Why is Craigslist such a Mess? Click to find the answer, and learn about a perfectly dysfunctional social organism.

The Associated Press  has adopted a social-networking policy  for employees, warning them  “to make sure material posted by others doesn’t violate AP standards.”

“It’s a good idea to monitor your profile page to make sure material posted by others doesn’t violate AP standards; any such material should be deleted. Also, managers should not issue friend requests to subordinates, since that could be awkward for employees. It’s fine if employees want to initiate the friend process with their bosses,” according to the policy.

“The AP’s social-networking policy comes as the media at large begins adopting Facebook and Twitter guidelines during a time of explosive growth in online social media,” wrote David Kravets for Wired.com. “The News Media Guild, representing about 1,000 AP journalists, says the AP’s policy is perhaps the most restrictive the union has seen.”

“I am unaware of anything else like that,” News Media Guild President Tony Winton told Wired. “Parts of the policy seem to be snuffing out peoples’ First Amendment rights of expression by a company that wraps itself in the First Amendment.”

The news organization is concerned about what employees’ put on their social networking feed/pages because “we all have a stake in upholding the AP’s reputation for fairness and impartiality, which has been one of our chief assets for more than 160 years.”

“So many people were asking what our policy was, we wanted to lay out the top-level view,” Kristin Gazlay, AP’s managing editor/financial news and global training, told Editor and Publisher.

She distributed the policy to employees last week.

“It has become a huge part of how people gather information and disseminate information,” Gazlay said. ”There is no intent on being Big Brother, no plans to scour people’s pages looking for things.”

“These guidelines do not break new ground – they are consistent with the rest of our Statement of News Values and Principles. They just take into account the new realities of the social-networking world and answer questions that many AP employees have asked,” according to the policy.

I love Geek Dad on Wired.com’s blog. He’s pretty funny and his articles are always funny. Take his latest article for instance. 10 Ways to Provoke A Geek Argument is on point. What do you think? Does it hit close to home? It sure does for me. As we say in my family, “those are fighting words!”

Geeks, as a general rule, are pretty easy-going. We like to think things through, so passionate confrontations aren’t commonplace for us. When we get well and properly provoked, though, watch out! We won’t stop talking until every last point that we can think of has been made at least twice. So, what do you say to provoke a geek? Glad you asked!

10. “No real programmer would ever use PHP.” – This won’t work for every geek, of course, but for those it works on, it should work really well.

9. “Comic books are just for kids!” – I’m sure you’ve heard this one before—I know I certainly heard it often enough in high school, and even though it’s even less true now than it was then, I’m sure comic book afficionados still hear it today.

8. “Role-playing games are just for people who can’t deal with real life.” – There are, sadly, still a lot of people who think anyone who plays D&D must live in his parents’ basement and bathe once a month. Such people must be put straight, and immediately!

7. “The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are so realistic!” – I doubt many people actually believe this, but there are an awful lot of misconceptions about pirates out there, so you never know.

6. “Yeah, I got an Xbox 360 so my daughter could play Hello Kitty games. Is it really good for anything else?” – We’ve hit the ones that are hard for me even to type, now…

Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.

5. “Mac, Windows, or Linux? Does it really make a difference?” – An argument so old its original form was probably first written down in hieroglyphs, I know, but I don’t know a single geek it wouldn’t work on—myself included.

4. “The Ewoks were the best thing about the original Star Wars trilogy.” / “Greedo shot first!” - I couldn’t decide between the two. If one doesn’t work, I’ll bet the other one would.

3. “Tolkien? Ehhh, I prefer Terry Brooks!” – I almost feel like I should argue with myself just for writing that. I’m going to let the top two stand for themselves.

2. “Joss Whedon is a hack!”

1. “I don’t see what’s so bad about DRM!”

Matthew Schechmeister wrote an interesting story for Wired.com which documents the marine salvage operations undertaken by Weeks Marine after USAir flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009.  (The Unlikely Events of a Water Landing: New Photos From Flight 1549)

Accompanying the article are some great images taken by Stephen Mallon, a photographer who specializes in industrial subjects and who was the only photographer who had exclusive access to the marine salvage operations. Interestingly, there’s an editor’s note stating: “Some of these images have been altered by Stephen Mallon to remove the US Airways logo at the company’s request.” Come on USAir, NTSB and AIG, do you really think that we wouldn’t notice?

