I am starting to like Google Squared.
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9 items tagged "webstuff"
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20:06
Google Squared
» Kikuyumoja's realm -
linking policies and copyright issues
» Kikuyumoja's realm …UNICEF says on their legal page:
If you would like to link to UNICEF’s web site, we ask you to agree to the following, and contact us (choose subject ‘Permission to link’ in the dropdown menu) to let us know for our records. You may link to the homepage or to a deep content page.
Yeah, right. You want me to contact you whenever I am linking to your site? What about search engines, linking to such sites that require prior contact to the site admin?
BoingBoing has another, much better approach on its policies page:
Boing Boing has a linking policy.
After years of making fun of “linking policies” that set out the terms under which a website can be linked to, Boing Boing has decided to create a linking policy of our own. Here it is — now, abide by it!Boing Boing doesn’t believe in linking policies. They’re dangerous, have no basis in law, and they break the norms that make the Web possible. They’re a wicked, stupid idea.
That said, if you believe in linking policies — that is, if you believe that people who make websites should be able to control who links to those sites and how — then have we got a policy for you:
No site with a linking policy (other than a policy such as this one, created to deride and undermine the idea of linking policies) may link to Boing Boing. Ever.
I like that.
The real problem seems to be that most organisations, institutions, companies, etc a) do not have the capacity to understand the Web, b) employ legal advisers who hardly ever have to deal with Web-related disclaimers or copyright issues for online content and c) - unfortunately - often haven’t even heard of something like the CreativeCommons licencing tools.
My experience is that most authors of online content aren’t even aware of these licencing tools, and - if in doubt - leave it to their legal team (if any) who just put everything under the “all rights reserved” label. That’s just very frustrating!
My question: is there any *official* disclaimer for web pages (linking policies, etc.) that’s just as convenient to use as the (CC) tools & provides this free and open approach as seen on the BoingBoing page?
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this post does not fit into twitter, although..
» Kikuyumoja's realm …it isn’t that much longer than 140 characters.
Ok, enough with that IT humour. What’s really funny is that I just saved a link to an interesting story to my delicious account and forwarded it to a friend of mine at the other side of the globe - only to realize that he had already saved the same story 11 minutes ago on his delicious account.
AOB: a) I wish there was some sort of an iTagger plug-in for the “eZ-Publish” CMS. ; b) all tags on flickr/ipernity images - are they stored in an external index file, or rather within the meta section of the image file itself?
Seesmic (.com) - interesting new video platform with ads and, more importantly, an online editor. Broadband - here we come!
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videopinion
» Kikuyumoja's realm Some years ago, epinion communities used to be _the_ ultimate social platform on the net. I don’t know how this developed in the USA, but in Europe I think it has stalled.
So, instead of people writing their particular product review on dedicated opinion communities where reviews are at the centre of all attention, today’s customers go to:
a) webshops that focus on one particular product range, e.g. ebags, amazon, etc.
b) blogs
c) youtube reviews (!)
IF consumers switch from putting their opinion on a certain product they have been using from a central website to their own media platform (blogs, youtube) - how do they benefit of it? Google AdSense?
If I write about a Nokia phone, a Creative mp3 player or Eastpak/Eagle Creek luggage like I’ve done in the past, produce a short video on the phone, the mp3 player and that wheeled luggage piece - how will these companies directly pay me for praising their products?
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how long does it take to load?
» Kikuyumoja's realm 
A friend of mine in Nairobi informed me today that my blog takes ages to load. Can anyone of you confirm this?
I already tested my website with the free webwait service (as pictured above), but I don’t know if this actually tests the speed time my website takes to load (~ server response time, scripts, etc.), or just how fast my site loads with my current connection (speed).
Any feedback on the download/accessibility/site-loading speed is very much appreciated. Thank You!
AOB: MSIE 6.029 sux. big times!
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why Web2.0 is important to me
» Kikuyumoja's realm [Disclaimer: I am currently reading David Weinberger’s latest book “Everything is Miscellaneous”, which seems to be just as exciting as “The Cluetrain Manifesto” from 1999 (which I back then forwarded to my boss @ work) or my prof’s “Cradle to Cradle” bible - books that inspired me and have a long-lasting effect…]
The organization I am currently working for (as an intern) has a relatively huge repository of technical datasheets with lots of interesting articles and archived knowledge. Most of these datasheets are saved as PDFs and published online, searchable through a site-internal search interface and only identifiable through their title. Obviously, a smart headline leads to proper search results.
