... and perhaps a threat to information ecosystems that coordinate and manage flows of information in enterprises ?

Dion Hinchcliffe writes a column for ZDNet and has just published an interesting piece that reflects on the current and future uses of RSS 2.0 (which includes a nod to competing format Atom).

RSS 2.0 has certainly come into its own since being introduced in late 2002 and it's now the most widely available Web feed format bar none.

And this is important because RSS, more than any other format, facilitates the Web 2.0 information ecosystem, something I'll define here as the automated syndication and recirculation of content between the all systems on the Web.

This ecosystem makes possible impressive scenarios like the 4,500+ data sources available from Google News, or value-add services entirely based on the feed ecosystem like Feedburner and Technorati. In fact, RSS is powerful because just about any set of items can be syndicated with it, from blog entries and podcasts, to video segments and stock quotes.

[snip] ...

Now, those of you who've made it this far might wonder why all of this is really important. Most of us have begun using feeds recently, and count on being able to copy and paste them into our feed readers and other tools that we have. But being able to do so with impunity is always at risk.

A good example is Jon Udell's discussion of how iTunes has embedded https: links in its feeds, a clear violation of the RSS specification. But one that probably seemed reasonable at the time and a very minor deviation. But nevertheless it breaks RSS. And using an iTunes feed in a RSS reader that expects real RSS might result in cooperation if you're lucky, but it could just as easily result in outright failure if you're not. This is because the tool developer had no reason to expect https: links would be there.

It's useful to watch this space closely, as the combination of RSS feeds and the development of blogging tools, whether Perfomancing, or CoComments or Qumana or others, is rapidly creating a much wider awareness of how information flows can be managed and put to use efficiently, effectively and inexpensively.

And as this understanding and the utility grows, more and more organizations will start to look for ways that these tools can be put to productive use.

We have been developing a response to some of these issues, by integrating Qumana (a content gathering, assembly and editing application) into Lektora, an easy-to-use and highly customizable RSS aggregator and newsreader.

Now Qumana sits at the end of eachh RSS feed you may be reading (in the tool bar directly above the feed you mat be reading, instantly available with one click should you want to make a comment about something you've just read, or if you want to build a substantial blog post around an issue you have been reading about.

Input ... throughput ... output

All in one integrated application that lets you look at your universe of incoming information flows, browse through them with ease, and then start blogging when your thinking kicks into gear.

Check it out over at Lektora - RSS For Bloggers.

;

One huge opportunity

Jeremy Wright is afraid of MySpace:

MySpacers connect better than bloggers, get their friends into it better than bloggers, stay in touch more than bloggers, and form true sociological pods better than bloggers. MySpace is closer to the Google Grid than Google is. MySpace is the closest humanity has ever come to a central community or a central consciousness.

Well that makes sense because blogging isn't really a social connection framework; it's just publishing with a little bit of moderate feedback - a few comments on a post. It isn't a community. When bloggers connect with each other they do it outside of blogs. The blogs are just the introduction point.

MySpace is a publishing medium as well, but while blogging is the domain of "adults", MySpace is the domain of teens. And let's face it, this is the most connected generation in history. MySpace is merely one of many connection and communication channels.

MySpace isn't a culture unto itself. It is merely one more outlet for a very connected culture and lifestyle.

As I've watched my kids grow up the internet has been integral to their lives, first for research, and now for an almost unbroken connectedness. They move effortlessly from MSN Messenger to Skype to cellphones and back. Their IMs are sent to their phones. They make plans online. I've even watched a few of my son's friends sit with laptops in our family room and laugh simulaneously at some comment they've IM'd around, without a word spoken.

And if MySpace were to suddenly vanish something else would take its place the next day, if not sooner. I can remember the day Napster shut down. My kids had new tools within minutes.

Just as the internet routes around problems, so do they.


Thanks to Larry Borsato for the link.

In response to some questions a business student posed to Hugh Macleod, which he posted on Gaping Void asking readers to comment, one commenter responded thusly.

Question #4: What is the difference between marketing by blogs for small business, and large corporate b-blogs ?


