We don’t know how to build a general-purpose computer that is capable of running any program except for some program that we don’t like, is prohibited by law, or which loses us money. The closest approximation that we have to this is a computer with spyware: a computer on which remote parties set policies without the computer user’s knowledge, or over the objection of the computer’s owner. Digital rights management always converges on malware.

In an effort to stamp out piracy, we are stamping out legitimate fair-use rights, and accepting invasions of privacy by corporations in a way that also happens to dovetail nicely with the intelligence gathering goals of governments everywhere.

I don’t mean to sound too much like a conspiracy theory-loving whack job here. But the fact is that the same software that enables corporations to manage their intellectual property or make a profit on targeted advertising also makes it easier to spy on citizens. I’ll refer you to Evgeny Morozov’s enlightening, yet sobering book on this very subject, The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (of which I have read about half thus far).

[h/t: Ben Ramsey]

One of the best outcomes from November’s Wave Protocol Summit was a proposal for Wave to enter the Apache Software Foundation’s incubator program. Apache has a fantastic reputation for fostering healthy open source communities that create great software. Last week, that proposal was accepted, and we’re spinning up the project infrastructure so that the community can continue to grow in the Apache way.

That’s news straight from the Google Wave Developer Blog.

[Via Mashable]

When a site launches, your audience arrives to learn more about what you know most about. It’s critical to create a content experience with purpose, that is consistent and contextual. This helps to assert your brand’s authority, establishes relationships with your audience, and secures a return visit based on your content’s value. The content strategist-as-curator is the one who makes this happen. How?

From Erin Scime’s article The Content Strategist as Digital Curator in the latest issue of A List Apart

As networked technologies proliferate around the world, we can assume that there is a channel of distribution available to everyone and between everyone. In theory, anyone could get content to anyone else. With the barriers to distribution collapsing, what matters is not the act of distribution, but the act of consumption. Thus, the power is no longer in the hands of those who control the channels of distribution, but those who control the limited resource of attention. This is precisely why YOU were the Person of the Year. Your attention is precious and valuable. It’s no longer about push; it’s about pull. And the law of two feet is now culturally pervasive.

Yeah, we know that and live that, right? But danah explains why and how this current Web2.0 wave is different from the early adopter wave/

Now Stone has coined a new phrase: e-mail apnea. Stone first described e-mail apnea in a 2008 Huffington Post piece Just Breathe: Building the case for Email Apnea. Stone says e-mail apnea is a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email. From the piece:

I wanted to know – how widespread is “email apnea?” I observed others on computers and Blackberries: in their offices, their homes, at cafes — the vast majority of people held their breath, or breathed very shallowly, especially when responding to email. I watched people on cell phones, talking and walking, and noticed that most were mouth-breathing and hyperventilating. Consider also, that for many, posture while seated at a computer can contribute to restricted breathing.

According to Stone, our tendency to get emotionally anxious and hunch our shoulders and chest while in front of a screen has long-term physical consequences. Such a posture means we are engaging in shallow breathing, thereby triggering our fight or flight mechanisms. We’re in a constant state of low grade stress. As she asks in the HuffPo piece: Now I want to know: Is it only the Big Mac that makes us fat? Or, are we more obese and diabetic because of a combination of holding our breath off and on all day and then failing to move when our bodies have prepared us to do so?

In the Spark interview, Stone also talks about current and future technology-centric solutions that could change our behavior. How, for example, might office spaces be constructed to encourage stretching and movement. Might we have standing computer stations? Stone also cites the Wii Fit and the Toyota Prius dash display as gentle electronic nudges that encourage people to do things differently.

The entire episode is worth a listen. The first half of the show is an interview with Alain de Botton about the joys and sorrows of work. But skip to about 26:54 to hear the start of the interview with Linda Stone.

Well that next big thing is here (in a limited, private beta). Meet Hunch.

What’s Hunch? As Fake explained in a blog post:

Hunch is a decision-making site, customized for you. Which means Hunch gets to know you, then asks you 10 questions about a topic (usually fewer!), and provides a result — a Hunch, if you will. It gives you results it wouldn’t give other people.

Hunch is a personalized recommendation engine. But rather than, say, track your purchase history the way Amazon does, Hunch uses a combination of your answers and community feedback. The wisdom of crowds gets coupled with your own quirks to help you make decisions.

