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Everything was going fine for the web — the financial world had been unwinding its
overleveraged excesses for nearly a year without nary a ripple into Silicon Valley — until
the launch of HoffSpace, a social network revolving
around the oogachaka-ing, burger-wagging actor.
Hoffspace showed once and for all what the web sector had fought so hard to admit: These social
networks had finally expanded a niche too far. No longer was it possible to argue that one day
social networking sites would be anywhere near as good at making money as they were at expanding,
fractal-like, into a grey goo of trivial matter.
Social networks spent too much time trying to build audiences without building a solid business
model. The thinking was, let thousands of startups innovate in thousands of ways and one of them
will stumble onto something big. The way eBay did with online auctions, or Google did with a
better search engine.
But even the site voted most likely to succeed is still punting when it comes to financial
success. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a
German paper this week that the site won’t have a business model for three years.
“Growth is primary, revenue is secondary,” he said. On the face of it, that statement
isn’t absurd. But coming last week, it sounded blindly out of touch. Facebook will surely
survive, but smaller sites looking to it as a role model probably won’t.
This was the week when the Internet sector realized that not only are the good times over, but
that much of the room we had for innovation is also gone. The time to experiment around with big,
audacious ideas is passing. The invoice for that luxury is now due, and companies will have to
either pay up or be so well-funded, like Facebook, that they can still afford tinker a bit. Money
is what everyone is expecting from startups, simply because there is suddenly so much less of it
around.
Of course, one thing that would help the sector would be if a major social networking company
were to give enough of a peek into its books to show it has healthy cash flows, even a robust
operating or net profit. But sites like Facebook and MySpace have been suspiciously shy about
their financials so far, so that’s not likely to happen.
Many of these sites — focused on social networks or widgets or other mere embellishments to
the web that emerged over the past few years — aren’t going to make it. Some with a
smart focus, like LinkedIn, will muddle through. A few will be bought out cheap; others will live
on as labors of love.
This is the destructive part of that celebrated and magical creative-destruction formula. A lot
of areas in tech are probably going to find ways to keep growing, if more slowly: mobile
advertising, perhaps, or cheaper, more efficient on-demand software.
Skeptics have been arguing for the past few years that social networking wasn’t a
standalone business model, but a feature to enhance larger businesses with established business
models. It seems that fate is finally happening. It just took a luminary like David Hasselhoff to
make it real.
div class='rss_texte'p class=spipi class=spipUn article repris du site du a
href=http://www.epn-ressources.be/ class=spip_outCentre de ressource des espaces numériques
wallons /a, un site sous licence a href=http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/be/deed.fr
class=spip_outCreative Commons /a/i/p p class=spipi class=spippar Jean-Luc Raymond le 11 octobre
2008 dans Animateurs : métier et compétences, Publics et Usages/i/p p class=spipLa
Silicon Valley au coeur de la tourmente financière, cette région au Sud de San
Francisco en Californie, consacrée à la recherche, au développement
d'applications, d'outils et à la corollaire vente de ces mêmes technologies tire
depuis quelques semaines le signal d'alarme. Alors que les blogs dits “majeurs” de
l'économie internet déclarée hier triomphante annonce a
href=http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/10/an-ignoble-but-much-needed-end-to-web-20/
class=spip_outla mort du Web 2.0/a et enterre l'expression qui sombre à mesure que les a
href=http://www.slideshare.net/eldon/sequoia-capital-on-startups-and-the-economic-downturn-presentation?type=powerpoint
class=spip_outcapitaux des start ups/a s'évanouissent et commençent à
licencier à tour de bras... Le monde change.../p p class=spipEt porte relativement peu son
regard sur cette financiarisation d'un Web occidental qui depuis 2003/2004 n'a pas cru à une
deuxième bulle internet. L'experta
href=http://calacanis.com/2008/09/29/the-startup-depression/ class=spip_out Jason Calacanis/a
prédit la fin de 50 à 80 % des startups d'ici 18 mois. Le mouvement est a
href=http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/le-net/enquete/crise-financiere-quel-impact-pour-le-secteur-it/crise-financiere-quel-impact-pour-le-secteur-it-francais.shtml
class=spip_outd'ailleurs mondial./a La crise aura eu raison de ce système qui semblait si
bien huilé mais avec une couche de vernis qui n'a pas résisté à
l'épreuve du temps./p p class=spipA partir de ces mêmes années et
jusqu'à la semaine dernière, ce sont les startuppers et
“monétiseurs” que l'on n'a cessé d'entendre, d'écouter dans les
médias, de célébrer dans des grand'messes où des centaines voire des
milliers de personnes attendent et s'émerveillent devant la belle présentation qu'on
va retranscrire “en direct” sur son blog dans un foisonnement d'ordinateurs portables
voire d'outils mobiles./p p class=spipstrong class=spipDes services en ligne à la
rentabilité plus qu'improbable/strong/p p class=spipLe 2.0 ne connait pas alors un jour sans
un nouvel outil en ligne, relayé par les joyeux possesseurs de codes pour tester
l'exclusivité en version bêta. Et le temps a fait son chemin. Le marketing, le
management et les réseaux sociaux sont passés par là. La réalité
est là : Aucun réseau social majeur mondial de notre temps n'est à
l'équilibre financièrement (ni Facebook, ni MySpace, ni Twitter, etc.)... “a
href=http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2008/10/10/facebook-a-le-couteau-sous-la-gorge_1105418_651865.html
class=spip_outFacebook a le couteau sous la gorge”/a titrait hier un article du quotidien Le
Monde. Et le Web travestit son histoire : “Le Web 2 est centré autour de
l'utilisateur” comme si le Web d'avant ne le fut jamais ! “On collabore mieux. On est
dans l'ère du Web participatif” nous annonce-t-on et l'on oublie que toute
communauté en ligne a besoin d'êtres humains pour faciliter cette collaboration... Et
que l'essentiel n'est absolument pas lié à l'outil mais de l'investissement humain
dans un projet./p p class=spip... Et les acteurs de l'Internet Citoyen dans tout cela ? Les
communes et les associations se font faits davantage discrètes durant ces quelques
années. Moins écoutées, moins en vogue aussi dans les médias. Pourtant,
elles n'ont pas baissé les bras mais leur visibilité fut vraiment moindre./p p
class=spipEt les questions fondamentales pleuvent sur ses nouveaux services dont bien peu
d'interrogations mais surtout d'éléments de réponses même, sont
formulés avec l'écho pourtant nécessaire pour les citoyens que nous sommes
quant à l'utilisation des services en ligne : Quid de la pérennité et
interopérabilité des données ? Quid des questions d'identité
numérique et de vie privée en ligne et au sein de ces bases de données ? Quid
également de ce qui est créé par l'utilisateur et possédé par
des acteurs privés ? Et la question qui résonne : quelle utilité sociale
pour/avec ces outils ?/p p class=spipLes intellectuels et penseurs distanciés de l'Internet
ont souffert aussi dans le silence du peu d'écoute, de l'indifférence du monde
économique à propos de leurs travaux. La roue économique tournait : pourquoi
donc entendre ce qui se dit, s'écrit et se discute en terme de réflexion ?
