I have a rather eclectic selection of links on blogging today. The Blogathon for charity conducted in the US last week is just the latest in a long series of initiatives that are raising the profile of blogs as a means of communicating. On a more local level, the Aussie Web Logs site is an attempt to monitor all Australian weblogs. As it's based on user registration, it's going to need a lot of help before it can properly be listed as an index of sites, but there are always hopes. The recent research on blogging reported by Cyberatlas tends to suggest that it is still the popular (but often banal) open diary format which has achieved greatest success in the blogging race (thanks to Stephen Dann for the link). Then there's a new tool out that will send messages to you via AOL instant messenger every time a blog you like is updated. And in my latest Livejournal entry, I question the role of blogging events as a means of demonstrating appropriate business and civic use of blogs.
Thanks to my EMBA GSN463 Australian E-Commerce Policy class for a stimulating couple of days. It's good to teach such an interesting and thoughtful class. It's been a long couple of days with very early mornings (getting to work before 7am and getting home around 4pm on both days with 4.5 hours face-to-face teaching each day) but I'm hoping to take some time off tomorrow.
Thanks to Kev & Stef for two fabulous nights this weekend. Was good of you not to mind my crashing your drinks with friends, Susie and Jo, on Friday night and really lovely of you both to have me around on Saturday night to join in the fun with the Brunswick St Fiesta. The company was fabulous, the wine superb and your apartment fantastic! Two great nights, when I was imagining a rather lonely time after work! Thanks guys :-) *HUGS*
Finally thankyou to Robyn and Riff for letting me share in their little girl's 1st birthday party today. Hope you and she all had a great day!
Very tired now. I don't think I did too badly today on 3 hours' sleep last night but I think I'll be crashing tonight. *waves and passes out*
Thanks to James in my GSN447 Strategic Internet Marketing class, for the link (and hard copy AFR article) to the Hitwise Annual Awards revealing Australian internet consumer behaviours. Australians are becoming less inclined to be participating in retail e-commerce, but are growing consumers of news and information sites. The implications of this research are significant, in that the degree of churning occurring in e-tailing among Australian users seriously questions the viability of e-commerce in tangible goods for this region. But it also opens up information services and commentary based systems as a new channel for accessing consumers and generating both technological literacy and consumer intelligence. It will be interesting in broader research to see how Australia compares with other nations and whether region-specific internet behaviours are evolving over time.
First of all, a very *BIG HUG* and happy birthday wishes go to my big brother, Andy G. Looking forward to seeing you next month, Grassie. Hopefully I will have a gift to you before then!!!!
On the links front, there have been some interesting stories that have popped up in the past few days. The SCO licensing issue is perhaps the most unusual, particularly after the action taken in Australia against the claims of the company to the intellectual property of UNIX code in the Linux kernal. There's also the story in the Economist about Yahoo's acquisition of Overture (formerly Goto.com). Given Overture's case against Google for patent infringement (the sponsored links format on search engine queries) this could be an intriguing battleground for market power. And finally it's totally weird that Whacko Jacko is coming out in support of people who download music illegally online. This from a man who has made so much money from sales of music that he simply doesn't know what to do with it all. Still I guess it's a good thing.
I'd also like to wish *healing vibes* to all those people needing them this week.
In my latest post on Livejournal, I discuss the implementation of business blogs in light of the Dallas Morning News innovation, establishing a blog for Board members and senior executives of that organisation. The really crucial problem I see for business blogging is getting it recognised in normal workload activities.
In other news, I'm increasingly concerned with the number of drinks being released on the market that take a perfectly good drink and make it alcoholic. Now don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of alcohol. I just don't see why anyone would buy spring water with alcohol in it. I figure if you want a mixer, you buy the vodka and you put it in a glass of water. But then maybe I'm crazy. I certainly thought I was seeing things when I saw the latest billboard campaign for the Carlton Cold Shot. I distinctly remember having a conversation as an undergraduate with several other pickled individuals about what a wonderful idea it would be to release a brand of beer with vodka in it. Trouble was it was the sort of idea that only made sense when you'd had several of the said beers. To see it now on the marketplace is just weird.
