NEW FACEBOOK?!? A Twist of F8s
If you were on Facebook at all this past Monday, July 15th… you may have noticed a surprising new interface. As I mentioned on Revyu today, I think the latest updates to Facebook were indeed Microsoft-inspired evil.
Alot of application developers will surely leave Facebook now, since their applications have been taken out of the spotlight. On the positive side, that may remove alot of the clutter, as Facebook seems to be going back to its original premise of being a place to keep track of your friends. Just like Beacon, I think Zuckerber is dropping the ball on this one by not consulting with App developers/users first, and I expect there to be some backlash as a result. What this clearly does though, is frees up more premium Ad space for Facebook and Microsoft’s little Ad partnership monster to sell to would-be advertisers, and puts so little emphasis on the applications that the Third Party developers may not be able to survive, despite the quality of their apps. Ironically enough, this echoes the situation Apple faced when Micrsoft’s Windows Operating System took off because it was more open and allowed independent developers to create applications to run on Windows which could be sold for-profit, all at no cost to the developer. Now we see a reverse of fates as the new proposed design and layout of Facebook clearly boots the developers off center stage and effectively taxes them for their app; all this while Apple continues to open its iPhone platform (said to be a potential threat to Facebook with its photo & video sharing, not to mention SMS text message, voice and email messaging capabilities.But which one was HE??? The Master, or The Apprentice?
This week Bill Gates formally retired as CEO of Microsoft. This article by Times online sums it up nicely, plus a video from Gates himself, CNET gives a more complete look. While this could be one of the most monumental turns in the Technology sector since Microsoft first “aggressively” acquired the DOS base for their operating system in 1981 and began the Gates empire, it also means that there will be, as Gates puts it himself, a “vaccuum created in his absence”.
How Microsoft positions itself to fill the void left by the hard-lined business leader-turned philanthropist remains to be seen, but if early reports are accurate despite his best efforts of going off quietly into the night without a hitch over a 2 year period, Gates seems to be leaving the company in somewhat of a chaotic state. They continue to wrestle in a losing battle with Google for online Search and Advertising Market Share, and face increasing fragmentation internally, leading to confusion over the future direction of the company. The biggest question that remains unanswered now that Gates is effectively gone, is “which one was destroyed, was it the Master or the Apprentice?” Gates’ longtime partner in crime, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, will be taking full reigns over the company and has already discussed his future plans for the destruction of Google. Either way, Gates leaves the Business and Developer community alike with several lessons, TechCrunch covered 5 of the key lessons. Lastly, comes our new “favorite topic”… the increasingly monopolistic and innovation-killing Canadian Mobile industry. It seems as though Canadian Mobile Network Operator (and Digital Entertainment/Services provider) Rogers has lashed out against another petition against them, over at: RuinedIPhone.com The site was offline on Canada Day (July 1st, 2008), but by June 29th had already accumulated over 15,000 signatures in its first week, as reported by CNN and CBC. Last I checked it was at 16,074 concerned and angry Canadians. You can see the Cache of the article here Similar petitions exist at:www.petitiononline.com/iPhone99/ -and- (Also since removed)
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/256692
BC$ = Behavior, Content, Money
The goal of the BC$ project is to raise awareness and make changes with respect to the three pillars of information freedom - Behavior (pursuit of interests and passions), Content (sharing/exchanging ideas in various formats), Money (fairness and accessibility) - bringing to light the fact that:
1. We regularly hand over our browser histories, search histories and daily online activities to companies that want our money, or, to benefit from our use of their services with lucrative ad deals or sales of personal information.
2. We create and/or consume interesting content on their services, but we aren't adequately rewarded for our creative efforts or loyalty.
3. We pay money to be connected online (and possibly also over mobile), yet we lose both time and money by allowing companies to market to us with unsolicited advertisements, irrelevant product offers and unfairly structured service pricing plans.