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Google?s email woes: the power of a name.
2007-03-06 16:08:02
Did Google ’s mail service kill another product line? Shane Smith, CEO of Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) claims that it did. According to Smith, “Google have made a monstrous mess of their intellectual property requirements around their GMail product.” IIIR apparently had another product called ‘GMail’ before Google did — and claims that Google improperly acquired the GMail trademark. IIIR wants Google to change the name of its email service (although they are not going to try to lay claim to the gmail.com domain). Considering all of the branding that Google has put into this mark already though, they would more than likely just look for monetary damages against Google (the GMail trademark is apparently valued at between $48 and $64 million dollars — although one has to take that with a grain of salt, considering it’s the number that IIIR has come up with). (more…)
More About: Power , Email , Name

Blog ROI: the murky future of blogs and feeds.
2007-03-01 16:04:03
I recently came across the diagram below, which attempted to explain how feeds, blogs and various other parts of the content syndication process were interrelated. While this diagram was created to reflect the blog, feed and syndication situation in 2005, has that much really changed since then? (more…) Technorati Tags: blog roi, blogging return on investmentblog roi, blogging return on investment
More About: Future , Blogs , Blog , Feed , Logs

Google Custom Search is back.
2007-02-28 04:02:10
A while ago, I introduced a Googl e Custom Search box on this site that searched all the major knowledge management and technology sites. I’ve received a few messages asking me where that box went. So you’ll be happy to know (admit it, you’re happy) that I’ve reintroduced Google Custom Search. The idea behind this search box is to extend search beyond Uncommon Knowledge to other KM- and technology-specific sites. The search box is at the top of the sidebar on every page (if you’re reading via RSS, please just visit the site). (more…)
More About: Back

Digital disposability: will spam eventually die?
2007-02-27 04:01:04
We all hate spam — but if you’re like me, you also hate getting all those annoying messages from sites that you have actually signed up for. Enter services like Guerilla Mail: a temporary email address that works for 15 minutes (you can extend the use of it for another 15 minutes by hitting a button if you need to). Other similar services exist, such as TempInbox and MailExpire (the nice thing about MailExpire is that you can specify the amount of time you want to use the disposable address for). Most of the time however, we give up our real email addresses in order to get login information to sites. However, Bugmenot will allow you to get logins for various sites without requiring you to bother with confirmation emails and the like. (more…) Technorati Tags: digital disposability, guerilla mail, mailexpiredigital disposability, guerilla mail, mailexpire
More About: Event , Spam , Will , Digital , Digi

Business, Technology and Knowledge 0.6.
2007-02-27 04:01:04
Welcome to the February 26, 2007 edition of Business , Tech no logy and Knowledge . We’re featuring a post today from GameProducer.net which tells us why 80 Percent of Companies Won’t Fail Within 5 Years (posted, of course, at Game Producer). The article points out that not all claims about business success and failure can be backed up by empirical evidence — and even the claims that do have legimitate research backing them can often be patently false. Statistics are often misleading — and one of the most often-overlooked components of statistics is the definition people use for what they are talking about (OK, I don’t have any empirical evidence to back that up). In this case, if 80% of businesses were defined as ‘failures’ after 5 years, who exactly is definining what is a failure and what is a success? Failure is a very subjective word that has to be very precisely defined in order for the statistics to mean anything. You can read the rest of...

Organizing the organizers: sorting metatags.
2007-02-23 15:58:02
Robert Berkman has a post on his blog about Serph and TagFetch — two new metasearch engines that will search multiple blog search engines and tag aggregators (including Technorati, Flickr, Digg, YouTube, Google Blog Search, Bloglines and Newsvine). The growth of these types of sites demonstrates the need for an overarching metadata strategy for the web — which cannot possibly come from one central entity. Instead, in has to come from the users who create that content, thus making distributed tags the only feasible metadata solution. (more…) Technorati Tags : blogs, metadata, search engine, serph, tagfetchblogs, metadata, search engine, serph, tagfetch
More About: Organizer , Organize , Sorting , Sort

KnowledgeCog launched!
2007-02-22 03:56:02
Just a quick note to say that I’ve just launched Know ledge Cog, a site that will focus on quick, easy, step-by-step ways to save your small business, non-profit or library time and money. KnowledgeCog’s focus will be on creating a community-oriented knowledge sharing hub that will connect those who know with those who don’t — providing knowledge on everything from software to collaboration to setting up a blog for your business or non-profit. I’ve started the site with a few basic steps on setting up useful free software (nothing you’ll see on KnowledgeCog will ever cost you anything). Please stop by the site and take a look — and feel free to leave a comment here as well.
More About: Launch , Edge , Launched

To follow or not to follow: a ?nofollow? experiment.
2007-02-22 03:56:02
I’ve often wondered how effective the ‘nofollow’ tag is in blog comments — does it actually stop spammers from targeting a site (if you don’t know what ‘nofollow’ does, check out the short Wikipedia definition)? Since I’ve launched this site, it has received 804 spam comments, versus 99 legitimate comments (including my own replies to comments). In my own subjective calculation, I’d say Akismet has caught around 99% of my spam (of 804 spam comments, I think there have been 3 that have not been caught in the filter). So I ask myself: why do I need the ‘nofollow’ attribute in my comments? I came across this great list of ‘dofollow’ plugins (found through Weblog Tools Collection), and decided it was time to implement one. I decided to just drop ‘nofollow’ altogether by installing DoFollow. So what does this mean for you? Simple: leave a comment here and you get a real link back to your site, plain...
More About: Men , Experiment , Peri , Rime , Nofollow

