MSN Launches Blogging Service

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BroadbandVideo Launches New Video
Blogging Service

BroadbandVideo Launches New Video
Blogging Service 04/04/2005 02:33 AM
ItsActive.com allows anyone to post video to a blog with ease [PRWEB Apr 4, 2005]

"six apart (makers of movable type
bl0gging software and typepad bl0gging
service) are going to buy live journal"

"six apart (makers of movable type
bl0gging software and typepad bl0gging
service) are going to buy live journal" 01/05/2005 04:20 AM

H2M Launches UK’s First Service Provider
Automation Service - Reduces Risk and
Increases Return for xSPs; End-to-end
Service Management Automation

H2M Launches UK’s First Service Provider
Automation Service - Reduces Risk and
Increases Return for xSPs; End-to-end
Service Management Automation 06/05/2005 11:19 PM
As xSPs struggle to reduce cost and stay one step ahead of the market’s maturation many are seeking an answer. With any market industrialization occurs and today this means automation. Only those service providers that automate will remain competitive and viable for their shareholders and customers – failing to automate is suicidal. [PRWEB May 24, 2005]

Swiss Internet service provider
Telephoenix launches anti-virus
e-service in co-operation with F-Sec

Swiss Internet service provider
Telephoenix launches anti-virus
e-service in co-operation with F-Sec 06/30/2004 04:42 AM
F-secure.com - Wed Jun 30, 07:51 am GMT

New regional webl0g Blogging.LA launches

New regional webl0g Blogging.LA launches 12/02/2003 03:05 AM
Sean Bonner, Jason DeFillippo, Wil Wheaton, Caryn Coleman, Chris Pirillo, and a herd of fine nerds just launched Blogging.LA. Bunch of cool contributors on board. And then, in an unguarded moment, they loosened their standards and let me in. Link

Microsoft Launches MSN Blogging,
Messenger Services (Reuters)

Microsoft Launches MSN Blogging,
Messenger Services (Reuters) 04/06/2005 11:54 PM
Reuters - Microsoft Corp. , the world's largest software maker, launched on Wednesday its MSN service allowing Web users to publish and track each other's blogs, or online journals.

Google revamps bl0gging service

Google revamps bl0gging service 05/10/2004 12:23 AM
One of the leading names in blogging is overhauling its service in an attempt to widen its appeal.

AOL unveils bl0gging service for teens

AOL unveils bl0gging service for teens 03/29/2005 11:22 AM
Red Blogs offering allows teens and parents to select the level of privacy they want for the online diaries.

MSN Readies Blogging Service Beta

MSN Readies Blogging Service Beta 08/05/2004 04:18 PM
Extreme Tech Aug 5 2004 8:16PM GMT

Finnish bl0gging service open

Finnish bl0gging service open 02/01/2005 09:47 PM
Vuodatus.net now offers a pretty comprehensive blogging service in Finnish. It's roughly as easy as Blogger, but offers some additional things like RSS feed integration (you can have your side bar to include headlines from other blogs), quite comprehensive templating, categories (and searching of blogs based on categories), built-in statistics, built-in help on all pages, and naturally it's all Finnish.

Looks very comprehensive, yet easy for a new blogger. And has enough power to work for a bit more experienced bloggers as well. Very good and all the best to them!

(Very few of the blogs on vuodatus.net seem to be in the Pinseri blog-list. Why?)

MSN Readies Blogging Service for
Japanese Market

MSN Readies Blogging Service for
Japanese Market 08/04/2004 10:27 PM
Blogging looks to be the content king in Japan, or so says Redmond, as MSN preps a beta release of its blogging service for Japan only.

In Brief: New Yahoo service to feature
bl0gging tool

In Brief: New Yahoo service to feature
bl0gging tool 03/19/2005 03:17 AM
Yahoo is developing a free service designed to let users stay in touch with friends, family, and co-workers via new and existing Yahoo services. The service will include the company's first blogging tool, according to a company executive. Called Yahoo 360, the service will enter a restricted beta period on March 29, when it will be available to select users invited by Yahoo to try it out. Yahoo will expand the beta testing in coming weeks, and has set up a waiting list for interested users at http://360.yahoo.com/reg/beta_list.html. Like similar offerings recently introduced by competitors Microsoft and Lycos, Yahoo 360 provides blogging within a broader service whose main aim is to serve as a communications tool between users and acquaintances. Similar to Microsoft's Space and Lycos' Circles, Yahoo 360 lets users do things such as publish blogs, share content, and post pictures, while keeping a tight grip on who is allowed to visit the Web site.

Polywogg bl0gging service free for .Mac
members

Polywogg bl0gging service free for .Mac
members 11/06/2003 09:58 AM
Rainjul today announced the release of the first public beta version of Polywogg, the company's journaling/blogging service for Mac OS X Jaguar and Panther...

