Entries from April 2008 ↓

Oh my. The latest words from Radiohead’s quirky frontman Thom Yorke aren’t about how much money they earned by giving away their music. (Sounds weird, but that’s how things work in this crazy 2.0 world.) It’s about how they don’t plan to do that again.

A somewhat vague quote from The Hollywood Reporter goes as follows:

“I think it was a one-off response to a particular situation. It was one of those things where we were in the position of everyone asking us what we were going to do. I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time.”

On one hand, it’s only logical. No one really expects them to let people choose what they’re going to pay for their music till the end of eternity. However, it raises certain concerns, depending on what exactly Yorke meant, whether Radiohead really gets this thing or not.

Radiohead was criticized once already by Trent Reznor, who also gave away parts of Nine Inch Nails’ new album, Ghosts I-IV, but in a slightly different fashion. Reznor called Radiohead’s effort a “marketing gimmick,” and Yorke’s latest statement does nothing to disprove it. Reznor did it right. He set out his plan very clearly, and he’s doing well, earning 1.6 million dollars from album sales in the first couple of weeks, according to him.

There’s a number of opinions on how bands should distribute (and profit from) their music; here’s mine. A band should:

a) charge very little or even nothing for the actual digital copies of their music, especially if it’s quality is lossy (MP3). Digital copies of music can be infinitely copied at zero cost, and therefore their actual value is inherently very small.

b) make sure to offer a variety of choices for purchasing their music, including some added value - CDs, LPs, limited editions, signatures, t-shirts, stickers, concert tickets, vouchers - for the more expensive versions.

c) cut out any middlemen which don’t really provide value to the customer.

It’s very simple. Nine Inch Nails did exactly that, and it worked. Hopefully, Radiohead will do some version of this with their next album. It would be a huge disappointment to see them go back to the “traditional” ways of selling music for their next album. There are other models, too. Einsturzende Neubauten, for example, have let fans that paid a subscription to their web site create their music together with them.

What matters, ultimately, is that people will not and should not pay for something that’s free anyway. Instead of decreasing value of music with DRM (the era of which is, hopefully, behind us), the value should be increased, and users should stop being harassed for sharing. Radiohead and NiN helped pave the way; hopefully they’ll stay on the right track.

Read more of my ramblings about the music industry, distribution of music, and piracy here:
Wanna Beat Piracy? You Have to Do Better Than Them!
RSS and Giving Away Music - What’s The Difference?
Preemptive Piracy Tax: Will Everyone Have To Pay?

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ZeroTurnaround has announced the final release of JavaRebel 1.1. JavaRebel is a JVM plugin (-javaagent) that enables reloading changes made to Java class files on-the-fly, saving developers the time that it takes to redeploy an application or perform a container restart. In addition to changes like the provision for dynamic proxies, full SDK availability, and full class reloading, ZeroTurnaround is offering a free license for bug reports.

Those of you who remember MeasureMap are long time readers of this blog. It was a blog-centered analytics service that first surfaced in August 2005. The service was created by San Francisco based Adaptive Path. The first details emerged in October 2005.

It was Google Analytics but just for blogs. It told you stats based on posts and other key blog features. By November 2005 Google had copied some of the features. And a couple of months later, before MeasureMap had even officially launched, they just bought it outright.

Since then, nothing. Founder Jeffrey Veen became the User Experience Manager and has been associated with a number of projects. Measure Map simply faded and was forgotten.

Except, not completely. Today Google emailed early MeasureMap users and said:

About your Measure Map account

Remember Measure Map? A couple of years ago, we gave you an account on an
early alpha test of our blog analytics software. Since then, a lot has
happened. We got acquired by Google, we redesigned their Analytics app, and
we’ve since rebuilt Measure Map from the ground up.

I’m writing you because we need to move everyone over from their Measure Map
accounts to the new version at Google. If you’re no longer interested, no
problem. You can stop reading this now. But if you’d like to try out the new
service, here’s how: [instructions followed]

I went through the signup process, which requires a Google Analytics account and tracking pixel. They then said “Great! You’re all set. We’ve got a few things to set up on our end. We’ll send you an email when we’re ready (soon!) and explain how to log in.”

I’m emailing Google now to see if they’ll give more details on the planned launch and how it will be different from Google Analytics.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

University of Pennsylvania roboticists—who talk like robot versions of Alan Alda—have developed modular artificial creatures capable of recomposing themselves in case that they are destroyed—effectively taking the first step towards global annihilation, thank you very much. Happily for Humanity, they are far from T1000, and closer to Jerry Lewis, as the (quite funny, yet sad) end of the video shows.

