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Weekly Poll: How Will the iPad Affect Cloud Computing?
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Weekly Poll: How Will the iPad Affect Cloud Computing?
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Weekly Wrapup: Digg’s App, Who Retweets,Twitter Hacker, And More…
Our top story this week was "Digg's iPhone App Might Be Better Than the Website." The review? The app is a little buggy, lacks features, but is still quite good. Read on for our coverage and analysis. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Internet of Things. Note: We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format. Sponsor Story of the Week: Digg's iPhone App Digg's iPhone App Might Be Better Than the Website More Twitter Analysis: Influencers Don't Retweet Can You Hear Me Now? Check This Crowd-Sourced Mobile Coverage Map Inventor of the Web Gets Backing to Build Web of Data Twitter Hacker, TechCrunch Document Leaker, Arrested in France (UPDATED) More coverage and analysis from ReadWriteWeb Announcing the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit Join us for the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit on May 7 in Mountain View, California as we explore the latest mobile development trends, both the technology and the emerging business applications. Be a part of the discussion on geo-location services , augmented reality , native app vs. browser-based , commerce and marketing , mobile social networking and the Internet of Things. Sponsorship enquiries: sales@readwriteweb.com , Register now for the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit and get early bird rates - only $295. Mobile Web Opera for the iPhone? We Sure Hope So. Google Voice Goes Real-Time (Well, Almost) That's Not a Phone, It's a Tiny Computer: Global Mobile Data Surpasses Voice More Mobile Web coverage Augmented Reality Augmented Reality Among Time's 10 Tech Trends for 2010 Augmented Reality for Marketers and Developers: Our Newest Research Report More Augmented Reality coverage Augmented Reality for Marketers and Developers: Our Newest Research Report We're pleased to announce ReadWriteWeb's latest premium report, Augmented Reality for Marketers and Developers: Analysis of the Leaders, the Challenges and the Future . This report will help you develop a sophisticated understanding of Augmented Reality (AR), the mobile and Web technology that places data on top of a user's view of the physical world. The research included will help you decrease your AR development time to market by learning from the first wave of early adopters. AR offers a new marketing and product paradigm for a high impact, high value customer experience. More than 1,000 AR campaigns were kicked-off last year and we expect to see many more in 2010. In this report, we profile key AR development companies, their campaigns as well as development lessons learned. For more information or to buy the report, visit here . Real-Time Web My6Sense Releases API: 'Digital Intuition' for the Real-Time Web More Real-Time Web coverage . Don't miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb's report, The Real-Time Web and its Future . Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App We recently launched the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app . As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes . ReadWriteStart Our channel ReadWriteStart , sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark , is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs. What Does Health Care Reform Mean for Startups and VCs? How Entrepreneurs Can Make Better Use of Email The Art of the VC Pitch: A Roundup of Advice from 6 VCs ReadWriteEnterprise Our channel ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' and using social software inside organizations. IBM Partners To Offer $190 Cloud-Connected Netbook For Emerging Markets Microsoft Testing OfficeTalk - Microblogging Service Much Like Twitter ReadWriteCloud Our channel ReadWriteCloud , sponsored by VMware and Intel, is dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing. Canonical Ubuntu One Music Service Goes Into Public Beta Dell: Build Your Own Cloud Enterprise Cloud Control: Q&A with Eucalyptus CTO Dr. Rich Wolski That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone. Discuss
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Weekly Wrapup: Digg's App, Who Retweets,Twitter Hacker, And More...