New Yahoo service to feature bl0gging
tool

New Yahoo service to feature bl0gging
tool 03/19/2005 03:27 AM
Like similar offerings recently introduced by Microsoft and Lycos, Yahoo 360 provides blogging within a broader service whose main aim is to serve as a communications tool between users and acquaintances.

Yahoo! Japan Releases a Free Blogging
Service

Yahoo! Japan Releases a Free Blogging
Service 02/05/2005 10:16 PM

Yahoo Japan launches blog tool 

Yahoo Japan, owned mostly by Softbank and partly by Yahoo, on Tuesday launched a test, or "beta," version of Yahoo Japan Blogs, a free service that lets users post blogs and up to 2GB of images, comment on other blogs, and associate their blogs with animated representations of users known as avatars.

The launch could have implications for Yahoo users in the United States, too. Yahoo's Asian blogging services are striking in that they precede any offerings or previews by Yahoo for its flagship portal. And Yahoo's lateness to the blogging game is all the more notable thanks to significant investment by Yahoo's main portal competitors, including Google, MSN and AOL.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google revamps
bl0gging service

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google revamps
bl0gging service 05/10/2004 09:59 PM
Google revamps blogging service .. Blogger gets a face-lift .. BBC has the lowdown .. BBC

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3694691.stm
track this site | 4 links

Yahoo Service Combines Blogging, Social
Networking

Yahoo Service Combines Blogging, Social
Networking 03/17/2005 03:23 AM
Yahoo will begin beta testing Yahoo 360, which combines blogging tools with social networking, as it aims to help people "do a better job of keeping up with the relationships that they already have."

Creative Commons-licensed phonecam
bl0gging service

Creative Commons-licensed phonecam
bl0gging service 04/14/2004 10:31 AM
Alfie Dennen of the phonecam blogging service Moblog UK says:

We operate the site code on a copyright commons basis, and with users like Warren Ellis (who want to retain control of their images/video/audio), we urge people using the site to do the same. The fact that Textamerica and mblog etc own your content once it hits their servers got us so angry we felt we had to make an alternative.

We carry no advertising, and are donation supported. In terms of the code itself, we support multiple image posts, multiple audio and image posts, in pretty much every format that phones can produce. The site is very malleable, if you can make a css style sheet, you can make the site entirely your own look, still hosting it with us. We are a community that consists partly of a lot of artists who want to make sure they keep some ownership of their work.

Link

MozillaZine Launches Mozilla Blogging
Project, Knowledge Base and Donation
Drive

MozillaZine Launches Mozilla Blogging
Project, Knowledge Base and Donation
Drive 02/10/2004 02:40 AM

Rainjul Announces Polywogg Blogging
Service Free for .Mac Members

Rainjul Announces Polywogg Blogging
Service Free for .Mac Members 11/06/2003 10:02 AM
SACRAMENTO, CA, USA, November 6, 2003 - Today, Rainjul L.L.C. released the first public beta version of Polywogg, http://www.polywogg.com/. Polywogg is a journaling/blogging service for Apple Computer's Mac OS X Jaguar and Panther. Rainjul is offering a free, one-year subscription to Apple .Mac members.

Logan Launches Wi-Fi Service

Logan Launches Wi-Fi Service 06/23/2004 08:31 PM
Boston's Logan airport turns Wi-Fi on for a fee tomorrow: The service will run $7.95 per day and be offered in Terminals B, C, and D; E already had Wi-Fi. A may come later, according to earlier reports. There's no word on roaming or resale through aggregator networks or bilateral roaming agreements with other operators....

AOL launches VoIP service

AOL launches VoIP service 04/07/2005 02:34 PM
CNN Money Apr 7 2005 6:06PM GMT

SAP launches SOA implementation service

SAP launches SOA implementation service 03/30/2005 06:03 PM
As the SOA (service-oriented architecture) platform wars continue between the ERP vendors, SAP unveiled its strategy Tuesday for how it intends to increase the NetWeaver installed base among the major enterprise platform buyers.

Earthlink Launches VPN Service

Earthlink Launches VPN Service 03/22/2005 03:15 PM
Earthlink has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. But this latest move to get into the VPN market; well, I guess they figured that it could be something which could prove to be really profitable. Hey, you just never known……

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IRS Launches New Web Tax Filing Service

IRS Launches New Web Tax Filing Service 01/09/2004 09:58 PM
BeSpacific Jan 8 2004 7:07PM ET

AOL launches shopping service

AOL launches shopping service 09/20/2004 06:48 PM
MIAMI - America Online Inc. has launched an online shopping service called inStore that lets users search for products, compare prices and features and set up price-drop alerts.