Check out Wired.com for this interesting story and some great images and got to Stephen Mallon’s website for more of his work.

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Posted: May 06, 2009
10:39 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

1ST AMENDMENT ON TRIAL

Proposal ‘comes close to making it federal offense to log onto Internet’

Jail cell

A new proposal in Congress is threatening fines and jail time for what it calls “cyberbullying” – communications that include e-mails and text messages that “cause substantial emotional distress.”

The vague generalities are included in H.R. 1966 by California Democrat Linda Sanchez and about a dozen co-sponsors.

But it already is being condemned as unconstitutional, unrealistic and probably ineffectual.

At Wired.com, in a report labeled “Threat Level,” writer David Kravets criticized the plan to demand “up to two years in prison for those whose electronic speech is meant to ‘coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress.’”

“Instead of prison, perhaps we should say gulag,” he wrote.

(Story continues below)

Such limits never would pass First Amendment muster, “unless the U.S. Constitution was altered without us knowing,” he wrote. “So Sanchez, and the 14 other lawmakers who signed on to the proposal are grandstanding to show the public they care about children and are opposed to cyberbullying.”

The plan is labeled the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act, after the 13-year-old Meier, whose suicide last year reportedly was prompted by a woman who utilized the MySpace social networking site to send the teen critical messages.

Speak out now against limits on your speech!

The defendant in the case, Lori Drew, was accused under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

“Sanchez’s bill goes way beyond cyberbullying and comes close to making it a federal offense to log onto the Internet or use the telephone,” Kravets wrote. “The methods of communication where hostile speech is banned include e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones and text messages.”

“We can’t say what we think of Sanchez’s proposal,” he said. “Doing so would clearly get us two years in solitary confinement.”

Wrote a contributor to the Wired forum page, “If passed, this legislation could be easily abused with the effect of criminalizing all criticism. You probably [couldn't] even criticize the legislation itself because it would cause Sen. Sanchez emotional distress or possibly be considered a form of intimidation.”

The bill, which has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary, states, “Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

It states: “Cyberbullying can cause psychological harm, including depression; negatively impact academic performance, safety, and the well-being of children in school; force children to change schools; and in some cases lead to extreme violent behavior, including murder and suicide.”

Hulu vs. Vevo, who will save the music industry? It sounds like a summer blockbuster movie title. Wired.com has a great article up about the current state of music videos in the music industry and how websites like Hulu and Vevo are going to start bringing in more revenue for the industry as a whole. It’s a simple concept. What labels once used to give away for free – videos, they will now gain revenue from. It’s a great article, I recommend you give it a read.

Click here to go to the Wired.com article.

Posted by Garvey

Everyone is turning in report cards for Obama’s first 100 days. I like this one from Wired on “issues near and dear to Wired.com,” most of which directly or indirectly have to do with science or technology.

The article also mentions that on Tuesday, Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion, to “produce vaccines, rebuild anti-viral stockpiles and respond to the swine flu outbreak,” which I apparently missed.

Wired Report Card for Obama:

A-   Science

B+   Net Neutrality

B-   Transparency

C    Cybersecurity

D    Copyright

10 Best Head-Scratching Stories, Explained

By Mathew Honan  6 Hours Ago

Illustration: Gluekit
Donnie Darko and Mulholland Drive: Kobal Collection; Madonna, Ziggy and 2001: Everett Collection; Jimmy Corrigan: Chris Ware

START

PREVIOUS: Datastream: British Hedgerow Mazes

NEXT: Statgeist: Charting the Wired World

2001: A Space Odyssey

Monoliths instigate evolutionary leaps forward—monkey to human, computer to AI, human to hippie-dippy starchild.

 

The Wall

Pink’s father dies. His teachers abuse him. His mom smothers him. His wife leaves him. He’s paranoid and isolated. Fame is no respite.

