Structured Blogging

The Internet has had web sites, audio clips, and video clips probably for most of its existence. Why is it that Blogs, Podcasts, and Vlogs have taken off and are receiving so much attention? I believe that it is primarily because RSS and Atom feeds have given a computer-readable structure to the information and thus allowed easy remixing and aggregating of your content. This morning I read a blog entry that really caught my eye - there is a new WordPress and MovableType plugin that has the potential to add more computer-readable structure to blogging. It will support metainformation about the type or purpose of your entry (e.g. is it about a book you want to sell, or a person you know, or who knows what else) so that aggregators and remixers have the potential to add even more value to your content. Check it out.

From Structured Blogging:

Structured Blogging is a way to get more information on the web in a way that's more usable. You can enter information in this form and it'll get published on your blog like a normal entry, but it will also be published in a machine-readable format so that other services can read and understand it.

Think of structured blogging as RSS for your information. Now any kind of data - events, reviews, classified ads - can be represented in your blog.

Structured Blogging makes it easy to create, edit, and maintain different kinds of posts and is very similar to an edit form on a blog. The difference is that the structure will let users add specific styles to each type, and add links and pictures for reviews.

These styles and tags ensure that movie and book reviews don't look like calendar or journal entries, and that each content type can be quickly recognized and processed by automated search services and other applications. Woven into the HTML of a blog post, this information travels with it through syndication feeds, readers, and aggregators. Ultimately, it can even be converted out to other formats our Structured Blogging tools support such as RDF in XML.

Now anyone can build applications or services based on the structure of an entry. Using Structured Blogging, job listings can be created, posted, searched, and found by any service; buyers and sellers of goods can publish what they want to buy or sell and have those posts searched and listed by any number of search services.

Beauty is Everywhere

beauty is very where
Originally uploaded by jaresty.

I commuted to Cambridge this morning at 6 AM in the bitter cold. From the subway, I came above ground for 100 feet, and then ducked back down into the MIT tunnels to keep warm. I walked down the tunnel listening to the wind and the distant hum of machinery. There were several paper letters hanging from the ceiling. I turned to read them: "Beauty is Everywhere." Standing there, I watched the letters sway back and forth and back again, and listened to the wind in the tunnels. It was such an odd thing to see this letters hanging from the ceiling. It made me think, and brought me calm and peace for one beautiful moment.

Is The Long Tail the End of Giants?

Tortoises @ Maritim Hotel, Mauritius
Originally uploaded by timparkinson.

In recent history, I believe it is the common belief that just a few major companies are dominating the American economy. In the early 1980's, IBM was perceived as "big brother." Some time later, and perhaps even now, Microsoft has a similar reputation. In the past month or two, I've been saying that Google will be the Microsoft of the Internet.
This past week, Yahoo acquired del.icio.us, and they have owned Flickr for some time. In my mind, that puts Yahoo in a very powerful position. They own two of the most significant social tagging services on the net. That got me thinking about all of the material I've read about The Long Tail. Suddenly, those big companies don't seem so powerful. It's so easy to publish content, and web services companies can roll out new products very very quickly. I understand that up until now, the majority of Internet traffic has gone through a limited number of web sites (not so so different from the top 50% of books or movies or whatever else). Can recommendation systems change that? Are our individual tastes enough to drive diversity in web services just as they can drive sales in niche book markets? I don't know. I would like to hear what you think.

Reflective ad piques my interest

boston globe thought bubbles
Originally uploaded by jaresty.

The Boston Globe has put up these funny, reflective advertisements on the Subway. The "thought bubbles" are all over the car, positioned just so that each bubble is over a seat where someone might sit. As you look about the subway, you see one person "thinking" about universal healthcare, and another "thinking" about the $100 laptop, and many more current events. It's amusing to imagine each person on the subway considering these events, and it's a good way to learn some current news. I love this ad, and hope to see many more like it in the future.

Reactrix breaks down boundaries

reactrix
Originally uploaded by jaresty.

At Loews Theater on the Boston Common, I saw this interactive display projected on the floor. It was bright and quite beautiful to watch. At times it would project a soccer ball or a hockey puck on the floor, and you could "kick" the ball by waving your shadow over the projection. It also had a few other effects, like rippling water and sprinkling colorful flowers all around your shadow.
Watching and playing with the display was enjoyable, but what really intrigued me was the way it broke down social boundaries. Passers by simply could not resist playing this game. In an hour of waiting for our movie, I watched people start playing alone, pairing off, and totally disregarding the "cliques" they came with. This stuff is really cool. Check out Reactrix at their web site.

Getting to Yes

This week, I finished reading a well-known book about negotiation, "Getting to Yes," by Roger Fisher and William Ury. They argue that, for the most part, people engage in "positional negotiation." What this means, is that they will state their positions "I want this," or "I think that...," which often results in damaged relationships and unwise decisions. They advocate trying to "Separate the people from the problem," "Focus on interests, not positions," "Invent Options for Mutual Gain," and "Insist on Using Objective Criteria."
The concepts in this book are generally intuitive and quite effective. They break down negotiating into simple concepts. I spent the weekend developing a mind map for these concepts in the hope of keeping it fresh in my mind.
After a few weeks of trying to implement this book in my day-to-day, I have found two of their ideas to be very easy and helpful to use.
First, try to identify the all of the interests behind any given position. Ask the other side "why" about their own positions, and "why not" about the options you invent.
Second, wherever possible, ask questions like "do you agree that...?" rather than making positional statements, whenever you are discussing the issue(s) at hand.
Here's my mind map. I hope you find it useful.