Wired News: Cyberporn Sells in Virtual World:

You’ve heard of machinima — films made by altering video-game footage — but that’s not the only thing coming out of games these days. Players of the massively multiplayer online title Second Life have started a new type of pornographic magazine, one that passes up real-life models for sexy, in-world avatars.

The magazine, Slustler, is both shot and distributed in the world of the game. There, after throwing down 150 Linden dollars (approximately 60 cents), players can browse Slustler’s 100-plus pages per issue whenever they choose.

Thomas Struszka, Slustler’s editor, started the project this May. “In my opinion,” said Struszka, “the freedom and creative potential are what put Second Life above every other online world.”

Technology enables us to do new things every day, but human nature? Heh.

Anyways, Second Life sounds like fun… but I have way, way too too much going on in this world 🙂 Speaking of Second Life, Lawrence Lessig will be doing a virtual visit to discuss his book “Free Culture”.

This is important functionality that you can help test. See Bill for details.

Seth Finkelstein: The Self-Deluding Bogosphere: looks like a lot of people are misinterpeting that “annoy” law.

Gene Smith: How much wisdom is there in Digg?.

Hey, it’s not my prediction! I’m taking some factors Bill Burnham mentioned in reference to walled gardens and Homestore, Monster, EBay, Match.com and riffing on them:

1. Content Availability: Generally speaking, the more “self published”, publicly index-able data there is, the more vulnerable the walled garden.  As I mentioned in my prior post, 10 years ago very few people/businesses had their own web site.  Today, the situation is dramatically different with most businesses and an increasing number of people having their own sites.  Almost all of these sites are not password protected and can therefore be fully indexed by search engines.   If a Walled Garden is charging to distribute or provide access to data that can now be easily aggregated from “self published” web sites, it is in an increasingly tenuous position.
2. Index Affinity: The more willing a data owner is to make their data available for indexing, the more tenuous the walled garden’s business.  In most cases data owners are quite content to disseminate their information as widely as possible, however there are some cases where limited distribution of data is preferable.   
3. Process Simplicity:  Walled gardens can create value by not only aggregating and displaying data, but also by providing a process for acting on that data.    The more complex the process, the more value the garden is adding to the overall transaction.  Conversely, if a garden has a highly simplistic process where it simply displays aggregated information, it is highly vulnerable to search led attacks.

Don’t these factors apply to del.icio.us, Flickr, Digg, RawSugar (sorry Bill), Wink, Yahoo!’s My Web 2.0, or even MySpace? In fact, how about any service that asks me to sign up for an account, and to post content to it, that I already post – or want to post – on my blog?

Lets review those factors again:

* Content Availability: Generally speaking, the more “self published”, publicly index-able data there is, the more vulnerable the walled garden. As I mentioned in my prior post, 10 years ago very few people/businesses had their own web site.

On a blog it’s: Easy to post photos. Easy to post links. Easy to post text. Getting easier to post files of all sorts. Why should I post twice, three times, four times?

* Index Affinity: The more willing a data owner is to make their data available for indexing, the more tenuous the walled garden’s business.

That’s what bloggers do every day with links, photos, stories, etc. Bloggers encourage and want their data indexable. We even ping services the second we post new work to alert them we have updated so they can come and do just that. RSS and pinging have, in the words of Technorati, enabled the “world live web”.

* Process Simplicity: Walled gardens can create value by not only aggregating and displaying data, but also by providing a process for acting on that data.

See Moveable Type and WordPress. Then see any RSS reader: In particular My Yahoo!, Bloglines, Newsgator, FeedDemon, netnewswire, or any aggregator by Dave Winer. Yahoo! 360 has potential as well since it accepts feeds I can share.

In my mind, Flickr, del.icio.us, Digg, RawSugar, Wink, and MySpace provide social glue. There is huge value in how they aggregate and enable you to use what folks share. The value builds the more you use them. Each of these services rock.

But I’m getting tired of having twenty accounts to do what I can do from my blog. I know I’m not alone in this.