 

Ulysses

Two drunkards meander around Dublin like Odysseus in the Aegean. Bloom’s wife is cheating on him. Everyone poops.

 

Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth

Jimmy relives his granddad’s life. He finally meets his father, who then dies. Superman can’t save him.

 

Blade Runner

Deckard is a replicant but doesn’t know it. Gaff knows but doesn’t retire Deckard. Even fake memories make us human.

 

Ziggy Stardust

Earth will be destroyed in five years. Ziggy is a Martian rock star who sings the news. He prophesizes the coming of a starman. Starman bad.

 

Mulholland Drive

The first two-thirds are a masturbatory fantasy after Diane orders a hit on Camilla (the characters from the last one-third) and shoots herself.

 

Infinite Jest

Terrorists are chasing the world’s most entertaining movie. Addiction—to drugs, entertainment, tennis, whatever—is a bitch.

Like a Prayer

White dudes attack woman. Black man jailed. Witness Madonna prays to black Jesus and dreams he lives. She snitches. Prisoner freed.

Donnie Darko

Parallel universe opens. Its pending collapse threatens our own. Donnie sacrifices himself to save us.

Thanks to www.wired.com If only they’d do something about Dom Casmurro, Chronicles and etc. it would make my life much easier.

I saw this posted on Wired.com by GeekDad and I had to share it. It was both witty and oh so true. haha. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

The geeks are well on our way towards inheriting the earth. We are no longer looked upon by society with the general disdain we felt directed our way only a decade ago, and the outright antipathy we felt only two decades ago is gone.

So now we’ve got, among other things, a somewhat geeky president of the United States and geeky characters on popular TV shows. But there are plenty of things we’d like to see come out of the Rising of the Geeks that would help make our triumph complete. Here’s our Top 10:

10. Classes in comic book art required in public schools – There is so much amazing art out there that people outside of the geek world never see, only because they think comic books aren’t for them. With the recent comic book blockbuster movies, and more on the way, the time is ripe for comic books to make their way into the classroom!

9. Singing Jonathan Coulton’s “Kenesaw Mountain Landis” during seventh-inning stretches at Major League Baseball games – Yeah, it’s got a “bad word” in it, but it’s so much a better song than “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” there’s really no comparison. The latter should still be sung, for tradition’s sake, but we think it’s high time a new baseball tradition got started, and what would be better to restore the majors’ steroid-tarnished image than a goofy song about baseball’s past almost entirely devoid of actual facts?

8. A GeekDad TV show, and maybe conventions – If MAKE can get one, why can’t we? Sure, it’d be tough to film, considering we’re spread out across the U.S. and internationally, but we can overcome that! And how awesome would a GeekDad convention be, really? If someone wanted to start a grassroots movement for such a thing, it might happen. Hint, hint.

7. Laser Tag in kids’ gym classes – Do we even need to explain how awesome this would be? We think not.

6. Flying cars – Haven’t we waited long enough? I mean, if Back to the Future Part II taught us anything, it’s that everyone’s supposed to be driving flying cars (and riding hoverboards) only six years from now. So where are they? Don’t give us any crap about how much worse accidents would be or how much the necessary extra fuel would weigh. We were promised flying cars!

5. More “out” geeks in national politics – We’ve got President Obama, we’ve got New York Congressman Dan Maffei, and we’ve (almost) got Al Franken, but there have to be lots more that are already there and just hiding their geekiness. We need to encourage them to open up and admit to their geekiness; plus, we need to get more self-acknowledged geeks to run for office in the first place!

4. Household robots for everyone – This goes along with the flying cars. We were promised robot maids and valets—and dishwashers and the Roomba just don’t cut it

3. LEGO as an acceptable medium in art classes – We honestly don’t know why this hasn’t happened yet. I mean, LEGO is very popular with kids and adults, and as readers of this blog will surely know, people are constantly coming up with remarkable creations made out of it. So why not teach it in art class?

2. Lord of the Rings as required reading in high school – Seriously, who would rather read Steinbeck than Tolkein? Nobody, that’s who. And The Hobbit should be required in elementary schools, of course.