Become.com Launches Their Own Suggestion
Service

Become.com Launches Their Own Suggestion
Service 06/22/2005 01:52 AM
Become.com, last mentioned here in April, now has dynamic suggestions as part of their search. As you might remember, dynamic suggestions are suggestions that change in "real type" as you're...

OPA launches Web-tracking service

OPA launches Web-tracking service 04/29/2004 11:09 PM
Sunday Times South Africa Apr 30 2004 3:01AM GMT

Orange launches 3G service

Orange launches 3G service 07/19/2004 06:03 AM
Mad.co.uk Jul 19 2004 9:54AM GMT

ANZ launches new online service

ANZ launches new online service 07/15/2004 05:28 AM
News.com.au - Thu Jul 15, 07:19 am GMT

Sirocom launches IP VPN service for UK

Sirocom launches IP VPN service for UK 02/11/2004 12:18 PM
ATM alternative

Lycos Launches their own PPC Service!

Lycos Launches their own PPC Service! 08/13/2002 07:01 AM
Lycos launches InSite keyword advertising system.

V'fone Launches 3G Service

V'fone Launches 3G Service 02/12/2004 10:09 AM
Unstrung.com Feb 12 2004 1:16PM GMT

eTwine.com Launches Fun & Interactive
Free Blogging Tool and Becomes First
Social Site to Integrate Blogs with
Social Networking & Online Dating
Features

eTwine.com Launches Fun & Interactive
Free Blogging Tool and Becomes First
Social Site to Integrate Blogs with
Social Networking & Online Dating
Features 08/13/2004 12:47 PM
eTwine.com integrates new interactive blogging tool with its existing social networking, online dating, and event planning features. Members can share their blogs entries with friends and other members, as well as rate other blogs, add comments to any entry, and sort entries by most popular and highest rated in this unique feature. [PRWEB Aug 13, 2004]

MS launches japanese bl0g service

MS launches japanese bl0g service 08/04/2004 01:08 PM
they want a million users in the first year

MS Launches Video Download Service

MS Launches Video Download Service 03/31/2005 12:28 PM

Microsoft launches MSN Music service

Microsoft launches MSN Music service 09/02/2004 10:15 AM
Microsoft Corp. is offering a "preview release" of MSN Music, its answer to Apple's popular iTunes Music Store. The music download service is available in the United States exclusively for users of the Windows operating system, and is built in to Microsoft's new Windows Media Player 10 software as well. Microsoft's introduction gives the public a look at what Apple may be up against as the company enjoys a dominant position in the digital music download market.

Telecom launches wireless web service

Telecom launches wireless web service 07/13/2004 08:53 PM
ONE News Jul 13 2004 11:58PM GMT

AT&T Wireless launches Edge service

AT&T Wireless launches Edge service 11/19/2003 08:02 AM
Computer Weekly Nov 19 2003 7:08AM ET
Grok Description matches for MSN Launches Blogging Service
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Lightning Bolt DSL, launches new "dry" /
"naked" ADSL service Nationwide

Lightning Bolt DSL, launches new "dry" /
"naked" ADSL service Nationwide 07/02/2004 03:16 AM
ADSL service no longer requires a land line voice service! [PRWEB Jul 2, 2004]

Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL) continues to grow, with almost
1,850,000 ADSL subscribers in Latin
America in 2004, up from 360,000 in 2001

Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL) continues to grow, with almost
1,850,000 ADSL subscribers in Latin
America in 2004, up from 360,000 in 2001 07/21/2004 02:32 AM
Research and Markets are delighted to announce the addition of 2004 Latin America - Internet and Broadband Market to their offering [PRWEB Jul 21, 2004]

Basecamp

Basecamp 02/13/2004 01:24 PM

Basecamp: Web-based Project Management...: I got a private invite to this, and I signed up for the free, single-project package. It seems solid. The interface is very clean and intuitive.

Basecamp is a simple, hosted web-based service that lets you manage projects and quickly create client/project extranets. It lets you and your clients (or just you and your own internal team) keep your conversations, ideas, schedules, to-do lists, and more in one password-protected central location.

I would rap it for being being too simple, but what I've learned about collaboration apps is that their success is 10% based on functionality and 90% based on the enthusiasm and flexibility of the participants.

Even a simple wiki or weblog can be a phenomenal project management tool if the team members are enthused about the project. However, even the single greatest project management in the world won't work if no one cares.

Face it: Microsoft Exchange has enough project management tools in the default install for 99% of your projects. It's just very easy to blame project failures on the lack of tools.

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a first peek at basecamp

a first peek at basecamp 01/08/2004 08:11 PM
it's already the best project management UI i've ever seen, not so egregiously overbuilt as other apps

The Builders of Basecamp

The Builders of Basecamp 03/17/2005 03:38 AM
O'Reilly Network interviews Jason Fried of 37signals: “We built Basecamp because we needed it. I’m a big believer in investing in what you know and what you need. We invested our time, energy, and focus into building a product that we knew we needed to run our own business. When you build what you know, and when you use what you build, you’ve got a head start on delivering a breakout product.”