Aujourd'hui, Philippe Quéau parle d'a href=http://queau.eu/2008/10/06/limpasse-moderne/
class=spip_outImpasse moderne/a, Bernard Stiegler d'a
href=http://interstices.info/jcms/c_33084/le-reseau-numerique-a-l-origine-dun-nouveau-modele-industriel
class=spip_outun réseau numérique à l'origine d'un nouveau monde industrie/al,
McKenzie Wark évoque a
href=http://alaingiffard.blogs.com/culture/2007/11/un-manifeste-ha.html class=spip_outune figure
esthétique du hacker moderne.../a/p p class=spipstrong class=spipL'univers des logiciels
libres : grand vainqueur de ces dernières années/strong/p p class=spipLes
médias en ligne et en hors ligne ont mis du Web 2.0 appliqués à bien des
termes et à des expressions... En même temps, alors qu'on glorifie le 2.0, doucement
mais sûrement, les logiciels libres irriguent la société : le navigateur
Firefox tout d'abord et OpenOffice dans la foulée. S'il y a bien une victoire tangible de
ces dernières années, c'est avant tout celle-ci... Car elle n'est pas
perméable et l'univers du libre s'impose dans les technologies, les infrastructures
serveurs, les applications... Et aussi auprès des publics et c'est une avancée de
fond, un acquis solide./p p class=spipOui, les publics car quoi qu'on en dise : ils ont
été oubliés. Bien des services en ligne ont mis des mois à être
disponibles dans plusieurs langues (dont le français, et bien des services ne sont pas
toujours pas en langue de Molière). Où est la démocratisation de l'Internet
sans la pluralité des langues ? Le public offre à ces services en ligne son contenu
sans sourciller, partage et alimente ces bases de données immenses. Mais que
reçoit-il en retour ? Il est tout à la fois acteur et consommateur. Il est un leurre
de croire que ce fut l'utilisateur qui est au coeur de ses outils, ce fut d'abord l'utilisateur
dans sa dimension de consommateur (comme cible publicitaire...)./p p class=spipstrong class=spipLe
monde a changé... Et quid des Espaces Publics Numériques (EPN), maintenant ?/strong/p
p class=spipAlors comment se situer dans cette crise avec les Espaces Publics Numériques ?
Leur avenir est plus qu'indispensable en moyens d'investissement et de fonctionnement. Sur les
ateliers et l'offre en EPN : Revenir sans doute à des basiques, réalimenter les
sensibilisations et les initiations avec un esprit critique, réintroduire le choix chez les
apprenants : Non, Google n'est pas l'unique moteur de recherche !... Non, Skype n'est pas le seul
outil de VoIP grand public, etc... ! Et ce ne sont là que quelques exemples. Montrer le
chemin des possibles sans induire tel ou tel outil, tel ou tel service. Apprendre à faire
découvrir, éveiller la curiosité d'esprit auprès des publics.../p p
class=spipIl y a aussi fort à s'interroger sur les services pérennes où ce ne
sont pas des scénarios d'usages qui se présentent mais des initiatives portées
par les acteurs de terrain et les utilisateurs. Le pragmatisme est bel et bien là. Bref,
passer concrètement du dire au faire. C'est modestement ce qu'essayent de mener comme
projets des Espaces Publics Numériques de Wallonie et d'ailleurs./p p class=spipLa crise
économique faisant, l'outil pour l'outil dans sa variable gadget ou dans une simple
dimension communicative/promotionnelle (induite ou non) n'a pas de sens et n'a plus de sens...
Retrouver du sens à ces applications que ce soit dans une démarche d'utilité
ou de création. Encore ne faut-il pas oublier que ce sens ou cette utilité doit se
conjuguer avec une humanité et cela, les animateurs d'EPN savent faire et que ces outils
doivent faire un effort en terme d'accessibilité, de respect des normes et également
dans leur capacité d'appropriation à différents publics et non pas seulement
aux technophiles avides de nouveautés (“early adopters”)./p p class=spipIl y
aura peu de choix dans les prochains mois : se préoccuper des publics les plus
fragilisés va inévitablement devenir une priorité pour les EPN avec tous les
efforts de projets que cela nécessite et de disponibilité. Prioritiser une
démarche d'insertion sociale et de chemin vers l'emploi va s'avérer un besoin criant.