1. Good science fiction television shows NOT being canceled – We’re looking at you, FOX.

Check out this new iPhone App by Trent Rezner, Rob Sheridan and Digg’s Kevin Rose.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading for about a year now regarding doing business in Second Life.  I’ve been a resident of Second Life since 2005.  I’ve owned a night club (money drain lol), a Gorean Sim (emotional drain), a modeling agency (time/energy drain) and now a clothing business (really sooths the soul lol).

SL didn’t start off as something in which I saw business potential, it was just a game where I found people to talk to and laugh with and I enjoyed their company.  Today I still find those people, but I also focus on making virtual clothing because I love to create/design (20 yrs graphic artist) — and I made a business out of it because I love the challenge of bringing people in the door (marketer last 8 yrs) and the pleasure of their purchase telling me I did a good job.

Anyway, through all my reading about virtual world meeting real world, I’ve found a mountain of articles about the big companies (i.e. Coke, Dell, IBM, Sun and many more) investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into SL hoping it’ll help boost sales.  Wired.com has a three-part article (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-08/ff_sheep) that I just read that dealt with how these big corporate Sims as with so many Sims, are just vast wastelands of emptiness and financial drains on the companies.

Well … I am not the slightest surprised that large Sims like Coke’s are always empty.  I’ve read some of what another SL marketing company is doing and I have to agree with them … the problem that Dell and Coke and IBM and others like them are having, is that they’re not utilizing SL the way the residents think or want to be interacted with.  They’re spending WAY TOO MUCH MONEY to create these environments in SL that they are hoping people will come to, hang out at and return to over and over and for some reason, they’re actually expecting sales.  If that’s the case, then make a line of virtual Coke ancillary items and sell them and/or give them away for free in game … at the busy venue’s btw not your own Sim … because you can’t buy a real Coke in game and drink it there unless you wait for it to be shipped to you lol … so how is Coke going to have sales from SL? *scratches her head*

I think first off they have to consider it as a brand recognition/memory tool, not a sales tool!  Second, they need to do things that get them out to the people the way and where the people are interacting and want to be.  Expecting people to come hang out at a REALLY marketized Coke Sim … for … what???  I really think that’s kind of a stretch (knowing SLians the way I do), don’t you?

Ok, lets look at this another way … you just got home, it was a busy day, you’re stressed from your day, you’re an SLian, you’re having your daily SL withdraw symptoms so you sit down to log in and you begin getting antsy in your chair as the load bar starts moving SLOWLY across your screen.  You yell at it “c’mon hurry up OMG!”  Perhaps you figure you’ll get a drink or use the restroom while you wait so you wont have to be distracted when you’re finally there.  And all of a sudden, you’re in and you’re feeling rather elated.  Well, until you realize that you still appear a ghost, your clothing’s still downloading and you’re not sure where you are because you didn’t TP home last night before logging.

Anyway, you share a few IM’s with your friends and say … what … “OMG lets go hang out at the Coke Sim, I hear it’s really cool.”  Ok, so you go, you look around, yeah the build is really neat, but then what?  “Lets sit here on these chairs, this place is so cool,” … is it?  What’s going on?  Is there a club with people?  A virtual shopping mall where you can find some cool things?  Other people to meet?  A virtual contest running where you have a chance to win Lindens and/or prizes?  A themed role play environment?  Do you really want to spend your precious free time being marketed to like that?

Or perhaps would you not mind so much if you were being marketed to in a manner in which you are accustomed, expect and actually look forward to … dance contests with prizes, shopping at virtual stores for the things you need/want (clothing, hair, hilarious toys and gimmicks to make your friends laugh maybe even Coke a cola eyes ), then run to show off what you just got, to your friends.

This is why these big corporate Sims are vast wastelands of whistling wind and virtual bird tweets.

What these companies need to realize is this … if you build it … they won’t come.  Even retail business-owners work hard to get/keep traffic numbers for search placement purposes … but they never expect people to stay and hang out even when they put up attractions to try to do that.  Instead, they realize that people have specific REALLY well run Sims that they frequent.  These Sims have shopping malls, and they go rent carts in those malls.  People shop in them because they don’t feel like tp’ing out and they need something appropriate for the theme of the club, or the contest, etc … and then they head back in to dance, laugh, chat, listen to music they like, etc.

