$US200 "Network Computer" available

I remember years ago (as far back as 1995 apparently) Larry Ellison touted the “Network Computer” as the way of the future. Well it seems to have arrived now albeit without Oracle’s involvement in the form of the gPC (or “Green PC”), available through Walmart stores in the US (and currently sold out). Matt Cutts, a respected blogger from Google, describes the gPC in more detail here. It seems to be an incredibly cheap way to get online, runs an open-source operating system called gOS, and encourages the use of purely web-based applications from Google. Check out some of the press coverage here. I am not sure if it would work in Australia but I don’t see why not. I am fascinated with Google’s web-based applications, particularly Docs and Gmail, and have been using them for a while. For example, I recently put together a spreadsheet of a budget gaming computer (with thanks to Sharky Extreme’s excellent guides) I am interesed in custom-building.

Did Facebook bring about legal and cultural change in Sydney this week?

In an earlier post I questioned the value of Facebook. Well it seems the social networking tool may have had a hand in changing the liquor laws in Sydney Apparently thousands of Facebook activists…bombarded politicians with “e-drinks” emails So there’s an application of Facebook right there – rasing awareness of an issue and causing a change to the law. It’s certainly a contentious issue as many are unhappy with the prospect of more venues serving alcohol as this response to an article from The Bulletin demonstrates. Oh, the original article is here.

The fuss about Facebook

Evening all, I’m still on the topic of social networking tonight. Now who can help me understand about the value of Facebook? I only joined a few months ago (I know, not exactly an early adopter, but I believe in work/family/life balance people!) and to be honest I haven’t really been back since. So I am researching it tonight and want to point you in the direction of an Economist article (here) – what grabbed my attention initially:

- the founder is only 23
- since May 2007 when outside programmers were invited to build “widgets” – they’ve created over 5000 of them
- estimated revenues in 2007 of $US100m (advertising-only, tiny profits)
- a Facebook conference panellist says the firm is the new Google and may be worth US$100billion (note this was met with derision by others)

Well, this is extremley interesting to say the least, and coupled with recent media reports that Australian business is losing productivity due to the addictive nature of Facebook, I will be taking a closer look at Facebook over the coming weeks.
Good night,
Tony.

Social Networking discussions abound

I am thinking about the social networking/Web 2.0 technologies this weekend so I took the plunge and joined Twitter – a “micro-blogging” service launched about 18 months ago and gaining popularity. It seems to be a simple way to keep people updated on “what you’re doing right now” – interestingly, US Presidential Candidate Barack Obama uses the service and you can see his Twitter site here. Next step is to figure out how to embed it in to your blog, get a few people I know connected and see where it goes. Meanwhile I also notice this cautionary post about Twitter and its relevance.

I first heard about Twitter last week when my good mate and expert tech Aaron Saikovski mentioned it. I was then listening to Stan Relihan’s excellent podcast with Cynthia de Lorenzi. Cynthia runs ‘Success In the City’, a national network of nearly 1000 female CEO’s & Entrepreneurs – and was directly responsible for connecting Stan with Vint Cerf (co-founder of the Internet and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google) Well what a surpise when Cynthia mentioned Twitter in her interview – that was it for me, twice in one week I hear about Twitter so I had to check it out. I love these serendipitous moments (one of my favourite words)

I am a big supporter of open networking particularly LinkedIn and I wanted to share with you TPN’s excellent podcast on the business benefits of using LinkedIn Stan Relihan really gets LinkedIn and articulates it well in this interview.

Stan’s interview with Cynthia (see above) also touches on how LinkedIn can be used (notably the Vint Cerf connection) and mentions the Twitter phenomenon. It is interesting to note that Stan plan’s to interview a local (Australian) Twitter user, and Cythia refers to her publicist as also being a proponent of Twitter, so I am linking to his blog here which looks interesting. I plan to report further once I have spent some more time reading about this.

Well, enough for now, its a beautiful Spring Sunday morning so am heading out for a run…have a great rest of weekend everyone, Tony.