Cela se fera aussi comme dans l'instant présent ou par le passé par des partenariats
locaux avec des acteurs sociaux, publics et économiques concernés./p p class=spipLe
Monde a changé. Et laisser la place à du débat, à des débats est
aussi une variable de premier plan. L'internet citoyen dans sa diversité a son mot à
dire tout comme les penseurs de ce temps, le secteur public, le monde de l'Education et les acteurs
économiques./p p class=spipEnfin, il va falloir s'habituer à un Internet
non-ethnocentré sur la société occidentale et prendre en compte la
diversité de ce monde en ligne et hors ligne. Oui, il y a plus d'a
href=http://www.presence-pc.com/actualite/Internet-monde-30634/ class=spip_outinternautes chinois/a
que d'internautes américains et le taux de connexion augmente grandement en Inde, en
Amérique du Sud (Brésil notamment) et en Afrique du Nord. L'internet n'est plus tout
comme le Web 2 n'est certainement plus. Les Internet sont là./p/div
pimg src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/rww-logo-150.jpg" /It's time for our weekly summary of
Web Technology news, products and trends. On the product side this week, Google said it would
provide RSS feeds of search results, Yahoo updated its calendar app using Zimbra, Mozilla released
Geode, Microsoft integrated its Live search into Facebook, and more. On the trends side, we looked
at Google stats from recent political debates, investigated the trend of social shopping, and
explored the latest in the Mobile Web world - including a RWW Live podcast on the topic, plus an
in-depth look at mobile social networks. We also brought you the latest from our new Enterprise
Channel./p p align="right"emSponsor/embr /a href='http://d.openx.org/ck.php?n=12124amp;cb=12124'
target='_blank'img src='http://d.openx.org/avw.php?zoneid=861amp;cb=12124amp;n=12124' border='0'
alt='' align="right" //a/p h2Web Trends/h2 pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_has_changed_political_d.php"strongGoogle Has
Changed Political Debate Forever/strong/a/p pimg
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/google-trends-logo.jpg" align="left" /When Sarah Palin and
Joe Biden debated in front of one of the largest TV audiences in US election history recently, the
two candidates might not have been Googling for facts during the debate, but millions of people
watching the debate were. This week a
href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/vp-debate-candidates-questions-and.html"Google
released some information/a about what kinds of things viewers were searching for as that debate
unfolded, minute by minute. It is amazing both that viewers were able to do such a thing, in real
time, and that we're able to watch what people are searching for. The internet in general, and
Google in particular, has substantially augmented this important part of public life./p pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_media_and_shopping.php"strongSocial Media and
Shopping: A Growing Trend/strong/a/p pimg src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/dollars.jpg"
align="right"Social media is evolving. What began as a way to "hang out" with friends online has
morphed into an entirely new platform for communication, information sharing, and marketing.
Businesses are quickly discovering that if they want to reach the youngest demographic, Generation
Y (born after 1979), they had best get online. But maintaining a web presence alone isn't enough
anymore. According to new research from August 2008, web retailers are now actually trying to
emengage/em that demographic segment using social media. /p pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_top_mobile_social_networks_myspace_and_facebook.php"strongAnd
The Top Mobile Social Networks Are.../strong/a/p pimg
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/mobile_web_networks.png" width="150"
align="left"strongemMySpace and Facebook, as it turns out./em/strong Despite the land grab by a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mobile_social_networks_to_watc.php"numerous/a a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_mobile_social_networks.php"startups/a looking to
become the number one social network for mobile devices, it's becoming apparent that mobile social
networking isn't necessarily going to be the new frontier that everyone thought it would be.
Instead, as consumers surf the "real internet" on their mobile devices, they're also interacting
with "real" social networks like a href="http://www.myspace.com"MySpace/a and a
href="http://www.facebook.com"Facebook/a. Could it be that consumers don't want new and separate
social networks just for the mobile phone?/p pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rww_live_mobile_web_development.php"strongRWW Live:
Mobile Web Development/strong/a/p pimg src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/rww_live200.jpg"
align="left" /This week's a href="http://apps.calliflower.com/conf/show/40135"episode of RWW
Live/a, our live podcast show, was on the topic of bMobile Web Development/b. We had special guests
from Microsoft, Pandora and DevelopmentNow. The show covered the state of the mobile application
development market, focusing on Android, Windows Mobile, iPhone, and more. Here is the audio:/p
pembed src="http://talis-utils.s3.amazonaws.com/flvplayer.swf" width="320" height="20"
allowfullscreen="true"
flashvars="file=http://www.readwritetalk.com/episode/RWWLive-MobileAppDev.mp3height=20width=320"
/br/Download a href="http://www.readwritetalk.com/episode/RWWLive-MobileAppDev.mp3"MP3/a/p pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/chrome_password_protected_web.php"strongWill Google Use
Chrome to Index Password Protected Web?/strong/a/p pimg
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/chromologo2.jpg" align="right" /It's now over a month since
a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/weekly_wrapup_chrome_edition.php"Google released/a its
open source web browser, a href="http://google.com/chrome"Chrome/a. An interesting theory we heard
recently is that Google will use Chrome to index the password protected Web - a.k.a. the 'dark
web'. Right now the Chrome Terms of Service (TOS) prevents Google from indexing private data. But
when you consider that Chrome was a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_to_offer_its_own_browser_chrome.php"initially
presented/a as a browser for applications, instead of just web pages, this theory begins to make
more sense./p pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/5_great_books_to_build_your_character.php"strong5 Great
Books to Build Your Character/strong/a/p pimg
src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1185/1384954447_b5b7f11d7d_m.jpg" width="150px" align="left"
/Tough economic times and startups have at least one thing in common - you need character and
determination to survive. Character is what it takes to win, to believe and to persuade others.
