Blogger/Internet socialite Robert Scoble has a problem. In attempting to scrape his personal data from Facebook (where he *had* several thousand "friends") he angered some of Facebook's internal monitoring drones and was forcefully removed from the service. True enough, what he was doing clearly violates Facebook's terms of service which state, "Thou shall not use automated means to scrape thine own data" but, should Facebook be allowed to collect the dossier you create through using the service, and then forbid you from getting a copy?
What's really at issue here is, who owns all this crazy social data you're constantly creating? Here's a tip; it's not you. All those clickwrap agreements -- or EULAs, also known as the Terms of Service document you never read -- say that Facebook can pretty much do whatever it wants with whatever data it manages to extort extract from you.
Still happy about the amount of time you spend on the most popular social networking site in the world? Or, rather, are you getting that icky, spine crawling feeling you get when you meet someone who knows just a little too much about you?
Scobleized : Why Facebook will never give your data back
Continue reading Scobleized : Why Facebook will never give your data back
Should Google add comment feature to Reader link blogs?
If you believe the claims in an apparently "leaked" video from Google, there are a few updates headed Google Reader's way. More social features are coming, there will be a way for Reader to recommend feeds to users, and Google might add the ability to comment on shared items.That last one caught the attention of Duncan Riley over at TechCrunch. The way he sees it, allowing users to share articles in a link blog style format already violates the copyright of blog and web site publishers by reproducing their work out of context (and devoid of any original advertising).
Of course, most web publishers have looked the other way so far, because nobody's making any money off of these link blogs, and while entire articles are being reprinted, there's clear attribution explaining where they came from and no way for users to add original content, thus making a link blog something less than a regular blog.
If Google adds the ability to comment on shared items, Riley suggests, then it will essentially be granting users the ability to publish their own blogs using content from others without permission.
Another way of looking at it is that few link blogs (Robert Scoble's included) have the readership of a popular web site like Engadget. If anything, when someone like Robert Scoble shares an occasional item from your feed, he's popularizing your brand and perhaps driving traffic back to your site. After all, he doesn't publish every article you've written, does he? And really, how different is a link blog from an feed reader? In both situations people are reading your content outside of the context of your blog -- because of the RSS feed you have provided them with.
What do you think? Is link blogging stealing? And should Google add a comment feature to Google Reader?
RealPlayer takes online videos offline
In June, Real Networks will launch a beta of their updated RealPlayer. Robert Scoble caught up with Real Networks VP Jeff Chasen for a preview.
If the four minute video doesn't do it for you, Scoble has also posted a much longer video of the complete interview.
NYT announces coming of Web 3.0, everyone groans
Yesterday's New York Times included an, um, interesting article by John Markoff about the next generation of the web. He says that computer scientists and start-ups want to "add a layer of meaning on top of the existing Web that would make it less of a catalog and more of a guide--and even provide the foundation for systems that can reason in a human fashion." He says their effort is "referred to as Web 3.0." That's nice, John, but why does your article have everyone who actually knows what they're talking about scratching their heads? Everyone who's been paying attention will identify that new "layer of meaning" as what people have been happy calling the semantic web for a few years now, but nobody but Markoff, and maybe a few overenthusiastic marketers, are calling it Web 3.0, and that bit about reasoning "in a human fashion"? Well, AI isn't new to computer science, and Hollywood got over it five years ago. I'm not sure what Markoff's excuse is.Predictably, the blogosphere is all over the Web 3.0 meme, with notable responses from Nick Bradbury who says "The Semantic Web may happen, but if it does, it's going to be a helluva lot messier than the architects would like," and ex-Microsoftie Robert Scoble who proposes "Web 2007" as a much more hypeworthy name, Tim O'Reilly ("I was surprised to see Markoff referring to this as "Web 3.0", when that very fact is the heart of what we've been calling Web 2.0."), and, of course, Dave Winer.
Is Windows Live (MSN) Spaces the world's biggest blogging service?
According to Richard MacManus, Windows Live General Manager George Moore told an audience at Microsoft's TechEd 2006 conference in New Zealand yesterday that Windows Live Spaces (formerly MSN Spaces) is "now the largest blogging service on the planet," and his assertion is causing a bit of a stir. Microsoft says there are 72 million Spaces in existence, but former Microsoftie Robert Scoble says maybe that's so, but are they really all blogs? Scoble says no, and outlines his idea of what makes and doesn't make blog. "First, let's define what a blog is, at least enough to count for this purpose.- Have original content. Spam blogs that are copied off of somewhere else don't count.
- Have at least 500 words of new text-based content every month. Things that look like Flickr streams aren't blogs, sorry.
- Have at least two posts in at least the past 30 days. If you aren't posting, you're not blogging.
- I don't care if you have comments, have trackbacks, have blogrolls, or any of that."
Windows Vista just ain't gonna be ready
Bill Gates is on the record as saying there's an 80% chance Windows Vista will ship on time, but he seems to be the only one that certain it'll be ready. In order to meet its targeted release, Vista will have to be shipped to PC manufacturers in October or early November, which gives them somewhere between eight and fourteen weeks to get it done. More than a few people think that that's not possible, or at least very unwise. One of those people is .NET Developer and Vista enthusiast Robert McLaws, who is urging Microsoft to push the release back to February 2007. More interestingly, former Softie Robert Scoble has gone on the record agreeing with McLaws, writing, "If [Vista] ships in October, I will recommend not installing it and waiting for the first service pack. There's no way the quality will be high enough to trust it if it ships early. I hope Microsoft takes the time to do this right." Ouch. What's more, at Microsoft's recent meeting of financial analysts, Kevin Johnson, co-president of its Platforms & Services division, conspicuously avoided confirming Vista's ship date, saying it would ship "when it's ready."Om Malik leaves Business 2.0, seeks funding
Apparently it's a week for leaving the nest, if you're a tech blogger, at least. The weekend saw the departure of Robert "Scobleizer" Scoble from Microsoft, and yesterday just-as-notable blogger Om Malik announced (after Valleywag broke the story) that he's leaving Business 2.0 to work full-time to transform his blog GigaOM into a real business. Malik has already raised "a tiny amount" from True Ventures. He isn't leaving Business 2.0 entirely, however; he will stay on as a contributing edtior, penning a monthy column beginning in September.Robert Scoble leaves Microsoft for podcast startup
The big news this weekend is that Microsoft evangelist and notable bogger Robert Scoble is leaving Redmond to join young startup PodTech.net. The story was broken by blog Beet.TV and, after much bouncing around the blogosphere, finally landed at Scoble's blog where he confirmed it and straightened out a few of the facts. He's hasty to point out that he was not unhappy at Microsoft, saying, "I love Microsoft and Microsoft did not lose me-at least as a supporter and friend. I am not throwing away my Tablet PC or my Xbox or my other Microsoft stuff." Scoble will be joining PodTech.net as VP of Media Development. For endless discussion take a look at the waterfall of threads on the topic at Techmeme.No rewrite for Windows Vista
[Via Engadget]
Why you need Vista
Well, I'm not entirely
convinced that anybody needs Windows Vista just now, but Manuel Clement is, and he's collected a series of videos from
Microsoft's Channel 9 that demonstrate some of the
most important new features that we'll see in Vista, from the brand new networking and audio stacks to its search
integration and file management. A good place to start if you're behind on your Vista videos.













