TheWayoftheWeb

Currently the rising tide of IPTV has caught the imagination of most internet commentators. Indeed some misguided fools are labelling the concept ‘Web 3.0‘ in the same way as I describe going outside for a cigarette as having an ‘external conference’, or business analysts refer to sackings as ‘headcount reductions’.
Aside from the flawed concept of Web 2.0, and the even more flawed concept of ‘Web 3.0‘, there are interesting developments. The main hope appears to be Joost, with Bittorrent also in the running, and the likes of BT Vision etc.

Well, call me Marty McFly if you like, but I’ve been watching IPTV for over two years now, along with some of my colleagues, friends, and countless sports fans. In fact, I once manned a desk at a large public trade show, and watched an entire Premiership football match at the same time, thanks to the fast broadband connection. Want to join in? Go to almost any reasonably popular forum, and post a topic about wanting to watch any sports without having to subscribe to Pay-Per-View television.

Without fail, someone will mention PPLive. Although the menus are in Chinese, there are plenty of English language sites to explain how to select the channel you wish to view. And then you get streaming football, for example, sometimes with English commentaries. And at a reasonable qaulity, depending on your connection etc…

If you do want to keep up with the ‘Johnny-come-latelies’ of the internet television world, I’d recommend NewTeeVee from the GigaOm network. Part of the NewTeeVee round-up this week links to four potential P2P IPTV problems from Mark Cuban.

I’m off to fire up my Delorean.

Thinking of getting into blogging to make a quick buck? After all there’s been a lot of posts, and even blogs dedicated to it…

Well, I say good luck to you. Because if you don’t have a strong belief and passion in what you do, then it doesn’t matter. To make money, you either need to be very good at blogging, at marketing, or at business. Even better to be a great combination of the three.

And you’re going to be up against countless competition. Need an example? One of my contacts suggested I chatted with the guy behind the Techzi blog. Turns out he’s knowledgeable about the net technology, and has some interesting thoughts and ideas. The kicker? He’s 12.

Now you could go two ways when you discover that. You could get disgusted with the way the world is going and string yourself up from the rafters. Particularly if you’re likely to be turning 30 this year!

Or you can use it as a chance to get involved with a different generation of web user and combine talents, skills and experience…

Enough of the next generation….now for the one I’m stuck in….
I’ve made some pledges on my previous post about aims for 2007 regarding Disposable Media (New Wii Special out now!). Now it’s time for some more for me….

1. Learn more HTML and CSS. (Web ‘editor’ is never just editorial, and nor should it be).
2. Play guitar and read more. (Boosting creativity and taking a screen break).
3. Become less obsessed with Xbox 360 Achievement Points. (It’s gaming crack).
4. Explore more ways to become more valued in my career, and in the wider world.
5. Raise funds by blogging, Ebay, etc, etc to fund a new HDTV…and maybe an Alienware PC!
6. Stop making vague lists, and start catching up on all the web news, and getting stuff done…

I know that the time for New year resolutions has ended, so my attempts at planning may be a little late. Then again, who says you can only make plans on Jan 1?

So here are some of the things I’m aiming to get completed…

1. Finish the redesign and implementation of the new Disposable Media website.
2. Help inspire others by getting my copy in waaaay before deadline for DM issue 6.
3. Investigate web hosting, and moving my blog to a domain of it’s own.
4. Investigate commercial opportunities, to see if I can let the blog pay for itself.
5. Investigate the possibilities of getting free stuff…

Now I know that it’s terribly bad form to admit that I’d be happy to receive free things. And that it’s a path lined with the fallen blogs of those who failed to disclose the exact nature of their involvement with a project. But, it’s also nice to get new toys to play with and review for my elite group of readers.

And I’d be particularly interested in UK and European tech stuff. There’s already enough Americans embracing blogging and technology (God bless ‘em!). It’s time us limeys got some free stuff!

Incidentally, a thought came to mind this morning. As more and more information sources become aggregated into the likes of Wikipedia, and video becomes aggregated by Youtube, Google and Flurl, are we losing part of the fun of searching 20 different websites before arriving at an opinion?

Lastly…with all the talk of web 2.0…how come no-one has mentioned the Internet Movie Database? it’s been around for years, offered lists, comments and comparisons, and does a good job… Does it not have enough rounded gradients? Maybe it should rename as IMDBer.com?

I don’t intend to turn this into a guide to blogging, as there are already plenty of sites that do a great job. I’ll admit to being an avid and fascinated reader of Problogger, and Blogging on Blogging.

But I do think there was one point missing from the recent post of great content at Problogger. The gist of the post is how to write great blog content by enriching and adding to links and articles you find, rather than regurgitating them. Plenty of great ideas in there, from which many online media companies could learn…

But the one suggestion I would add is this: “Before you write about a new social networking site or application….try using the thing.”

Some places do this well. I tend to get a lot of news from downloadsquad.com for this very reason. Every time I read about a new application, I know that someone on their team will have used the thing, and can tell me how easy it is, and how well it performs. That’s why I’ve tended to mention Myspace and LinkedIn a fair bit, because I’ve used them enough to have a reasonable idea of what is possible. Indeed, I’ve somehow fallen into the Top Ten Experts on LinkedIn Answers, which most would say is a flaw in the system!

It’s also why I haven’t mentioned The Venice Project, or the revelation that it has revealed it’s true name of Joost. I am actually registered as a beta (not better!) tester, I have the set-up.exe on my PC, and I’ve actually made a couple of beta test suggestions. But the problem is that I haven’t had the chance to set it up on my home PC, and can’t log in via the company firewall, so I don’t have anything to add to the 100 million other posts on the same subject. (Although some suggest targeting topics like Joost or the I-Phone to boost blog hits…)

It’s also an easy to way to see which sites are capable of holding attention. I keep meaning to log back into Cambrian House, but lost interest. I think it was a combination of things, including the lack of personality inherent in attempting crowdsourcing. I’m still disappointed my three-day free trail of MyBlogLog has reverted to the standard package, but I think I’m sufficiently disappointed to probably pay some cash to upgrade shortly… So you’ll know where to blame if ads start appearing here to fund it… Feedburner also gets daily clicks.

It’s a dilemma whether to blog about something new for the sake of it, or to sign up, test it, and then try to say something more valuable in the long run… so I’d welcome suggestions on what you think is the right balance…