After a cease and desist letter from Fedora, we learned our logo was a bit too much like theirs, and rather than waste resources saving the logo and fighting with a company many of us like, it seemed to make more sense to just ask the community to help us come up with another one. If you have mad design skills, please give us a hand with the new DataPortability logo. Details on Chris’ blog.
NY Company Looking For a Blogger
They are looking for someone with about a year’s worth of blogging exp or managing an online community. No college required, but excellent writing ability and a heavy internet interest, specifically online advertising. Specifically, they want someone who is not a pushy salesman, but good at keeping interest in the document.
If you are looking for work based in NYC, send me your resume and I’ll pass it on… robyn@sleepyblogger.com
Yahoo Offers Up OpenID
But the real news comes today, as Yahoo and its roughly 250 million user IDs officially jump on the bandwagon. Today, there are only approximately 120 million valid OpenID accounts. In one move, Yahoo more than triples that number.
I found out about this in late Dec, but couldn’t say anything. I was so glad to see that we were embracing OpenID. Developers look here.
Another ‘Fear Twitter’ Post
Yeah right… Bloggers with their gloom and doom are more dangerous. The gist of this ‘fear twitter’ story is that people are, gasp, talking to more than one person!
Imagine this scenario: 20 people are in a confidential meeting, one of them using Twitter. This attendee broadcasts an off-hand “tweet” (Twitter comment) to his or her “followers” (Twitter friends). With traditional instant messaging, that message would be received by perhaps one or two others. With Twitter, that comment may be seen by 10, 100, 1000, or more followers.
Egads, perhaps they will leak their secret to 20 people, instead of 1 person. I have news for you pal, whether it’s to 1 or 20, leaks happen, and only a moron would leak on twitter with it attached PUBLICLY to his name. There’s your safeguard.
I suppose the selective hiring process will ensure that people with IQs of less than 50 won’t have access to such large secrets. There are no need for IT directives or corporate Twitter policies. I repeat, a Memo is not necessary. We all know that leaks in any form of communication is wrong.
But, back to the original discussion… I’d get away with leaking much easier if I just told one person in conversation via my text message, and then another later over drinks, than I would for tweeting a secret to 20 people. Twitter *is* like the watercooler, only this watercooler has a history of all conversations that are public. Leaks happen, and Twitter won’t make that any more possible that anything else. If you want to fear something, fear those new fangled phones. Every leak I’ve ever heard has come from either a phone or IM…
Why do I let myself get riled up by this obvious linkbait?
Buxr.com’s Public Release Is Coming Up
Yan was nice enough to let me play around with Buxr a week or so ago and while I’ve only skimmed the surface, it warrants your attention. I’m not supposed to leak screen shots or anything, but if you do a little research you can see that some people have been a little more open on the subject already 😉
Yan talks specifically about Buxr’s differing approach here, but I still don’t feel comfortable giving you more details until it releases. Anyhoo, you can just wait til tomorrow and check it out on your own when it goes public.
Good luck to Yan as he attempts to make a dent in this crowded market. He’s been a pal for a while and he’s got a good idea of how online advertising works, especially from the publisher’s point of view, which is very important for those of us who are publishers. I’m looking forward to seeing more about Buxr tomorrow when all of you have had a chance to take it for a spin. Let me know what you think!
New Zimbra Book
For those of you who have fallen in love with Zimbra, or just want to know more, you may want to check out this book from Packt Publishing.
They sent me a copy to review a month ago and it’s jam-packed with all kinds of nerdy goodness. For someone that just wants to find out more about Zimbra, it’s good, but for those of you that want to put it through it’s passes, you’ll love this book.
I think it runs around $40 normally, but you can get it on Amazon for around $30.
An SEO Christmas Present – Giveaway
Update: Contest is open to all. This contest is not US only. Yay!
A few months ago I decided that I wanted to do something special this Christmas for my readers and for some kids. While I’ve still been pondering what to do, I got a cool email from a friend over at one of my fav magazines and an idea was born. Boris over at Search Marketing Standard has graciously offered to give away a 3 year subscription to his magazine for the winner of my little contest (more on that in a second).
In the spirit of Christmas giving though, he’s also offered to sweeten the pot with a discounted rate for my readers and a charity match to one of my favorite charities. You’ll get a 67% discount off the price of a year’s subscription. It’s usually $15 per year and for the next 15 days you can get it for $4.95 US ($6.60 Intl) by using coupon code HOLIDAY67. (subscribe here)
Bonus: He’ll match each subscription that comes through with this coupon code with a dollar to Toys For Tots.
The Contest
So, how do you win? Well, it’s actually fairly easy. I want to know what you are doing this Christmas to change the world. No, not the whole world, just your little part of it. Just post it on your blog and ping back here to enter (trackback). At the end of next week I’ll go through the trackbacks or comments and compile a list of all the entries and make one big list. I’ll post the full list here and will choose the winner. Of course, if you have one that you think really shines, I’ll take that under advisement. I don’t really want to try voting on this one, but if there’s one that just really amazes you please let me know.
So, if you are doing anything special, from soup kitchens to Operation Xmas Child, please let me know. I want to be inspired. How are you changing your corner of the world?
Kindle Looks Cool, No Really I Mean It
OK, first thoughts on Kindle.
1. How long before this gets ‘upgraded’ and you piss off the early adopters? (a little Zune frustration is coming out here)
2. $400 is high. How come this doesn’t come with a few public domain books on there for fun?
3. Battery life looks awesome, as does weight. Think this is too late to ask for this for XMas?
4. Did they really just advertise blogs on there? That is cool (no, not being silly, really I do think that is cool).
5. Any audio? Will it read to me? Can I podcast newspaper subscriptions (ie Audible) on this device?
6. How long before this gets hacked like the jukebox? I mean the fact that it’s not wifi but mobile (ie like a cellphone/modem or aircard), makes this really cool for a hacked web tablet. Then again, the N770 is less than the $400 that this costs though it’s only Wifi capable out-of-the-box, but the potential is so darn fun…
… and, PS to Amazon. Tsk Tsk, the only ‘share’ option is via email. Not very WOMM friendly. Also, when you ‘work three years’ on a product, make sure it’s ready to sell via your Associates store on launch day. Argh!
UPDATE: OK, another thought… Could this solve the sagging backpacks problem in school? I mean, I know you’re thinking, ‘she acts like she’s never seen an e-reader’, but I can’t help but think this is an almost must have for a traveling reader (erm, like me).
WebCom Montreal Talk
Here are the slides from my talk today at Webcom Montreal. I will follow with the video, if I can wrangle it from the presenters. 🙂 If not, I have the notes saved as a pdf but I don’t have the bandwidth, literally not figuratively, to post them right now. Later today I promise.
Gmail Goes Social Already?
Am I crazy or did Gmail drink the Kool Aide really, really quickly? I have never seen this in my gmail account before.
I am assuming this is part of their new Inbox 2.0 strategy? Whatever, Mama likes.