Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Scoble, Facebook and Data Ownership

  I've sort of ignored the whole Scoble/Facebook fiasco, with people arguing on both sides who "owns" the data. Jimmy Gutterman misses the point a bit , because Facebook has already opened up the social graph through the Facebook Platform API. What they don't expose - and why this script resorted to screen-scraping - is any contact information. He paints this as a "lock in" issue, but I doubt that's their primary goal. We already complain enough about the spam we get on Facebook, and I would hate it if someone in my network shared - accidentally or on purpose - that contact information with spammers. So, yeah, I think what Facebook did is a good thing, which seems to be the majority sentiment. Mike Arrington said Plaxo flubbed it and Jeff Jarvis agrees . Loren Feldman called Robert Scoble a corporate spy . Allen discussed how we should approach the data ownership problem . Dare says Facebook is right - since Scoble did not enter any of the contact information... Posted Jan 09 2008, 11:08 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Copyright, Privacy, Blogging, Law, Facebook

• Security implications of MyBlogLog vs. BlogRovr

  According to a TechCrunch story , Citibank is putting a warning message up for users of comment and blog tracking services. As it turns out, there is a known issue with the coComment plug-in and, though I'm not familiar with the service, it sounds like BlogRovr also has a browser extension. Since I use MyBlogLog here, I want to re-emphasize that this message above doesn't apply to this service. MyBlogLog works by saving a cookie to your machine under the @mybloglog.com domain. When you go to a site that has included the MyBlogLog JavaScript, it can interact with that cookie and know who you are. The MyBlogLog tracking script does have some logic for tracking clicks within an IFRAME (to handle Google AdSense clicks). Since Citibank doesn't include the MyBlogLog script on their page, it doesn't interact with the service. When you're here or on any other blog that uses MyBlogLog, the service doesn't even know you were on the Citibank page much less being able to track... Posted Nov 27 2007, 03:22 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Security, Blogging, Slashstar, Site News

• The Intense Debate Experiment

  As some of you may have noticed, I've been trying out Intense Debate on this blog. Though the Intense Debate homepage advertises that you can import your existing comments, I haven't found a way to do so. As of now, this means I need to show all of my existing comments. In fact, right now I'm showing the Intense Debate code above the built-in comment form for Community Server. Interestingly, since I've installed Intense Debate, I've found more of you still use the built-in form despite showing up after the ID form. Given that they have the ability to export comments, I may remove the built-in form soon. I'd still need to write something to import back into Community Server, but given the comment volume here that's something I'm willing to risk. I'd much prefer to outsource the entire comment system, but unfortunately that's not an option until I can figure out how to import. I also appreciate that Josh, one of the co-founders, reached out to me after... Posted Nov 27 2007, 11:40 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Blogging, Slashstar, Site News

• The Case for Freeing the WSJ Online

  An interesting article in Business Week about opening up the Wall Street Journal Online in the wake of the sale to Murdoch. For The Wall Street Journal Online, going free will come at a high cost. The daily financial newspaper is one of the few major publications to successfully charge for access to most of its online content, earning roughly $79 a year from each of its nearly 1 million Web subscribers. Once incentives and other free offers are taken into account, some analysts estimate that the paper will bring in more than $65 million this year from WSJ Online subscriptions alone. But soon-to-be owner Rupert Murdoch seems willing to sacrifice that revenue in return for the possibility of earning many millions more from online advertising. In an Aug. 8 earnings call for News Corp. ( NWS ), which plans to acquire Journal publisher Dow Jones ( DJ ) for $5.6 billion, Murdoch said both companies are debating making WSJ.com free, though there are no concrete plans yet. "I think it would... Posted Aug 25 2007, 06:44 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Rants, Web 2.0, Blogging

• Twitter is, or will be, a Messaging Platform

  Charlie discusses the future of Twitter and touches on what I think are two key points: corporate twitter and content subscription. The key as Charlie discusses is the opt-in and one-way nature of Twitter. That is, I only get updates from someone if I explicitly choose to receive them, and the party I subscribe to doesn't necessarily need to listen to me. That sure sounds a lot like an RSS aggregator, doesn't it? To me, Twitter is exactly that: a messaging aggregator. The future of Twitter is a messaging platform . Twitter has a number of ways to deliver updates - you can get them on your phone (via SMS), from IM, or on the web. And of course, you can get them as RSS and bring them anywhere you want. You can also send the updates from any of those mediums. Ever better, Twitter has an API for putting data in and getting messages out, which means I can update Twitter and have this "status update" sent out to Facebook , my blog , and so on. Delivery based on context and priority The key feature... Posted Jun 18 2007, 03:05 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Web 2.0, Innovation, Business, Blogging