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Why We Need To Keep Debate Alive In A Customized, Personalized World
Maybe we're getting to be a bit of a broken record on this point, but a blog post this morning by Robert Scoble on how malleable social graphs could change the direction of location based services reminded us of the fine line we think we're all walking. Malleable social graphs, much like recommendation engines and customized searches, sound like the wave of the future, but we fear that they will, if improperly used, ensure that we never hear a disagreeable opinion or see something outside of our day-to-day ever again. Sponsor Scoble's Argument: LBS Dead In The Water Without Innovation For much of Scoble's post , we heartily agree: We are in the very early days of LBS and Facebook could easily squash services like Gowalla and Foursquare if done right. His suggestion for these services is to use what he calls "malleable social graphs", that is, a set of connections that change in response to real-world conditions. Some of his suggestions and criticisms are right on point, such as the opportunity Gowalla has to point someone checking in at a car wash to anything but a lamp store. Checking into the TV show "24" and chatting with other fans sounds like a great idea that Miso is on top of already , just as SuperGlued has taken center stage for aligning like-minded folks around live music events. ...And Then It All Goes Wrong It's when Scoble gets to suggesting that, because he identified himself as a Democrat on Facebook, he shouldn't be shown any "Republican crap" in his news feed, that our spidey-sense starts to tingle. Just as we argued when we found that Google was customizing one in five searches, all of this recommending, customizing and filtering, can put us into an idea echo chamber of sorts, where we only come across safe and previously approved, by our actions, opinions. But a part of what we like so much about Facebook is getting into debates with friends we might never get into in "real life". Go ahead and post a video of the Tea Baggers on your profile, say how absurd you think it is or how much you support it, and see what unexpected discussion ensues. It may not end up being pretty, but maybe you'll learn something - if everyone can keep it polite enough to actually exchange ideas and information. Unless we truly believe that one side is always right and another always wrong (a ridiculous proposition) then filtering out any content we may not agree with is sure to create even more people who believe they are absolutely right. After all, everything they read on the Internet tells them so. ...Or Does It? Then again, when Scoble gets to talking about tastes and reviews, such as his refined taste for sushi versus those who like "fried crap [he] can't even pronounce", it starts to make sense again. Maybe it's because the only thing at stake here is missing out on a good meal. Here's what happens: Yuzu is a place that is awesome for advanced sushi lovers. I've eaten sushi all over the world in places like Tokyo, Yokohama, New York, London, and other places. I love advanced sushi. I look for restaurants who do sushi well. But most people aren't like me. Most people don't even like sushi. So, if they get dragged to a place like this they try to order "Americanized" sushi like, um, California rolls. Or fried crap I can't even pronounce. That is NOT sushi. Anyway, these people, er, newbies, get to Yuzu and find that all the other "non-sushi" stuff sucks. So they rate it low. Me? I could care less about all that other non-sushi stuff when I am looking for a sushi restaurant, which is why I rate this place five stars. Now, Yelp does NOT have a malleable social graph. We can't filter out all the "sushi newbies" who don't like sushi anyway. Malleable social graphs, recommendation engines, customized searches and the like all have great uses and can be immensely powerful tools. We can find out about all sorts of things we might have missed because they would have otherwise been lost in the overwhelming stream of information. Using these sorts of tools in conjunction with LBS is where the industry needs to go, as Scoble argues, to stay afloat. But once you return back to the ideological realm again, though, as with his argument about movie reviews, we feel that the stance gets a bit tenuous. Our fear, as we discussed when looking at recommendation engine My6Sense , is that people need to step outside these filters otherwise they will never see the unexpected and have their thoughts challenged. And of course, this is not a black and white debate . It isn't between either having content recommended or having the entirety of the Internet's data blasted at you, full force. There are gradations and in-betweens, and maybe, sometimes, you just want to know what all of your friends are talking about. But even then, do you only want to know what your friends are talking about that you can be sure you agree with? Different opinions, ideas, and their vigorous debate is essential to a free and developing society. On this point, we implore Facebook, Google, My6Sense, Twitter and everyone else - no matter how much our staunch Republican friends may annoy us, please don't silence them. We'll never get anywhere if you do. One Last Thing With all of that being said, we have to fess up to one, minor detail. Where did we find Scoble's article? Was it in the unfiltered chaos that contains all of the different opinions of the world? Not at all. It was, in fact, the third story down in our Twitter Times , a website that creates a custom, newspaper-style page, specifically personalized by looking at all of the links being tweeted and retweeted by all of the people you follow on Twitter. So much for personalization killing debate, eh? Discuss