Some big news on the local IT front. Firstly the Democrats are pursuing a policy of open source software for governments. I'm not sure how successful they'll be, but the attempt is at least interesting. And, almost in direct conflict with the last point, Telstra is looking to get a cut of the massive online gaming industry by teaming up with the (distinctly proprietary) Sony in acting as a host server for online games. And finally there's the case about inkjet printer companies that were accused of developing machines that told lies about how much ink is left in their cartridges. As someone who makes a habit of removing a cartridge and reinstalling it every time my computer *tells me* I have no ink left and then keep using it until it *actually* runs out, I am somewhat annoyed at this case.
You know when you have one of those days when the technology just fails entirely to cooperate? That's what's happened to me today. However I have a strategy to cope, thanks to engrish.com.
There's an hysterical story reported by CNN on the ridiculous claims being made by some clothing companies on the use of nanotechnology to fight stains. I'm sure this would be regarded as false advertising in Australia, but until anyone can get a straight answer about the difference between Teflon™ and nanotechnology I don't think anyone is going to start the litigation process even in the US.
In other news, Metallica have finally lost the plot (Thanks Blogdex!).
And Wired have a story about how one man is blogging for bucks in PaidContent.
And happy birthday to my dear friend, Melissa!
EDIT: Yes the Metallica thing is a hoax. Scoopthis is a hoax site that reports "if it's on the net it must be true". Good that the network has fixed this!!!!
Weekends off are fantastic. Thanks to my friends - all of them - for the fabulous time they have shown me. In particular, thanks to one friend who has actually managed to convince me that having fun matters far more than "doing the right thing". Fun was had. Lots of it :-) Thankyou so much :-)
What is it with people and short skirts? I wear a dress to work for the first time in months and people think I'm dressed up for a special occasion. Then the cab driver tried to pick me up (figuratively, after literally picking me up as a fare) en route home!
*chuckles* Just as well I don't get offended by this sort of thing. It does, however, raise the question of gendered dressing and the sort of issues that were addressed in Jill Claire's paper at ANZCA last week. I have always dressed in relatively mainstream suits, but usually go for pant suits partly because my legs are so muscular, and partly because I find pants more comfortable than a skirt. But I wonder whether the experiences I've had today in response to my plain black, short, woollen dress are more an example of dressing differently from the norm, or whether it is a gendered response to gendered dressing?
Back to teaching this week and trying to establish what I am to do with my miniscule electronic publishing class has ended up in my doing extra work for fewer students. It's a little bizarre.
But time flies on. As does the robotic 'flyborg' - an intelligent flying robot balloon that has escaped its keepers at a science centre in South Yorkshire, England. Yes I am serious.
And in a story that is news to no-one, The Australian is reporting that young people either do not realise music piracy is illegal, or do not care. The survey apparently did not ask respondents for their opinions of the music publishing industry (!).
More blogging tomorrow after class....
Due to some fairly complicated wrangling (rescheduling meetings, etc) I am at home today, still trying to recover from last week. I feel okay - still just very tired. However I am working from home and trying to get a few things together for teaching this week. Already looking forward to Friday night though.
Just one link which has to be of interest to any regular conference-goers... Joi Ito has co-developed the Hecklebot: a device that can produce an LED display with a short message for audiences to read whilst a speaker is being either boring, inaccurate or laughable. Absolutely brilliant idea :-)
Better late than never, I have been meaning to note the fabulous NAIDOC week site presently being hosted by the national broadcaster. While I am at it, I would like to pay my respect to the Turrbul people, the original landowners of the area where I now live. Our indigenous people and culture are precious to me and I promise to do what I can to protect the heritage and the culture of the indigenous people of this land. As NAIDOC week (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) concludes, let us all remember our indigenous people in the spirit of reconciliation.
ANZCA03 went well, I think. Some very interesting research possibilities coming out of sessions anyway.
Returning to the annotated links format of blogging, I am highly amused by the Japanese video making its rounds of the net of how ping pong would look if filmed as part of the Matrix films. Fabulous stuff.