These RL companies need to do what other retailers have already realized … they need to GO TO THE CROWDS, not try to bring the crowds to them.  It works the same for groups.  Their are industry specific groups in SL (like for the fashion industry) where they have HUGE #’s of members waiting to receive notices about product updates and sales and as a registered vendor, you can tell them.  Or magazines … same as in RL, magazines in SL have real draws of readership (some over 40,000 readers) and sell ad space for Lindens.  Someone’s already made the big crowd attraction … why try to reinvent the wheel?  It took them A LOT of time and Lindens to get that steady traffic, so use that!  This is why these big corporate RL businesses are frustrated with SL.

Perhaps it’s not a “marketing” program at all that these companies need to look into … perhaps its more of a RL biz helping SL biz … how can Coke help me and other SL vendors like me, gain visibility, sell product and in turn, really show Coke off and help build Coke’s brand awareness in the cyber mind-set?  Lindens do it with things like business plan contests, or even just random emails they received, of ideas they really liked and wanted to support.  Maybe these Corporate America marketers should get that book called “SecondLife for Entrepreneurs” … I’m finding it a fascinating read lol.

Story for Coke specifically – I had a friend who owns a very busy/popular Gorean sim.  RL he had a love of Coke and had the “collect the caps” disease lol.  He’d mentioned it vaguely in conversation to a few people in his Sim and all of a sudden, they’re all drinking as much Coke as they can and snail mailing him all the caps and he’s getting the cool Coke paraphernalia he wanted.  Now, why did they do this?  Relationships!  They know and love him very much.  They interact on a daily basis … for them, he’s their king (so to speak) – their leader and they want to please him, garner his favor, his friendship … so they do things like this without being asked.  He was so surprised.  This is the way things are on SL for those who find real communities in which to live … so, now, how can Coke use this?  Get in their and make friends, build friendships, interact on the resident’s terms, not yours and while doing those things *DO NOT MARKET* just be a person.  All of a sudden you’ll be the one everyone’s clamoring to know and be known by lol.  It’s like creating some virtual fame.

SLians I guess don’t think/behave the way big corporate marketers are accustomed to and they’re having a hard time figuring out how to fit in with the virtual crowd.  Coke may really have it down in the real world for things like customer experience management/marketing, but in SL, they can’t manage the customer’s experience, it’s the customer’s experience that is managing them.  I think in an environment like this, the consumer has all the power .

Ok, so if you’re a reader of this blog, you’re an SL business person.  What can RL businesses do, do you think, that would inspire SLians and increase their brand awareness?  Ok … what can these RL businesses do for SL businesses like yours that would truly begin to create a cross reality business platform helping you, them and the residents of Second Life with their SL experiences?  Just food for thought.

Hugs,
Pipa

You might be wondering why I would be interested in an article explaining the change in ‘office space philopsophy’. Then again, perhaps it is transparently obvious that at this point in time, my interest in change on a global scale makes me interested in any form of change – which is one of the things that had me interested enough to repost this article.

But honestly? It’s the pictures at the top of the article that did it for me.

Evolution of Office Spaces Reflects Changing Attitudes Toward Work

By Cliff Kuang; Published on March 23rd 2009

Since the dawn of the white-collar age, office designs have cycled through competing demands: openness versus privacy, interaction versus autonomy. Here’s a brief history of how seating arrangements have reflected our changing attitudes toward work.

Taylorism (ca. 1904)

American engineer Frederick Taylor was obsessed with efficiency and oversight and is credited as one of the first people to actually design an office space. Taylor crowded workers together in a completely open environment while bosses looked on from private offices, much like on a factory floor.

Bürolandschaft (ca. 1960)

The German “office landscape” brought the socialist values of 1950s Europe to the workplace: Management was no longer cosseted in executive suites. Local arrangements might vary by function—side-by-side workstations for clerks or pinwheel arrangements for designers, to make chatting easier—but the layout stayed undivided.