It's a mix of passion, determination, sleepless hours, hard work. Character is about crossing the
finish line, about achieving dreams and goals. In this post, we look at five very different books
that share a common theme - remarkable people./p pemstrongSEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/trends"TRENDS CATEGORY/a/strong/em/p h2A Word from Our
Sponsors/h2 pWe'd like to thank ReadWriteWeb's sponsors, without whom we couldn't bring you all
these stories every week!/p ul lia href="http://www.freshbooks.com/tour.php?ref=515"FreshBooks/a
offers professional online invoicing./li lia
href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1352__zoneid=235__cb=5319c7d0f5__maxdest=http://www.socialtext.com/solutions/webinars/marketing_webinars.php"SocialText/a
provides an enterprise wiki platform./li lia
href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1995__zoneid=239__cb=98d8239eb7__maxdest=http://www.wildapricot.com/membership-management.aspx?utm_campaign=RWWutm_medium=referralutm_source=readwriteweb.comutm_content=MMFCA"WildApricot/a
is Membership Management Software./li lia
href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1818__zoneid=235__cb=446f9b0afa__maxdest=http://efactor.com/"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"E.Factor/a is an online community for entrepreneurs./li li a
href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1767__zoneid=235__cb=f0f4e9c70c__maxdest=http://bizsolutions.strands.com/"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"Strands/a provides real-time recommendations of products./li lia
href="http://www.opencalais.com/rww01" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"Calais/a brings semantic
functionality into your site./li lia
href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1491__zoneid=362__cb=4c0fc53e95__maxdest=http://www.mediatemple.net/?utm_campaign=rwwamp;utm_medium=banneramp;utm_source=readwriteweb.comamp;utm_content=bluebug"
rel="nofollow"MediaTemple/a provides hosting for RWW./li lia
href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1715__zoneid=242__cb=5f881bc514__maxdest=http://www.web3event.com/"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"The Web 3.0 Conference/a is on October 16 - 17 in Santa Clara./li lia
href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=734__zoneid=244__cb=96048a63b3__maxdest=https://direct.rightmedia.com/?utm_source=readwritewebutm_medium=bannerutm_campaign=readwriteweb1"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"Direct Media Exchange/a is a solution for managing ad networks./li
lia
href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1054__zoneid=239__cb=948e9fd632__maxdest=http://www.rackspace.com/383/index.php?green=trueCMP=readwriteweb_ros_ban_125x125_smb_oct"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"Rackspace/a provides dedicated server hosting./li liThe a
href="http://d.openx.org/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=1561__zoneid=243__cb=9852e05d77__maxdest=http://www.defragcon.com/"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"Defrag/a conference is on November 3-4 in Denver./li lia
href="http://affiliates.quintura.com/" onClick="javascript:urchinTracker('/outgoing/quintura');"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"Quintura/a is a visual-based search engine./li lia
href="http://www.eurekster.com/"Eurekster/a is a custom social search portal./li lia
href="http://www.sixapart.com" rel="nofollow"SixApart/a provides our publishing software MT4./li
/ul h2Web Products/h2 pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/microsoft_stake_in_facebook_be.php"strongMicrosoft Stake
in Facebook Begins to Bear Fruit/strong/a/p pimg
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/facebook-logo.png" alt="facebook-logo.png" width="96"
height="32" align="left" /Almost exactly one year ago, a href="http://facebook.com"
title="Facebook"Facebook/a and a href="http://microsoft.com"Microsoft/a were in the headlines when
the Redmond, Washington-based software giant outlasted Google in a bidding war to garner a $240
million stake in Facebook. It was that investment that pegged Facebook's valuation at a whopping
$15 billion. In July of this yearmdash;following a generous amount of speculation on how the two
companies would collaboratemdash;Microsoft revealed a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_integrate_microsof_live_search.php"
title="Microsoft hints at Facebook advertising deal"plans for an integrated search and advertising
deal/a that would incorporate Microsoft Live Search and advertising into the Facebook platform by
fall. This week, we saw the first step in that integration with the a
href="http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2008/10/07/facebook-friends-live-search.aspx"
title="Microsoft on Live Search in Facebook"release of Microsoft Live Search on Facebook/a./p pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/finally_google_to_offer_rss_fe.php"strongFinally! Google
to Offer RSS Feeds for Web Search Results/strong/a/p pimg
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/googlelogo150.jpg" alt="googlelogo150.jpg" width="150"
align="right" A rumor that's been floating around the web lately is that Google will offer RSS
feeds for new results in basic web search. This week a
href="http://searchengineland.com/google-confirms-rss-for-web-search-results-14987.php"Search
Engine Land confirmed/a that Google will "soon" offer this functionality. Why is this big news?
Because there's no better way to keep track of new mentions of a company, person or concept online
than a href="http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english"through RSS/a. Google is the only major
web search engine to not offer feeds for basic web search, as they do in blog search and news. We'd
previously recommended Live.com for web search feeds, but who really cares about Live.com search
results? They're terrible. Google feeds are good news./p pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/yahoo_integrates_calendar_into.php"strongYahoo Announces
Major Update to Yahoo Calendar: Leverages Zimbra Technology/strong/a/p pimg
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/yahoo_calendar_logo_sep08.png"
alt="yahoo_calendar_logo_sep08.png" align="left" /Yahoo this week a
href="http://ycorpblog.com/2008/10/07/time-for-a-calendar-revival/"announced/a a a
href="http://switch.calendar.yahoo.com/"closed beta/a of a major update to its online calendaring
application, which will feature a tighter integration with Yahoo Mail and other Yahoo properties.