"Basecamp Established"

"Basecamp Established" 04/03/2005 10:12 PM

Basecamp and Ruby

Basecamp and Ruby 06/25/2004 09:55 PM

Rails: So what was the biggest shock of the Basecamp seminar? Finding out that it was written in Ruby. Yeah, that's right — that Japanese language that you thought no one was using. They've apparently put together a Web development framework for it which they're releasing to open-source.

Rails is a soon-to-be-released web application framework for Ruby. It's built upon well-understood patterns for web development, which should make the seasoned web developer feel right at home and the newcomer welcome.

The programmer guy had nothing but good things to say about it. He claimed he was more productive with it in one week than he was with PHP after five years.

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The Building of Basecamp

The Building of Basecamp 06/16/2004 01:08 PM

The Building of Basecamp: A 1-day workshop on the building of a real-world web-based application: Joe and I are heading to Chicago to attend this workshop next week. We'll report on it after the fact and tell you how it went.

Immerse yourself in the hectic process of concepting, designing, developing, marketing, supporting, and maintaining a web-app used by thousands of people worldwide. [...]

We'll take you behind the scenes of the development of Basecamp, our popular web-based project management tool.

We've talked about Basecamp a bit here and here .

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"Basecamp review"

"Basecamp review" 08/22/2004 07:54 AM

"The Building of Basecamp" Review

"The Building of Basecamp" Review 06/29/2004 03:48 PM

I've been putting off posting about The Building of Basecamp because I was trying to get my hands on a picture. Neither Joe nor I thought to bring a camera, and the workshop was the first thing we did in Chicago, before Joe bought a disposable to shoot thi s great panaroma from the top of the Sears Tower.

Anyway, I can't find a decent picture, so here goes —

The biggest thing I pulled out of the workshop is that you don't have to follow all "the rules" to make something great. When you think about companies delivering services over the Web, you think about...org charts, support staff, call centers, requirements documents, functional specifications, etc.

37 Signals will blow this perception apart pretty quickly. There are just three guys: Jason, Matt, and Ryan. That's it. They don't even have a full-time programmer. David works for them part-time. From Denmark.

They don't have bug tracking, or trouble ticketing. They have two folders in AppleMail: "fixed," "not fixed." Jason spends a couple hours a day answering support emails.

Most of all, these guys are laid back. Not to the point of irresponsibility, but to the point where it's obvious they can maintain a creative groove amidst the ridiculous grind of supporting software. They talk about Basecamp as if they know they've already done something wonderful (and they have — if you don't believe me, believe these people), and everything from here on out is just gravy.

They built Basecamp the way they wanted to. All of you guys stuck in the corporate software trenches, can you imagine that — building software the way you think it should be built, without stupid restrictions? Can you imagine turning out something that was less a product of the corporate machine, and more a...craft, that you put together with pride like the prototypical old artisan in some rural town?

As you can tell, it's been a while for me.

The bottom line is that they built what they wanted to in the way they wanted to. They didn't get hung up on logistial or technical hurdles — they just kept working towards a goal as if it was completely reasonable and normal for three guys in a shared office with no programmer to build something like this. Thank goodness no one told them they were being ridiculous.

Which brings us to the workshop. It was packed with good information. So much so, that I wish it had been a bit longer. A day-and-a half would have been good, but I think we were displacing some workers from the company they office-share with, so we ran from 10 a.m. to about 6 p.m. and glossed over some stuff towards the end.

They divided the day up into sessions: Marketing, Programming, User Interface Design, etc. They spoke for a while, then presented some FAQs on that subject, then opened it up for questions. The four of them (three guys from 37 Signals, plus the programmer who flew in from Denmark) handled it as a panel discussion.

They got high marks on the presentation (done in Keynote, no less). They were very Larry Lessig-ish, in that each slide was just a sentence or two and they spoke from there. No reading of bullet points, thank goodness.

Questions were plentiful. The audience was thick with geeks (only one woman, interestingly), and they didn't hold back. Most of the questions were very intelligent, as were the answers, though sometimes the questioner was asking something expecting a very pat answer, when the truth was a little more nebulous.

Here's a sampling of some of the topics they covered. I'm just scratching the surface here, as there's too much to cover and I don't want to steal their thunder for the next time they offer this:

• Start everything with the screen design. The screen IS the application. The screen drives the functionality, not the other way around. The screen design is the requirements document. (I know, I know — the hair on the back of your neck just stood on end...)
• Get something built quickly. Iterate, iterate, iterate. Release early and often. Plan a major feature upgrade within 30 days of release.
• When designing a screen, find the epicenter — the main section of the screen where the user's eye will be drawn first. Design that and work outwards.
• Be honest with pricing. Clearly display the price, and avoid any hidden fees.
• Avoid preferences. Preferences can be cop-outs to tough problems. Whenever you have the user set a preference, you're having them make a decision (Joel Spolsky's book is big on this too). It's more challenging to come up with a solution, and mandate it. As a result, Basecamp requires something like four fields to be completed and it's ready to go.

