Surfarama

Why don't more people talk about how important services like Ping-o-Matic are? Maybe they do and I just miss it. In any event it has just this minute struck me what an increasingly crucial role centralized ping servers are likely to play.

When you think about what Technorati has over Google it all comes down to indexing the 'live web'. David Sifry has said that the average time it takes for a new post to be indexed by Technorati is something like 7 minutes. Google on the other hand may take days or weeks depending on how often you get indexed.

Technorati is able to do this because it receives pings when bloggers update their sites. These may be received directly or via centralised services like Ping-o-Matic. Nothing new there, but with the increasing buzz and focus around the 'live web' every search engine worth their salt is going to set up their own ping servers, so I reckon centralised services are likely to grow in importance, and if I were Technorati I'd want to be in the middle of that.

After a bit of HR wrangling, I am stoked to officially have a new job. It is a global management role back working on B2B enterprise ebiz applications (Global eBusiness Manager)...Recently I have been involved in some short term projects, so it feels good to have a longer term role again and something specifically in the web/business arena.

Anyway, I have accepted the role on local terms which means New Zealand. So we're packing up and heading back to Auckland. This is very exciting for a few reasons...

First, we have been away from NZ for over 6 years now, so it will be cool to get back. I am particularly looking forward to some snowboarding and moutain biking action, which just seems easier to do back in NZ where I know the terrain.

Second, we get to live in the house we brought a couple of years ago. We have only ever seen it up close a couple of times briefly, and this is the first house we've brought, so we're really looking forward to moving in.

Third, friends and family, w00t! This is particularly important because I will be travelling a fair bit in the new job, so Jennifer and Flynn will be pretty close to my folks and the in-laws will be able to visit much more easily.

Fourth, Auckland rocks.

Fifth, more rugby. Australian football is interesting, the the Victorians are mad for it, but it just ain't the same as a good game of rugby union imho.

We'll miss Australia, and we know that we could easily end up here again (Flynn is Australian afterall), but this is a good move for us right now. We need to feel some roots again. If you'd asked me 6 years ago if I'd ever get homesick for NZ I would've denied it...but these days, well, that's what having a baby does I suppose.

Anyway, ETA is March 19th.

The FeedForm idea wasn't a very good one...mostly because it unnecessarily subverts the url. Still I like the 1-click-subscription idea and Jason Brome's Quicksub is great for that...So, with a little help from my friends and some tinkering, I give you 1clicksub.com.

I want a web based podcast aggregator, but with a few extra features...

I want to browse a directory (populated via opml from ipodder.org) and sample podcasts (with an inline player something like this), save podcast feeds to my personal aggregator, from which I can add individual podcasts to a personal channel (my own custom RSS 2.0 with enclosures) which is sucked into my iPod.

This way I can browse all the new stuff, watch my regular favs, but just download the ones that really appeal...the point being that I rarely want to download every podcast from a particular feed.

Actually I am planning to add part of this solution to Linkroll, where you'll be able to add media files to individual posts, which will then be added to the RSS 2.0 feeds as enclosures. This way you can create you own podcast channel(s). Whaddiya reckon?

Ack! Somehow the VPS that hosts this blog and my personal mail server (coxhead.net) has developed some nasty problems which mean no email is getting through. I am working with the server support folks to fix it, but if you need to get hold of me in the immediate future try my gmail address (charlesdotcoxheadatgmaildotcom).

UPDATE: Seems to be fixed now...as you were.

I wonder what Jason Calcanis thinks of this interview (about RSS, blogs and advertising/marketing) given by WIN blogger, Paul Chaney.

Paul wants the "transparency police" to cut bloggers some slack. Jason has been arguably the most outspoken supporter of higher blog ethics.

UPDATE: Jason continues to play the watchdog role.

Flynn's first bike ride,
originally uploaded by Charles.

Flynn had a big day today (and has hardly slept!).

This morning he had his first swimming lesson at the St Kilda Swimming Pool. It was cool fun hanging out with the other kids and learning backstroke. Afterwards he took Mum and Dad for a coffee which was much appreciated because we had no milk for a breakfast latte.

And then this afternoon Flynn went for his first bike ride. We've been dying to get him out on the bike and finally got ourselves set up with a front facing kid seat and a little helmet. He's been in a bike trailer before but this is more like the real thing, wind in your hair and all that...he made motorcycle noises all the way (I think he learnt that from me), and got very close to popping his first wheelie, sweet!

My last post inspired by the Gillmore Gang session last week prompted a few comments worth noting...

Stephen O'Grady of Redmonk is on the same page, and rightly defended the Gang by pointing out the nature of the beast, ie. it is a live recorded chat, not a conference presentation...and he's right. It is an interesting thing though that listeners (or me atleast) can be frustrated by the latency of the 'conversation', maybe because blogging has made us more inclined to want to take part. Actually, this very point came up in the conversation. Anyway, perhaps The Gillmor Gang needs a dedicated blog or a wiki. Someone tell me if there is one already.