5 principles for knowlege sharing: why I write.
2007-02-22 03:56:02
I’ve been tagged. All Tips and Tricks has tagged me to respond to the ‘5 reasons why I write’ meme. As I said before, memes are an interesting way to get people to share knowledge. Instead of me just listing why I write, I’d like to list 5 principles for why knowledge sharing matters (and makes me feel the need to keep writing here). 1. Shari ng knowledge is important. Fundamentally, getting the right information at the right time is what we’re all struggling with. Anyone in today’s economy would be hard-pressed to say that knowledge sharing doesn’t impact their job or, in a broader sense, their life.  2. Know ledge sharing can be done by anyone. Everyone knows something that is valuable to someone else. Sharing your knowledge with someone else is a personally rewarding experience that (to me, anyway) outweighs monetary benefits. 3. Sharing knowledge through technology should be easier. While technology has become increasingly prevalent and im...
More About: Write , Ring

Successful online business models.
2007-02-22 03:56:02
Collis has a great series of posts over at North x East about what it takes to start a business online. These articles also apply very directly to other online ventures such as blogs. The posts so far have delineated time and focus as two essential attributes for starting an online business (which I would absolutely agree with). If I can elaborate a bit on Collis’ points within his article, I think there is a model that all successful online businesses share. An online business’ success often hinges on the ability to either establish or create a community (that could be cat lovers, cycling fans, whatever) that has something they wish to share (cat grooming tips, exchanging spare bike parts — use your imagination). Anyone who has attempted to either build a community or get a community to start sharing something they previously kept to themselves knows its a challenging undertaking — once you have a community established, you’ve got the hard part out of ...
More About: Business , Online Business , Models , Success , Model

The true power (and cost) of global collaboration.
2007-02-22 03:56:02
A while ago, Matthew Stibbe talked about the real power thinking and acting collaboratively. Matthew explained the concept of crowdsourcing — which is basically just user-driven and user-created content (although some people would argue that ‘crowdsourcing’ is more a cost-cutting measure than anything). Yet when it comes to user-created content, the subject of compensation always seems to crop up somehow. Having just purchased YouTube, Google has been accused of contributing to copyright infringement. Everybody wants a piece of the action. But as a content creator, should you be compensated for the content you create? Or is your content like a letter to the editor (which the publication can print, reprint or not print as they see fit)? YouTube (since being purchased by Google) seems to think paying content creators is the right way to go. It would seem that Google has decided to ‘do the right thing’ and pay content creators. But wait a second. Just like...
More About: Power , Borat , Global , Cost , Labor

MyBlogLog now integrated into this site.
2007-02-22 03:56:02
In the spirit of providing a greater sense of community on this site, I’ve integrated the MyBlog Log Recent Readers bar into the lower right column. If you’re a MyBlogLog user, you can now see your image show up every time you visit this site. MyBlogLog is a great way to promote your own site, as readers who see an original logo show up on MyBlogLog are likely to click on it and check out your site. I’m new to MyBlogLog, and thus haven’t developed a community yet. Anyone who’s interested in joining my community is welcome.
More About: Site , This , Integra , Integrated

Plugins, standards and validation.
2007-02-22 03:56:02
I stated a few days ago that I had now integrated MyBlogLog into this site. You may have noticed that MyBlogLog didn’t last very long here. Don’t get me wrong, I like the concept of MyBlogLog — it does contribute to a sense of community. While it’s a great idea, the HTML that they provide doesn’t validate very well. Getting XHTML-friendly code to integrate into this site has proven to be tough to do. (more…)
More About: Standards , Plugins , Plugin , Standard , Validation

The semantic web: remixing information.
2007-02-22 03:56:02
The semantic web will allow us to recombine information in ways we never thought would be possible. But how do we get all of that information in a form that all of us can use? I was asked recently to explain how Web 2.0, the semantic web, and metadata are related to each other, and what these concepts might mean for the future of the web. Here’s my (not overly brief) take on it. If you haven’t heard the phrase ‘the semantic web’ before, this is what it is in a nutshell (thanks Wikipedia): “…an evolution of the World Wide Web in which information is machine processable (rather than being only human oriented), thus permitting browsers or other software agents to find, share and combine information more easily.” Obviously, most of the information that’s on the web today got there by being marked up in HyperText Markup Language (a.k.a. HTML). Yet HTML has been around a long time (since around 1993), and has some inherent problems. We can a...
More About: Information , Remix , Info , Inform , Informa

Thinking about a new Wordpress theme?
2007-02-22 03:56:02
If you’re in the market for a new Word press theme, you might want to consider one of Smashing Magazine’s 83 Beautiful Wordpress Theme s You (Probably) Haven’t Seen. This way you don’t need to be John Chow to get a unique theme that works for your site. Gridlock (#4 on the list) is a particularly nice-looking and clean theme. I’ve changed themes on this site quite a few times before I found something I was happy with, but Greg’s offer to give me a hand with a custom Wordpress theme should mean a new design soon.
More About: Press , About

Opening up social networking.
2007-02-22 03:56:02
Social networking sites like MySpace and LinkedIn have consistently grown in popularity (measured of course, in the amount of users that they have). But are they about to hit an adoption plateau? Some people think so — and they’re concluding that the next logical step for social networking is opening up their data so that other sites can use it (the original BusinessWeek article is here). Certainly, a critical element of YouTube’s success in building its user base has been the fact that you can post a YouTube video anywhere — it’s hard to imagine YouTube without that feature. Yet YouTube has a very appealing and specific type of content (video) that people are willing and interested in reproducing on their own sites — but who’s going to want to post someone else’s LinkedIn information? And more importantly — YouTube is not a social networking site. While there is a social component to YouTube, being social and connecting with oth...
More About: Social , Social Networking , Networking , Work , Open