Arrington on Dissolving the BBC

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(b) promoting education and learning;
(c) stimulating creativity and cultural excellence;

LinkedIn Detective Work

Isn’t it interesting to see your network in action on LinkedIn From watching what my network is up to, it looks like mobile social networking is going to have a run this year.

What are you guys seeing

The Importance of Leveraging Natural Search

Startup Review has published 7 Indicators of Consumer Internet Success. Number 2 is one I hadn’t thought of before but it’s smart.

2. Strong ability to leverage natural search as the primary means of user acquisition

When I consider my own experience this is a powerful idea. First, I rarely use bookmarks now, I just Google the rough name of the site or concept and then follow the link from search results. I am rarely loyal to individual sites. I’ll go where Google sends me in most cases.

Secondly, I often find Wikipedia or Digg pages in Google results these days. These sites use the user-generated model to carpet bomb search results, often matching precisely to niche search queries.

So:

• Have a user-generated dimension to feed the content
• Make sure search engines can read the content of the page, even if the site is Flash-based, podcasts, vlog…
• Make everything linkable

Read more on VentureBeat.

If You Want a Clear Understanding of How Law-Making is Cocking Things Up…

Get yourself a cup of coffee, block out an hour of your diary and watch this: 7 Ways to Ruin a Technological Revolution. It is a Google Talk given by James Boyle about the tension between new law and new technology. The argument is clear and entertaining and worth the time if you make technology that may, at any time, touch intellectual propery rights. Hint: If you are making stuff for the Internet, this is hard to avoid.

There is a funny anecdote in there from a discussion with someone from a collection society where Boyle suggested that there are still some private places where fair use can apply to the enjoyment of music - like the shower. The reply: “That’s just a problem with monitoring.”

Two big ideas that resonated for me:

IP law (and lobbying, let’s face it!) only looks at the cost and not the benefit. If a new business model emerges in which more sales are generated but there is also an increase in free use of the media, isn’t that good Apparently not, and all we hear about is the increase in “piracy”. I don’t know how many times I have had this discussion.

Another problem is concentrating on outputs with no recognition of inputs. When we debate about video, music, photography, we are talking about acts of creativity. These acts need inspiration, raw materials, ingredients. If every transaction (even singing in the shower!) has to be monitored and monetized, the vines will shrivel up and die.

I haven’t done Boyle justice in my description of his talk so please check it out for yourself.

Thanks Anthony, for sending me the link.

Sydney = Silicon Beach?

Marty is linking to a piece in the Australian Financial Review which coins Sydney as ‘Silicon Beach’.

I am proud to be doing my thing on Silicon Beach. There is some real talent here.

Pew: Boys Need Somewhere to Hang?

The NYTimes is reporting that older teenage girls (aged 15 - 17) use social networking sites more than boys. This is an important study from Pew Internet & American Life Project. Are existing social network sites skewed towards girls because they are all about talking when boys just want to hang out Off the net, teenage boys don’t communicate like they need to on MySpace.

What do you think boys need

It also reports that a staggering 55% of American 12-17 year olds use social networking sites - most of them EVERY DAY!

PirateBay Wants To Buy Sealand

When I started my job as CTO at Kazaa, a hilarious myth spread across the internet claiming that I lived alone on an oil rig, keeping the Kazaa engine running in a defiant act of solitude.

I enjoyed reading this in my Sydney office.

Historically, PirateBay have been quite impressive with their courage in the face of the mighty copyright groups such as the RIAA but their latest plan is, sadly, as hilarious as the rumours that I lived on an oil rig.

NewTeeVee is reporting that they have launched a campaign to buy Sealand which is an oil rig in the North Sea (off the coast of Britain) with its own passports and currency.

Even though PirateBay Co might be based in the copyright free principality of Sealand:

1. The servers can’t run from there. I am not sure of the capacity of Sealand - I assume there is non since a fire destroyed the generator last year. Other ‘copyright-free’ countries exist but any popular website will bring down their international phone system at peak times. The servers will have to go somewhere which exposes them to legal attacks.
2. The people will not live on Sealand. Wherever they are, this is another point of weakness.

They are having fun, but it is a dangerous game that I believe they cannot win.

A Must See: Lessig's Blueprint for Change

This video of Lessig’s 23C3 presentation is a must see for anyone that follows my blog… actually for everybody because these issues are important and will shape our world in the decades to come. The question: For a free culture, how do we ‘free the future from the dead hand of the past’

His proposed blueprint for a free culture is very interesting.

Go Limewire! Go!

Reading this, I really hope that Limewire can pull it off:

Still in the process of settling with the music industry, the P2P file-sharing service wants to start charging its 40 million users $1 per download and share the revenue and user-behavior information with the music industry. But it wants to stay DRM-free. The company hired TAG Strategic consultant Ted Cohen, a former EMI exec, to convince the majors to at least test the idea for six months.

DRM sux and anyone who has attempted to buy DRM music knows it. There is nothing else I can add to this well trodden debate. People just don’t want ANY situation where music they own does not work and DRM makes this happen constantly.

I have always held that the value in p2p nets for users is the choice and not the ‘freeness’. If Limewire pulls this off, my theory will be tested.

Artists get paid and users get the music they want without the limitation. Best of all, it is simple simple simple.

Its a good move hiring Ted Cohen too. They stand a small chance of penetrating the legal firewall between them and the record execs who want to sell music.

Getting My WoW Fix in the Holidays

Tragically, since returning to Australia from the Netherlands in August I have found no time to play World of Warcraft. Mick pimped the game to me and quickly got me addicted last Easter and I have subsequently done the same to most people I know.

I was poised to give up my subscription but started to play over the holidays. While deleting the tens of characters my 4 year old son creates (that’s another story for you), I accidentally deleted my level 28 night elf called Maverra. Argggh! He was an investment of many months and it was almost the straw that broke the camel’s back for my subscription… until wonderful Kellie (my wife) bought me The Burning Crusade for Christmas… and now I’m back in and loving it.

So, friends, Morloc is back in Khaz’Goroth. Please join me and help me level! And leave your character names in the comments if you play on Khaz’Goroth.