Emerging Technology: Built-In Spam:
“To date, most software applications have been designed with one basic principle: to make it as easy as possible for the user to do what he or she wants to do. The emphasis on ease of use isn’t free of commercial interests, of course. Software companies know people are more likely to buy programs that are easy to use. But when commercial transactions insinuate themselves into the applications, the equation changes. Suddenly, the software companies aren’t making money simply from sales of the application; they’re also making money from sales generated within the application. Apple even gives away its iTunes software, so all the profits from the application are coming from the store.”
(via Tomalak’s Realm)
Fantastic article on RSS vs. E-mail Publishing in “Editor and Publisher” called With E-mail Dying, RSS Offers Alternative:
“Many e-mail publishers today remain afraid of RSS, suggests Pirillo, but there’s little to fear. He points out that the business model of e-mail publishing doesn’t really change using RSS. Readers still see the same ads, and the same content and design/layout that they would in receiving an HTML newsletter — assuming that they find your site’s headlines and blurbs worthy of clicking on to see full content.”
(via PaidContent.org)
Seven Deadly Sins of Web Writing:
“The general quality of writing on the Web is poor. The way you write has a major impact on what people think of you. Avoid these common mistakes, and you will achieve more with your Web site.”
Another article on the prospect that SoBig is being created as a money-making scheme: New York Times: Spam-for-Money Plan Suspected by Expert on E-Mail Viruses”
Still there is no evidence given as to why they think this is commercial in nature. The closest the article comes is:
“”There is some evidence that he’s been tied in with spammers,” said Bruce Hughes, director of malicious code research at Trusecure. Although many companies blacklist Internet addresses that are the sources of spam, a strategy that used computers commandeered by the SoBig program would be almost impossible to defeat.”
Of course “impossible to defeat” is hogwash. Blacklisting would be useless in this case (which might be a good thing since it is largely a failed strategy towards stemming the flow of unwanted messages), but Bayesian mail filters like Cloudmark or SpamBayes would have no trouble with this.
Great article from Technology Review called “WhereWare”:
“The idea is to make cell phones, personal digital assistants, and even fashion accessories capable of tracking their owners’ every movement—whether they’re outdoors, working on the 60th floor, or shopping in a basement arcade.”
Most of what I’ve seen on this topic has focussed on location-based advertising (as in “The Gap can beam discount coupons to you as you pass their store!”). Most of this is uninspired hogwash that serves companies well, but not people. Some of the examples in this article speak more to personal use (finding out if a loved one is on their way to meet you or hopelessly lost, walking directions, etc.).
Respectfully, the people profiled in the NYT article “Former Dot-Commers Are Adjusting, Painfully” were part of the problem. Most of the folks in the article where senior executives of large corporations who jumped to wacky dotcoms right before the bust. Of course they jumped right back when dreams of options turning to gold vanished.
The New York Time’s Technology article called “Evite’s Day of Atonement” runs the body of an apology e-mail the company sent. It runs without commentary from NYT:
“Dear Evite Newsletter Subscriber,
Yesterday we mailed a newsletter to our subscribers with incorrect dates for three important holidays. Please accept our sincerest apologies for these errors and note the following corrections:
Labor Day, September 1st
Rosh Hashana, September 27th
Yom Kippur, October 6th
In addition, we also wish to apologize for having listed Yom Kippur as one of our ‘Reasons To Party.’ We understand and respect that Yom Kippur is a Day of Atonement, a day to be taken seriously to reflect and fast, and as such, one of the most important Jewish holidays in the year.
Again we deeply apologize for the error and thank you for allowing us to make this correction.
Very Best,
The Evite Team”
Let’s put aside for a moment how the original message was sent out in the first place and focus on the mea culpa. If you make a mistake, the best thing you can do is admit it, openly and candidly. Too many companies want to hide from the error, hoping no one will notice. Or they blame someone else. I think Evite did a very good job on this. The only thing I would change if I was running evite is I would have signed the apology and offered an e-mail address where users could contact me.
As a modern variant to Godwin’s Law (“As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”), I would submit the following:
“As blog comments grow longer, the probability of someone being called a “spammer” approaches one.”
Does this mean that spammers are the new Nazi’s? Will we see spammers looking the other way while bloggers storm the prison camps to free newbies?
The BBC announcing that they are going to post their entire archive online is big news.
Danny O’Brien’s Oblomovka provides some good insight:
“Now, ask yourself: why is it called the Creative Archive? Could it be something to do with a series of talks Larry Lessig gave to the BBC earlier this year? Conversations that continued in San Francisco with Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive?
I hope so. If it is, the public domain (or at least, the domain of the freely distributed, freely available content) is about to get a very sizeable grant. Eighty years worth of radio, televisual and film content, from the General Strike to World War II to the era of Benny Hill and the world of the Hitchhiker’s Guide . From Richard Dimbleby and the Coronation to David Dimbleby and Donald Rumsfeld.”
(via Boing Boing)
I wonder if the CBC is watching and planning. Has Lessig been invited to the Great White North?
silicon.com – Sobig update: Organised criminals marry spam and viruses:
“Sobig smashed all the records in terms of pure numbers, but that’s not nearly the whole story,’ said Simpson. ‘This is the sixth in a series of controlled experiments. This isn’t about some kiddy writing viruses in his bedroom – this is really a very sophisticated example of organised crime.”
I’m not sure about this statement. Clearly Peter Simpson, manager of ThreatLab at Clearswift, benefits from fear, uncertainty and doubt about viruses and spam given Clearswift’s business.
Is there any proof or corroboration of this assertion?
This is interesting.
The Guardian will be publishing a column in the “real” (print) newspaper from Jason Staines, who posted some comments to their blogged items. From comment poster to columnist in a few short days:
“Eilan (aka Jason Staines), who has contributed to our discussion here on weblogs over the last week, agreed to pen this week’s Second Sight column in the newspaper. We thought he did a much better job of proposing a downside to the blogosphere than many of the higher-profile critics who have been having a go of late.”
The comments that got him the gig are here.
Update: Here is the column he did for the print and online version of the Guardian.
My first reaction to Randall Chapman’s article “A Marketing Definition in Six Words” was that his six words were too general, and therefore less than useful.
His definition of Marketing is:
“Marketing means solving customers’ problems profitably.”
But as I read the article, I came to agree that this is as good a definition as any. I’m not sure the “we’re all in marketing or we shouldn’t work here” argument will play well in larger companies, but it probably should. Too many people confuse advertising as equalling marketing.
Then again, I think you could make an equally solid argument that:
“Business means solving customers’ problems profitably.”
or
“Sales means solving customers’ problems profitably.”
