Tag Archives: theory

Social Networking: Are we getting it all wrong?

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I am beginning to adopt the belief that social networking is a net negative for humanity, at least in its present form. My reasons for this hypothesis aren’t totally clear even in my own mind, but I’ve begun to do some research into the deeper positive and negative impacts of social networking “toolsites”, not the least of which include MySpace, World of Warcraft, Facebook, Second Life, and others.

The fundamental question I’ve set out to answer is this: Is human interaction positively enriched through the use of social networking tools?

I’ve got about 100 pages of research than I’ve begun to pour through as I seek to answer this question, and I’ll let you know when and how I reach my conclusion.

I pay for the bandwidth I use

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Guys, I haven’t been blogging much the last week or so. I have a good reason that I can’t tell you. As Forrest would say, that’s all I have to say about that.  On to the roundup:

Russ and Andy both noted the appearance of an article in the New York Times which talks about many of the mobile VoIP devices out there (but misses the best ones!). Andy generally agrees with the Times author that the process of setting up and using these devices isn’t practical yet. Bah.

As if the world really needed a $1200 cell phone, B&O has introduced one. Keating thinks Apple is taking notes.  If Apple introduces a $1200 cell phone, nobody will buy it. Take that note, Apple.

While I was in a haze, Trixbox 2.0 came out. W00t, Fonality. Go get em.

Oh, back to Russ. He’s paranoid about politicians keeping their hands off of the network (which is what they ought to do).  He thinks Bush favors the anti-Neut lobby, this despite posting a quote from the president in which he is very partial to Google.  So I’m not sure what Russ is trying to say here.

That said, when the phone company runs their flap about Google sucking bandwidth, they’re getting it all wrong: Every month, when I send in Internet access bill, I pay for the bandwidth I use, Google or otherwise. Stuff doesn’t have to be so complicated, grrr..

2.0 Works.

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I think there are two camps in the VoIP/video community. The first camp is where the thought leadership occurs. Lots of pre-monetized concepts. Lots of conceptual thought.  Think Mynumo, Fonav, the DID exchange collectives, the MySpace crowd. The “2.0″ people, many of whom are us.  Grappling with how to paint an enterprise face upon the monolith of community-centric, often open-source software paradigms.  We can’t get enough 2.0. “There’s never too much” and we’ll cultivate just about any idea that empowers users. Our limits are the lack of IP infrastructure in the world.

Then, there are the more traditional thinkers. Trying to work within the existing global framework for media delivery.  The telcos. The “VoIP 911″ solution providers. The one-size-fits-all, user-insensitive service carriers like the cell phone networks. The big equipment manufacturers. These guys are inching in the direction of 2.0 at a pace that makes a snail look like Jeff Gordon. These guys need to find a safe financial path in that direction, and they are grappling with “how much is too much” and of course how to protect, replace, and augment today’s revenue with new services. Their limits are the financial obligations and the prospect of losing control when things that benefit 2.0 occur: unbundling, massive deregulation, and new applications that are knocking anxiously on the locked door of their infrastructure. 

And lost between the two viewpoints is the enterprise user, who probably understands both philosophies, but needs a new breed of consultant to figure out how to bring 2.0 into a truly useful state.  Blogging is a 2.0 concept (though I argue “Am I Hot Or Not” was really one of the first 2.0 web apps). Technorati defines the user-centricity, social frameworks, and community-building ideals of 2.0.  Technorati says “Vote with your feet”, empowering users to assign weight to different pieces of content so that those deserving of more respect actually GET IT. Ditto for Digg and Delicious. This is NOT an enterprise-friendly philosophy from the telco’s standpoint, nor from the equipment vendor’s standpoint.

But 2.0 is needed in the enterprise. Marketing. Why do I get press releases from everybody under the sun wanting me to flout their wares? Why do I get swag?  Why are Avaya and Cisco always in my top-10 list for my web access log?   Because they understand our dirty little secret: 2.0 WORKS.

Now, how do we make it work for enterprise users?

Flight 93

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I just saw the movie Flight 93 and I it was the most devestating thing I think I’ve ever watched in a film. I just can’t imagine what the people onboard that flight went through in reality and I hope so much that the man that orchestrated it is found and dealt with, soon.  God Bless the victims and their familes.

Patriotic good news: DNS TLDs remain in American hands

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Aside from linking to Slashdot (which apparently is very unpopular to do right now), I’ll certainly piss off somebody when I say that I’m happy ICANN is retaining control of DNS top-level domains. Why? Because ICANN is a domestic firm. No reason to hand over the TLDs to the United Nations, as some nimrods have proposed. Notice that Slashdot placed the story in the “politics” section. Nothing political about it, if you ask me.

16-bit, 32-bit: is there really a hearable difference?

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Well, the answer depends on who you ask. Some sound engineers will swear that high frequencies are the dead giveaway when discerning a 16-bit sample from a 32-bit one. But to the casual listener, the difference is less obvious. Of course, with the advent of MP3s, many of which are encoded at low bit rates by hacks who aren’t concerned with sound quality, the already low bar of FM quality has been lowered even further, meaning CDs, mastered with 16-bit depth, sound better than ever, since MP3s downloaded from sharing programs lack quality.

So the question is this–if 16-bit is good enough, why bother with the processing overhead of 32 samples and effects? Well, NewsForge post an excellent primer on sampling depth. The details are posted after the jump.

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