TheWayoftheWeb

It’s been a bit of a busy 7-10 days, but I’ve finally committed to filling in the unfortunate blog deficit.

- I’ve been chatting a fair bit to Howard Webster, the creator, writer, publisher, organiser and driving force behind The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore, which is ’second generation graphic novel’, in that it mixes comics, old black and white archive footage, and live action shot with actors including British thespian Colin Salmon. Even more interesting for me is the fact that all the assets from the ‘official’ production can be downloaded and used to create user content, with mash-ups of audio, video etc. And if that wasn’t enough, Howard has an annoying habit of just coming out with other ground-breaking ideas in the middle of a conversation. In a 30 minute catch-up he came out with two or three evolutions of the idea, all of which could stand on their own. And all of which were very interesting. I won’t say more, but I’m currently writing a feature on the project for Disposable Media, out on June 28, so make sure you check it out.

- I’ve also been contacted by Catherine Toole from Sticky Content about a variety of things, including her forthcoming presentation at Online Marketing 2007. I have to say, from previous experience, and the teaser on the Sticky Content blog, it’ll be one of the presentations worth seeing, as it’s rare to see someone combining a obvious passion for social media, with a balanced view of what can go wrong, and then coming up with the solutions that brands and managers often need spelt out for them. I’m just working out whether I can justify a day or two out of the office to pop down and give my support.

-Before this gets to epic length, I’ve also now become one of these accursed ‘evangelists’ for technology. (I’ll never use that term again, I promise). After upgrading my own aged laptop to Windows 2000 Professional (I’m a luddite geek), I suddenly twigged I didn’t have any decent Office-type programmes. No MS Word for example. So I went and downloaded Open Office.
Blimey. Everything I could need for a home PC, in one reasonably-sized download, and with no obvious problems as yet. Why would I ever bother with paying for similar programmes? The only thing I can see me doing in future is investing in a USB stick big enough to carry everything I need around with me.

I picked up an old-fashioned print copy of Wired the other day when I was at Stansted Airport. I quite enjoy reading about web topics in print, mainly because it gives my eyes a rest from the glow of the VDU. Strangely though, I find the American style of breaking up articles into two section, as Wired does, to really detract from the experience.

Anyway, one article caught my attention, in the current climate of internet ids and convergence between online personas and offline identities. Hasan Elahi was detained by the FBI after stepping off a U.S. flight due to suspicions he was a terrorist. Luckily, he’s actually a Rutgers professor and artist, but it led to a web-based project for him.

On TrackingTransience.net, Hasan details everything he does, and everywhere he goes. Meals, purchases, flights, it’s all there. And it allows him the perfect alibi, should anyone question his whereabouts and motives. And funnily enough, his server log shows hits from the Pentagon and the Secretary of Defense among others.

He predicts a day when so many people are posting so much online it puts Big Brother out of business.

it’s an interesting idea. Particularly when there is such a threat of identity theft and fraud online. But if your bank can see you’re in the newsagents in Cambridge when your card is being used online from a PC in New York, or in person in Manchester, it’ll make innocence easier to prove - if banks etc accept the evidence, which will take time for them to grasp the concept.

The only flaw is that it requires you to be absolutely honest. And that’s the case with all this convergence. If you’re in a relationship, for example, and you get approached by someone online who flirts, having all your info in one place could lead to huge problems. If you record anything that has broken any rules, then you’ve invited yourself to be caught. And what happens if you’re an attractive 17 year old girl rather than a 35-year-old male, and you try the same technique?

There will always be risks to every decision, and there will always be flaws. But Hasan has shown that rather than worrying about having your privacy invaded and spending your life paranoid and trying to cloak yourself, perhaps it’s more effective to just put everything on show and take what comes.

Every so often, there are games which completely justify online gaming and investment Microsoft has made in Xbox Live. Forza Motorsport 2 is one of those games!

I was surprised by the loss of car clubs, which allowed players to group together in clans, particularly at a time when community is so valued by everyone, but the photo mode, ability to upload you pictures online straight from your console, the new paint editor which can create simply unbelievable designs, and the online racing itself more than makes up for it…

Once I’ve torn myself away though, I’ve got things to do… I’m experimenting with building some sites in DotNetNuke, and I’m also intending to read up on SEO. So if you can recommend SEO blogs and books to take me from interested novice to white and black hat expert, let me know…

For ages I’ve relied on Feedburner and MyBlogLog stats for basic monitoring, as my audience figures aren’t big enough to really require much else.

But my basic curiousity has led me to trying , and so far it’s been great. In addition to incorporating Feedburner RSS stats, it also shows a variety of other interesting features, and it’s all in a clear, simply format which means I can actually understand what’s going on.

You get your visitors, their search terms, IP addresses, and their position on a world map. It also gives you an idea of what they’re doing while they’re visiting. And the Spy tool is a neat live realtime monitor of how people are interacting with a site.

At the moment, only thewayoftheweb is linked, but I suspect I’ll be registering my other sites tonight, as it’s nice and easy with a simple bit of click and insert code.

Depending on the size of your site, you may be required to make a small payment. From the registration info:

“Clicky offers free service for up to 3 web sites and 1,000 daily page views per day per site. We also have two levels of premium service which get you more sites, more features, and higher traffic levels - starting at less than $2/month. More information

When you first register, we give you 21 days of premium service for FREE! This gives you a chance to try it out with any web site and fall in love with some of the features we offer that you won’t find anywhere else (like Spy and RSS feeds). We’re certain you’ll love Clicky so much that you’ll want to support us by upgrading your account!”

And, as a bonus, there’s an affiliate scheme. And the funds can go towards upgrading my account once the first 21 days are over…So if you fancy trying it, and you also fancy helping me out on the back of it, use rather than a Google search!