Let’s say you’re wondering “What’s the best laptop for me?”

A screen shot of Hunch.com

Hunch.com takes you through a wizard that will, by the end, give you an answer to your question that’s based on your answers. In my case, 3 of my 4 laptop recommendations were Macs because I expressed a preference for the Mac platform, and was willing to spend > $1000.

If the answer Hunch gave you was off — say Hunch suggested a paid text editor, but you wanted a free one — you can offer feedback and help correct the system. Users can also suggest alternative answers.

If you want to really up the relevance of the answers you receive, you can tell Hunch all about yourself by answering a series of questions.

And that’s where things get a little weird and slightly creepy. Each correction you add and every question you answer not only makes the system smarter overall, but — much like your Amazon.com purchase history — reveals a little bit more about you.

The advantage is that the more Hunch knows about you, the better your results should be. But the trade-off is that The Machine, and the Hunch community may end up knowing more about you than you are comfortable revealing. It aggregates yo’ sh*t man. Over time, a profile begins to emerge. Throw in community components like followers and that’s just a whole lot of data about who you are and what you might be about.

Quite frankly, it’s a marketers wet dream and I’m quite curious to find out whether — or, more likely, when and how — Hunch will capitalize on this data. That said, I don’t think Hunch is any more of a privacy or data threat than Friendfeed, Facebook, MySpace, Amazon, or my beloved Twitter. But I would like to see Hunch give users the ability to opt-out of being followed altogether.

I would also like to see weighted questions. Perhaps after you answer each question, but before your final answer is revealed, you have the opportunity to weight how important each factor is to the decision. I’m sure that will require some massive code-fu. But it would also improve recommendations.

Conclusion

I’m not sure why people would use Hunch.com to make decisions instead of doing what we do in real life: ask friends, go with our gut, use Google. I like the idea of a trainable recommendation engine that learns what I want and also enhances the community’s knowledge. I’m just not entirely sure it works as a standalone product, and I’m not sure how much community you can form around it.

Maybe that’s not the goal of Hunch, though. After all, Netflix posted a $1 million prize to anyone who can help improve its Cinematch product. Amazon uses recommendations to boost sales. Recommendations are potentially a big business. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Hunch is an experiment in building this kind of trainable technology rather than a product unto itself.

Related elsewhere

• Rethinking Recommendation Engines

Mind mapping may just be the next wave of online applications. Advanced JavaScript libraries and Flash are enabling web-based mind map applications that are almost as robust as their off-line counterparts (such as Freemind).

In this post, I’ll revisit the previously-reviewed MindMeister and three newer mind map services: Mind42.com, Comapping.com and Mindomo.

What’s the same?

All three of these services share a core set of features:

• Collaboration
• Exporting or downloading of mind maps
• Importing of mind maps
• Publishing and sharing of maps

But there are a few differences between these applications, and some of those differences may be a deal breaker for you.

MindMeister.com

When I originally reviewed MindMeister.com, it was in a private beta. A few weeks later, the site launched as a paid service (currently $4 per month), with a free plan that has a reduced feature set.

MindMeister’s interface is all CSS, (X)HTML and JavaScript driven, with lots of Ajax communication with the server. It still offers all of the features from the original review, plus you can search del.icio.us and Wikipedia for related content from any node.

If you are a premium user, you can export mind maps to Mindmanager or Freemind XML formats. Otherwise you are limited to image (GIF, JPG or PNG formats) and rich text exports. Also, free users are limited to five mind maps at any given time.

Mindmeister offers basic text formatting — and something I thought was particularly cool — the ability to add notes to a node.

Cost? $4 per month; reduced-feature free service available

Mind42.com

Like MindMeister, Mind42.com also offers integration with del.icio.us and Wikipedia. When you create a URL within a node, you are offered the option to browse del.icio.us and Wikipedia for related entries.

Though all of these services offer collaboration and sharing, Mind42 takes it one step further by integrating the Google Talk gadget. If you have a Google account, you can chat while collaboration on your map. Mind42 also allows you to attach notes and to-do lists to nodes, extending it into a productivity-management tool. MindMeister, on the other hand, offers Twitter updates for shared maps.