You get the idea — there was enough of this that Joe filled up a dozen pages in a legal pad.

One of the more valulable bits was at the end when the showed us their mistakes. They had a half-dozen dead ends and time wasters that they fessed up to, including what they called a "billing fiasco" into which they sunk a dozen hours of work without checking with their merchant processor as to the validity of what they were planning to do. It turned out the processor wouldn't let them do it, and they lost a dozen hours of the programming as a result.

Any complaints? A few:

• The chairs sucked. I'm 6'4", 280 lbs. and that chair was so small it damn-near gave me a wedgie. And no tables — just rows of geeks trying to balance laptops on their...well, laps. Early on, I found a table in the back with a more comfortable seat.
• It was hot in the room. Forty people in one room will do that, and I kept wanting to crack a window.
• While they presented frequently asked questions that they had hyped in the promotional materials, they didn't always answer them soundly. But, in retrospect, I don't know what I expected. For instance, when it came t which platform to program in, I guess I was expecting a sound answer — do it in this platform. Looking back, this was just an unrealisitic expectation. What they did was tell us what they did and why, which is really all you can ask for.
• Again, the workshop was a bit too short. If it had been another half day, the attendees would have come back on the second day with so many questions that occured to them overnight. I thought up a dozen on the plane ride home.
• It was hard to hear from the back. They did it sans sound equipment, which is fine, but the Metro train went by the window just to my right about once every 10 minutes. I should have said something.

But I'm nit-picking now. None of this detracted from what was otherwise a great presentation.

Finally, this discussion wouldn't be complete without talking about the office: very cool for a hick from South Dakota. All painted brick, open spaces, and hardwood floors. The prototypical "loft" office space. The trendiness of it all was a little over-whelming.

(Joe made a very astute comment when one of them started talking about business mistakes of the past. He said, "I find it ironic that he's talking about the evils of the dot-com era while he's standing in front of a foosball table...")

37 Signals and their office mates are big, big Mac users. I didn't see a single PC, and theatre displays were the norm. They had gorgeous equipment lying around everywhere. It goes without saying that they had an open wi-fi node running.

There was one bathroom, which meant there was a line, but it was worth it when you got inside. The walls were lined with chalkboards. The topic of the discussion was "Rejected Names for Basecamp." Additionally, several people had written backwards on the board behind the mirror so you could read it normally in the reflection. Clever, no?

Lunch, incidentally, was fantastic. I had a turkey and avocado sandwich on a hard roll that about made me cry. (And you wonder why I was too big for the chairs...)

All in all, an excellent seminar on two levels: (1) the actual information presented, and (2) the vibe you got from 37 Signals in general. I came away with a very, "if they can do it, so can we" attitude which will perhaps be the biggest benefit of all in the next few months.

Something is coming from Sling & Rock. Stay tuned.

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Fear, Distrust, and Basecamp

Fear, Distrust, and Basecamp 02/05/2005 09:16 PM

Open and honest communication: Interesting comments from the creators of Basecamp on their users' tendency to try to hide things from others.

One of the things that has surprised me most when talking with customers who use Basecamp is how many people work in a culture of fear, deception, and distrust.

[...] One of the top requests as of late is for a company to be able to hide contractors from their clients. They don't want their clients to know that third party contractors are working on their projects. Anyway you look at that, someone isn't getting the whole truth. It puzzles me.

I trust no one, and I thrive on conflict.

The Weird Als of Finland

The Weird Als of Finland 06/30/2004 06:07 PM

Finland has a dance called the humppa, but it's spoken of with the same disdain that disco gets in the US these days. It's for the geezers. I have been told it is something like the German polka only without the lederhosen, which is good since I'm half German and, after a few Straßenfests where people jump around in lederhosen with buckets of beer in their hands barely able to stand up, much less dance, the costumes just don't really add much to the overall aesthetic. I had a biology professor, a Bavarian who was really into opera singing, show up for a lecture in lederhosen and dance a polka for us while we sat there speechless. Everyone thought he was nuts, but I just thought he was hopelessly homesick and I couldn't imagine him doing that dance without the full costume in his usually disheveled professor uniform. I have been spared, so far, the spectacle of drunk Finns hopping around much like drunk Germans to goofy music. So far.