So some predictions (putting a pundit hat on – how scary!):

I actually don’t think these services are going to die because it’s so damn easy to aggregate! It’s very, very easy. At least on a smaller scale. And when you grow larger there is an expanding list of services to help.

So why can’t Digg pick up the latest post from my blog and put it in its queue for moderation – instead of me posting directly to it? Why can’t Albert post photos to his blog and have them show up at Flickr?

Trust. At Philly Future we handle it manually. We are intimately, socially involved in our community. TailRank, asks you to import your OPML file – the list of blogs you personally trust. Memeorandum starts its crawl from a list of selected blogs and goes from there. I imagine new services will come along to help shortly.

So prediction one: These services will provide tools to reverse the flow and enable you to post to your blog, having your participation shared there (see Technorati).

Prediction two: Any new service that intends to compete with Digg, Flickr, del.icio.us, and similar, that don’t recognize Bill Burnham’s walled garden factors will fail.

RSS syndication and tagging, with the upcoming additions of structured blogging and microformats are changing everything.

It’s about sharing with your circle of friends, your community, and if you want, your world. Hasn’t it always been?

In many ways, Memeorandum, and Tail Rank, and TagCloud are hinting at the future. And MySpace actually, if it doesn’t screw up, is in a good place since it’s used more as a primary blogging presence then as an additional outlet. And more than that, it’s becoming a brand.

But boy is this a brual post. Personally, it speaks to where I want to take Philly Future: Right now there needs to be some original works posted to provide focus – but long term – those original works should only come from your blogs, and Philly Future should provide additional functionality to share and to highlight them without repeating yourself in anyway.

This post follows related posts at Jeff Jarvis’s and David Weinberger’s (who is looking for service examples that allow you to use your social network as your news filter).

So the title of this post was a vain attempt to copy from folks like Jeremy and use a provocative headline to get you to read. It work?

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.” – Confucius

This is bound to be controversial: A spare description of newspaper websites, Slashdot, IndyMedia, MyDD, Daily Kos, Digg, and blogs:

When I go do a newspaper or magazine website, what do I see and what can I do?

I see a sets of headlines, story leads, and links. These are written by paid authors, usually on staff, and filtered by an editorial team. The editorial team I do not know, and have to go thru some work to discover and contact. Sometimes there are links for me to email the author of a story. Sometimes there are discussion threads attached to the stories themselves. But most have forums, usually far removed from these stories. Stories are almost always multiple paragraphs, original, detailed. Usually backed by the newspaper or magazine to be trust worthy. Additional context, including related links, on an author or story is accessible, but more times then not, it is trapped behind archive pay walls. There are rarely rewards for participation. Stories are sometimes vetted/discussed by the web community at large, but that discussion is hard to discover and is usually not linked from the story itself (that is changing – see Newsweek and Washington Post and their use of Technorati).

When I go to Slashdot, what do I see and what can I do?

I see a set of headlines, story leads, and links. Stories are usually written by its community, however anyone can post anonymously. Stories are filtered by an editorial team that is accessible, and don’t have to go thru hoops to contact. Each story has a discussion thread that enables one to give immediate feedback to the author, editors, and community. Stories are usually a single paragraph, most times just the a summary pointing to another original piece (many times from a newspaper – but not always), however, longer original pieces *are* posted that resemble what you would find in a newspaper. Participants in the discussion thread help critique stories for accuracy and relevancy. Participants in the discussion thread help filter the discussion thread itself by ranking the relevancy of these comments. Additional context, including related links, on the author or topic is easily accessible, some of which is posted in the discussion thread. There are huge rewards to participate – to submit stories, to participate in discussion threads. Stories are sometimes vetted/discussed by the web community at large, but that discussion is hard to discover and is usually not linked directly from the story itself.

When I go to IndyMedia, what do I see and what can I do?