Both MindMeister and Mind42 let you import Freemind and Mindmanager maps. But Mind42 only allows you to export your maps to Rich Text, Freemind, or Mindmanager formats (or download a Mind42 file). MindMeister also allows you to export your maps as GIF, JPG or PNG images. But to export to Freemind and Mindmanager formats, you do have to pay the $4 monthly subscription fee.

Where Mind42 falls short is in its file management screen. Deleting files is easy enough. But when you delete all of your mind maps, you are prompted to create a new one. As of right now, there is no way to leave that screen other than by creating a new mind map. Only then can you log out of the program.

Mind42 is also very error-prone at this stage. I experienced data-destroying errors (such as while saving) in about half of my sessions. It is the only application of the bunch that is still in beta. Mind42 will certainly have to iron out their wrinkles in order to gain traction.

Cost? Mind42 is currently free to use. I’m guessing that will change once the site exits beta.

Comapping.com

Unlike MindMeister and Mind42.com, Comapping.com’s user interface was developed in Flash. Although that means you will have to install a plug in to use Comapping, it also means that the interface is a little more robust. Comapping.com, for example, offers “tool tip”-like keyboard shortcut hints.

Comapping also distinguishes itself in how it arranges the map. Where Mind42.com and MindMeister center the root node, Comapping anchors it to the left. While I prefer the flexibility of a centered map, Comapping says that its left-to-right organization is more efficient. From the company’s web site:

… The conclusion was striking: people were more confused — and less efficient — when they were building or trying to review a part of a map that had the topics around a center especially going from right to left.

We have a hypothesis that the reason is tightly related to the fact that we read from left to right: Topic organized from left to right gives a much faster overview of the semantic structure — probably because you can physically see the topic in less eye spans.

Like Mind42, Comapping allows you to attach tasks to nodes. You can even assign deadlines. Minor quirk: Comapping only accepts one type of date format (yyyy-mm-dd). A smarter interface would be able to parse a variety of date formats.

One unique feature: the site allows you to develop presentations and slide shows.

There are some drawbacks to Comapping, however, mostly around importing and exporting files. You can only import Mind Manager files. What’s more, you can only export files in Mindmanager, rich text or HTML. You can’t export your mind map as an image, and Freemind is not supported. You can download a .comap file, however.

Cost? $11.99 for six months; 30 day free trial.

Mindomo.com

Mindomo is much like Comapping in that it was developed with Flash. Its interface is good, but not necessarily as thoughtful. For example, Mindomo supports keyboard shortcuts, but there are no hints as with Comapping.

Mindomo’s layout and formatting options far are more flexible than its competitors. You can use a centered map as with Mind42 and MindMeister, or you can choose a right or left-aligned view. Mindomo also offers several pre-defined mind map themes.

One drawback to Mindomo is that you can᾿t export to Freemind. You also have to become a paid subscriber in order to export your maps in Mindmanager format. Mindomo distinguishes itself, however, with the ability to export plain text outlines and PDF files in addition to rich text files and images. But Mindomo can only import Mindmanager files.

Something else to note: only Mindomo also sells an enterprise software version that you can deploy in your business.

Cost? $65 per year / $36 for 6 months (about $6 per month). Also a free, ad-supported version

Who wins the smackdown?

I’d have to go with MindMeister. Mind42.com would be a contender if its service were more reliable. MindMeister’s support for importing and exporting Freemind as well as MindManager has me sold. I also like that it uses XHTML, CSS and JavaScript instead of a proprietary plugin such as Flash. The interface is pretty to look at and easy to use. Importing, exporting and deleting maps is a smooth process. And while some of its offerings aren’t as robust as Mindomo and Comapping, it does what it does quite well.

Feature comparison

Agree? Disagree? Prefer another solution? Did I get something wrong? Say it in the comments.

From the Financial Times article:

Google’s ambition to maximise the personal information it holds on users is so great that the search engine envisages a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world’s information.

And no, that’s not some reporter pulling shit out of her ass. There’s a quote saying as much from the company’s chief.

Of course, this begs the question: Is Google evil? And the related questions:

• How much do you trust companies to do the right thing with your data?
• Are you okay with the convenience-for-personal-data trade-off?

Riff on those themes in the comments.

E-mail is a wonderful tool when used effectively. But it can be a maddening experience when it is not. Here are some tips to help ensure that you aren’t driving your friends and co-workers batty with your messages.