• Blogs are "definitely not reputable news sources"

  Jawn Murray, a columnist for AOL's Black Voices and a regular personality on the Tom Joyner Morning Show , had this gem in the latest Giant magazine. Blogs are online diaries written by your average Joe - people who don't work in the entertainment industry and have no formal journalism training. They report arbitrary gossip, things they hear in hair salons and barbershops or read on message boards. They lift content and take photos from other Web sites without permission. Blogs should have a disclaimer that says, 'For entertainment purposes only', because as entertaining as they may be, they are definitely not reputable news sources. ( Read the full article ). The terms "journalist" and "blogger" are not mutually exclusive things. Blogging is really about a platform that enables us everyone to have a voice - some use that voice like journalists , and some use it to pass along "things they hear in hair salons". Mike Arrington and his staff at TechCrunch have proven to be incredibly reliable... Posted Apr 24 2007, 12:00 PM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Things that bother me, Things that amuse me, Blogging

• OpenID gaining momentum

  On the heels of Microsoft's announcement that it will support OpenID in CardSpace , AOL has become the latest major player to support OpenID . "Every AOL/AIM user now has at least one OpenID URI". This is big news. We made the decision to use OpenID as the sole authentication mechanism on a product we're building, and I'm increasingly happy with that decision. At best, we'll have no local accounts. At worst, we'll be an OpenID provider. It would be relatively trivial to expose ASP.NET membership as an OpenID provider (especially with the JanRain Server component). In fact, I'm somewhat surprised no one has done this already. If you're not familiar with OpenID, check out the brief introduction to OpenID . Posted Feb 17 2007, 07:05 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Security, .NET, Blogging, Programming, OpenID

• On Syndication ... and why formats don't matter

  One of my big pet peeves with syndication is when platforms publish multiple formats. Or, more precisely, when the user is presented with 5 similar-looking icons with all of those options. Why make the user think ? The user wants your content, but you've put an additional barrier in that ultimately has little or no effect on their consumption. Many argue that ATOM is a superior format, and from a technical perspective that is probably the case. I just can't bring myself to care all that much. ATOM makes certain things easier (or even possible) for the developer. If I were developing a publishing platform or an aggregator, I might feel more strongly about it. But as a publisher and consumer of content, I don't care how syndication happens. I don't care if you're sending me RSS 0.92, RSS 2.0, ATOM 0.3, or ATOM 1.0. I don't care how you encode and escape and cache the content. Those are technical details unimportant to the consumption and creation of the content. Much of the appeal and success... Posted Feb 12 2007, 10:40 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Web 2.0, Blogging

• An Anthropologist's Take on Web 2.0

  The Machine is us. ( Link to the video ) Posted Feb 09 2007, 02:35 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Web 2.0, Innovation, YouTube, Video, Blogging, Entrepreneurship

• Loosely Coupled's Fourth Anniversary

  I started this blog four years ago . I often find it difficult to explain why I started writing here in the first place and why I continue to write given my hectic schedule. I think John sums up my personal experience with blogging perfectly . ( via Dennis ). My personal arc (over 5 years of blogging) is as follows: reluctantly started blogging. found I enjoyed it. was ranked for a bit of time in the top 100 blogs. This was nice. It was also nice to have a high Google rank. That partly faded because a) I didn't care about it and b) the level of competition rose quickly. found something more useful. An open online identity (my name is on the blog) yielded work, contacts, and recognition that anonymity doesn't provide. That benefit doesn't require a high ranking to accomplish. found that the blog is as much for me as anyone else. enjoy the response that other people have to my thinking. As long as there a few fellow travelers out there with me, that is reason enough to write. I may have skipped... Posted Jan 29 2007, 07:15 AM by Tim with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Personal, Blogging