Wired’s story on 37signals is a good read — fair, balanced, and interesting. There are a few factual inaccuracies and a few odd comments (like “they would rather fail than adapt,” in the last paragraph), but overall it’s quite well-done. Visit site »
Twitter was featured on CSI. Weird. And yet, cool. Kinda. Visit site »
Of course, the article doesn’t mention any specific sites that are guilty. I suspect what I consider “Web 2.0” and what Jakob considers “Web 2.0” are very different things, as it’s my impression that the things he is lamenting the lack of — usability, people-centered design, etc. — are actually hallmarks of “Web 2.0.”
Then again, if Jakob ever said web usability was getting better, he’d be out of a job. Visit site »
Really interesting study about types of people and their likelihood to be participating in so-called “Web 2.0 activities”. The long and short of it is that while most Americans have cell phones and computers, very few are actively Web 2.0-ing. Visit site »
XKCD has posted a map representing online communites. This is one of the most entertaining drawing I’ve seen in ages. Be sure to look long and hard — the real humor is in the minute details. Great, great stuff. Visit site »
Probably my favorite episode ever. Or at least the episode most relevant and personal to me. Visit site »
A very cool video by Michael Wesch at K-State. A must-see. Visit site »
My feelings about Twitter are similar to Eric’s. The concept of Twitter is kind of cool. However, it’s being abused as a really inefficient chat room, instead of used to post status, as it was really designed. Otentimes things being repurposed for something they weren’t intended for turn out very cool (see several tags on Flickr for examples). However, in this case, it really turns me off. I already have IRC and IM open most every day. I don’t need another chat room — especially one that doesn’t work very well. Visit site »
Something about the idea that anyone would want a how-to on “Web 2.0 design” really bothers me. The goal ought to be to design something appropriate for the client, site, or service. The goal should never be to design something that is trendy. Understanding what these trends are and why designers have used certain elements is one thing, but a how-to strikes me as something else entirely. Visit site »
Kathy’s take on some people’s interpretation of The Wisdom of Crowds (which I’m actually reading right now). Good stuff. I think there are some things that just can’t be done by committee, and design is one of them. Committees usually end up with a watered-down, edge-less version of each person’s vision — which is almost always bad. But, to be fair, Surowiecki never meant “committee” when he said “crowd”, either… Visit site »
“But what makes the long tail so disingenuous is that what happens in the long tail has almost no ramifications on what happens in the head.” Indeed. Insofar as I can tell, Newsvine is about the only “long tail” style web app that has made compensating the users for their user-generated content a part of their business plan. It frightens me to think just how much great stuff is on YouTube that the creators will never see a dime for. Long tail, my ass. Visit site »
I’ve been begging for some major web apps to implement OpenID. Ma.gnolia has done so. Tangentially, they also implemented memcahced, which is a kick ass caching setup if you’re a sys admin type — we use it at World Online. Should make for a faster Ma.gnolia. Visit site »
Gruber’s right: Caterina should totally be the CEO of Yahoo. Visit site »
I read the PDF version of the 37signals book quite a while ago and really liked it. I don’t believe all of their methods will work for everyone, but at lot of them will work for a lot of people, and that makes it worth your read. Visit site »
Jason Fried (37signals) and David Heinemeir Hansson (37s & Ruby on Rails) included this year, Adrian Holovaty (Django) included last year — is this evidence enough that agile web development and frameworks built in dynamic languages are catching on? The awesome dude from SkinnyCorp are also included this year. Visit site »
Possibly the most insightful thing ever written about “Web 2.0.” Visit site »
Alternate headline: “MySpace has jumped the shark.” Visit site »
When Scrivs does an interview, you can count on hard-hitting questions like, “Do you find that your title is getting you more female relations?” and “Would you be willing…to help unfortunate MySpacers get laid through creative layouts?” Much as I like to throw trash talk his way, Mike Davidson still rocks. Visit site »
Hard to argue with Paul on this list of companies who haven’t been able to capitalize on the web boom of the past couple of years. Visit site »
Chernin said, ““If you look at virtually any Web 2.0 application, whether its[sic] YouTube, whether it’s Flicker [sic], whether it’s Photobucket or any of the next-generation Web applications, almost all of them are really driven off the back of MySpace,” considering creating a video component to its MySpace social-networking Web site that could rival twildly popular YouTube. Is this guy for real? Thanks, Jared. Visit site »
