Looking good so far. Moving paradox1x.org is a precursor to a much larger move. This was relatively simple since I use Movable Type with MySQL. Literally all it took was copying the database, copying the file system of the site, changing Movable Type’s configs and rebuild. I’ve been careful never to refer to inner content on the site with its domain name so I was able to test from a mirroring URL. Now I have to move a Drupal/CivicSpace site (Philly Future). I think, other than recreating some cron jobs at the new host, it should be much of the same.
Now on to interesting Monday morning matters…
Jonathon Schwartz, in a recent keynote, asked his audience “which they’d rather give up – their browser, or all the rest of their desktop apps”. Guess the answer already?
…All these trends show a slowing upgrade appetite calling into question the power of traditional distribution. In stark contrast to the value of volume, community and participation.
…The cost of reaching customers, traditionally the most expensive part of building a business, has largely been eliminated – resulting in massive, global participation.
In a related post, for an entirely different industry (are they so different?) Jeff Jarvis says that Google commodifies news. That gives Google too much credit if you ask me – but it’s definately on the right track. It’s the entire web, and our participation in it, using web services like Google, using standards for transmission like RSS and Atom, that commodify news distribution.
But has news itself become a commodity? David Shenk, way back in 1997, in his book “Data Smog” worried that on the web, that this would have a negative effect. That on the information highway, most roads bypass journalists. I don’t know if news or journalism has become a commodity. I believe there is a growing need for services where people can find news sources they can trust. There are opportunities here for those who can bring clarity – who understand that community and participation are vital to that. Jeff mentioned that new role for journalists in an earlier piece, “Editor as news gatherer”.
In a related article Ed Cone, shares how blogs are part of this: “Rise of the Blog”: Blogs and wikis are part of a wave of low-cost software that has streamlined the way information is published, edited and found on the Web. They allow just about anybody to work in their Web browsers and write in natural language..
So the same forces that are in play in software are in play in the media business. More at Jeremy Zawodny‘s.
Speaking of technology and its relationship with community, participation and empowerment, read Wired’s profile of Tim O’Reilly.
In Philly the city Wi-Fi provider contract is about to be signed. In related news Google is bidding to be San Francisco’s free Wi-Fi provider.
Did you see Serenity? Richelle, me and Steve did. We were blown away. A great, great movie. I had worried that it wouldn’t translate to the big screen. I was wrong. I can’t tell you much because there are real surprises in it. One of which left us completely on the edge – I mean if they were going to that that then they might do anything. Reviews from friends: Bill, Shelley, Dave (and if I missed ya – let me know).