Amazon’s CTO, Werner Vogels reveals more about ‘The Kindle’. April 4, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Live, Utterances, authors, digital biographer, mobile, share, sound, streams, thenextweb, thenextweb2008 ,I had the pleasure to talk to Werner Vogels at The Next Web on Friday last week in Amsterdam, and asked him about what’s next for Amazon’s ‘Kindle’ product…
Dr. Werner Vogel, Chief Technology Officer at Amazon.com, talks about The Kindle. And what’s next, of course…
Mobile post sent by davidpetherick using Utterz. Replies. mp3
I am an Author for “Age of Conversation: Why Don’t People Get It?”. March 24, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, authors, blonging, brand, digital biographer, share, social media ,274 authors, and I, are going to write a sequel to the hugely successful ‘Age of Conversation‘.
The details about this book, along with a full list of authors, and links to their blogs or sites, is here on Drew McLellan’s blog, and at Gavin Heaton’s Servant of Chaos.
I’m really flattered to be on the same page as some of those names - as one commented suggested, why not just call it “Who’s Who in Social Media?”.
By the way, you should buy the Age of Conversation from Amazon on March 29th, as 1) We’re aiming to get it into the Amazon Bestsellers list and 2) Aiming to raise a sh*tload of cash for charity.
Interesting but useless fact: there are Ten David’s on the author list, Eight Pauls, Three Matts, and Five Johns…
Digital Biographer moooving in the right direction… February 9, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Utterances, authors, brand, corporate blogs, digital biographer, googlicious, online identity, share, social media, sound, streams ,You may have noticed some sound files being added to this blog over the past few days. Well, you’re not alone - the people who run Utterz.com seem to have noticed too, and have created a rotating banner for the site that advertises my content.
I am deeply flattered, and felt the need to reciprocate the attention by writing a little about the site - click the image below to see why I find Utterz such a useful resource to enhance my personal brand online, and do add your own comments when you see the full-size image - you can do so easily thanks to the great Skitch application. I also enjoy the humorous cow metaphor subtly used throughout the site, where Utterz = Udders (Geddit?), so you can ‘be herd, add ‘mooving’ pictures etc.
My Utterz Profile: http://www.utterz.com/~h-davidpetherick/profile.php
HTTV Shortcut: http://httv.biz/utterz/
Koollage: Turn your web content into portable, flexible groupware that looks great on mobile phones… for free. January 13, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, authors, corporate blogs, digital biographer, mobile, mobile search, search marketing, share, social media, startup ,I have just turned the Digital Biographer blog into what I call a BlogPod in around five minutes with the amazing Koollage service.
The results: you can see below - and you can subscribe to the feed of my Koollage BlogPod, Embed it in your own pages, and of course absorb its contents elegantly on your mobile phone. It looks especially funky on an iPhone, with horizontal and vertical versions specifically to take advantage of the iPhone’s ability to use both formats.
An elegant feature is the ability to conduct a search within the Koollage Editor, and then select search results content added from blogs, including images. Although there might be copyright issues involved in this, fair use is obviously allowed. One of the interesting elements buit in is the ability for readers to add comments to any page in your Koollage content (and you get an email with this comment immediately), and to make your Koollage a group application, meaning that others can collaborate to create and update the content with other Koollage associates.
The service is still in beta, so has a few edges to knock off and features to tidy, but as you can see, it works, it’s very nicely designed, and it’s likely to be very viral. The site where you can join and create Koollage Pods for free, is also a growing community, so you can search for other users and their Koollage Pod (Plog) creations.
I for one can see the travel industry getting excited about using this - a City Guide Koollage of Hotels, Restaurants, and Transport Services made available to travellers hitting the ground at an airport makes sense… and a mashup with a Maps / GPS application would appear a logical move for what is obviously a very mobile application.
What uses you can see for this way on enclosing and displaying information?
Meet Robert Scoble & Werner Vogels in Amsterdam at The Next Web Conference 2008 January 3, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Conferences, authors, awards, blonging, commerce, social media ,Speakers are being confirmed daily for 2008’s European Web 2.0 Event: The Next Web, and include Robert Scoble, Tech Geek Blogger & Author of ‘Naked Conversations‘, Werner Vogels, CTO at Amazon, and Gil Penchina, CEO at Wikia.
Now in its third year, the Amsterdam event’s focus this April is on quality content, and extensive networking opportunities. Organisers anticipate at least 700 web savvies, internet influentials, and industry journalists from over 20 countries will be in Amsterdam, to be inspired, have fun and do business. This year, attending The Next Web Conference gets you free entrance to BrightLive (European version of Nextfest).
Knol is on a Roll: Google’s new economy for online authors? December 15, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Uncategorized, authors, commerce, googlicious, knol, search marketing, social media ,Google. They keep doing this. Coming up with a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare events beyond the realm of normal expectations…
So, here is the next Black Swan from Google:- a highly improbable event that is unpredictable, will have massive impact, and which, after it has happened, we’ll all pretend we could have seen it coming. This is Google Knol - encouraging people to contribute knowledge.
Many mainstream media observers see this as Google’s a direct challenge to Wikipedia - a vandal-proof version - but this is a very blinkered viewpoint, and rather too easy for hack journalists to regurgitate: Google launches Wikipedia rival. I’m surprised the ‘For whom Google knols…‘ headline has not been coined yet. Oops, it just has been.
No, too simplistic. Knol is, and it is not a Wikipedia rival, because it is something different - it is, typically for Google, a whole new ball game. Authors will share revenue from the Ads that surround their content - but what content is found is likely to be that which is most popular, with content also measured by reader review. Unlike a Wiki, where the author is invisible (and often multiple) in a Knol, the identity of the author, is central to the authority of the content, with the author’s affiliation being cited in an early Google mockup.
From The Official Google Blog: Encouraging people to contribute knowledge
“The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors’ names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors — but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content. At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the word “knol” as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably. It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page. Google will provide easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, and so on, and it will provide free hosting of the content. Writers only need to write; we’ll do the rest.
A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.”
The news came out on the Google Blog on the 13th Of December, with no major media announcement or fanfare. It just appeared, but it immediately was caught by my antennae, and by that of several commentators of note. Today, the mainstream media are picking this up, and there is a definite buzz in the blogosphere.
I think this is a very significant development, and I have set up a Ning Social Network to discuss Knol at http://knolroll.com - just don’t ask me where it will lead - but do join the network, and let’s find out for whom the bell knols…
