Umair Haque has an interesting post at his Havas Media Lab that questions the traditional definition of media in an interconnected world.
We’re used to thinking of media in terms of yesterday’s categories - largely focused on either inert information or passive entertainment.
But do they apply anymore?
Why is expanding the definition of media important? Because it’s only by fully understanding new categories of media that we can begin reinventing media strategies and business models.
Rather than wonder about business strategy, I’d like to look at the impact of new forms of media on another of Haque’s favorite topics: community.
Read the rest of this entry »
For the past week, I’ve been encountering issues with the server that hosts my websites, including the site you are currently reading. After unsuccessfully trying to diagnose and fix the problem, I’ve upgraded to a new server and migrated all services and data to it.
I’ve been meaning to upgrade my server for some time, but never had the motivation until last week’s problems arose. I’m very happy with the new server. It has improved specs across the board, and costs me half as much as the previous one.
Everything appears to be in order from my perspective. Depending on where you are located, DNS updates may take a couple days to propagate. If you notice anything that is broken, please let me know.
I’ve presence enabled jaredhanson.net, a micro-site of mine that I’m using to explore the myriad ideas and technologies centered around digital identity.
In it’s current incarnation, the site serves as a web-based business card. I can point people to a single destination, which in turn links to the various ways to get in contact with me. One of those ways is, of course, instant messaging.
One of the handy features of IM is presence indicators, which show whether someone is available or away. I’ve brought those indicators to my identity site. If I’m online, a green dot will be displayed next to my IM address. If I’m away, a red dot will appear. The dot will remain gray when I am offline.
oEmbed is the latest standard to come out of the Web 2.0 developer crowd. While I’m typically a huge advocate of standards, and think much of the prior work has been superb, oEmbed fails on almost every level. So much so, in fact, that I’m writing this post to declare it worthless, and suggest an alternative.
Upon first seeing the spec, I immediately tweeted:
oEmbed completely ignores REST principles. GET with a Content-Type to the original resource. Benefit: a single URL per resource. C’mon!
Allow me to further explain…
Read the rest of this entry »
When I’m working away from my apartment or the office, I’m usually in a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi. However, occasionally I’ll find myself in a location where the only connection available is via my AT&T account. In order to utilize that from my PowerBook, I’ve configured my BlackBerry Pearl as a Bluetooth modem on Mac OS X 10.5.
I’ve documented the configuration procedure, as a reference for anyone who might find it useful.
Read the rest of this entry »
