DISQUS

Standardizing communications and such, I would say, increases the need to compete. When there are standards, tiny players can grow exceedingly fast to compete with larger, more established, IM clients/networks.

Standards make adoption easier too, each client is going to push it's own feature set and options and so forth to get people to adopt, but removing a HUGE barrier to entry in the form of getting our friends to join that network will make it easier for client adoption to happen.

It's a long-tail kind of world where one-size-fits-all isn't a good business model. Micro-payments are effective in some areas, and not so much in others.

I am disappointed by this content. It is posts like this that add to the echo chamber effect in social media.

Business models happen, if freemium is effective, it should be allowed to run it's course. The web, and people, have a tendency to adapt to these changes pretty well. Freemium is effective right now, and as long as it remains that way it will continue to be used. The same as ad-supported pages, and micro-payments.

I use Firefox 3's nightly builds and some days are certainly awesome (great speed, no crashes, wonderfully responsive with no memory leaks) and other days just, well, aren't.

To help to quell your pain I suggest you try the following remedies: Fluid, Prism, and Adobe AIR. Between the three of those things you should be able to take care of your web working without being dependent on a potentially unstable browser.

For the record I currently run Mibbit, Facebook, Streamy, and Mint in a Fluid SSB and use Twhirl or Alert thingy to handle FriendFeed

However, I think this whole fiasco should serve as a very clear warning to 37signals that their product pricing scheme is endangered.

I love Backpack, and I love tada lists, but what I don't love is the pricing on those schemes.

If I were in 37signals shoes I would heavily consider dropping prices a bit, and pushing a variable pricing scheme where you can custom-tailor the price to exactly your needs as a small business or an individual.

I would also drop the number of users restraint from Campfire, that one just seems like an artificial constraint to me.

I disagree. The app was built by Google Developers, endorsed by Google at campfire (oh the irony), and then featured on the Gallery.

Google did EVERYTHING but slap their own brand on it.

First off, 37Signals made one comment (apparently in an email, no less) about the fiasco. They were understandably upset, however. Put yourself in their shoes.

You are a medium sized business with a good brand and a great product. You're doing nicely, you've gotten a sizable investment from Jeff Bezos, and things are going well for you. Then, the multi-billion dollar monolith that is "Google" decides it wants to play in your space.

Instead of innovating, or doing something different though, Google straight up clones your site. Providing an almost perfectly functioning version of your product for free because THEY can afford to do that.

If 37signals was straight-up an Amazon property, that would be such a different story. This is a case of Google coming dangerously close to anti-competitive behavior, and I am glad they took huddlechat down.

I think the broader trend isn't towards redundancy, but towards personal relevance. Look at what's happened as a result of the web2.0 explosion.

People are using their personal names as monikers, putting up photos of themselves, etc. The reason Facebook chat is good is simply because it's personally relevant. That's it's leg-up on all the others.

You've got a name, and you know that person. That person will not be switching names to confuse the hell out of you. I'm sure you're all familiar with this:
"
SocerGRUL910: Hi!
You: Uh. Hi? Do I know you?
SocerGRUL910: It's me! Your Girlfriend this is my new nick.
You: Oh.. ok, let me add you to the list of your other names. "

Now it's just a first and last name, and a picture. You have to admit - THAT is an improvement.

Stan, I feel your pain. I do.

I'm a huge fan of IRC. I got my start in basic scripting in IRC communities, started using Linux thanks to what I learned in IRC, and so forth. IRC is second nature to me when it comes to the web.

I think the issue is mostly that interacting with IRC has never grown up. Registration and daily use requires obscure syntax that the every-day chatter just isn't going to want to learn.

It may be superior technology, and it'll continue to thrive as a means of support for communities I imagine. But you're right. IRC (and basic web forums) WERE the social web before the social web. And now you've gone and made me feel all nostalgic for the early days of IM.

I don't forsee this being an issue of privacy so much as accountability. Right now (and I mean that, because pretty soon music will be free) the problem is that they're spending oodles and boodles of money on DRM that only needs to be broken one time to be rendered completely ineffective.

The idea was originally to try to create artificial scarcity by these means. Well, obviously that didn't work and was a huge waste of cash. Watermarking is a decent compromise, although it's still not perfect.

Why? Watermarking is NOT prohibitive of fair use. I can play a file with a watermark in it's meta-data on ANY device I please. However! Browsing though my 'drm-free' mp3 collection from Amazon and iTunes reveals 'watermarks' in the form of a simple ID number for the purchase. Not a huge invasion of my privacy, and certainly a step in the right direction.

So, if they find that this 'watermarked' mp3 is available on thousands of torrents and other p2p networks they obviously know that I'm one of the dreaded file-sharers who are out to get them.

Personally I'm surprised that watermarking wasn't the first option as it was already very popular in the digital art communities to 'imbed' invisible watermarks in your photographs that could not be cropped out or removed without some SERIOUS photoshop skill. Watermarks have the potential to be dangerous, so I think privacy groups definitely need to watch the situation as it develops.

Those "Shameful" letters were written and published for the EXACT same reason that a well known reporter for the Washington Post was able to write a completely unfounded article about the RIAA.  Which caused the post to have to issue a retraction. 
That reason?  Writers can be stupid, and even politicians aren't all-seeing all-knowing individuals.  I imagine if I was in congress I would probably be busy doing stuff for the government rather than micromanaging a newsletter.  
You know what's shameful?  Waiting for over 10 years to get upset with a guy over a newsletter that he FUNDED (did not write, FUNDED) and then writing an open letter pretending to be a supporter while downplaying everything that Dr. Paul is trying to do.  

Well, concerning the DRM thing, the DRM will only end when the record labels stop demanding it. And concerning the iPhone... what about those people who buy an expensive new game console a few months before the holiday price slash? Apple was being very courteous giving back $100 to people who complained.

You seem to be a very jaded individual when it comes to apple and I can't really understand why. Your tone the beginning of this post is that you want to like apple, and then you proceed to bash them. I think you should try reading your posts before making them.

Perhaps the author of this article should take a closer look at SocialStream before they go waiting for it to crop up.

The *very first page* of the SocialStream website says, and this is a direct quote:

"Directed to help improve the online community orkut, the project's scope was not to simply redesign the interface"

In other words, if you want to get in on SocialStream early, perhaps you should be filling out your profile on Orkut.

I've written about it a bit more here. http://web2-oh.blogspot.com/2007/08/orkut-is-so...