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Something about the term “user generated content” has bugged me ever since I first heard it. I’m enthusiastically behind *what it actually means*. But the term itself just sticks in my craw. It makes me think of a galley full of slaves users, chained down, “generating” “content”.
I just came across this post about the term from Ted Ernst at AboutUs (a Portland-based wiki company where Ward Cunningham, the guy who invented the wiki concept, works):
The individual contribution is not what’s important, it’s not what makes everything work — it’s the fact that we have a community of contributors who implicitly agree to work together, to collaborate, to try and constantly improve the content.
It’s a short post, and worth a read. It references (and quotes) a great post by Brianna, a Wikimedia admin, where the idea originated. Read that one, too:
Actually, there’s only one problem at root: the attitude which leads one to choose these words. That attitude is one from the corporate world. That the best term they could come up with was “user-generated content” shows what a limited understanding the business world has of what it is we’re doing. And why should we settle for the best term THEY can come up with?
I’m a big believer that names are important. They have power and significance beyond what you think.
Food for thought.
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I am going to write a more lengthy review of the Asus Eee super-small laptop after I’ve logged some more time with it. In the meantime, I wanted to post instructions on how to fix what I considered the most annoying design flaw of the unit: the position of the right shift key on the keyboard.
In its stock configuration, the Eee’s arrow keys are laid out such that the “up” arrow key is where the right shift key normally resides. As a touch-typist, I found myself hitting the up arrow key when I needed to type a capital “d,” and the next thing I knew I was up one line and two letters off. Something had to change, or I was going to have a serious problem with the Eee.
(more…)
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Shopocalypse (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
Last week I wrote about acting as a personal shopper for folks. It seemed like a natural extension of my usual role as “product advisor.” Anyway, I’ve had a few takers so far. I’m looking for a Roomba for someone, and acquired a Buddy heater for someone else.
Here’s how it works:
- Sign up at shopper.drfaulken.com.
- Submit an issue. Please see How to submit a shopper.drfaulken.com request for more information on how to do this. The software I’m using is Mantis, which is typically used for issue resolution. Just play along.
- I find what you want, or leave your notes about your ticket, or whatever. If your ticket is more general, such as “find me an mp3 player” then we can use the comment functionality to narrow down your choices.
- After buying your item, I will put your total in a comment and send you an invoice via PayPal. You will be responsible for all applicable sales tax, shipping & handling, and other fees. I am not making any money on this, I just want to make sure I’m not losing money via PayPal fees or whatever. At this point, the request is “resolved.”
- Once you have received the item, either one of us can close the issue.
- Any registered shopper member can view your tickets by default. There is an option within Mantis to make them private.
So far, registration is open to anyone. If you are in the market for something (and if you’re my friend, those chances are high), please register and put in a request.
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Wikipedia fundraiser (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken
You have ten days left to make a 2006 tax year deductible donation to Wikipedia. As stated on the deductibility of donations page, Wikipedia is classified as tax exempt, and your donations are exempt from US federal taxes. I use Wikipedia at least once a day, and it feels nice to kick a little back.
Just in case you missed it the first time, here’s the fundraising link.
Also, if you work for the same company that I do, our employer will match your gift up to $5,000. Double up your donation! See our corporate intranet for more details, or email my work email address for more info/help.
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Socialtext announced Socialtext Unplugged at Le Web 3 yesterday. The idea is to allow for offline wiki edits that can be synced back to the system once the user is online again. This is similar to Scrybe's biggest selling point, OfflineSync, which allows users to work offline.
Working offline is the next big step for Web 2.0 apps. We've gotten to the point where web apps have become mature enough to actually replace traditional desktop apps, thanks to AJAX and the collaboration bonuses that come with a centrally-stored application. I use GMail for non-critical email (basically everything non-school), but I use a desktop client and my Treo for the emails I need ASAP or have a need to review later whether or not internet access is available. I use NetNewsWire because reading feeds keeps me entertained and in the loop if my connection is down or I'm in a place where no access is available. Syncing between my laptop and desktop works about 95% of the time, but on occasion I have to deal with having read items marked unread or getting subscribed to the same feed multiple times.
The thing I need to make the jump: offline access. If I could go to GMail whether or not I was online and find an old email, I'd use it over my desktop client. If I could catch up on my feeds in Google Reader while sitting on a plane, I'd use that over NNW. I don't mean to pick on Google, they're just the one with apps most likely to solve my current needs save for this one drawback.
I really hope the unplugged icon catches on and we get some type of standardization for offline mode. Imagine it being as simple as subscribing to an RSS feed: click on the blue icon and Firefox automatically downloads the sync information. Next time you hit the site, Firefox checks for the live site; if it finds it, you go to that, otherwise you go to a locally cached version. Now you can answer emails, star your feeds, whatever, and the changes are updated next time you get online.
Technorati Tags: Socialtext, wiki, offline, web 2.0, ajax, unplugged, RSS, web apps, Scrybe, OfflineSync
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