--8 floors, with great reading room spaces a la Barnes & Nobel before they took the desks out of the stores, amazing light, computers everywhere, classrooms, meeting rooms, art pieces--far more than I have seen in my 45 minutes of walking around, trying to find a working data port.
My new home is about 10 blocks away, and I think I will be spending alot of time here--until I get DSL access installed in my new place, I may move into the library just for that.

Interestingly enough, in a city known for both for technology and weak public schools, the library is the first city/university collaboration in the country--it will be funded, managed, and operated by both entities. The vision statement says:
"SJLibrary.org reflects the best of cooperative efforts between a major city and a major university - a collaboration supported by Silicon Valley's innovators and leaders."

The new web site for the library is here.
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Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Many One: Launching a visual browser & so much more 

Joe Firmage's ManyOne is getting ready to launch its first browser and portal. I met some of these folks a few months ago, and am fascinated with their plans--they hope to create affinity-branded portals in partnership with mission driven nonprofits (National Geographic would be a great example), have the partner resell the content, access and tools to their members, and build a rich, discovery-oriented service using a graphical browser based on Mozilla's Open Source code and the taxonomy of the Open Directory Project, another open source effort.
Think PBS meets Knowledge Adventure (remember those amazing dinosaur CD,s etc?) meets next generation, high-bandwidth browser.
To make this work. Firmage has done some acquisitions, notably bringing aboard Tony Parisi, one of the developers of VMRL (I saw him and Mark Pesce launch VMRL at W3 in 1994 in Chicago).This will give him the capability to really think about building a broadband-focused visual browser, if you will, plus some great authoring tools.
The challenge for these guys, who are heavily scientific and technical for the most part, will be to remember that the audiences they want their partners to sell to are all of us: demanding, impatient consumers who have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to trying something new, good cause or not. That's a problem than can easily be surmounted with the right team--Firmage has some great people in place and no doubt will add more as needed.
This one is on my watchlist.
(Via Dave Winer.)
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Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Department of Nosy Neighbors: All dialogue guaranteed verbatim 

So the moving truck comes down my little street and it's huge, built to hold about 45,000 tons. The drive only does long-haul relo-type jobs, and he's got a crew of three guys who are packing demons.
They pack and load most of our household in one day, then hunker down in the truck to pass the night. The cab has two beds, a john, VCR, DVD, Playstation, and who knows what else.
It's about 10 pm and my doorbell rings. I, of course, am junking out on episode 3 of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy(it's getting old, fast).
Mr. Green Jeans, my retired neighbor with waayyy too much time on his hands, is at the door. He's in his undershirt, which is frightening. "That truck, the motor's running," he says.
"Yes?"
"Do those guys need some light? I could get an extension cord and run it outside and rig up some Christmas tree lights so they have external light," Mr G-J says.
"Is the truck bothering you?" I ask. "If it is, I can talk to them can ask them to turn it off."
He squints at me. "You talk to them by cell phone?
"No, I'd go down to the truck."
I spend the next 10 minutes politely demurring as he keeps offering to rig up a light source for them from the Christmas lights in his attic. At a certain point in the conversation, I start thinking, "I am moving tomorrow. This guy is a well-known meddler. Why am I listening politely like this all might make sense? Why don't I just tell him to stuff it?" but I keep nodding, just going along, until the moment comes when I can slam the front door shut, and deadbolt the lock.

Sad irony: The moving truck is kinda noisy...I feel bad about how the noise must be bothering everyone on our street.
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Gone packing: Light blogging day 

The packers are coming at 8 am to finish off what's left of the household goods after our packathon at 1 am last night. Yawn.
Today and tomorrow will probably be light blogging days unless I have a chance to creep into a corner and escape the chaos.
Saw the last 40 minutes of Minority Report last night after the Sex and the City re-run. Minority Report is such a well-made flick; the cinematography and styling are very rich. I was a fan of A.I., but I think Minority Report is Spielberg's effort to prove he had the goods to do a big futuristic movie after A.I. basically flopped.
Anyway, back to the boxes and suitcases.
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Monday, July 28, 2003

Knight Ridder web sites to use Overture search services 

Knight Ridder, a former Google partner, is going to work with Overture products to deliver both contextual text ads and search services.
What fun, a competitive landscape is building.



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TV News: Tamara Haddad to join MSNBC as producer 

My friend Tammi Haddad is joining MSNBC to produce its 6 pm political programs, "Buchanan and the Press," the network announced today.. I was lucky enough to work with Tammi for a few months last year on the prototypes for a live interactive news and issues show to be aired on AOL, and she is brilliant.

One of the first producers of Larry King Live on CNN, Tammi was executive producer of that program until 1993, when she became the senior producer of the "Today" show on NBC. She worked in network television until a few years ago, when she went off on her own and consulted for a variety of companies and executives.