Write a descriptive subject line.

Bad: “Please read” or “Important message.” Good: “IMPORTANT: Change to vacation policy.” Tell people what this message is about. Tell them whether the message is mission-critical or time sensitive. If it relates to a client, use the client’s name, project and job or account number. Give people the ability to prioritize their communication.

Edit the subject line if the conversation strays off topic.

For example, instead of keeping a ‘Project Update,’ subject line, change it to ‘Let’s do lunch [Was: Project Update]‘

Write for scannability.

Remember, people are reading this on a monitor or a small-screen device. Follow the rules of writing for the Web. [Also see: “Writing for the Web”]

Use specific language and clear meanings, particularly when giving instructions.

Example: Do not use “add” when you mean “replace.” If you’re e-mailing a document change, include the page number or web address, and some context for the change (ex: “In paragraph three…”)

Use the phone, IM, or stop by her desk.

Not an e-mail tip, per se, but abiding by this rule reduces the amount of inbox clutter. E-mail is fine when you don’t need an answer right then and there. But for short questions that can be answered quickly, use the phone, instant messenger, or make a short walk down the hall.

What other ‘Rules of E-mail Writing’ do you practice, and what good e-mailing habits do you wish others would follow?

• Related: Geek to Live: Train others how to use email

But as I was scrolling through the list, I wondered “How many of these schools are in Georgia?” The answer? I don’t know because I stopped looking after the third page.

Now what could Newsweek have done to make this process easier? Answer: sortability and filtering.

We should all know by now that one of the differences between online and offline is the ability to interact and massage data to serve it to us the way we want it. And this list is the precise kind of data that lends itself to interactivity.

Give me the ability to filter results in my state. I want to know how many schools in my state (or better yet, my metropolitan area) are on the list. Order them in relation to each other and to the larger list (e.g., tell me that Lakeside H.S. is the top ranked school in Georgia and that it’s ranked #131 overall).

I want to know how many top-ranked schools have large numbers of students receiving subsidized lunches. If I know my school was included, I want to see where we rank. Let me sort the data alphabetically or by the percentage of students getting subsidized lunches.

Newsweek really missed an opportunity to turn a good data into an excellent online resource. Data uses much of its utility when you can’t manipulate it to extract useful information. Since this is an advantage of the medium, why not put it to full use?

Technorati: online journalism

The Structured Blogging team has developed plugins for MovableType and WordPress help bloggers in publish structured content. Formats include reviews for albums, books, hotels, audio and video files, people, and groups. Installing the structured blogging plug-in, for example, adds links for publishing list, events, reviews and interviews.

Top image is the Write panel. Bottom image is the audio file panel.

Structured blogging takes advantage of microformats. Microformats are a quick-and-dirty way to give semantic meaning to XHTML documents by using elements and attributes. For example, the hCard format uses divs and spans with pre-defined classes to capture and display business card information. The data has a standardized format for machine readability, and also maintains human readability.

I’ll be experimenting with structured blogging for events and reviews.

So far, I like the concept, but I’m not swayed by the tool: the WordPress structured blogging plugin produces invalid XHTML code for some content forms. But that’s certainly an easy fix.

Will structured blogging catch on? My hope is yes. And I also hope we see more services like Edgeio that aggregate structured forms of content, and Output This! which makes one-post-to-many-blogs publishing a snap.

There’s a good reason Yahoo is taking tagging seriously. The trend represents a new approach to organizing and finding information online, and industry watchers expect it to draw people away from the traditional Net search offered by Yahoo and Google Inc. Tagging won’t replace Google et al. But people may turn to tags more frequently over time, reducing their use of established search engines.

Once I have a chance to think and digest this article, I’ll come back with some thoughts.

From the article:

Simon Byers, an AT&T security researcher, used a search engine to find more than 100,000 Microsoft Word files on the web, including business documents and resumes. He then used the free software tools "antiword" and "catdoc" to convert them to plain text.

Byers found deleted text and information including names, email headers, network paths and text from related documents — potentially compromising information that people publishing the documents to the web likely did not realize was included.

I mean, yikes! Who knew that what you deleted isn’t necessarily deleted online?

Here’s another article on the topic from New Scientist.