While we were off at the lake for Juhannus, my ear picked up something that sounded a lot like Viva Las Vegas but....not. I was informed that it was a group called Eläkeläiset [the pensioners] who are the humppa song gods in Finland and, well, everywhere else people like to humppa. I fried a few neurons just thinking about an Elvis tune done in humpaa/polka time. I can't describe their music except to say that they are the Weird Al Yankovics of Finland. Sample the Peljätty Humppa [2.2mb] and try to guess the song they are covering and be very, very afraid. It's like Ethyl Merman singing a disco version of No Business like Show Business [yes, she really did...], as it's so bad that it transcends the badness and is irresistibly brilliant. I must have more of their music. The guys actually have a regular band, Kumikameli, but I can't really tell the difference between the samples on that web site and the humppa music so it may be just a nuance only a Finn can hear. :) The lyrics are very clever and, unsurprisingly, the music is popular with the polka loving Germans. There even seems to be an OpenBSD-Humppa connection which does help explain a few things about OpenBSD. Weird Al has done a polka album so perhaps it is time he teamed up with Eläkeläiset and did a humppa album. Disturbing thought. *zot* There went another neuron.

Wireless Finland

Wireless Finland 03/06/2004 01:55 AM

The Helsingin Sanomat ran an article in the paper earlier this week about the growing number of wireless access points in Helsinki and around Finland. The article included a nice map noting the locations which I scanned in and offer here in a small ~60k jpg and a large ~240k jpg. It seems that most of the current hot spots are catering to the business traveller judging from the number of hotels and business centers listed. There are a few cafes and a movie theatre or two listed though and my hope is that it finds sufficient interest to keep spreading. I've had wireless at home for years now and find it luxurious to sit on the couch with my laptop even now. I'd really like to see WiFi in public libraries in addition to more coffee shops since students would benefit a lot from being able to use their own computer while doing research or homework.

There are two companies offering WiFi; Sonera and DNA. DNA seems to be geared more towards the local geeks and ala carte folks while Sonera is mainly in the hotel and business traveller market. Sonera Homerun doesn't appear to have a pricing structure on the net. The DNA WLAN service has three different price plans which range from €5 per month with a per minute fee to €90 for those with a serious porn habit and large downloads.

Until mobile phones get much more sophisticated displays, surfing the net or reading email with them more than occasionally isn't as attractive as having a small laptop and WiFi in convenient spots around town. WiFi really means WIreless FInland. :)

Dan Gillmor in Finland

Dan Gillmor in Finland 03/14/2005 06:21 PM
For anyone who's been following the late journalism-debate, the Man Himself, i.e. Dan Gillmor is coming to Finland. Please join him in an open session at Korjaamo, Helsinki, Tuesday, 12 April at 18:00. I'll certainly try to be there.

Ja sama suomeksi: Dan Gillmor, toimittaja-bloggaaja, joka on puhunut pitkään kansalaisjournalismin puolesta, on tulossa puhumaan avoimeen keskustelutilaisuuteen Helsingissä, Korjaamolla, tiistaina 12. huhtikuuta kello 18.00. Tervetuloa!

(Via Jyri.)

Through Finland in Packets

Through Finland in Packets 06/17/2005 04:27 PM

« Crime scene jesus. »

Ever since the Washington Post started doing their 'Finland Journal' blog I've been thinking about saying something, but wanted to wait until they had finished the series and until I had enough time to think about what I wanted to say without sounding like one of the many wackjobs, both Finnish and American, whose comments ranged from explaining how to pronounce SOW-na to ranting about the Swedish Fascist oppression in Finland to bickering about nothing. Mostly I just found the commentary deeply depressing as monoculture was praised as the reason for all the good things in Finland and the reason for all the bad things in the US a bit more often than I found comfortable. I come from one of the most fucked up nations on the planet, but I'm awfully glad for the variety of people there since it is the greatest asset the US has in terms of creativity and innovation. Being a threat to this vaunted Finnish monoculture is not a fun place to be at times. Some expats just complain, some never do and the rest of us try to get on with life as best as we can and occasionally, cautiously, commiserate over beer and try to focus on the positive things as much as possible. One of the reasons I like my 'cookery' is that it's fun to explore the differences in cuisine, I'm reasonably good at it, it's something positive, and nobody hates the person who brings tasty treats for afternoon coffee. :)

There has been a lot of criticism among the foreigners, and even a Phinn, here about the series since visiting somewhere as a journalist on an official junket likely sponsored by the state vs. living here are two very different experiences and given the inevitable superficiality of the WP coverage, a lot of us were disappointed. One of the reasons that Finland is supposedly the "country that Americans know least about" is that aside from the usual Santa, sauna and sisu stories, very little else gets written in English about this country. I've taken to collecting books on travel to Finland, some more than 100 years old, and I could match the topics nearly 1:1 with the old travelogues to the Finland Journal coverage. In fact, I think I liked the bitchy and less fawning Mrs. Tweedie's Through Finland in Carts from 1898 much better as, in spite of her unsavoury British imperialism, she was a far more snarky and entertaining writer. But, again, same shit, different century. Surely, even the Finns must bore of this though the clichés are what keep the tourists coming. It's like the hackneyed 'pahk ya cah in Havahd Yahd' and Paul Revere legends of Boston. The Boston strangler, townies and Southie don't get a lot of press since they aren't exactly attractive to locals much less to tourists.