The new calendar is based on the a href="http://www.zimbra.com/"Zimbra/a platform, which Yahoo a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/zimbra_why_did_yahoo_buy_them.php"acquired/a in 2007,
and will support both the iCalendar and CalDAV standards for exchanging information with other
calendaring services. Among the new features are the ability to enhance your calendar with photos
from a href="http://flickr.com"Flickr/a, a built-in to-do list, and support for drag and drop.
Yahoo Calendar can now also send out reminders for important events by email, IM, or SMS./p pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mozilla_geode.php"strongDoes Your Browser Know Where You
Are? With Mozilla Geode, It Might/strong/a/p pimg
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/mozlabslogo.jpg" alt="Mozilla Labs" width="150" height="39"
align="right" /Today, the old real estate adage 'location, location, location' could just as easily
be applied to the Web, where it seems that "where you are" is becoming as important as the
information you're seeking. Nowhere is that more apparent than with GPS-enabled mobile platforms
that use location-specific information to simplify the way people access and share content on a
daily basis. This week Mozilla released Geode, a Firefox geolocation add-on which will enable
localized content./p pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mufin_eclectic_music_recommend.php"strongMufin: Better
Music Recommendations through Algorithms?/strong/a/p pimg
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/mufin_logo.png" alt="mufin_logo.png" align="left" /Music
discovery is clearly a hot topic these days, with large companies like Apple and Microsoft
competing with smaller services like a href="http://www.imeem.com/"imeem/a, a
href="http://www.pandora.com/"Pandora/a, and a href="http://www.last.fm/"Last.fm/a. With the
exception of Pandora, these services typically rely on the listening habits and recommendations of
other users. a href="http://www.mufin.com/"Mufin.com/a, however, which launched this week, uses a
fully automated system that only takes the actual sounds of a song into consideration. In our
tests, Mufin often returned good results, but the fact that it doesn't take genres or the quality
of a song into account can make for a frustrating experience at times./p pemstrongSEE MORE WEB
PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/products"PRODUCTS
CATEGORY/a/strong/em/p h2RWW Enterprise Channel/h2 pa
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/saas_traditional_enterprise_it_vendors.php"strongWhy
Some Traditional Enterprise IT Vendors Are Scared of SaaS/strong/a/p pimg
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/rww_enterprise.jpg" align="left" /Some traditional
enterprise IT vendors are selling the line that SaaS is a passing phase, that it is "old wine in
new bottles". They are telling their market that SaaS is really no different from the discredited
Web 1.0 Application Service Provider (ASP) model or even that it is simply the ghost of the ancient
mainframe Service Bureau come back to haunt us all. This post shows why their analysis is wrong. It
also shows why some traditional enterprise IT vendors feel so threatened by SaaS and why the
economic downturn just made this a major issue./p pa href="mailto:editor@readwriteweb.com"Email
us/a if you're interested in writing for ReadWriteWeb's Enterprise Channel./p pemstrongSEE MORE
ENTERPRISE COVERAGE IN OUR a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/enterprise/"ENTERPRISE
CHANNEL/a/strong/em/p pThat's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone./p stronga
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/weekly_wrapup_mobile_web_google_rss.php#comments-open"Discuss/a/strong
pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/oXu_nFW5fgWyAYJKXOcDOFiZQks/a"img
src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/oXu_nFW5fgWyAYJKXOcDOFiZQks/i" border="0"
ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=KoqY9JTv"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=KoqY9JTv" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=9gIuwkk2"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=41" border="0"/img/a a
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=R8wNNnt4" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=HcXidtJy"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=HcXidtJy" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~4/98YPO9jVSc4" height="1" width="1"/
 I have to admit that I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by today.  I’ve
sorta glazed over as I’ve gone through blog post after blog post talking about how grim and
dire things are for us. I realize that the week has been legendary in terms of the stock markets
plunging, but the response from many startups and bloggers has been far more than emotional than
logical.
I guess that on Wednesday when I spoke of the optimism
I have gained from my prior experience, I imagined that everyone would be infected by my
visions of sugarplums, unicorns and rainbows. Instead, today has been filled with proclamations
of the death of Web 2.0, layoffs, and depressing photo essays. Obviously, I realize
that it may take a bit more than one single screed to turn the tide of emotion that seems to be
sweeping over most of us, and I don’t intend to relent.
Our own resident cranky geek Steven Hodson was the
first to chime in, and with many of the same sentiments I had:
The trick here is know that as human beings we have the incredible capacity to pick ourselves up,
dust ourselves off and try again. We are an incredibly resilient people which we have proven over
and over again. We did it in the 1980’s and again in the late 90’s. While we may not
seem to learn lessons from those experience it doesn’t stop us from getting up each morning
and trying once more.
This is the type of time that separates the wheat from the chaff. Those who can not survive may
be able to sell off their assets in order to start something new. As Steven said, “are we
going to feel pain?” Absolutely, but there is a lot to learn from pain. You learn not to do
the same things. Personally, I think we will see some interesting ideas start to appear, and they
will be created cheaply. Innovations in technology will continue to appear, but consumer prices
will drop in order to stay competitive and affordable.
At the end of the day, a society’s economic standard of living is based on the ability of
its people to do more with less resources. Less time, less money, more output. The United States
(and, increasingly, the world) is filled with brilliant, creative, and entrepreneurial people.
This financial downturn may take a serious toll, but the tools that we have to deal with it are
the best they have ever been.
