end of march blogging ‘09
Google is starting to promote their Google Contacts compatiblity with Portable Contacts - an open standard for moving entire lists of friends and their address book data - anywhere. Portable Contacts is both a schema and the APIs to do the moving. This is major stuff. Thank you Google. Oh BTW - did I tell you that MySpace, Yahoo and Microsoft ALSO support Portable Contacts? Open sure is the new black!
It’ll be interesting to see if the tweaks to Facebook’s Home page design appease the masses. I guess Scoble was wrong. 
Did you notice that Matt MacAllister didn’t mention ANY of the criticism of his Guardian platform? Come on Matt! You’re a blogger! It can’t ALL be praise? You telling me you can’t find one complaint or negative criticism? What would Jemima say? Oh yah - she works for the Guardian too! Or Suw Charman. No wait - her husband works for the Guardian! OK - what does Euan Semple say?
Just so it’s clear - which know which side Fred Wilson is on. I wonder what he think about Goldman Sachs and the other ‘parties’ getting $1.00 on the $1.00 for their insurance payouts - which we paid for?
What! You mean the music business made mistakes! No - tell me it isn’t true! SDMI wasn’t the answer?
Allot of people missed Microsoft’s announcement of the Windows Live Messenger web tookit last week.
This is the latest is a long line of open Microsoft APIs - that are building a very respectable suite of functionality.
Ad targeting starts to become available on Facebook - meanwhile the EFF doesn’t like Google ‘behavior targeting ads’. Gee I wonder why?
Facebook updates will be everywhere
Meanwhile Project Playlist is getting some traction.
Facebook has to take a more nuanced approach than “ignore the customer”, although as long as they are LEADING customers into NEW online experiences (new to FB at least) they do need to lead.
While a large number, the people who have complained represent a tiny fraction of FB members. Squeaky wheel needs grease, true enough, but the squeaky wheel still doesn’t drive the truck.
Ignoring thoughtful comments and feedback doesn’t make sense, because in the final analysis only by watching what customers actually do with what you give them can you make changes that will lead to more of the kind of response that you want from customers. Customers may not innovate the breakthroughs in a new area like social media, but their feedback is valuable as Facebook fine-tunes its innovations to better meet customer needs.
I take it as a good sign that Facebook is paying attention and willing to take good advice. Even if they are all geniuses with the most amazingly innovative ideas, not-invented-here can still lead to problems. Both/and, not either/or - that’s the general principle at play.
Facebook has to take a more nuanced approach than “ignore the customer”, although as long as they are LEADING customers into NEW online experiences (new to FB at least) they do need to lead.
While a large number, the people who have complained represent a tiny fraction of FB members. Squeaky wheel needs grease, true enough, but the squeaky wheel still doesn’t drive the truck.
Ignoring thoughtful comments and feedback doesn’t make sense, because in the final analysis only by watching what customers actually do with what you give them can you make changes that will lead to more of the kind of response that you want from customers. Customers may not innovate the breakthroughs in a new area like social media, but their feedback is valuable as Facebook fine-tunes its innovations to better meet customer needs.
I take it as a good sign that Facebook is paying attention and willing to take good advice. Even if they are all geniuses with the most amazingly innovative ideas, not-invented-here can still lead to problems. Both/and, not either/or - that’s the general principle at play.
The difficulty with your saying “They aren’t communist but progressive” is its nonsensical nature: “if it walks like a duck….” You can’t shed the legacy of 150 million dead in the 20th Century with a cursory name change.
The basic problem: if you are to have a successful “revolution”, the leaders who emerge will have to be ruthless and barbarous. And once the revolution is complete, these leaders will not step down to be replaced with more sane and humane leaders. Thus, part and parcel of Marxism are the Joseph Stalins (60 million dead) ,the Mao Tse Dongs (84 million dead) and Pol Pot (6 million dead). Hitler with his 22 million dead was a piker!
So Kamerade…how many millions will it be in the 21st Century, all in the name of “the people”?