kevin zieber's weblog

mostly idle thoughts

Diaspora: The Story So Far

by Kevin on May 12, 2012

Diaspora has come along way from open Internet pipe dream to somewhat functional social network predicated on the radical idea that users should own their data. For the uninitiated, here’s the background from Bloomberg Businessweek:

The founders envisioned a site that would function like a social network but would give users ownership of their data, taking exploitation out of the equation. You could store what you post on any server you want and then share it, delete it, or use it however you choose.

The idea had undeniable appeal, but the four college students had assigned themselves a ferocious task. They would eventually overcome the technical challenges to build a functional site. Today, Diaspora is an active social network with a small, dedicated following, not yet open to the public.

The Bloomberg piece is an excellent update on the project now more than two years in the making. I still have really high (possibly naively too high) hopes for the nascent network, but like any social network, it fails if nobody shows up.

Read the full story at Bloomberg Businessweek

Watch This Now: Shut Up, Little Man

by Kevin on May 4, 2012

Gizmodo brought to my attention a documentary about the unlikely cult stardom of two hard-drinking old men. Here’s the trailer:

I finally had a chance to watch it this morning, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough. The documentary tells the story of how the ever-quarreling Ray and Peter were made famous by two shiftless college grads, Mitchell D and Eddie Lee Sausage.

After the tapes become a cult obsession, the subject of plays, comics, and SF Weekly cover stories, the duo face questions of voyeurism and exploitation. We think of memes and viral stories as a recent development, an invention of the Internet age. But in reality, only the speed at which these cult phenoms spread has changed; the ethical quandaries are the same.

Watch the film on Netflix

[Netflix, Gizmodo]

Future Paul Has Left The Internet

by Kevin on May 1, 2012

Verge writer Paul Miller is leaving the Internet … for a while:

It’s a noble pursuit. He’ll try to go one full year without the pervasive connectedness, without the constant updating and interacting, without the sharing, Liking, upvoting, and reblogging.

It’s funny how leaving the Internet now seems as novel as being on the Internet was only 18 years ago:

You can still check in with Paul Miller at the Verge where he will continue writing during the Internet hiatus. Read his final connected dispatch here.

The Unceremonious Fall Of An Aggregator

by Kevin on April 25, 2012

Trevor Butterworth has written a sober account at the Awl of a young Washington Post blogger’s resignation and the subsequent handwringing from higher stations at the paper.

Liz Flock once contributed to the Washington Post’s “blogPOST,” which describes itself as a “sounding board for news and conversation that’s reverberating online.” More plainly, blogPOST is a classic news aggregator that allows the Post to profit from the work of others, so long as each post gives proper credit. This is where Flock committed a “significant ethical lapse,” in the words of one Post ombudsman — She omitted a link to Discovery News.

Butterworth breaks down the mechanics of aggregation — the pace, the output, and the likelihood of errors — and writes that at the rate Flock was expected to produce news roundups, errors were not only likely, but they were baked into the formula.

The main conceit of Butterworth’s post is this: The tragedy about this particular blogger falling on her sword to protect a news product that runs almost exclusively on other people’s work is that the game is set up to consume people like Liz Flock.

I won’t blockquote the conclusion, because you should really follow the entire chronology of the episode the way Butterworth has constructed it.

Read the whole piece here

 

Another Programming Note

by Kevin on April 18, 2012

Thanks to the efforts of one Ryan Ford, I’ve realized my goal of moving this blog to a self-hosted WordPress blog. With that in mind, I’m  currently in the process of going back through posts working on compatibility issues, formatting changes and other snags we might have encountered in hastily porting the blog.

The design of the site is also going to be in flux until I find something I don’t feel like changing 10 minutes after the fact (let me know if you know of a WP theme you love). So, bear with me, and kindly let me know if you notice anything broken or otherwise shitty looking!

Thanks!