Prediction: This show suddenly gets ALOT more interesting, and gets more press and share of mind--Tammi has that nose for news and she gets people as well.
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Cheap talk on David Gest and Liza Minelli split 

Via Gawker, comments from Dong Resin: "I guess it was only a matter of time until Dave gave up hope of ever finding Liza's penis."
Jack Osbourne (via Gawker and Moviefone): "[David Gest] is a f—-in' psycho. You know his deal, right? He was the biggest Judy Garland memorabilia collector. And then he gets the daughter. He gets the biggest prize out of the lot."

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AOL 9.0: A year too late? 

Question #1: What will dial-up and broadband Internet users pay for?
Check off the items you think will sell:
1) Exclusive videos and streamed live performances of popular musicians
2) Net-only outttakes from Smallville and other WB shows
3) People.com stories and photos
4) ABC news stories
5) Blogging software
6) Online photo albums
7) Email

AOL is betting that these offerings will be the extra hook to keep current subscribers paying $23.95 month and lure new broadband subscribers to pay an extra $14.95 a month.

Currently, the core of AOL's $9 billion in annual revenue has been from subscribers to the ISP services. Since the broadband offering was launched in April, and despite the heavy promotion, the company has acquired just a modest 1.4 MM broadboad subscribers willing to pay $14.95 a month for AOL content and services, even as their connectivity comes from somewhere else. There's no telling how many of those subscribers are households with kids ages 8-15, who have to have IM for their friends (and whose parents don't realize that AIM is the same thing).

I've seen 9.0 and it is excellent, but should it have come out a year ago?

Last summer, as I recall, the old regime of AOL--the millionaires who'd spent 5-7 years at the service and were dividing their attention between their senior executive positions and their house at the shore, airplanes, vineyards in Napa, etc--were pretty happy with 8.0 and it was only after they were fully swept away that a massive push began to improve an offering scheduled to come out in just a few short weeks.

9.0 was conceived of at that point as the way to do things right, but whether it's right or not, only the marketplace will tell if AOL 9.0 is a year too late. The huge drop in AOL subscribers in the past quarter shows that changing address books and email addresses isn't the same barrier to change that it was for consumers a few years ago--the question now is whether folks will stop and take a look at 9.0, dig into their pockets, and pony up, or whether they're going to breeze past on their way to cable modems and DSL. Almost every friend I have has switched off the service, even the most non-techie ones and the people I know who have stayed either have free accounts, have children under 15, or want the continuity of their email address staying the same (that would be me right now).
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Sunday, July 27, 2003

Strangers to the City: True NYC Fish out of water tales 

Monica Anderson: You have to walk fast, think faster in New YorkFort Worth Star-Telegram
"...It is not wise to stand in the middle of the walkway gawking. New Yorkers are in a hurry. They don't just walk. They speed-walk. I flatten myself against a building and press my mouth into a thin line. The natives don't smile. They talk on cellphones, walk fast and look very serious. The tourists stroll, smile and take pictures. I don't want to look like a tourist. I can't explain why. I just don't.

I pause at a corner on Broadway because the sign indicates that I should not walk. That's a mistake. These people do not care about signs. If they can slide by, over, or under the stalled traffic, they will cross the street. I bounce about like a pinball until a kind stranger pulls me aside and says, "Stand here for a moment. People are exiting the theaters right now and it gets kind of crowded." Pant-ing, I clutch my purse tighter and nod..."

K.O Jackson, Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield, Ohio man headed to New York for 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' audition'''

...Mounts, a Mansfield Senior High School math teacher, is headed to New York City to audition for an opportunity to be on the syndicated TV game show, "Who's Wants To Be A Millionaire?"

Since the show began several years ago, Mounts, 36, knew he should be on the show. After all, he knew "all the answers."

"I am cocky. I like the format of the show. You could be looking at a million bucks."



Straits Times Interactive: Mobbing's the new craze in New York...The Mob Project started last month with a guy named Bill who sent an e-mail message to some friends, who forwarded it to their friends, and so on.

Bill, who declined to give his last name, aims to make the project last a few more months. For him, it's a way to get people out, just like inviting them to a friend's play.

'The idea was to dispense with the event altogether and have the audience come together for no reason,' he said.

Among the sites mobbed was a Hyatt Hotel...

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Straight Eye: "There's a hooker in Trenton who wants her shoes back". 

Carson Kressley, one of the "Fab 5" on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" on Bravo, is the Carrie Bradshaw of the group--pretty, sweet, and addicted to hilarious and biting one liners. "There's a hooker in Trenton who wants her shoes back" was the sotto-voices comment when Lisa, the bellowing blonde bitch who'd entrapped passive, pretty Tom, came for dinner and an invite to move in after the big Makeover. Me-ow!
I agree with Joshua Allen that this show is fun.

Interesting side note:
CARSON used to be a prepster-- He graduated Magna Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Gettysburg College and is a former member of the U.S. World Cup Equestrian Team.

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