Response by Brian Clark: Small businesses are forced to use creativity and intelligence to gain attention via blogging, and large corporations have money. :-)

.

Thanks, Scott.

Quick tool for blogging?

Dave Winer's elevator pitch for his new OPML tool for blogging:


Did you ever have an idea you wanted to post on your blog that didn't seem big enough to be an essay? An idea that could be expressed in a sentence, or less, but still deserved to get out there? In writing school they teach that less is better. If you can say someting in three words instead of twenty, say it in three. It communicates better. Well, none of the existing blogging tools can do little sentence or phrase-size blog posts.


Dave's tool is pretty cool but I doubt he's used Qumana. It does that exactly.

.

My colleagues at Qumana (Tris, Arieanna, and Fred) and I were discussing this blog post promising the next big thing in blogging this morning.

Given that we are Canadians, it may be that we have a predilection for not wanting to be unkind .. but frankly, we just don't get it.

This *big thing* and an elevator pitch about being able to create and post quick, simple blog posts ?

Hey, with Qumana you can just click to open, start writing, and hit "Post" ... even easier and quicker than sending an email.

It's up to you, the bloger, if you want to make it a short post. Nothing .. nothing at all .. about Qumana (and incidentally, any of the other blog editing tools out there, prevent bloggers from making quick, short posts).

No doubt we are missing something that Rick Segal interpreted from that pitch ?

The elevator pitch for OPML blogging

At lunch on Sunday with Rick Segal, the Toronto venture capitalist, and ex-Microsoft fighter pilot, he asked if anything new was coming in blogging. I said yes, there is, something big.

And so there is. People who use the OPML Editor for blogging know what it is. And I even have the elevator pitch, and it's been tested on Rick Segal, and it works. It goes like this.

Did you ever have an idea you wanted to post on your blog that didn't seem big enough to be an essay? An idea that could be expressed in a sentence, or less, but still deserved to get out there? In writing school they teach that less is better. If you can say someting in three words instead of twenty, say it in three. It communicates better. Well, none of the existing blogging tools can do little sentence or phrase-size blog posts.

That's what we're doing, perfecting a tool for easier, quicker, blogging on a smaller scale.

.

Hillary Johnson picked up on yesterday's post here on RSS, and really expanded on my commentary in her post on her Kerabu blog (also cross-posted on the Engagement Alliance blog ... wonder how she did that ;-) ).  The basis of my post was that readers and users don't really care about the underlying technology as long as it's easy and it works.  Hillary turned the tables on me and pointed out that while Qumana has been derided by some for it's simplicity--that it's dumbed-down--that's what she likes most about it.  Yes!  She hit the nail on the head!  Here is some of her commentary:

I find Qumana to be extremely smart where it counts--which is in streamlining the small, repetitive motions involved in posting to my blogs. When I click the link button in the WYSIWYG editor bar, the field auto-fills with the last thing I cut and pasted. This may not sound like much, but when you are writing a post with a half-dozen links, cutting the number of clicks per link in half and reducing the mouse-mileage by half as well is absolutely brilliant. Qumana creates exactly this kind of gestural economy throughout. In Typepad, the category default is set to a single category; selecting multiple categories is a chore. In Qumana, you check the categories you want, with no control key to hold down, and no false distinction between single and multiple categories. SixApart should have corrected this annoying hurdle long ago. Guess they're just not "dumb" enough.

   It takes a pretty dumb bunny to think that complicated = sophisticated. There are three reasons to write your blog posts in html: it's faster; you can do more stuff; you think it makes you one of the cool kids.  I've had about enough of this geek chic mentality--it fosters bad design. Good design is sleek, user-transparent, dumb as dumb can be.

Well if dumb is cool, and dumb works ... you know, I'm okay with that.  See, when it comes right down to it, while I know how to code, while I don't mind tweaking things, I'm way too busy to fuss with tools that make things too hard.  I'm all about fast and easy.  Simply complex, complexly simple.  That's what we're going for with Qumana.  Looks like we're on the right track.