The three of them hit on a few salient points that bear enumeration. Â As Steven and
Rob say, many of us have been here before, and one of the key factors that separates the wheat
from the chaff (in tough times particularly) is perseverance. Â And as Lee said, in a
time where less capitalisation may be available, those that do more with less will come out ahead
on the other side (and as he and I agree, it’s never been easier to do more with less).
Necessity is the mother of invention, though, and the need to streamline budgets during a lean
time will spell increased demand for certain types of businesses. Â A few immediately
spring to, though I’m sure there are many others.
Co-Working Spaces: Very recently, we featured an Austin area co-working space
that made a significant impression on me. Beyond the fact that I think it’s a great idea in
general for companies looking to save on costs and be in a position to grow their business
through networking opportunities. This is a type of business that’s growing quickly right
now, as several have popped up in other areas of the country as well. San Francisco has enough so
that it’s difficult to spit without hitting one. Â CenterNetworks has showcased
a number of coworking
spaces recently, including New Work City and IndyHall.
One of the things that really struck me about Conjunctured out in Austin was that it was a
completely bootstrapped effort that seems to be paying off already. John Erik Metcalf gave the blueprints to how they made this
happen at an interview he gave us at the SummerMash Austin event.
Bootstrapping and Growth Based Businesses:Â Bootstrapping a business (or as we
used to call it years ago, making your business “growth based”) is one sure-fire way
to build a sustainable business under these circumstances. Of course, if they nay-sayers are all
right, we’ll all have no credit to speak of and it could be our only option for new
businesses for a while, but if a business is able to make due on their own they can come out the
other side much stronger.
Even before the catastrophic times of the last week or two the more folks I talked to
both at events and via contacts made for story pitches at Mashable, it seemed I was hearing more
about folks shunning the angel funding and venture capital route for the bootstrapped
method.
It requires a more sharp business mind at the outset of the business than your typical VC-backed
startup. There are a lot more pitfalls in a growth-based business, too, since you’re
operating without a net most of the time. Â Whereas in the instance of a venture backed
firm, if you’ve made a gross miscalculation, I’ve heard many stories of where the
business plan they started with has been modified beyond recognition to continue through the many
rounds of financing. With a bootstrapped business, you’re still required to be nimble and
responsive to market changes, but you’ve got less chance to get it wrong before
you’re out of business.
In the end, the rewards are greater since you haven’t halved your business a few dozen
times with the many investors, and if at the end of the day you have something successful,
you’ve got greater freedom and share of the spoils.
Collaborative Tools: This is an area that has a lot of potential for growth, at
the very least for existing players. Much of what is possible in this space has already been
done, but for what’s there already could see a lot of growth as companies try to put the
clamp down on unneccessary spending for travel. Â Meeting tools like GoToMeeting and
Webex immediately spring to mind, but Web 2.0 tools like Google Docs and Zoho which allow
simultaneous editing of documents can also see more heavy usage and user growth.
Virtual conferences and online seminars are also going to see an uptick. Next to
personel costs, travel budgets to conferences (particularly winter conferences like CES) are
insanely expensive. The ability to network, meet vendors and learn from presenters with live
video and advanced communications tools like Twitter, IM and inline chats all have the capability
to replace (or create a suitable fascimile thereof) of the conference experience.
Idea Marketplaces: There are a growing number of idea marketplaces on the web
these days. I’ve actually looked at several under embargo in the last week or so, and
they’re all getting more and more specialized for individual niches. In the past, companies
have been bought and sold via places like SitePoint, eBay and even Craigslist, but what’s
to come will be more specialized marketplaces so that weekend projects and bootstrapped efforts
can be turned over to portfolio companies and larger organizations that want to rapidly add to
their available services.
Workforce Marketplaces: This is going to be perhaps one of the more dicey and interesting sectors
to watch as it develops under the coming economic shifts. Sites like Rent-A-Coder and
GetAProgrammer are all international marketplaces where finding someone to do the grunt work on a
project all generally go the the lowest bidder. It’s difficult for most citizens of first
world nations to compete with the much lower costs of living overseas where the talent often
matches American talent in most areas.
This is both good and bad. Â A lot of work can be accomplished for very little cash,
which is good for the cash-strapped business. Working with overseas contractors comes with its
own set of issues, though, and this often precludes a lot of out of work talent in the US from
finding work by these means.
Again, this means that a lot more niche marketplaces will start to spring up. Back in March,
I spoke with Ross Kimbrovsky and
Mike Samson of CrowdSPRING, founders of a specialized marketplace for design. In the
conversations I had with them, they admitted the problem that international marketplaces often
had, but explained to me checks and balances set up both in the mechanics and dynamics of the
community that create an equal playing field for all market participants while still allowing for
affordable quality design.
My guess is that if the overall economy continues to shift much further downward (and stay there
a while), these are the types of marketplaces we’ll start to see spring up and gain
traction.
That’s Not All, Folks…
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but just an example of a few existing sectors and growth
areas in our industry that’ll see some positive numbers in a down economy. I’m sure
you can think of even more.
Given the fact that everyone has been morosely plodding through the week and seeing nothing but
desparation for the future, I figured that another does of sunshine might be in order.
 I think that our business, that is the so-called Web 2.0 and Social Media business,
is probably most suited to make it through tough times unscathed as compared to the rest of the
economy.