Composed of 15 modules arranged in groups of five, each of CKbot’s clusters have a module with a 20fps camera, a blinking LED, and a accelerometer to reconstruct the entire robot, tied by magnets. Each of the other 12 modules have an embedded computer, proximity sensors, and a servo motor with 180 degrees that allows for a rotational range of about 180 degrees.

When the main mini-Voltron-wannabe gets destroyed and the clusters are disconnected, they self-right up themselves detecting its orientation according to gravity (don’t keep looking like an idiot and start running now.) Once they are on position, the cameras search for the unique LED patterns, and then two closers start to approach to each other at glacial speeds (by this time, you should have reached the weapons storage and grab a shotgun, five machine guns, and a grenade launcher.) When the two first modules connect, the start searching for the third one (you may fire now) until the finally assemble again, forming a single entity that would inevitably destroy you if we didn’t tell you the steps above. Yes, somewhere in the future, this advice will save your life. [New Scientist Tech]

Editor’s Note: If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion in “The Startup Review” series, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: CreateDebate

20-word Description: CreateDebate is a social network for debating topics you’re passionate about. The community decides the best arguments through democratic voting.

CEO’s 100-word Pitch: CreateDebate is the answer to standard internet flame-wars and message boards that are an unreadable jumble of arguments. Our platform provides a structure that lets people easily see what the best arguments are, which side of a debate is winning, and incorporates a unique social networking feature set. People can create three kinds of debates and argue about any topic they are passionate about. The community is empowered to vote up well-conceived arguments and vote down flawed logic. Over time, the best arguments rise to the top of the debate, which distills out the central points and most relevant factors.

Mashable’s Take: Are you into Socratic discussion, in which virtually all views may be expressed regarding any number of issues, whether they be ethical, spiritual, political, technological, and so forth? If so, and you just happen to enjoy Web-based forums that offer democratic platforms on which to vote on and debate a broad range of topics, whether they be centered on breaking news or more general, more philosophical items, CreateDebate is a rather good destination to share your thoughts.

First launched in mid February and just moved to public beta this week, CreateDebate, is a place in which people can participate in topical dialogue on several levels. There are those who may utilize the platform as occasional entertainment to share the odd comment or two. And for others, the site can take the shape of a wide-reaching communication mechanism, where users can follow the activities of users of similar mind - or even the opposite, if challenges are what one is after. Call it a social network with a good dose of partisanship, where both friends and adversaries can gather and contend over questions of piracy, finance, athletics, acting - the list goes on and on.

In short, CreateDebate seems an interesting invention. It’s not too shallow, nor too deep. It sits in the middle of an area whose polarities either amount to sound bytes or long-form opinion. It has an atmosphere casual enough to offer mostly free reign on points of debate, while maintaining both variety and relevance. We think it a worthwhile place in which to spend one’s argumentative energies, one you may very well enjoy.

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Twistori is a fun little site created by Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs. As you would expect, design is a key part of the application, and the Prototype / Script.aculo.us combo pull off the work.

The site pulls in live data on various topics (love, hate, think, believe, feel, wish) via the real-time twitter search tool summize.

In related Twitter news, I created a Greasemonkey script Twitter Translate that auto-translates foreign text to your language inside Twitter.

For more Ajax news, you can follow me @dalmaer or our new @ajaxian account.

As the national library of the United States, the Library of Congress has created vast amounts of metadata to describe books and other documents in its collection. Among this metadata is the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), a “controlled vocabulary” for classifying documents by subject. In order words, experts at the Library of Congress have come up with a (large) list of subject headers from which catalogers of documents can choose. As an example, if you look at the Library of Congress record for Tim Berners-Lee’s book Weaving the Web, you’ll that it is classified under “World Wide Web“, specifically “World Wide Web–History“.

Since the Library of Congress isn’t the only entity that classifies documents, you can imagine that other entities (and not just libraries) would interested in reusing the LCSH vocabulary. But how should the Library of Congress make LCSH available so that it can be easily reused?

That’s where the recent release of lcsh.info comes in (see also the lcsh.info ProgrammableWeb Profile):

This is an experimental service that makes the Library of Congress Subject Headings available as linked-data using the SKOS vocabulary. The goal of lcsh.info is to encourage experimentation and use of LCSH on the web with the hopes of informing a similar effort at the Library of Congress to make a continually updated version available. More information about the Linked Data effort can be found on the W3C Wiki.

Let’s look at what you can do with lcsh.info through a couple of examples. First, we return to the subject heading World Wide Web, this time accessible from lcsh.info as

http://lcsh.info/sh95000541

Note the form of the URL: http://lcsh.info/{lccn} where lccn refers to the Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN), an identifier of the subject heading. In this case, the LCCN for World Wide Web is sh95000541.