Tags: Qumana, blog editors

John Jantsch has some insightful commentary on RSS today.  It's a truism that within a group, new words, concepts, and practices emerge and these become to the keys to entry into the group.  RSS this is one of those things for many Internet users.  Does my mom care about RSS?  No, she just wants an easy way to keep up on my blog (I don't think she reads it often ... that's okay because she's busy teaching Sex Ed in the public schools).  I really like these two paragraphs in this post and I think it says it all:

You don't do this by trying to convince someone that they "should" know that this is the defacto standard for an RSS feed. Maybe someday, but I doubt it, will mean something to everyone, but right now it says to some, "I'm a blog snob and this is the only way you can subscribe to my blog so, if you don't know what this is then, go away."

That's like saying to a reader of an ad, we have this long distance number and if you call sometime between 2 and 4 on Tuesday, we'll take your order - would you ever do that? Lower the tech barrier to entry - give them an email contact, web site, toll free number and fax option to place their order!

We have the same philosophy at Qumana for blog editors.  It needs to be dead easy.  You should  just see it and get it.  We're working hard towards that goal, and if you have any suggestions on how we can do it better ... please let us know.

And yes John ... we offer more than one way to get our posts ... including e-mail.

Tags: RSS, John Jantsch, blogging, Qumana

With the new Qumana v3 out we've seen a few folks having this problem again with MT blogs so a little blast from the past ...

Recently we've been receiving some questions about having problems getting Qumana to work with MoveableType (MT) 3.2 installs.  We didn't think it was us and we were right.  MT has implemented some additional security measures for remote posting.  Here's the answer straight from the Six Apart Knowledgebase:

http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/kb/external/invalid_login_w.html

To provide enhanced security when using third party clients, Movable Type now provides for a separate API password (rather than forcing you to use your normal author login password). Here's how to set up this new password:

• Log into Movable Type.
• Click on your username in the top navigational menu to go to your profile.
• Scroll down to the bottom where you see API Password.
• Input a password of your choice and save. For security reasons, it should be different from your normal author password.
• Use the new password in your client software.

Hope this helps everyone.

Technorati Tags : Qumana, MT, MoveableType

BlogBurst popped up this weekend as a hot (or not) discussion topic.  The main question is WIIFM (what's in it for me).  Right now, it's a traffic and link boost, and hints at a revenue share later.  Is that enough?  Is this the savior of the MSM? I think it has a lot of potential ... but I'm also withholding final judgment until I know more about the revenue share.

Tags: Pluck, BlogBurst

An updated Qumana 3.0 beta is now available for download. Thanks to all the hundreds of people for downloading the new beta, for sending in emails, and writing some great reviews. We look forward to hearing more about what you think about Qumana!

Updates to version 3.0.0-b2 include:

• MSN Spaces autoconfigures correctly (note: MSN Spaces has a bug, see here for more details)
• Drupal autoconfigures correctly
• Blogger titles now work
• Wordpress issue of XML-RPC errors is resolved

Download the new beta.

We're still in beta, so keep that feedback coming. We want to know what you think - what do you like, what do you want to see, what don't you like?

Contest Reminder:

Don't forget to take part in the contest. Who doesn't want a free vacation to Mexico or Whistler? It's oh so easy to enter!!

Tags: qumana, offline editor

We've been hard at work on this new beta for months.  And longer than that (over a year) we've been working on the original Windows-only app.  The problem is that we don't toot our own horn enough.

Nor have we countered some ads online head on.  But being both Canadian and reasonable people, we'll still take the highroad.  Is Qumana the "smartest" offline editor out there?  Who knows.  How do you define smart?  We were the first to have one-click Technorati tags.  That's smart.  We were the first to let you post to multiple blogs without closing a window.  Smart too.  We were the first to allow you to earn money, inserting ads into your posts using a free tool.  Now that rocks.  We're still the only one with a DropPad that let's you drag and drop content from not only your browser but pretty much any other application.  Oh and we've got a pretty spiffy blog manager too.  And did I mention that we're still free and we can help you earn money.

Oh and we're the first, and only, to have a contest to send you on vacation.  Yep, vacation.  Sun or snow.  Hot cocoa or mohitos.  You choose.  How?  Easy ... just blog.  With a free tool.  With a free tool that can also earn you money.  Rules?  You got them ...