For the expats, there's precisely dick to prepare them for what awaits them making a life here. Trying to explain how Finland differs for residents as opposed to tourists to the newly arrived is a chore since you either sound bitter or are constantly doubting your own experience of everything in a miasma of cultural relativism and personal baggage. A lot of us come to live here because we have a spouse/SO, a spouse/SO who very likely does not have an objective view or an understanding of the difference between being Finnish and being not Finnish in Finland. I was in quite a sulk for a few weeks after I met an Aus-Fin couple who had moved here and, after two months, the Australian was escaping in defeat after being told repeatedly in interviews that her education credentials were worthless in Finland, the downside of an educational system regarded, and which regards itself, so highly. Her boyfriend seemed completely surprised by this and felt badly for not being a better judge of his own country. With the dearth of realistic information for those wanting to move here, many have no other choice than to trust their Finnish loved one which may or may not prove to be the best option. This seems to happen more often than not as expats don't often stay for more than a few years before giving up and heading back home, with or without the spouse/SO. I don't know if immigration actually keeps track of those who leave and why, but it would be interesting to see the average length of stay for expats as I expect it is generally very short. How many of the foreigners work for Nokia would also be an interesting statistic.

The question this raises is why do people leave? Finland is, in many ways, a lovely country, but why do expats frequently only stay for a short while? It's an important question, one few seem curious about or willing to discuss. The most frequent rebuttals to any criticism or merely mentioning that life here can be a challenge is that it's "the same everywhere" or that we can always just pack up and go home. Ironically, I would expect this sort of chiding from red state Americans. I think that this might be at the heart of much of our nebulous reasons for struggle here; that Finland is a young country, even by American standards, and with a long history of fighting off invading outsiders, Finland has developed a very, very strong streak of nationalism. What's wrong with nationalism? Well, after 9/11, I saw neighbours wanting to beat the shit out of the grocers down the street who had been there for over 20 years because suddenly they were those dark towel heads, "them", who flew into the WTC instead of the two brothers who had been selling them their groceries for decades. Nationalism separates as much as it binds and mostly it just makes people blind and monumentally stupid.

One of the first memorable experiences was while walking HB down Bulevardi about a week after arriving here and running into a smiling little old lady who wanted to pet him and started chatting me up. As soon as I started to say something the smile fell off her face which was replaced by a scowl full of scorn whereupon she screeched something, waved me off and stalked away in a huff. I was like, what the fuck just happened? This would be repeated quite a few times and, in spite of being able to rationalise the behaviour, first impressions tend to be difficult to change. I remain rather shy about being busted as a foreigner and still have a very difficult time daring to say anything to strangers. In the dog park, I'll stand around understanding everything the other dog owners are saying but don't join the conversation which has, on occasion, marked me as a foreigner just as much as saying something would have. :)

Generally, it's the small things, the day to day things, the very difficult to define things, that make life as an outsider here a daily struggle. Learning the language is the single largest hurdle in bridging the gap and becoming less of an alien, but after two years I'm still cautious, still shy, still neurotic about speaking it to the point of avoiding situations where I might have to say something to someone because I'm scared of being busted as an outsider. We all have little defensive tactics like this, depending on our individual hang-ups and struggles. One of my friends visited home a while back and she remarked in an email that she was in awe of how suddenly aware she was of how the little daily things in Finland make life so much more work than back in the realm of the friendly familiarity of home.

Some things, however, aren't so vague, but these are the things we don't talk about or quietly discuss amongst ourselves because they're either too depressing to dwell upon or tend to be met with vituperative attacks. There are things endemic to being an expat, a foreigner in a strange land, that often make you wonder if it's you, if you're not trying hard enough or if it's the culture that is responsible for the discontent and many things often do have simple explanations, if not simple solutions. I have lived elsewhere and, given the culture and the language barrier, Finland is a very challenging place to find a happy niche whether or not any Finns want to hear or acknowledge that. It's not a destination for the easily discouraged or the impatient.

Recently, I had the pleasure of talking to a couple with two adorable basset hounds who had just returned to Finland after 7 years abroad who remarked at how "international" Helsinki seemed nowadays. There are many words I'd use to describe Helsinki, most of them nice even, but international wouldn't be one of them. Being part of the EU while rejecting or reluctantly accepting some of the things that come with being part of the EU, like foreigners, doesn't make a place international any more than dining out at a Nepalese restaurant makes you a world traveller. This doesn't mean Finland should aspire to the problems of the Netherlands, but acknowledging the problems that exist here for foreigners might be something to consider since people do generally tend to stay in places that they feel welcome in and Finland, either intentionally or not, often gives outsiders the impression that we are either not welcome or just merely tolerated. If Finland doesn't want foreigners, it should really just pull out of the EU and close the borders.

