Missing the Bigger Picture of Net Neutrality... Consumer Choice...

it's everywhere, full scale panic about net neutrality is but a few key strokes away. Om Malik and Mark Evans and Scot Peterson and the rest of the free world are writing furiously about the freedom of the internet, and the efforts of the carriers and telcos to "stifle internet creativity"….

Why is it that everyone seems to be missing the bigger picture here? 5 years ago, consumers and businesses were so very excited about using VoIP over the net, and then they realized, yikes, the quality isn't all that great, i think I'll wait till more of the bugs get worked out….

And then a few years ago, corporations again thought about taking another run at VoIP as a business application, again using the internet, with VoIP phones for their remote workers, and again, the quality was lacking, so they resorted to VPNs using the internet, and cellphones for voice. During the whole time, big companies kept asking: "when are you going to have quality of service on the internet? I can't risk my business applications over a public network, with no guarantees"…. And MPLS networks were born. Quality of service, Class of Service, DYNAMIC Class of Service, all geared to corporations who had to have guarantees on bits and bites. Companies bought MPLS networks to move their corporate app traffic. They couldn't risk the uncertainty of the internet for mission critical, revenue driving traffic.

But still they asked, "when are you going to get quality of service on the internet"?

Now, the telecom industry is baby steps from being able to implement a global, meshed MPLS network, capable of carrying end to end, quality of service internet traffic. Now, the Net Neutrailty debate bubbles to the surface, wanting to force all traffic to be the same. Wanting to force all carriers to be blind to the bits they are carrying. Wanting to squash classes of service.

Folks - classes of service are a GOOD THING. The last thing i want is a neighbourhood full of gamers bringing down my internet VPN when I have a proposal that has to get out the door by 9:00 am on a monday morning. Classes of service don't have to be negative, and they can allow for the consumer to have a CHOICE, which, really, is what the internet should be all about.

Again I say, bring on classes of service, let people dynamically choose how they want their bits treated, let them be able to choose daily, hourly, over a portal, with an easy to use interface.

LET THE PEOPLE CHOOSE.

Technorati : MPLS, Mark Evans, Net Neutrality, Om Makil, VoIP

Fickle RSS Readers...

… so i'm admiting i'm new at the rss game. But once my blogroll became unwieldly, i realized with a heavy heart that an RSS reader was the way to go. That being said, my blog platform allows me to see the RSS subscription count on my very own feeds. And now, i have a problem… i'm addicted to the stats. Sure, there are worse things to be addicted to, but rss stats have the dubious honour of being perhaps entirely too geeky and addicting. Dangerous combination.

WHat i can't figure out is the fickleness of the subscribers, one week i can have over 50, and the next week be under 20. I can only think it's because of the odd timing of my postings, tech whisperer doesn't akways get the daily feed and watering it deserves, granted…. but still!

Sheesh people, have some patience. Brilliance doesn't happen for me EVERY day. RSS Subscriptions should be an INVESTMENT, not just a flash in the pan.

;-)

Technorati : rss readers

On the Quest for Relevance in Web2.0

rel·e·vance Audio pronunciation of "relevance" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (rl-vns)
n.

1. Pertinence to the matter at hand.
2. Applicability to social issues: a governmental policy lacking relevance.
3. Computer Science. The capability of a search engine or function to retrieve data appropriate to a user's needs.

One of my tasks this week, aside from relaxing and painting, is to delve deeper into the meaning of relevance in web2.0 apps. Without relevance, all you've got is a sack full of teenagers in social networking scenarios. Without relevance, you've got a favourites folder jammed with different web2.0 apps, and more than a thousand accounts sprinkled across the ethersphere. SO - my challenge is this, when keeping track of apps is harder than herding cats, how does one portray relevance in web2.0? Is it via the new ajax portals? Is it a desktop gizmo? Is it a blog that can do everything? I'm not the only one looking at this from squinty eyes….

NetJaxer - a Web/Desktop integration product… but is it useful? by ZDNet's Richard MacManus - One of the many new web apps that has been emailed to me recently is one called NetJaxer, which caught my eye because it's a Web/desktop integrator. But it's a few days later and I've still not figured out what use it is. NetJaxer was described to me in the email: "Our program is called […]

Drowning in Web2.0

… the web2.0 wave has hit me, and i'm not afraid to say i've got some water up my nose. I've been flickr'd, wordpress'd, flock'd, del.icio.us'd, kaboodled, netvibed, backpack'd, mylist'd, myspace'd, mapped, tagged, my box'd, pandora'd…. and a zillion others that i've tested and given up on.