To enter:
• download the new Qumana beta
• use Qumana for your next 20 posts (minimum entry amount, across any number of blogs, min 50 words to our discretion)
• show off the “powered by Qumana” footer on each post
• write a creative post about your blogging landscape
• send us [info@Qumana.com] the URL for your post and any blogs you’ve written on

The post:

Using Qumana is qualifying criteria. The winner of the Ski or Surf Ultimate Vacation will be chosen based on a blog post to be written about your “blogging landscape”:

What tools are in your blogging landscape?

Tell us, as creatively as you can, what makes your blogging experience easier, and perhaps even more profitable. Whether its your digital camera, a set of plugins, or your browsing pattern, tell us what makes you a productive blogger and you could WIN

When you’re done, simply send us [info AT Qumana DOT com] your URLs (of your post and of the blogs that qualify you).

The prize:

The winning blogger will have the choice of a Ski or Surf Ultimate Vacation:

• 5 days in Whistler, BC, Canada including hotel and ski passes & rentals for 2.
• 7 days in Mazatlan, Mexico all inclusive for 2. Mexican destination may vary.

Both prizes have a maximum travel amount of $600 to the destination specified, unless a flight & stay package is obtained for less than $3000 CAD. Equivalent travel options are available.

So ... save your money ... Rocket over and download the new beta.  Come on ... Scoble even tried it and he said it looked nice.

Tags: Qumana, blog editor, contest, Mexico, Whistler

Some Qumana 3.0 users have been having problems when posting to Wordpress blogs. After clicking on "Publish Post" a dialog with a message about an XML-RPC error is displayed. The post is published but no categories are set.

We've identified what the problem is and have implemented a fix. We'll be releasing a new version of Qumana 3.0 that will solve this problem soon.

In the past 24 hours relevancy, the A-list, the Z-list, and blog "authority" are the hot news items.  Right now there are two polar opposite approaches to this situation.  Let's take the "traditional" approach first ... links.

Tech.memorandum is one of my favourite places to track who is talking about the hot issues of the day -- and even find them.  But there is some (growing?) criticism that Memorandum is too insular, too tied to the "A-list" (don't know if I'm on the A-list, but I do show up there pretty often, still waiting for making the top spot though).

Now there is an upstart in Megite.  Similar idea, but Matthew seems to be getting a few more interesting sites.  He's also offering custom/personalized pages based on an OPML file you send him (on it's way to you Matthew).  Megite is getting more of my attention lately.  Still small number of readers according to FeedBurner ... but this could be a diamond in the rough ... a site just waiting to make it big. (Yes, I show up here a lot too).

Regardless, both these sites work on a similar principle.  Find a topic, then track all the people linking to that article and related articles.  Of course it is impossible to track all of the blogs talking about a topic, so the question will be who do they drawn from.

Technorati is working on a similar idea with its "authority slider" ... authority as measured by the number of other blogs that link to that blog.  So Scoble is highest authority, my blog is a step down (I'm in the "magic middle").

This would be better than Tech.Memorandum or Megite because a niche site with lots of links on a topic might be able to garner significant traffic on that topic.  I've only played a little with this tool so I can't give much of a review of it right now.  The risk, of course, is that if you always keep the slider all the way to the right (a lot of authority) you will almost certainly miss cool stuff. (See also Techcrunch)

Now if we take this concept of authority and relevance and turn it on its ear, take the new site BlogCode.  Mark, Scoble, and I have written about BlogCode ... Mathew should since he's on our lists ... and I see this as a new way to connect blogs and find blogs.  You don't search with terms, you start with the blog.  Then you see what blogs are most like it.  Starting off, the rates are pretty much self-driven (you code yourself first), but as other people code your blog (essentially saying what they think your blog is about based on many different factors), the matches start moving and changing.  I've watched my matches shift even in the last 12 hours.  Of the folks above ... Scoble, Mathew, and I are all on each others' lists and I'm on Mark's but he's not on mine (I expect that to change).   This is different because it isn't about linky-love.  It's about content.  It's about finding new blogs like yours (like Scoble, I've found a few new ones).  I think this has a serious amount of potential in the future as most blogs are added to the list.

