Well, that’s it…  Yahoo! Live is officially “off-the-air“.

I used Yahoo! Live quite a bit–especially when it first came online.  The thing that was really neat about it was the social networking aspect; more than any of the other services doing similar things, Yahoo! Live really felt more like a virtual chatroom–and without avatars and polygons.  Since it was “an experiment” as they termed it, there were no ads and the performance was good.

I’m sure what killed it was they tried to cater to all audiences; having an unenforcable-T.O.S. turned their admins into hall monitors.

The best thing I got out of ylive was learning more trendy-Internet jargon…it made me feel young and hip.  …that and watching someone–live on the Internet–cover their face with a Sharpe marker and then wrap their head in duct tape.  If you never used it, here’s some of the stupidity you missed.

ข่าวจาก www.readwriteweb.com
หลังจากที่ yahoo เปิดให้บริการ version ทดสอบ Y!Live ซึ่งเป็น streaming video มาได้สักพักใหญ่ เพื่อทดสอบการทำงาน และ feedback จากผู้ใช้งานทั่วโลก ก็มีอันต้องประกาศปิดตัวลงภานในวันที่ 3 ธันวาคม 2008 นี้โดยทางทีมผู้พัฒนา (Brickhouse team )ได้เขียนเหตุผลของการปิดบริการไว้ใน Blog โดยระบุสาเหตุถึงการหยุดให้บริการซึ่งขอสรุปอย่างย่อไว้ดังนี้

ทางทีมค้องทุ่มกำลังเร่งพัฒนา product ใหม่ที่จะทำให้ yahoo ตอบสนองผู้ใช้ได้อย่างครบวงจร เพื่อให้การพัฒนาดำเนินงานตามแผนได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ โดยทางทีมได้ประเมิณแล้วจึงเห็นควรให้ยุติโครงการนี้ไปก่อน
ซึ่งทางทีมมีความเสียใจเป็นอย่างยิ่ง และขอขอบคุณทุกคนที่มีส่วนร่วม ในโครงการ

ก็หวังว่าทาง yahoo คงจะกลับมาพัฒนาโครงการดี ๆ เช่นนี้ให้เราใช้ได้อีกครั้งในอนาคตนะครับ

i’m not a web chick that gets on her high horse and complains that things are unfair. i might be naive but i like to think if you’re good at what you do, you’ll be recognised for it – regardless of your sex. you might hear me on twitter bitching about boys, but it’s all in jest. in other words, i’m not a feminist in any way.

all of the above said, tonight i had an experience that i found both disturbing and upsetting. it’s not the the first time that i had logged on to Ylive and i thought it would be good to log on, chat to some friends and update people about my job given the number of tweets i’d had asking how it was going.

within a couple of minutes, the chat room was being swarmed by “anonymous” users making crude comments about me and what they’d like to do to me. i’m not naive and i can normally handle most of that stuff. but people telling me to strip and offering me money to perform acts is in no way acceptable and makes me hate the web.

i’m enough of a web-o-holic to not let this deter me. i know that the majority of people are good and it’s the minority that ruin it for the rest. but somethings for sure, i won’t be using Ylive again (especially when you find that some of the people making crude comments are also my twitter followers).

sorry for the rant, but the whole situation made me really disappointed. everyday i work to create communities, harmony and open conversations and it can take just a 10 minute experience like that to take so much away again. my final words – if you’re going to be a total scum bag and make horrible rude comments, at least have the balls to show your face!

btw – thanks to @innonate @kastner @jaygreasley @ryancarson @keirwhitaker @grahamgilbert @adamstac @jamfactory @alashcraft for showing up and being nice… x

Apologies for my recent posting laziness. One of the hazards of running a work related blog, is work getting in the way. Damn.

To make up for my shoddiness here are a few sites (some new, some not so new) that I think point to the way the web is developing at the moment.

CLOUD COMPUTING

First off – the cloud, the mesh, the whatever. The cloud refers to accessing computing services over the web rather than from your desktop – see definition here. In other words applications live ‘out there in the cloud’ rather than inside your machine. For a while now I’ve been using google docs (for word processing, presentations and spreadsheets). The following google docs video gives a good explanation for why you might find cloud computing useful: 

But there are many more interesting examples of cloud applications starting to appear. A month or so ago Adobe made Photoshop Express freely available as a cloud app. The app allows users to tweak, store and place images on flickr, facebook, etc. It’s not anywhere near as advanced as the full version (obviously), but it does point to the way users can expect to access more services away from their desktop. And it’s free.

As is box.net a free online storage and collaboration application. I use it to (along with flickr for photo’s) to keep my hard drive free of unnecessary data and as a security back-up in case my home computer gets stolen.

Another tool that I find useful is LogMeIn – this cloud app allows you to access your home computer from anywhere in the world. So far it feels secure. It also allows you to create a vpn (virtual private network) which is able to connect multiple computers. And like box.net it can act as storage backup – except LogMeIn can do this automatically.

FREE STUFF

Although not a cloud app, AVG is well worth downloading (if you’re running Windows or Linux). It’s free anti-virus software. Like lots of free software it does encourage you to upgrade (and pay) for a more advanced solution. 

NICHE SOCIAL NETWORKING

For the past year or so lots of brands have tried to exploit the opportunities offered by social network, but only a few have been brave enough to launch their own niche networks. Courvoisier have their future 500 network for today’s most thrusting and select business stars. And earlier this year the Financial Times announced the thrillingly named FT Media and Technology Executive Membership Forum  - a £2,000 a year subscription based network designed to enable senior executives to ‘maintain contact with peers and luminaries operating within the digital, new media, mobile and telecoms sectors.’ Phew – and pricey too.

More exciting is quark’s social network hooking up designers and allowing them to share their portfolios online. Ilovedesign is the site.

VIDEO

Video services seem to be all the rage at the moment. Youtube are due to launch a live video streaming product soon, for a while now kyte have been allowing users to create their own tv channel streaming content live (and rather badly) from their mobiles. But for me, the most exciting video project (and no doubt youtube will nix this when they launch their service) is Y!Live an experimental release from Yahoo. The site takes live video from your webcam and simply streams it to the world – bingo, your own personal tv channel.

I can see huge opportunities for brands here. Especially in the fundraising space. Imagine a regular stream from your favourite charity in the developing world, where field workers report in each day to chat about their projects and introduce the local people they’re working with. Supporters of the charity would have a instant view of how their money is having an impact, and the charity has a new, low budget media channel – they also incidentally have an instant video conferencing ability allowing dozens of people in many different locations to see what they’re up to.

En première à Montréal et en collaboration avec Videopresse.com, nous couvrons la conférence Webcom 2008 en direct sur le profil de Vidopresse sur Yahoo! Live et sur Flickr.com

MISE À JOUR: Voici donc l’entrevue Vidéo de TQS.

Venez nous faire des commentaires et savourer le 2.0 à la sauce Québec!