What if we all vote on the truth, part 2
I wrote a few days ago about the coming LA
Times initiative to create something they are calling "Wikitorials." Well
they've done
it, and the
results are quite interesting: Someone going by the name Hank Ramey (a real
name?) does a complete 'rewrite' of the LA Times
Editorial. A really provocative idea. However it's not at all
clear what was rewritten though, so the effort is kind of loss. For the more
sophisticated Wiki user, a little digging reveals highly sophisticated
edit trails which let you see what changes were made by one person or another.
But as you can see
here, it's still hard to tell
what's going on, and who's opinion is where. Look particularly at the times
of each of these edits on the edit history and you can see several people
pulling one way or another. I am not sure how that will work over the
slightly longer term. 
There is also a
"Discussions"
area where readers can comment and discuss the Wikitorial page. You can see
near the bottom, a pretty thoughtful mini essay: "Editorials without
annotations are meaningless":
"When I see an editorial with no name attached, several questions about the writer of the editorial pop into my mind before I ever consider the content of the editorial. How old is she or he? What is the writer's educational background including the amount of study of economics, science, and the law, as opposed to literature, philosophy and culture."
A very interesting experiment , for sure, and worth following. One commenter correctly points out that there is a real risk that this wiki, like many, will get corrupted by vandals etc. (Written Saturday afternoon) Late breaking news (Sunday Night): The Wikitorials have been taken down by the LA Times:
"Where is the Wikitorial? Unfortunately, we have had to remove this feature, at least temporarily, because a few readers were flooding the site with inappropriate material. Thanks and apologies to the thousands of people who logged on in the right spirit." (from LA Times Wikitorial Page)
Technorati Tags: journalism, wiki, wikipedia
Distributed network of service providers
Not computer service providers, but folks like carpenters and plumbers…. I came across ServiceMagic, which is a pretty cool site for locating and hiring people to work on projects around the house. I needed three doors repaired and on a lark I posted the project on this site. I had a phone call in 5 minutes, and 2 more within the hour. I chose one of them to come by and give me a free estimate in 2 days. So that's pretty impressive, considering usually you don't even get a call back. Now lets see the quality of the service! Technorati Tags: home, useful, recommended
Making money with aggregators
Francois, reacting to something written by Jason Calcanis, makes a very good point in this discussion about feed and blog aggregators needing to have a way to make money: Jason:
"A number of people have asked me how I handle folks lifting our RSS Feeds and putting advertising against them. The first step I take is sending an email like the one below letting people know what we allow and what we don't allow. I always CC our legal counsel and include a screen shot."
"Where it breaks down for me is in the scenario of a company selling an aggregator to its end users (and there are some of them out there). In effect, and according to Jason's logic, that company is also making money from someone else's content."
I love beer
Ok, but, unlike Simplebits, this picture doesn't horrify me 🙂 Technorati Tags: funny
What if we all vote on the truth?
A couple of interesting related articles on facts and non-facts:
"Wikipedia is one of the Web's most popular sites. I asked a teenager if he understood that it carries a disclaimer; Wikipedia "can't guarantee the validity of the information found here." "That's just so that no one will sue them," he shrugged. As to the content: "It's all true, mostly." (from: New York Times)
And in a related story, the LA Times is turning their editorial page into a wiki. As Jon Stewart would say: " Huuh?":
"• Watch next week for the introduction of "wikitorials" -- an online feature that will empower you to rewrite Los Angeles Times editorials." (from: LA TImes)
I thought these were interesting. Technorati Tags: interesting, jonstewart, truth
Stay hungry, stay foolish: Steve Jobs on dropping out
I came across what is supposed to be the transcript of a commencement speech given by Steve Jobs (my hero 🙂 on June 14th. It's certainly resonates with me:
"You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle." (from "Steve Jobs in Praise of Dropping Out")
Great advice. Technorati Tags: interesting, stevejobs, recommended
No Comment
States Ranked: Smartest to Dumbest. No Comment. Technorati Tags: interesting
Looks like I’ve beat comment spam — for now!
You've heard me complain about comment spam before haven't you? Comment Spam is when mysterious robot software attacks my blog and floods it with fake comments? I came across this handy little document from Six Apart, the makers of Movable Type, the Blog software I use: "Six Apart Guide to Comment Spam":
"This document describes how malicious or unwanted comments ('comment spam') affect weblogs, the techniques spammers use to abuse weblogs, and the tactics that can be used to prevent and defend against these attacks. Also included is a review of the strengths and weaknesses of each tactic, instructions for implementing them on your weblog and ones which we recommend for the best protection."
Well it should be called of course, the "Six Apart Guide to defeating comment spam" but at any rate, I found a tip there which, for now, seems to have dealt with the problem. If you use Movable Type you might be interested in the techniques. Technorati Tags: movabletype
Fascinating history of Wikipedia
If you are interested and fascinated with the Wikipedia, how it came to be, why it is the way it is, there's an absolutely gripping account of the history and origins on Slashdot:
"An impassioned debate has been raging, particularly since about the summer of 2004, about the merits of Wikipedia and the future of free online encyclopedias. This discussion has not benefitted by much detailed, accurate consideration of the origins of Wikipedia and of its parent project, Nupedia. But it seems to me that those origins are very important -- crucial, even -- to forming a proper judgment of the current state and best future direction of free encyclopedias." (from "The early history of Nupedia and Wikipedia: A Memoir", part 1 and part 2.)
Technorati Tags: recommended, wiki, wikipedia
Identity theft scam?
What would you do if you received two letters from a collection agency saying that you owed $5,000 to a firm with whom you've never had an account with? I ignored it and the following letter, immediately smelling a rat. What would you do further, if you got a call from that agency, and you told them that you had never heard of them, and that you had never had an account with the firm? I told them to go to hell. And then they asked if I was willing to just verify some information. Like the last 4 digits of my social security number. I told them, even more forcefully, to go to hell. And then they asked whether I would be willing to confirm the last 4 digits if they read them to me? I told them again to go away telling them I definitely smelled a rat and thought this was some kind of identity theft scam. He pointed out that he wasn't asking me for any information, simply that I confirm information that he was giving me. Four simple digits. What would you do? Technorati Tags: interesting