We’ve fortunately made it past our tipping point. The world knows that they need to be on
the Internet, they know they can use it to efficiently connect to new and existing customers
(something they’ll be wanting to do more than ever, soon), and we have ironed out the ways
to do it. Â Look at this as our distribution phase. We’ve been innovating for
quite a while on the technology side, now we’ll be turning our attention on innovating and
making more efficient the business side.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
div class='rss_chapo'Les spécialistes le savent depuis longtemps, et nous somme en train de
le redécouvrir à chaque instant : les technologies numériques en réseau
sont en réalité des technologies de coordination sociale. Souvent
appréhendées comme des réalités machiniques extérieures à
la société, les ordinateurs servent pourtant aujourd'hui autant à coordonner
des groupes sociaux qu'à calculer./div div class='rss_texte'p class=spipi class=spipRepris
de l'article publié par a href=http://www.homo-numericus.net/
class=spip_outHomonuméricus/a site sous Contrat creative Commons/i/p p class=spipa
href=http://www.homo-numericus.net/breve987.html class=spip_outLire l'article et ses commentaires
sur Homonuméricus/a/p p class=spipAinsi par exemple, le Pew Internet American life Project a
récemment fait tomber le mythe tenace du jeu vidéo comme destructeur de relations
sociales. L'étude qu'il publie montre au contraire que la pratique des jeux en ligne peut
aider les adolescents à développer une certaine sociabilité et même un
engagement civique./p ul class=spipli class=spip strong class=spip Lire sur Pew Internet American
life Project/strong : a href=http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/263/report_display.asp
class=spip_outTeens, Video Games and Civics : Teens' gaming experiences are diverse and include
significant social interaction and civic engagemen/at - i class=spipJoseph Kahne Ellen Middaugh
Alexandra Rankin Macgill Chris Evans Jessica Vitak - 16/09/08/i/li/ul p class=spipPlus largement,
l'avènement du web 2.0 peut être interprété comme la
révélation du caractère social des technologies web. C'est ce que montre par
exemple Danah Boyd dans une de ces dernières communications :/p ul class=spipli class=spip
strong class=spipVoir la vidéo sur Microsoft research/strong : a
href=http://research.microsoft.com/CONFERENCES/MSRNEOpening/agenda.aspx class=spip_outUnderstanding
Socio-Technical Phenomena in a Web2.0 Era/a - i class=spipDanah Boyd - 22/09/08 : « Web2.0
signals an iteration in Internet culture, shaped by changes in technology, entrepreneurism, and
social practices. Beneath the buzzwords that flutter around Web2.0, people are experiencing a
radical reworking of social media. Networked public spaces that once catered to communities of
interest are now being leveraged by people of all ages to connect with people they already know.
Social network sites like MySpace and Facebook enable people to map out their social networks in
order to create public spaces for interaction. People can use social media to vocalize their
thoughts, although having a blog or video feed doesn't guarantee having an audience. Tagging
platforms allow people to find, organize and share content in entirely new ways. Mass collaborative
projects like Wikipedia allow people to collectively create valuable cultural artifacts. These are
but a few examples of Web2.0. Getting to the core of technologically-mediated phenomena requires
understanding the interplay between everyday practices, social structures, culture, and technology.
In this talk, I will map out some of what's currently taking place, offer a framework for
understanding these phenomena, and discuss strategies for researching emergent practices./i
»/li/ul p class=spipSi l'on s'intéresse aux différents secteurs ou
métiers dont l'organisation est perturbée par le développement des
technologies web, on trouve toujours au coeur de ces bouleversement une dimension éminemment
sociale. L'exemple de la presse est frappant. Le consultant Fred Cavazza y détecte un
phénomène de fuite en avant vers du « tout social » :/p ul class=spipli
class=spip strong class=spipLire/strong : L'avenir de la pra
href=http://www.fredcavazza.net/2008/09/25/lavenir-de-la-presse-en-ligne-est-il-dans-le-social/
class=spip_outesse en ligne est-il dans le social ?/a - Fred Cavazza - 25/09/08 : « Social
Network, Social Games, Social Software, Social Computing... j'ai comme l'impression que
“social” est devenu li class=spipe nouveau buzzword à la mode ! Plus
sérieusement, les médias sociaux ont modifiés profondément et
durablement le paysage de l'internet, et il n'y aura pas de retour en arrière. J'irais
même plus loin en écrivant que nous assistons plutôt à une fuite en avant
vers du “tout social”./i »/li/ul p class=spipUne récente étude
montre même que le savoir-faire dans l'organisation de groupes sociaux cohérents et
producteurs d'une information de qualité constitue certainement la base sur laquelle ce
secteur sera capable de trouver sa rentabilité future. C'est tout ce que montre l'exemple de
Cityvox, étudié par Felix Weygand :/p ul class=spipli class=spip strong class=spip
Lire sur Archivesic/strong : a href=http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_00324381/en/
class=spip_outComment se développe les nouveaux médias de l'Internet. Une
étude de cas : Cityvox/a. -i class=spip Felix Weygand - 24/09/08 : « Cityvox ,
société éditrice de sites Internet pour le grand-public, de services et de
contenus en ligne, résume le phénomène d'apparition des nouveaux médias
de l'Internet en France : start-up créée dans l'effervescence du gonflement de la
bulle en 1999, elle survit à la crise du secteur, réussit à adapter son
modèle d'affaires au nouveau contexte et est reprise en 2008 par Orange, principal acteur
national du secteur des technologies de l'information et de la communication. Décrire
l'histoire de cette entreprise permet de comprendre comment et pourquoi des modèles
d'affaires robustes, rentables et pérennes s'inventent depuis quelques années dans ce
secteur, marqué par l'explosion des usages et l'effervescence technologique. Cela permet
ensuite d'analyser, sur un exemple de taille modeste mais significatif économiquement, les
