Category: Blog Tips

Dave worries about Microsoft

Dave Winer is worried that Microsoft is going to throw its weight around when it comes to RSS. I worry about that too. A lot.

I agree, too, that things have changed. For one, Microsoft is far more transparent than it used to be. If we do something evil you know who to call. I have the head of Internet Explorer team, Dean Hachamovitch on IM and have his cell phone number.

Also, I am here at the Lift conference. During the last session I stood in the back and watched how people were sharing information. Blogs. IM. Email. All live. People are so connected now. If we do something evil it spreads around the world within an hour. Or even faster.

Finally, it takes minutes for this connected world to figure out whether something is good or not. If it isn’t you’ll know and know in a violent manner.

What does this mean? First, if we don’t work with the community we’ll fail. Second, if we don’t have the best products and services, we’ll fail. Third, if we take too long to react to market demands we’ll be left out of the conversation and rendered irrelevant.

Hint: I am using Dave Winer’s aggregator. That said, I wish Dave’s aggregator told the RSS platform when I read a post so that other RSS reading apps on the system (I have several) will know that I read an item already.

Calendaring heats up

Steven Sinofsky, check this out! (Steven is the guy who runs the Microsoft Office team and I believe is the highest ranking blogger currently at Microsoft).
I just was given access to an early version of 30 boxes and it’s going to be hot when it comes out. I have one word for my first trial: wow.
Thomas Hawk has the details. It’s beautiful. I wish Microsoft would buy this company and build this into Office Live and Windows Live.

Along this topic Scott Mace is doing a “Calendar Swamp” blog and is asking questions about the calendar that’ll come with Windows Vista. Steve Makofsky is blogging about the new Windows Calendar (those screen shots look awesome!) I’ll definitely follow up there with a video. I just subscribed to Calendar Swamp. Calendaring is joining mapping as an interesting space to watch.

Congrats to Windows Live Local team

It used to be a big deal when you got a great review in one of the computer magazines. It used to be that was the only way you could get people to try your products, but now that we have blogs and a much more efficient word-of-mouth network getting one review is a lot less interesting. That said, it still is very cool when PC Magazine says your stuff is best-of-breed like it did today with the Windows Local Live team.

Mapping is one area where the big three companies are really fighting it out. This year is going to be interesting to watch in this space. I wonder who will do the best at letting bloggers put their reviews right on top of the maps? That’s the next area that’ll get people to switch map services.

The Live Local team has a blog too. Can’t wait to see what they do.

Aside: we need a better name for this service than Windows Live Local. That sure doesn’t make my heart go “pitter patter.” I hate our naming for these things. Think one word. Think easily sayable. Think memeorable. Think unique.

On the other hand, since our team (Seattle Seahawks) are in the Superbowl the Local Live team created a Superbowl map mashup. Try the bird’s eye photography. Really makes using map mashups a lot nicer than the other services that just have a satellite view.

Deliciousing

I’ve mostly caught up with my email. 177 answered today.

But now I have hundreds of interesting things to blog. While I’m listening to Bruce Sterling talk about spimes.

Anyway, I have a folder with hundreds of interesting things in it. How do I get those things to you? I’m playing with Del.icio.us. It’s a little faster and keeps my blog cleaner. Anyway, you might watch my Del.icio.us feed over the next day. By the way, I’m using Flock because it has Del.icio.us built in. So, I go to a site that someone emailed me. If I think it’s interesting enough to share with you I just click on the star button in Flock, fill in a description, and post.

Anyone got a better way to quickly share URLs with others?

Hello from LIFT

I love European conferences. There’s an interesting energy here. And it’s not just cause Anina is here.

They are recording the sessions. They’ll be put up on the LIFT blog. The press conference I participated in is up there now. I started my section off by taking two pictures (1, 2) of the press from my point of view and said “blogging lets me turn the tables.”

This is the first LIFT conference and it’s sold out.

Right now I’m listening to Matt Jones, a designer at Nokia and sitting next to Ben Voigt. He just said “Play is taking reality lightly.” Here’s Matt from my perspective.

Hope you’re taking your reality lightly. Me? I’m about to unleash a ton of blogs on you. Are you ready?

How much of a ton? I just answered 156 emails. Whew. I haven’t been blogging much lately, that’ll change today.

Here’s a photo of the Swiss Alps out the window of the plane I was on as I flew into Geneva.

Real time news?

I’m in a press conference with about 15 journalists for the LIFT conference. It’s 2:30 a.m. my time, so hopefully I sound competent.

Anyway, the news of Google’s financial results and stock market sell off hadn’t gotten to this room until I fired up Memeorandum and showed them what the news was.

Rishi Khaitan says bloggers aren’t fast enough. Funny, but I saw the news hours ago when I was still in the states.

Anyway, hello from Switzerland.