Action Office (1968)

Bürolandschaft inspired Herman Miller to create a product based on the new European workplace philosophy. Action was the first modular business furniture system, with low dividers and flexible work surfaces. It’s still in production today and widely used. In fact, you probably know Action by its generic, more sinister name: cubicle.

Read the full article and check out the drawings here.

Digg This URL Grey: Tea Is the New Coffee

It’s Kevin Rose! Tim Ferriss! Jesse Jacobs of Samovar Tea Lounge! On Wired.com discussing tea! I could write more, but the article is more interesting than my recap would be.

It doesn’t get more tea and techie than this

Wired.com has an outstanding story of a diamond heist that went down in 2003. It’s a very long read, but well worth the time.

Click below for the story:

The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist

byEliot Van Buskirk@wired.com

The launch of MySpace Music six months ago was supposed to herald a new era, with the four major labels at long last embracing social media as a disruptive force of good and developing a business model which didn’t repulse their customers. (continues@wired.com)

by Ian Darby, campaignlive.co.uk

The extended gatefold format, featuring the footballer Kaká promoting the Sony Bravia TV’s Motionflow technology, runs across four pages.

Other advertisers in the 186-page debut issue include Audi, Jaguar, Dell, Sony Ericsson, Dior and Glenfiddich.

The first edition of Wired, which carries the coverline “the future as it happens”, also asks a panel of 46 experts, including the WPP chief executive, Sir Martin Sorrell, to look 40 years into the future.

Wired’s launch has been backed by an ad campaign through Hurrell Moseley Dawson & Grimmer, which features the magazine’s strapline changing on outdoor and digital formats according to the time of the day. (continues@campaignlive.co.uk)

What would you do if you ran the world? Great site coming soon on people doing their part on changing the world. If you would like to get involved now you can visit: http://ifwerantheworld.com/ also on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/iwrtw Check out this excellent article on “Yes, We Plan: How Altruism and Advertising Could Change the World”: http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/yes-we-plan-how.html

Mentioned in this article is a site that features projects that people are doing to change the world. Appropriately branded: http://www.DoSomething.org Get’s me pumped about the Heaven on Earth project. Update coming soon.

Maybe we should ask ColdPlay, after all they used to rule the world http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvbT8v4BGw8. Great song, creepy video.

It was no surprise that the Googleplex took their Search and headed its verve toward building the toolbox. The DIY and the download, the customized all-about-you experience.  You and search and apps and all — All upon request.

It was not just business expansion, but a disruption of Microsoft’s whole mode of mission control.

And now, a response?  Here’s Microsoft’s Kumo. I have not tried it yet, but my anecdotal hearing, from those who have played with the beta, is so far all rave. I am curious (if only on a theoretical basis) so far:

Google used search to disrupt software’s delivery. It only seems right that Microsoft will use the software tasking thought to dictate a potential disruption of search delivery.   Possibilities here for: expanded monetization/mobile fulfillment, and related, as well as the perception of why we use search in the first place.

If you’ve tried out the Kumo beta, please send me a comment or email at inquiries@threepointnetworks.com.

**

 ”We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks…” (Satya Nadella, Microsoft)

Microsoft Internally Testing New Search Service dubbed ‘Kumo’. Reuters, as featured on wired.com techbiz, 03.03.09. Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Carol Bishopric and Anshuman Daga.

http://www.wired.com/print/techbiz/media/news/2009/03/reuters_us_microsoft

10가지 서비스
(각각의 서비스는 iPhone, Android,Blackberry에서 작동가능!)

1. Drive Fast, Avoid the Cops
2. Sleep Easy, We’ll Wake You
3. Play Tag, With Strangers
4. Call a Cab, the Easy Way
5. Scan a Barcode, Find a Deal
6. See the World, Through Google’s Eyes
7. Train Your Phone to Know Its Place
8. Look Up! Be a Stellar Student.
9. Dark Alley? Call a Help.
10. Go Here When You Gotta Go

출처: http://sound79.tistory.com/51