processus qui attaquent et déséquilibrent le secteur traditionnel des médias,
le poussant à une mutation souvent vécue comme une crise./i »/li/ul p
class=spipLa semaine dernière, la conférence internationale sur l'innovation Picnic
fut l'occasion pour un certain nombre d'orateurs de mettre en avant la dimension
intrinsèquement sociale des technologies. Ainsi Jyri Engeström, l'inventeur d'un
service de micro-blogging, propose de reconnaître dans la relation que chacun de nous
établit avec des artefacts techniques, un désir d'établir en
réalité des relations avec autrui :/p p class=spip strong class=spip Lire sur
Internet Actu/strong : a
href=http://www.internetactu.net/2008/09/30/jiry-engestrom-comprendre-le-caractere-social-de-nos-objets/
class=spip_outComprendre le caractère social de nos objets/a - Hubert Guillaud - 29/09/08/p
p class=spipMais le plus étonnant reste à venir : il est un objet qui est encore
très peu touché par les réseaux numériques, et dont les usages n'ont
pas encore été véritablement bouleversés. Il s'agit du livre bien
sûr. Selon Bob Stein, le directeur de l'Institute for the future of the book, la publication
à l'ère des réseaux numériques a toutes les chances de
révéler et libérer la dimension sociale de l'activité de lecture et
écriture. La théorie qu'il propose redéfinit en ce sens les rôles
respectifs de l'auteur et de l'éditeur qui ne sont plus des producteurs de contenus, mais
des organisateurs de communautés dans ce nouveau contexte. Comment ? Tout simplement parce
que par le moyen du lien et de l'interactivité, la publication n'apparaît plus comme
un aboutissement, mais comme le début de nouvelles conversations engendrant
indéfiniment de nouvelles publications dans un processus infini d'interactions sociales./p
ul class=spipli class=spip strong class=spipLire sur if:book/strong :a
href=http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2008/09/a_unified_field_theory_of_publ_1.html
class=spip_out a unified field theory of publishing in the networked era/a - Bob Stein - 04/09/08 :
« Reading and writing have always been soi class=spipcial activities, but that fact tends to
be obscured by the medium of print. We grew up with images of the solitary reader curled up in a
chair or under a tree and the writer alone in his garret. The most important thing my colleagues
and I have learned during our experiments with networked books over the past few years is that as
discourse moves off the page onto the network, the social aspects are revealed in sometimes
startling clarity. These exchanges move from background to foreground, a transition that has
dramatic implications./i »/li/ul p class=spipVoilà des perspectives
intéressantes : les débats et échanges autour des technologies
numériques concerneront un nombre croissant de personnes, au delà des technologues
passionnés par ces questions. Plus intéressant encore : lorsqu'on évoque le
social, le politique n'est jamais loin. On peut faire le pari que l'on assistera dans les
années à venir à une repolitisation des débats qui le sont actuellement
assez peu. Les questions centrales ne porteront peut-être plus seulement sur
l'efficacité de ces technologies sociales de management des communautés, mais sur la
manière dont elles distribuent le pouvoir à l'intérieur de celles-ci./p/div
emstrongFacebook va mal. br / Cinq de ses hauts dirigeants ont quitteacute; le navire et, pour
inciter financiegrave;rement ses salarieacute;s agrave; rester, le site de socialisation est
precirc;t agrave; investir ses faibles liquiditeacute;s dans le rachat d#39;une partie de leurs
actions/strong/em. br / br / S#39;il ne se trouve pas de nouveaux partenaires, son histoire
pourrait se terminer lagrave;.br / br / Lire la suite...br / br /
Just how do you best monetize the strikingly popular social network? The CEO reckons theyll have
that problem licked in about three years.br[a
href=http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10063034-2.html?part=rss title=linklink/a] [a
href=http://digg.com/tech_news/Zuckerberg_Facebook_is_all_about_growth title=moremore/a]
Ou disons plutôt emLegend of the Seeker/em, pour reprendre le titre de la série
télévisée adaptée des romans de Terry Goodkind.br / Conformément
à ce qui avait été annoncé, une nouvelle bande annonce a bel et bien
été mise en ligne hier sur la page a
href=http://www.new.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=38252694749 hreflang=enFacebook/a du show, ce
qui n'empêche pas une légère déception : on s'attendait donc à
une vidéo d'une certaine longueur, on se retrouve plutôt avec un spot TV
supplémentaire et sa sempiternelle durée de 30 secondes.br / Toutefois, bonne
surprise ! On aperçoit pour la première fois Craig Parker - Haldir dans la trilogie
du emSeigneur des Anneaux/em de Peter Jackson - dans le rôle du grand méchant Darken
Rahl. Au passage, un widget est désormais également disponible ! Le tout à
voir ci-dessous.br / object width=425 height=350 param name=movie
value=http://www.youtube.com/v/MYR21OSVw9Y /param embed src=http://www.youtube.com/v/MYR21OSVw9Y
type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=425 height=350 /embed /objectbr / object
type=application/x-shockwave-flash
data=http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/48e2b65f257dbc07/48f02da43ac4980e/48e2b65f257dbc07/111e7a2
id=W48e2b65f257dbc0748f02da43ac4980e width=260 height=245param name=movie
value=http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/48e2b65f257dbc07/48f02da43ac4980e/48e2b65f257dbc07/111e7a2
/param name=wmode value=transparent /param name=allowNetworking value=all /param
name=allowScriptAccess value=always //objectbr / a
href=http://www.elbakin.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4534p=13 hreflang=frEn discuter sur le forum/a
So I've got kind of an annoying problem with the app store on the iPod itself. I've turned my phone
to Japanese, because frankly I like that language better, but now my app store will only connect to
the Japanese app store, where my lowly American account can't get a damn thing. So, anyone know a
way around this?
Also, while I'm asking for help, anyone know how to get facebook to appear NOT in mobile mode?
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
I blame David Hasselhoff.