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Why We Need To Keep Debate Alive In A Customized, Personalized World
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Finding the Balance of Design and Functionality
We've talked a lot on ReadWriteStart about how design is an important facet of the development of a web applications for startups. Last week we provided some advice on how to deal with irate customers who hate your design changes, and earlier this month we talked about how small design tweaks can have big impacts of the use of your site. Sponsor The main theme of these posts is that good design is worth the time and effort because it goes a long way in attracting and maintaining users, but really, who is to say what "good design" is? A recent entry on the blog ignore the code by Swiss software engineer Lukas Mathis raises an interesting point about user interfaces and how some users prefer that they maintain their complexity . They like complicated user interfaces? It seems strange, but Mathis argues that mastering a cluttered interface gives users a sense of superiority. One example of this that Mathis points out is the Bloomberg Terminal, a complexly designed business interface whose users might revolt if it were simplified, as some studies have shown. "Some complex user interfaces may also give people the perception of having more control," writes Mathis. "Another reason why people sometimes avoid simple devices is that they perceive them as being made specifically for children, or for 'stupid' people." So how does this apply to Web startup culture? What it says is that not all users are the same. Not everyone is looking for the cleanest and simplest design; some want more features and more complexity. The thing to remember is there is a difference between having a complex interface and having a complicated interface. Even the simplest of interfaces, Twitter , has begun to add more complexity with new retweet features, lists, trending topics, and more. Aesthetically, "good design" means design that is appealing to the eye, and is easily navigated visually. With this idea, it is important that complex interfaces are well designed so that the users who prefer simplicity do not feel overwhelmed. So "good design" may be simply design that is both aesthetically refined, and that also serves to aid both novices and power users in easily finding the features they want without feeling over or underwhelmed - balanced, and right in the sweet spot. I would love to hear what people think of this idea, so please let me know your thoughts in the comments. Discuss
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Finding the Balance of Design and Functionality
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Proposed Financial Regulations Could Cripple Angel Investing
In the wake of the financial meltdown, a new set of financial regulations proposed by Senator Christopher Dodd aimed at plugging the "too big to fail" loopholes could have some negative side effects for the angel investment community. According to a report from the Seattle-based site TechFlash , Dodd's bill would require that angel investments be approved by the SEC, a process that could take as many as 120 days to complete. Sponsor But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The enormous reform bill (some 1300+ pages) also gives the SEC the ability to delegate regulatory authority to state governments on investments it deems too small in size or scope. Angel investors themselves could be place under the regulatory microscope as well; the bill wants to raise the income level it takes to become an accredited investor, perhaps even doubling the requirement. Not only would this bill make the process of attaining seed-stage funding more difficult, more expensive, and more time consuming, it goes against the government's goal to create jobs in America. If these regulations become law, fewer startups will get funding because they won't want to deal with the lengthy SEC filing process. Instead, more innovative ideas will go by the wayside, startups will not get funding, and jobs will not be created. Furthermore, by raising the requirements to provide angel funding, the pool of investors will shrink, which will only exacerbate the problems facing the nation's already floundering venture capital industry that is only recently seeing signs of recovery . In a letter sent to Senator Dodd earlier this month, Mark Heesen, President of the National Venture Capital Association, and Marianne Hudson, Executive Director of the Angel Capital Association, together outlined their grievances with the bill and its danger towards the VC industry. "Venture capitalists often invest in companies that were supported by angels, so ensuring that regulations for accredited investors do not harm this capital source is important," said Heesen and Hudson. "In addition, as more and more venture capital firms co-invest with angel investors and angel organizations, the state preemption of securities regulations could extend to a large number of businesses, from start-ups to others that need capital for growth." What do you think of this bill? It seems to me the sections mentioned above will be in direct conflict with the Startup Visa movement which most of the startup community seems to be on board with . The distinction seems obviously clear: encouraging foreign entrepreneurs to start their companies in America will create jobs, and this new bill from Senator Dodd will prevent the creation of jobs by thinning out angel investments. Let us know your thoughts below in the comments. Discuss
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Proposed Financial Regulations Could Cripple Angel Investing