I see two sets of headlines, story leads, and links. Stories are usually written by its community, however anyone can post anonymously. All stories are shown in the newswire right hand rail (usually located there). Stories given emphasis are filtered by an editorial team that is accessible, and don’t have to go thru hoops to contact. Each story has a discussion thread that enables one to give immediate feedback to the author, editors, and community. Stories are usually a single paragraph, most times just the a summary pointing to another original piece (many times from a newspaper – but not always), however, longer original pieces *are* posted that resemble what you would find in a newspaper. Participants in the discussion thread help critique stories for accuracy and relevancy. Additional context, including related links, on the author or topic is easily accessible, some of which is posted in the discussion thread. There are huge rewards to participate – to submit stories, to participate in discussion threads. Stories are sometimes vetted/discussed by the web community at large, but that discussion is hard to discover and is usually not linked directly from the story itself.

When I go to MyDD or DailyKos, what do I see and what can I do?

I see a set of headlines, story leads, and links. Stories are written by its community and are filtered by via popular vote, everyone is accessible (for the most part), and can be contacted directly. Each story has a discussion thread that enables one to give immediate feedback to the author, editors, and community. Stories are usually a single paragraph, most times just the a summary pointing to another original piece (many times from a newspaper – but not always), however, longer original pieces *are* posted that resemble what you would find in a newspaper. Participants in the discussion thread help critique stories for accuracy and relevancy. Additional context, including related links, on the author or topic is easily accessible, some of which is posted in the discussion thread. There are huge rewards to participate – to submit stories, to participate in discussion threads. Stories are sometimes vetted/discussed by the web community at large, but that discussion is hard to discover and is usually not linked directly from the story itself.

When I go to Digg, what do I see and what can I do?

I see a set of headlines, story leads, and links. Stories are written by its community and are filtered by via popular vote, everyone is accessible (for the most part), and can be contacted directly. Each story has a discussion thread that enables one to give immediate feedback to the author and community. Stories are one to two sentences. Some pieces span up to a paragraph and can resemble what you would find in Slashdot, but are not the norm. No original pieces are posted. Participants in the discussion thread help critique stories for accuracy and relevancy. Additional context, including related links, on the author or topic is easily accessible, some of which is posted in the discussion thread. There are huge rewards to participate – to submit stories, to participate in discussion threads. Stories are sometimes vetted/discussed by the web community at large, but that discussion is hard to discover and is usually not linked directly from the story itself.

When I go to a blog, what do I see and what can I do?

I see a set of headlines, story leads, and links. Stories are usually written by its author, or team of authors, who act as their own editor. You usually don’t have to go thru hoops to contact the author. Each story usually has a discussion thread that enables one to give immediate feedback to the author and community. Stories are most times a single paragraph, usually just the a summary pointing to another reference, however, longer original pieces are posted that resemble what you would find in a newspaper or magazine. Indeed, story structure varies widely. Participants in discussion threads help critique stories for accuracy and relevancy. Additional context, including related links, on the author or topic is easily accessible, some of which is posted in the discussion thread. There are huge rewards to participate, to comment, to connect. Stories are sometimes vetted/discussed by the web community at large, and it is getting easier to discover since most forward thinking blog authors include links to Technorati and other conversation bridging services.

References:

August 1999: Wired: Slashdot: All the News that Fits

August 1999: First Monday: Honest News In The Slashdot Decade

December 2001: First Monday: Independent Media Centers: Cyber Subversion and the Alternative Press

March 2003: Software (,) Politics and Indymedia

Slashdot-style software: Scoop

Alex Bosworth: Dynamics of Digg

Digg-style software: pligg-o-rific

O’Reilly Radar: nat: Digging The Madness of Crowds

digg.com: O’Reilly writer Steve Mallett has stolen digg’s code

Steve Mallett’s linuxfilter

Yahoo!’s Jeremy Zawodny: Slashdot is Going out of Style in 2006

Business Week: How Digg Uncovers the News

Slashdot: A Recipe for Newspaper Survival in the Internet Age

Guardian Unlimited: Will Slashdot be overtaken by Digg?

Slashdot: On the Matter of Slashdot Story Selection

Thoughts? Feedback?

And I know you are…check out this fascinating debate on DRM.