On a more serious note, some interesting concerns over copyright and search engines have been raised by Google themselves in an article at CNET. Caching old web content may be a useful tool of the Google archive but it does compete directly with paid archive facilities within press media. Should be an interesting idea to watch.
And in light of the papers on blogging during ANZCA, and some of the ideas about moblogging and audio- and video-blogging, have directed me to the Online Journalism Review article by Howard Rheingold on the moblogging phenomenon. The same ideas we canvassed at ANZCA - the development of a literate and highly selective audience, but one which inherently influences its readership - are elucidated in Rheingold's perspective.
On an entirely personal note, my recovery process from this week (and the previous three weeks), and messages to people are in the extended entry.
I've spent this whole morning in bed trying to recover from lack of sleep during this week. My sleeping patterns are stuffed, because I will have been asleep an hour to 90 minutes and will consistently wake up. But at least I've forced myself to stay in bed for about 9 hours (admittedly with a couple of quick periods up and about). I'm going to try to take the rest of the day off too, and just do housework and things for the rest of the day.
Thanks to all that have sent good wishes and vibes for this week - they have been much appreciated.
Also a quick message to Dr Stephen Dann who enters his 30s today. Happy Birthday Steve. Hope you have a good day.
So where have I been in the past several days?
I have been assisting in the organisation of the ANZCA03 conference, chairing sessions and delivering my own paper, as well as acting in my position as Secretary/Treasurer of the professional association, delivering a forward budget and minuting the executive and annual general meetings. I've also been involved in the accreditation process of the Brisbane Graduate School of Business attempt to be entered into the internationally recognised Association of MBA programs. We were grilled today over several hours in between session chairing and I think it's politic to say our presentation was happily received.
I have also been trying to catch up with marking, administration, research and student queries. In consequence I have had about 7 hours of sleep in three days. To quell some of the fears of my loved ones, however, I do have to say I have been eating well. Free food counts for something, anyway.
Back to normal blogging ASAP (including blogging of my own blogging session at ANZCA - now there's reflexivity for you).
If this story is true, then it has MASSIVE implications for telecommunications infrastructure and network building. I approve, wholeheartedly, but I can imagine Australia resisting such forward thinking. Thanks to Slashdot for the heads-up.
Quite an array of topics in the title for the first blog of the week. The memory leaks refer to the problems I am having with my desktop and a SOCKS based program running here at QUT. I'm finding that in order to get past about 5 clicks on external sites on my browser, I have to disable the SOCKS based connection program I have operating on my system. Yet I have to have the SOCKS program to run a whole series of other applications I run on my system. Most frustrating. Any suggestions for a fix greatly appreciated.
I have also registered this blog with Blogchatter - a live, updating system showing which blogs are being updated as you visit.
Finally I note that the MIT media lab have begun a site on open government. This is a concept with which I was involved at Monash University with the Open Learning Civics and Citizenship Program. It's a fabulous idea and good to see it going past the realm of a purely educational context. Hope it lasts.
Thanks finally to my friends, the so-called "No Lives Club" - a group of academic tutors and lecturers who used to teach on Friday nights rather than going out with friends - for lunch and drinks yesterday. Great to see you all.
Have been working on the editing of the conference proceedings for ANZCA and have progressed somewhat.
Had a fabulous night after work. :-)
What a day. I get in to work early in order to process my results before the examiners' meeting only to find my system running exceedingly slowly. Frustrated, I continue anyway, setting up the results as well as organising my webcam in the office. Just at the crucial moment of converting my results into the format required by the meeting, my hard drive fails - utterly and completely. Apparently I looked like death at work because people kept offering me a scotch and chocolate (the latter of which I cannot eat and the former of which there was none available). My tech crew and dear friend, Kevin, never lets me down, however. He was able to get me a replacement machine and have it up and running in a couple of hours. *HUGS* and thanks to Kev. But by 2pm I just had had enough of the place and resorted to going home to do research (which I am now doing in conglomeration with designing the interface for a number of electronic guides).
It's one of those days where you just wish you could pause, rewind and restart.