My friendly and knowledgeable colleague Charlie Schick in a podcast interview by Geek Army Knife.
Charlie "(...) spoke about lifestreaming and how it led [him] to thinking about semantics. [He] mentioned a bunch of folks along the way, including Friendfeed, Socialthing, Socialbrain [or Second|Brain?], Lovely Systems, and TagCrowd. (...)"
(Via Charlie Schick)
The Observer published this article on March 9, 2008, describing 50 popular and influential blogs.
"(...) blogging has never been bigger. (...) Here are the 50 best reasons to log on (...)"
(Via Charlie Schick, who made a nice rough analysis of the topics covered by these influential blogs, as well as their starting dates)
From those 50 blogs listed, I think I will consider feeding the following set to my RSS reader:
#3. Techcrunch
"(...) Techcrunch began in 2005 as a blog about dotcom start-ups in Silicon Valley, but has quickly become one of the most influential news websites across the entire technology industry. Founder Michael Arrington (...)"
#4. Kottke
"(...) One of the early wave of blogging pioneers, web designer Jason Kottke started keeping track of interesting things on the internet as far back as 1998. (...)"
#13. Treehugger
"(...) Treehugger is a green consumer blog with a mission to bring a sustainable lifestyle to the masses. Its ethos, that a green lifestyle does not have to mean sacrifice, and its positive, upbeat feel have attracted over 1.8m unique users a month. (...)"
#25. Mashable
"(...) Founded by Peter Cashmore in 2005, Mashable is a social-networking news blog, reporting on and reviewing the latest developments, applications and features available in or for MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and countless lesser-known social-networking sites and services, with a special emphasis on functionality. (...)"
#33. Crooked timber
"(...) With a title pulled from Immanuel Kant's famous statement that 'out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made', it's an amalgam of academic and political writing that has muscled its way into the epicentre of intelligent discussion since its conception in 2003. (...)"
#50. Copyblogger
"(...) founded in 2006 (...) Swelling with advice on online writing, it's an essential tool for anyone trying to make themselves heard online, whether commenting on a discussion board or putting together a corporate website. (...)"
Kevin Kelly asks:
"[I]f we really are headed into the century of neo-biology, as I believe we are, then what are the New Rules of the New Biology?"
He then submits 9 rules for starters:
"(...) 1) All rules in biology have exceptions.
2) Anything that can be done with organisms (including our own), will be done.
3) Every biological action invokes a biological reaction.
4) All innovations follow a one-way migration from enhancements to normalcy.
5) One person's biological ideal is another's horror.
6) Understanding is not necessary for use.
7) The tolerance for uncertainty goes up as death becomes certain.
8) The difference between 99% reliable and 100% reliable is God (or a million years of evolution).
9) Health care is finite resources applied to an infinite appetite. (...)"
Kevin asks for more rules in the shape of comments. Something that springs to my mind:
7a) A person's interest in (neo-)biology increases after turning 40.
(via Charlie Schick, who pointedly observes:
"(...) Digital electronics have distracted us from the analogue world (...) I think those with strong digital sensibilities will have a hard time embracing the uncertainty and variability so common in biological systems. (...)" )
"(...) Clay Shirky's (...) book "Here Comes Everybody" (The Penguin Press, 2008) explains his views on the power of individuals to organize into groups without companies, hierarchies, or outside efforts. (...)"
Glenn Fleishman writes:
"(...) I sat down with Clay on 14-Mar-08 to talk about the book for a short article that appeared in the Seattle Times, focused on the business side of his book. However, the Seattle Times allowed me to publish a podcast of our roughly 40-minute conversation. (...)"
The 40-minute podcast is indeed worth the listen. Clay talks about a lot of stuff, including the notion that we don't yet understand where the Internet will be taking us. And another thing I found quite interesting was his reference to "more is different", i.e. scale changes the nature of things (such as the Internet).
(via Charlie Schick, who adds on a personal note:
"(...) My tongue is bleeding, I am biting it so hard. Though a beer can loosen it, in case you are interesting in a tale of enlightenment, abandonment, discovery, creativity, stealing, cluelessness, and dissapointment. (...)"
Charlie, what's your favorite beer? Come visit and I'll put it cold for you.
Charlie writes: "(...) Your core service drives the interaction with the customer, but the money can come from some other area.
But, be careful where you _think_ you can get the money. (...) Online social networking services thrive because they are a form of social lubrication. (...) Yes, social network is the concentrator, but what the folks end up doing is where the money's at. (...)"
Interesting comment from Stefan Constantinescu: "(...) recommendation engine may sound unsexy now, but they will LEAD the next generation of corporate buy outs and be the foundation for the services we use in the upcoming decade. (...)"
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