And Jared Spataro of Open Text dropped by (I love that they are listening) to let me know that have developed exactly what I wanted (blogging and aggregation functions) in their Livelink for Communities of Practice product and the new Livelink Touchpoint. That is good news, now I need to go work on the folks internally who own our Livelink installation ;)

Richard MacManus prompted me to get back into ITConversations after a break from it over the summer holidays (I live downunder). Specifically I was dying to check out the recent Gillmor Gang with guests Rafat Ali and Stephen O'Grady which was all about blogs and RSS.

It started out well, but quickly became pretty frustrating to listen to...no doubt the participants were all eager to say their bit, but their enthusiam pushed the discussion all over the shop. I kept wanting to interject because the gang seemed to constantly to confuse 'blogging' with blog tools, and RSS, and vice versa. By the end of it I felt worn out...But after a sound sleep, and with the benefit of some hindsight and cogitation time, here is what I would have said if I were a guest on that episode of the Gillmor Gang:

1) Let's just be clear, RSS and blogging are two different things. RSS has been pushed into the mainstream in large part by the proliferation of blogging and blog specific CMS tools, which have always embraced the idea of RSS. John Udell (I think) was the one who made the point that RSS has many other uses, and I whole heartedly agree...Blogs are cool, but I reckon there are lots of even more interesting uses of RSS that are only now emerging. KnowNow was mentioned and they do rad stuff...witness the Mod-pubsub project that was formed to build on the work they've realeased under an open source license.

2) While we're talking about RSS, I think that Rafat Ali's low key projections about the 'business models' for RSS were right on, and it's probably no coincidence that he's the one with the most skin in the publishing game as a small independant. The assertion that the RSS subscriber is likely to be more enthusiastic and so warrants more $$ from the advertiser (than someone who actually visits the website), is like saying that because I have a late model cell phone which plays MP3's I am a bigger fan of Britney Spears. For crying out loud, RSS is just another way to consume the content and just because someone is an early adoptor, or is somewhat more tech savvy, doesn't mean that they're anymore engaged in a particular topic...the only space in which I conceed this might be true is the RSS space itself. I don't think RSS is likely to become a separate media buy anymore than email newsletters are today (and no, I am not saying email newsletters and RSS are the same thing).

3) Regarding blogging, there's no doubt that the gang get it, but the conversation didn't make it at all clear about what blogging is. Which is to say I think that people talking about blogging in two different ways, which are some what linked but bear some clarification...

First, blogging is an evolution (not a revolution) in content management tools, and in this respect it is not exactly rocket science. The Gang wondered why the big software vendors were not yet doing blogging tools, and I have to admit that I have often wished that we had the tools in the enterprise where I work. We use Open Text's Livelink server on our intranet for group and project management, and I wish that it had some blogging tools built into it so I could easily set up a team space with a blog for projects I work on. In case someone from Open Text is monitoring Technorati for mentions, I should add that it would be fantastic if it had aggregation functionality aswell.

Anyway, I digress...the point is that blogging from a tools perspective is not rocket science, and I do think that they will eventually show up in enterprise tool kits. The reason it has been slow in coming is because blogs represent a social challenge rather than a technical one.

There are a few aspects of the typical blogging tool which do represent more significant evolution...namely trackback, pingback, and the wonderful permalink. These are not a technical challenge, but do underpin why I think blogs represent a social challenge for business...these are building blocks on which conversations flourish.

If blogs are revolutionary for business, it is because they represent a more human approach to markets. That's not to say that a blog can't be used in a traditional mass marketing kind of way (Raging Cow anyone?), but the tools of blogging, trackbacks, permalinks, reverse chronologies, comments etc, represent a more human, conversational communication style.

The Cluetrain started in 1999, and the fact that "markets are conversations" is only now beginning to sink in. It is in this sense that I think 'blogging' has the most to offer the enterprise. Not just as a way to engage markets in conversations, but to engage employees, project teams, shareholders...people (I nearly said 'stakeholders' but that wouldn't have been very cluetrain of me).

At the end of the day it doesn't even have to be called blogging, because it isn't about the tools. In fact it is only about the web in so far as it it is a great way to reach people. It is more about a companies approach to business. For example, if you are a maker of enterprise wiki tools you could spend bucket loads advertising in trade mags, or you could develop a voice in the marketplace and start conversations with your customers and partners...that will say volumes more about you and your business than even the glossiest full page advertisement.

So there are blogging tools, and there is an approach to business. The latter is often characterized by the use of blogs, but a blog isn't itself a sufficient condition to start a conversation with your market. In the coming months we will see many 'blogs' appear on corporate websites, run by Public Affairs and vetted by Legal, and which will demonstrate that those involved are still waiting on the platform having missed the Cluetrain.

Oh, and one more thought for the enterprise software vendors who might be considering building blog like functionality into their products...if you're planning a product which includes complex approval workflow so that content can be vetted by legal etc before being published then I suggest you don't bother. In my mind that isn't what blogging is about and there are already plenty of great content management systems which manage that kind of stuff very well.