The other system they are maintaining is a document management system (DMS) which is a nice step forward into the right direction. Only, what it lacks is a quality search.
Most of you have already started to appreciate the advantages of social bookmarking - where humans work as filters and often only save interesting pages, thus raising the quality of any obtained information. I prefer del.icio.us to most Google search results, unless I am e.g. looking for an image where I need to have the wider choice of search results.
Now with this above mentioned organization in mind that has in the past tried to backup its digital data into a file repository, what seems to be lacking is a tagging-mashup. Something like an add-on for the DMS (=> yeah, there goes the API question) that consists of another database which only stores a) quality keywords and b) the links to each document. So instead of doing an ordinary search on the DMS, which will return Google-alike search results (displaying all results on a certain keyword), the add-on would only deliver those results that have been declared as “quality content” by its users.
So you see, the basic idea behind this blog post was that while I know a lot of ppl are already fed up with Web2.0 terminologies and the hype around it, others have only just started to realize what this is actually all about. And while some private individuals are already power users of Flickr, Technorati & Delicious tagging-worlds, most companies still need to start realizing this huge potential. Just as many of them have never even heard of the Cluetrain Manifesto… *sigh*
(this is SUCH a huge market?!?!…)
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professionaaaal titooools
» Kikuyumoja's realm So I caught myself updating my profiles on xing.com and linkedin.com (isn’t that enough already? facebook, twitter & co for private stuff, xing & linkedin for the pro section?) and realized that I actually can’t think of any professional title, something like an instant keyword that describes my job.
Well, which job? My rummaging here, here, here, here and here?
And what do I put there?
a) what I learned? (~industrial manager, oil business)
b) what I studied? (~ environmental & civil engineering, with an emphasis on sustainable waste (water) management & eco-efficient product design)
c) what I’ve been employed for in the past? (~ list too long)
d) what I actually did ? (~ office “best boy”)
e) what I consider myself? (~ imagineering dude)
f) my current job description? (~ intern)
g) what I am currently doing? (~ editing technical datasheets & setting up a CMS)
h) ……?
As for those social network platforms online, I’ve started mentioning my own (imaginary) company called Kikuyumoja Inc.. Job description: “optimizing idle time”. The dude abides…
AOB: thx GoogleAdSense for adsensing my blog with “composting toilets” and “biological dry toilets”!
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msie & work
» Kikuyumoja's realm A company’s seriousness about the implementation of web technologies clearly shows when it comes to the browser question: what kind of browser are we using today? MSIE 6.0? Are we going to give our users the rights to install any add-ons or extensions to a browser? etc.
Chris, a knowledge management and communications specialist and a really nice fellow I met through Mzeecedric (of Zungu.net) & a recent barcamp in Frankfurt/M, compiled an introduction to knowledge sharing within Enterprise2.0 earlier last week. And although it’s just an introduction that symbolizes the tip of the iceberg - an iceberg which stands for the much awaited change within companies and their pre-cluetrain / web 1.0 world - there are still so many basic things that just have to be explained over and over again.
Social bookmarking, for instance. Although the installation of any add-ons is strictly forbidden within this institution, I took the liberty to install a del.icio.us add-on for MSIE 6.0 anyways (ooops? :-). I’d of course prefer using a better browser and already tried runing Mozilla Firefox from a USB stick (as mentioned earlier), but then: MSIE 6.0 actually is ok for the time being. I don’t want to change the system, all I want to do is getting things done. And with a social bookmarking tool like del.ico.us, I can actually share my trouvailles with others and contribute to that pre-selected pool of interesting websites - the bonus which makes social bookmarking so interesting and advantageous.
These web worlds of course aren’t everything, but I just can’t drop that crazy idea of informing my colleagues @ work about the wonderful advantages of using Web 2.0 technologies for many office jobs. We have to start somewhere, really.
Oh, and maybe I should start by convincing my boss of using a service like twitter - which would make it much easier for us to track her down and/or forwarding calls.
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one
» Kikuyumoja's realm One website.
One database.
One online map of the globe with thousands of layers.Hmmm.
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