Tonight i thought i'd try to find something that could bring everything together, in one portal, in one dimension. Nope. Nothing does it all. Google is close, Netvibes is close; I thought I'd hit the jackpot with suprglu, but no, no, no. So - now i'm back with 4 tools. GoogleStart, Netvibes, Flock, and my own blog. can I please implore someone to make something that will do everything? Am I going to have to do this??

I need to go and blow out some of the wave. Maybe I will take a closer look at Pageflakes.

Technorati : Web 2.0

the good and the bad of web 2.0...

As I struggle with coming to grips with web2.0 and the myriad of options and new tools, I realize that staying abreast isn't nearly as difficult as trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. There really are 3 camps. Those apps that are indeed "lifehacks" and those that are "social networking". I'm all over the former, and fairly put off by the latter. And then there are the ones that try to mesh the 2 camps together. Let's call these the "relevent networking apps". Add a little wrapper of live, interactive focus groups, and you've essentailly got web2.0 all figured out.

Lifehacks would include the productivity suites, and nifty apps that actually can add value to your life: flickr, pandora.com, backpack , del.icio.us , linked-in , eurekster.com

Hard core Social Networking sites freak me out, and i tend to stay away from them, once i've poked at them a bit: Ning, MySpace. Trying to find value and relevancy is a whirlwind of chaos is easier said than done. I want relevancy. To *MY* life. I have a hard time caring about Beth in Montana's new sound collection, or where she's going on her spring break. If I could get a social networking app that managed to package what i'm interested in, with people who are similar, i could begin to see more value. It's simply a matter of time.

The relevant networking apps are a blur, there's the social aspect, but also a bit of value… Kaboodle is one of the good ones.

The fun part of web2.0 is the increasing movement for people to actually meet face-to-face. To talk and learn and laugh and experiment and gain and share ideas. This is perhaps the mist interesting componenet, and the part that seems to get me even more intrigued that the software. It's the humanware. BarCampTDot and Mesh06

People getting excited about exciting things. That's the real excitement. Collaboration and participation. That's the real twig of web2.0

Technorati : Web 2.0, backpack, kaboodle, pandora

blurring digital and analog...

i like the blur - and it appears i'm not the only one… tara hunt is quite impressive. yup.

i've got a blog; i put my christmas and birthday wish lists up and people actually take a look ;-) I can be reached on an IP phone, that knows that if im not at home, it will try my cell. I get voice mails in emails and emails on phones. I've got a digial wishlist of houses and books and music. I've got figital photo albums and musical playlists. I order groceries online, and take-out chinese as well.

You can IM me, ping me, pin me and google talk me. You can comment, suggest and slander ;-)

There are a few things I *wish* i could do digitally:

• program my PVR from work
• order cleaning service
• watch my dog from work
• skype my parents
  

All in all, it's not so very bad. It's quite good.

Technorati : analog, blogs, digital

Tags and clouds...

Whether we like it or not, or notice it or not, our lives are quickly being defined by tags and clouds. As information becomes available, and relavent, we are doing everything in our power to keep track of it, and make note of it. There's nothing worse that 1000's of links in your bookmarks, or unorganized email, or a list phone number for an important contact.

The concepts of tagging, and the related cloud aspect do indeed bring to mind the concept of "6 Degrees of Separation", and the social aspects of finding people are are interested in the same off-beat things you are. Perhaps there is a small comfort in knowing you aren't the only person who likes the idea of little coffe cup jackets ;-)

Still, as we struggle between more knowledge vo more information, tags seem to be one of the more interesting ways to keep trakc, and organize what we want to know about. I find myself organizing things in the analog world, based on tags, as well. My bookshelf, my analog mail, even my wardrobe. The struggle seems to be in unifying tags, and ensuring that what i mean when i say sweater, is consistent whether it's monday or whether it's March. And therein lies the trick to tagging in the blogosphere. Because of the unpredictable nature of humans, not everyone has the same meaning for the same word.

I did a tag query on shopping over the weekend…. (i get all twiggy when i find a unique on-line boutique)… and yet, the results that cam back, tagged as "shopping" where bizarre, and only a handful of on-line boutiques came back to me. The vast majority of the results were related to XLM and creating shopping cards… not necessarily what a gurl wants to do on a sunday morning…especially when she's thinking of real shopping ;-)

regardless of what you tag, consistency is key, i am learning, as is the nesting of tags… after my dismal attempt at shopping, i added boutique to my query and magically got rid of the coding results. still, nesting only adds another layer of complexity to a situation that is tenuous at best…. and introduces yet another opportunity for humans to be obscure. my tagging expertise is limited, but i've figured out, if even I want to find the stiff i've squirreld away, i have to be vigilent with my consistency. And with my spelling.

Once i tagged something with "tek" - and could never find it again.

;-)

Technorati : clouds, relavence, tagging