If you drop this URL into your browser, you’ll get the default format or representation of the information lcsh.info has about the World Wide Web subject header, including:

• broader terms (e.g., Hypertext systems)
• narrower terms (e.g., Semantic Web)
• related terms (e.g., Internet)
• alternative label — (e.g, W3 (World Wide Web))

The diagram below illustrates some of these relationships

To facilitate reuse of the data, lcsh.info offers its data a variety of formats that can be accessed via content negotiation. That is, you use the Accept HTTP header to specify which of the following content type you want:

• XHTML (with embedded RDFa), which is the default value (application/xhtml+xml)
• JSON (application/json)
• RDF/XML (application/rdf+xml)
• N3 (text/n3)

For example, you can use curl to get JSON representation of the World Wide Web subject header:

curl -v -L -H “Accept: application/json” http://lcsh.info/sh85062913

By looking at the RDF/XML and N3 representations, you can see a concrete example of semantic web approaches to express notions of broader, narrower, and related terms as well as alternative labels using

• Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), which is “a model for expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, folksonomies, and other types of controlled vocabulary”
• designs rules for linked data to represent the network of interconnected subject headings

This experimental but promising service may soon pave the way for full production level web services from the Library of Congress.

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What it does

Is there a controversial idea or theory you would like to debate? At RiledUp.com you can voice your opinion on controversial topics and engage in a debate with other users who also voice their opinion. In order to create a topic or comment and vote on a debate topic you must be a user. You can browse through the different topic categories and read the two sides and comments as a visitor to the site. When you are a user you can start a debate by posing a question and giving two sides. Users can then vote on which side they agree with and add comments. There are many types of debates on RiledUp confronting topics on religion to technology to health. You can easily find debates that interest you by searching through the categories or the popular tags. You can make friends and enemies with other users. Take a look at the other users’ profiles to see which debates they have participated in and who their friends and enemies are. Express your feelings at RiledUp.com.

In their own words

“Debate and discuss topics in any area. Make friends. Create enemies. Become an authority. These are the issues that matter to you, so make your voice heard and have fun at the same time!”

Why it might be a killer

RiledUp is a fun site. It is great that RiledUp offers users many ways to participate. Users can create their own debate or comment on other debates. The enemies and friends feature is a great way for the community to get to know each other. All of the debates are easy to locate because they are organized into categories and tags.

Some questions

It would be great if users could engage in a live debate by messenger or even webcam. There are many sites and communities in which users voice their opinion and discuss, how will RiledUp.com deal with the competition pose by similar sites?

Updates

 » original news

Tomorrow a new breed of investment firm called Prototype Invest will officially launch, though the site is available now. Prototype Invest is a unique type of early stage investment firm. Rather than put money into startups, Prototype supplies technology in exchange for equity. This is an investment firm for anyone who has ever been told, “Ideas are a dime a dozen, kid. Come back when you have a working prototype.”

Founded by web developer and Denmark native Michael Christensen, Prototype Invest will provide people who have an idea but don’t possess programming or design skills a way to take their idea and turn it into a prototype to show investors. “Think of us as a Venture Capital firm providing software, web applications and guidance, instead of money,” says the company on the site. “All we ask for is equity in your idea - you don’t have to pay anything for our services.”

The company has a network of developers and designers which it will employ to create prototypes or full products based on ideas submitted by entrepreneurs. In return, it will take an equity stake in the app it helps create. Prototype Invest will evaluate ideas submitted to it based on merit as well as the character of the entrepreneur who pitched it.

“There are so many great ideas wasted for the wrong reasons - we are here to change the rules of the game,” Christensen told me. According to Christensen, any entrepreneur who is unhappy with the results of their relationship with Prototype Invest can walk at any time.

Prototype Invest has a lot riding on trust — in fact they say on their front page that “without trust we simply can’t exist” — which means that ideally, anyone willing to fork over an idea to the service has not only been told that ideas are a dime a dozen, but also truly believes it. Prototype will work out contracts and the amount of equity taken on a case by case basis, and Christensen tells me that they’re open to signing an NDA with entrepreneurs prior to being pitched.

But there will need to be a certain amount of trust on both sides that ideas won’t be stolen or misappropriated.

Along with development services, Prototype Invest also offers to help entrepreneurs pitch their idea (and newly minted prototype) to investors, which makes sense given that Christensen and team will only make money if the app is a success. At some point in the future the team is also considering offering Y Combinator-style microfunding.

Will Prototype Invest work? It’s hard to say, but there is little doubt that they won’t lack for ideas being sent their way — they are a dime a dozen, after all.

After Mister Jalopy posted a link to mmk_kobayashi’s “tasteless, frequently mean, sporadically NSFW, sometimes jaw dropping and generally hilarious” Flickr photostream my productivity ground to a halt. Link