So, several different ways to track new content and find new blogs.  One group based on who links to whom, another based on what you and others think you write about.  Both important, both interesting, both exciting.

Tags: BlogCode, Technorati, authority, Megite, Tech.memorandum

Tim Bray (oh yeah CTO of Sun) and David Sifry (Technorati, of course) on stage on.  As David just said, following Julie Leung ... not fun.

David is talking about the birth of Technorati ... Interestingly, or maybe not, David started it to track the conversations spawned by his own blog posts.  Sure, this is the core of the ego feed, but this is also an important facet of finding what is of interest to you.

"The flaw in search engines is that they don't have a sense of time" -- Sifry.

Posting volume ... just under a million daily+ bloggers ... the news cycles in MHz ... 15 posts per second.  With a blog a second ... with so many posts at once ... how do you keep up?

It's nearly impossible.  And that's okay, you don't read all the newspapers in the world or even North America.

"The magic middle" ... people who have between 30 and 1000 links to them ... the niche areas.  Sifry feels, and I concur, that this is probably the most interesting part of the blogosphere the people who can still manage the conversations, the links.  So then, how do you help these people get found?  That's where blog finder came in.  Track blogs on a topic ... what are your tags.  Who are you.  What are you about.

Now ... how do we coalesce the tag universe?  Tagging, because it's a human thing, it's a sloppy thing.

Make tagging easy, but making it public and accountable thing, then there is an emergence of a system.   A connection of similar tags, statistical analysis can be done to connect the dots and make tags connect better.  By tagging, for example, in more that one language then the connections get stronger and better.  This eliminates then need for a formalized dictionary ... or does it?

What is the challenge ... comment spam, trackback spam, splogs (spam blogs), splings (spam pings).  The idea of accountability is the thing that keeps the signal to noise ratio pretty good.  Your blog is public and on your permanent record.

Now, I think David is over simplifying this.  The problem with spam in all its forms is greed.  As long as there is money to be made from a single click, this will still be a pretty big problem to manage and to be continued to be managed.

Ah Net Neutrality ... oh there is a topic I will probably write more and more about ... and I agree with David, this is the single largest threat to the Internet as we know it.  It's going to be up to us to stop it.

And before my battery tanks out ... I'm going to post this.

Tags: David Sifry, Tim Bray, Technorati

Today at Northern Voice we're announcing the launch of Qumana 3.0.

It’s the announcement we’ve been waiting months to make – Qumana has developed a *NEW* Qumana 3.0 Beta for Mac and PC. That’s right, Qumana now supports Mac.

Instead of building a separate Mac Qumana, we took this as an opportunity to start fresh and make some improvements to how Qumana works. So, we would like to introduce you to a brand new Qumana - one that takes the essence of our current Qumana and makes them better - for both Mac and PC users.

If you want to get started right away, hop on over to download the beta.

As well as all the Qumana features you know and love, the new Qumana beta has some high demand improvements:

- a "blog manager" that locally stores your drafts and published posts
- support for trackbacks and pinging
- improved editor with valid XHTML, plus ability to view and edit code
- a way to refresh the editor ('New Post') - to clear away published material and start a new post instantly
- improved image dialogue, including preview and auto upload trigger from Drag & Drop
- and more…

At this stage in development, you're likely to encounter a few glitches. Please contact us with any feedback or bugs, and stay tuned here for regular update announcements.

We're also launching a new blog - Qumana 'how to' - which will cover tips on using Qumana 3.0, Lektora, and AdGenta, along with great productivity tips for blogging.

CONTEST

As a part of our launch, we're having a contest. A big one. It's the QUMANA Ski or Surf Ultimate Vacation CONTEST - that's right, we're giving away a vacation for two - and all you need to do is blog!

Thanks to all our pre-beta testers for helping us get this far, and thanks in advance to everyone for downloading the beta and passing back feedback to help us continue to develop the best Qumana experience possible. Download the beta here.

Tags: qumana, qumana3.0, offline editor, blogging