Thursday, July 24, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
"Download" (documentary)The True Story Of The Internet "People Power"
Link to video (43 mins) hosted on Google Video
Summary:
Summary:
Host John Heilemann explores the interactive nature of the modern World Wide Web, from early successes like Napster and the still popular Craigslist, to more recent phenomena like the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook.
In this episode, "People Power," teenager Shawn Fanning invents Napster and forever changes the way music is shared over the Net -- and, later, the way people communicate with each other via this medium.
Download: The True Story of the Internet is about a revolution -- the technological, cultural, commercial and social revolution that has radically changed our lives. And for the first time, we hear how it happened from the men and women who made it possible.
From the founders of eBay, Yahoo, Amazon, Netscape, Google and many others, we hear amazing stories of how, in ten short years, the Internet took over our lives. These extraordinary men and women tell us how they went from being geeky, computer obsessed nerds to being 21st-century visionaries in the time it takes most people to get their first promotion. And, how they made untold billions along the way. The style of the story-telling is up close and personal.
With first-hand testimony from the people that matter, we tell a story that has all the excitement of a thriller -- full of battles and back-stabbing, moments of genius and moments of sheer hilarity. You will never surf the net in the same way again.
Download is hosted by technology journalist John Heilemann. He's an edgy, combative, hi-energy New Yorker who never takes anything at face value. He's also a personal friend of most of Silicon Valley's most important characters and he revels in craziness of it all. After all, this is a story in which 20-year-olds become overnight billionaires, create, destroy and re-create more wealth in ten years then human race has ever seen, and still struggle to get a date.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Link: Browser as the new Operating System
Related to an earlier post of mine that the Browser is the platform that applications should be built for...except this article uses the term "Operating System". I disagree with the terminology - the Operating System will always be the layer (above the BIOS) that the computer uses to work with its hardware, and no 'Browser' can do that. But it is an interesting term, and relevant for the article since it is making the case that applications are being built on the browser, as they would otherwise atop the Operating System.
Link
Excerpt:
Link
Excerpt:
The Browser Is The New Operating System
from the local-storage dept
A couple of weeks ago TechCrunch had a good write-up of the move toward open local storage APIs in web browsers. As websites have come to look more and more like applications rather than static pages, they've begun to bump up against the limits of what today's web browsers can do. Developers have responded by using a variety of proprietary plug-ins and workarounds to expand the browser's functionality. One example of this is local storage. There aren't a lot of good options for applications that want to store significant amounts of data client-side in a way that will continue to be available if the Internet connection goes away. Google has Google Gears, while Adobe has Flash. Each offers local storage, but neither is compatible with the other, nor are their APIs likely to be adopted by other browser vendors in the future.Saturday, June 14, 2008
CSPS should have a channel on YouTube
The CSPS hosts armchair discussions, almost weekly, on topics of interest to the Canadian public service. Unfortunately these discussions reach a tiny group of local attendees and those who join by 90's-style webcasting having reserved the time on their 90's computer (complete with Windows 95).
If CSPS had a channel on YouTube, employees (like Research Analysts) could disseminate views, information, news, updates to the public service at large and its own employees, without costly systems, upgrades and inferior systems. Of particular value would be to develop learning modules and lessons.
Instead of having a 90's style website where the video is stored as a video file for download by users, if the video is uploaded to YouTube or Google Video, the video is centralized for fast streaming and commenting and rating (if permitted) by users, and the content can be found by others not familiar with CSPS or its material, and hence expand the relevance of CSPS by expanding its user base.
The issue of copyright and ownership has come up...to this I point out the many examples that YouTube has removed content due to copyright violation, and user controls enable users to remove content they have put up, as well as specify who can see what video (private or public). Furthermore, it's also easier to manage the videos all in one place, instead of having users download the videos.
There is precedence for this. Instead of storing videos on their website, CBC has a channel on YouTube for disseminating their best videos (and hence expanding and responding better) to their user base.:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CBCtv
Other channels of interest:
There are learning channels, where companies create content for dissemination on YouTube:
There is an opportunity here for the CSPS:
No Channels found for “school of public service”
If CSPS had a channel on YouTube, employees (like Research Analysts) could disseminate views, information, news, updates to the public service at large and its own employees, without costly systems, upgrades and inferior systems. Of particular value would be to develop learning modules and lessons.
Instead of having a 90's style website where the video is stored as a video file for download by users, if the video is uploaded to YouTube or Google Video, the video is centralized for fast streaming and commenting and rating (if permitted) by users, and the content can be found by others not familiar with CSPS or its material, and hence expand the relevance of CSPS by expanding its user base.
The issue of copyright and ownership has come up...to this I point out the many examples that YouTube has removed content due to copyright violation, and user controls enable users to remove content they have put up, as well as specify who can see what video (private or public). Furthermore, it's also easier to manage the videos all in one place, instead of having users download the videos.
There is precedence for this. Instead of storing videos on their website, CBC has a channel on YouTube for disseminating their best videos (and hence expanding and responding better) to their user base.:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CBCtv
Other channels of interest:
- UK Parliament has a YouTube channel!
- Nasa has a YouTube channel!
- Her Majesty the Queen has a YouTube channel! (notice you can't comment or embed the videos!)
There are learning channels, where companies create content for dissemination on YouTube:
There is an opportunity here for the CSPS:
No Channels found for “school of public service”
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Demoing - CSPS armchairs CAN be on iPods and online
And they should use Google Video or YouTube as the medium to deliver them to the user.
Each video has been set to only be visible in Canada. Other countries cannot. Also these are not searchable within Google - you need to have the link to find out where they are.
Using YouTube or Google Video means:
Each video has been set to only be visible in Canada. Other countries cannot. Also these are not searchable within Google - you need to have the link to find out where they are.
Using YouTube or Google Video means:
- less load on IM/IT or Corporate services, who don't have to host the video and maintain the servers
- empowered users/staff who can put them online (following guidelines), meaning content can be live faster and edited more efficiently (even taken down more efficiently)
- forward-compatible - Google Video and YouTube change their system and update the video player. Now public servants can watch the webcast on iPods and Playstation Portables. Tomorrow on other devices.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
From Slashdot: CIA's Wiki Web 2.0 tool
CIA Details Its Wikipedia-Like Tools For Analysts
"If you think selling Web 2.0 in your organization is hard, some early backers of a Wikipedia-like project at the Central Intelligence Agency were called traitors and told they "would get someone killed" by their efforts. But Intellipedia — the CIA's version of Wikipedia — now is so heavily used by analysts that the agency is using it in its security briefings, according to two of the CIA employees who work on the project. Intellipedia has been expanded since it was first launched so that now it boasts its own YouTube-like channel for video and Flickr-like photo sharing as well as a wiki where workers can debate different intel information."
"If you think selling Web 2.0 in your organization is hard, some early backers of a Wikipedia-like project at the Central Intelligence Agency were called traitors and told they "would get someone killed" by their efforts. But Intellipedia — the CIA's version of Wikipedia — now is so heavily used by analysts that the agency is using it in its security briefings, according to two of the CIA employees who work on the project. Intellipedia has been expanded since it was first launched so that now it boasts its own YouTube-like channel for video and Flickr-like photo sharing as well as a wiki where workers can debate different intel information."
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