Written on May 20, 2008 – 8:00 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
The idea of Robert Scoble wandering around in an African village, looking for another child to adopt with his lovely girlfriend Angelina Jolie might sound odd to you. But according to Picitup’s Celebrity Match it wouldn’t be all that surprising. This service finds your celebrity look-alike, and matched Scoble’s face with Brad Pitt. Oh and not just him, as our web celeb also looks like Danny deVito, Jim Carrey and John McCain. Scoble sure has universal looks.
Celebrity MatchUp is an initiative by the Israeli-based visual image search engine Picitup. Smart move, as celebrities always attract a huge crowd. Why do you think I’ve mentioned Jolie in the first place? They’ve got some bad coverage on TechCrunch, so a little media hype won’t hurt them. But why isn’t there a Facebook app? With services like these, adding a Facebook app is almost like 1 + 1 = 2.
Picitup allows you to specify image search by requesting similar images. You can also filter by color, landscapes, products and faces. Although the service linked Arrington’s face to Obama and McCain’s at the same time, the matches aren’t always that bad. For example, when I uploaded quite a manic picture of myself in which I jump around, Picitup matched me with the always-shouting and acting all ecstatic Asthon Kucther. I wonder when Demi More will drop by my house.
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Written on April 4, 2008 – 11:09 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
You probably know Nicholas Negroponte, the man who tries to supply every student in the developing world with an laptop of 100 dollar, The Children’s Machine, to extend Internet access in the third world. While that large problem still exists, according to Robert Scoble a new digital divide is emerging. He calls it the friend divide. “In the beginning of the nineties, everybody had the same experience on every computer. The digital divide back then was that some people had a computer and some didn’t.”
But when ICQ was launched, the experiences of people started to diverge. ICQ users with a hundred friends had a different experience than those with only two. With the new web, version 2.0, this diversion becomes more significant. Scoble proved this by showing versions of Google Reader, Twitter, Pownce, Friendfeed and Upcoming, one version with only one friend and the other one with Scoble’s famous collection of friends. 1000+ on Google Reader, 500 people on Upcoming, 3000 Powncers and over 17,000 Twitter contacts. So we got to witness two extremes here, one with no activity and the other version that was flooded by updates. Those are totally different user experiences, the consequence is the friend divide.
When ‘normal people’ decide to sign up on a service, they enter a pretty lame environment since there are no friends. Or as Scoble puts it: “The first experience is a real crappy experience, since there’s no input. And it’s all about input from other users”. According to Scoble, social networks should work on improving this first experience. One network that tried this a bit was MySpace, as they introduced you to Tom. But they can do better, says Scoble. For example, if a construction worker signs up, why not introducing him to a group of construction people? He could meet an architect and find relevant construction info through him. The same goes for techies, why not immediately hand them a contact list of established tech bloggers?
I think Scoble has a point, yet I’d love to hear a more thorough analysis of this new friend divide since I don’t see the importance of it yet. The problems that emerge from the digital divide are obvious: a part of the world lacks skills and knowledge about a digital phenomenon that is changing the world. But what are the consequences of the new digital divide? A small group of people finds more info than an immense group of people? I think Scoble is so involved in the tech scene that he tends to overestimate the influence of nice services like Twitter and Friendfeed.
Would there be a friend divide that influences millions of people, I think it comes down to this question: “Are you on Facebook or are you not?”
Written on April 4, 2008 – 10:42 am
David Petherick, Next Web WebTipr United Kingdom
Written on March 13, 2008 – 12:34 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
In the beginning of December I celebrated ‘a revolution in mobile video‘. I was talking about Qik.com. The popular service that allows you to stream live from your phone. And oh, they’re also having a love affair with Robert Scoble. If you’ve visited a tech or web conference lately, chances are high that Scoble dragged you in front of his N95 to ask some questions. It also happened to us.
Yet there’s one problem with Qik. They seem to be a bit lazy since they still only support Nokia phones. Sure, the FAQ says ‘We are continuously adding support for phones’, yet all those people out there without a Nokia can still only dream about using Qik.
But now there’s the Swedish start-up Bambuser! I won’t call it another revolution, but it sure looks like a good Qik-alternative. Just like Qik, it differs from other services like Seesmic and Kyte with the good usability. It’s a little like the Twitter philosophy: leave out the unnecessary extras. So that’s great news for Sony Ericsson and Samsung adapts, you can all start your own video shows now too.
Written on January 7, 2008 – 4:31 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Australian web attention expert Chris Saad is on a mission: he wants a complete reference design to combine technologies that make it possible for users to share their personal data between chosen tools. “We need a DHCP for Identity. A distributed File System for data.” DataPortability.org and a Google Group are his main platforms.
And what will this look like? Saad: “A user would simply log onto a site, grant permission, and their friends, personal details and media - images, video, documents - are already populated and accessible - Nothing more complex than that.”
Saad realizes he needs the support of users in order to complete his mission. “Users will need to be educated about their rights”, he says. But how on earth will he convince the normal user, Average Joe on Facebook, to start shouting: “We want to share our data!”? Since it’s a rather complicated and abstract story for people who aren’t involved in the Web 2.0 scene.
Saad of course thought about this and sent me a four-point list, explaining how he’s going to evangelize his mission:
- “People like Robert Scoble (watch his video) and other ‘Celebrity User Stories’ will help bring light to the issue.
- An education campaign needs to be (and will be) created with documentation and examples designed for users to understand. We have started this process by starting some ‘ActionPacks‘.
- We will begin promoting the DP Badge as a sort of ‘Intel Inside’ brand to look for when visiting sites. We hope this will be a simple way of identifying services and vendors that respect user rights and conform to the reference design.
- Workgroup members and early adopter start-ups will begin implementing the DataPortability reference designs and act as shining examples for users to get a feel for what the world could be like.”
His last point is interesting, since some start-ups and workgroup members might gain market share by having first mover advantage. Saad: “As you can tell by looking at the workgroup members already, there are individuals who happen to work at very large companies such as Yahoo, Myspace, Seesmic, Disney, BBC, NineMSN, Dow Jones/Fox and others. That’s not to say those companies have committed to anything, but the individuals involved are very smart and committed people.”
“A DataPortability enabled experience should be simple to use and to be expected”
Apparently, Saad wants to start a buzz in the blogosphere and geeky parts of the web, hoping that they will reach the average customers. “Exactly, we will start with early adopters and influencers and work our way into the mainstream. Ultimately though, the hope is that a ‘DataPortability enabled experience’ should be simple to use and to be expected,” Saad explains.
That will take some time, if it ever comes true. Yet, as long as Saad keeps explaining his plan in a simple way and manages to prove the major advantages, Average Joe just might start shouting.
Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, celebrities, Danny deVito, israel, Jim Carrey, john mccain, picitup, robert scoble, United States
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