So, I suppose the point of my rambling is that there are at least a few of us around who like it here and are trying with sincerity to learn the language, fit in and get along like everyone else but there are so many conflicting messages between what we read in the paper or hear from our spouses and what we actually experience at times that it makes it difficult to reconcile the disparity and still keep on trying. It's a struggle. It's like bloody musical chairs watching all the expats leave one by one.

Basecamp: project-management web-app
from 37Signals

Basecamp: project-management web-app
from 37Signals 04/28/2004 10:20 AM

37Signals, a fantastic web-dev company, has produced a new project-management app called Basecamp that looks like a winner. Not only is it extremely pretty and easy-to-follow -- I'd expect no less from the usability wonks at 37Signals -- but it's also open: information flows out of the app as RSS and can be bulk-exported in XML, so none of your precious project-management material becomes a lever to lock you into paying the (surprisingly reasonable) monthly rates.

Also nice: the option for iChatAV-based support, and 30 day free trials.

Finally, there's a fit and finish here that makes it feel like something much more stable than a just-launched product, for example, Basecamp can be skinned to look like your internal website and you can reference it with custom URLs that don't contain any hint that your project is being hosted anywhere but your own site: as the marketing bumpf points out, this is the kind of thing that can give you appearance of really intimidating savviness to your clients. Link (Thanks, Jason!)

Basecamp project management service
launched

Basecamp project management service
launched 02/10/2004 03:00 AM
The design and usability gurus at 37 Signals have announced the availability of Basecamp, a hosted, Web-based service that helps you manage projects and quickly create client/project extranets...

W3C Offices Expand to Finland

W3C Offices Expand to Finland 09/06/2002 04:44 AM
6 September 2002: W3C is pleased to announce the opening of the W3C Finnish Office in Tampere, Finland, hosted by the Digital Media Institute of the Tampere University of Technology. Tarja Systä is Office Manager, and Ossi Nykänen is coordinator. The opening ceremony takes place 11 October in Tampere. Read about W3C Offices. (News archive)

From Finland, the land of the original

From Finland, the land of the original 12/26/2003 07:54 PM
Rare Exports, Inc. They deliver the extremely rare original Finnish product to nearly 150 countries every Christmas, exclusively. It's a big download (the small version is 35.5 MB) but that's nothing compared to the patience these hunters must have to catch their prey. [NSFW, via MonkeyFilter.]

Finland OKs 3G Network Sharing

Finland OKs 3G Network Sharing 04/16/2004 06:11 AM
Unstrung.com Apr 16 2004 10:21AM GMT

Part 3G Networks In Finland

Part 3G Networks In Finland 04/19/2004 07:03 AM
3G Apr 19 2004 11:08AM GMT

Explosion in Finland: 7 Dead

Explosion in Finland: 7 Dead 10/15/2002 07:15 AM
Explosion in Finland: 7 Dead From Yahoo News via Google News: A bomb ripped through a one of Finland's largest shopping malls, killing seven people, injuring 59 others and stunning a nation unaccustomed to violence. Government officials didn't rule ... [ More ] Good lord. What's going on in the world. Snipers in the U.S. and a bomber in Finland ....

Finland no comprende computers

Finland no comprende computers 06/06/2005 12:11 AM
Schizo-J anne asks why Finland is lagging behind in WLAN deployments. There are roughly three free WiFi hotspots in Helsinki, a major difference to our neighbour Tallinn, which has open WiFi almost everywhere in the city center. Well, the Finnish cities of Oulu, Turku, and Lahti have already started lacing themselves with WLAN networks, and the Lappeenranta University of Technology WLAN network is to my understanding also spreading into the city, so the situation is not really that bad.

But Janne is right to ask this. Finland is not really very innovative in this area at the moment, partly because it's not seen as very important. A lot of Finland's technological and financial innovation is currently poured towards the 3G (aka WCDMA, aka UMTS) development and deployment. While technologically it offers a similar solution to WLAN, and Finns are doing pretty well in mobile phone usage (though nowhere near the top), there is one key difference that people tend to ignore when talking about these things.

Freedom to innovate.

In order for you to develop a fancy new 3G app, you need to talk to and appease operators, cell phone manufacturers, and all sorts of different companies that are in the so-called "value chain". Everybody wants their small piece of it, and you end up thinking about things like "brand dilution" and "quality of service" and "code signing". All this creates quite a lot of energy, and it does not guarantee that you will create a good app - it just means that you are really good at presenting your case, and it does make sense to a lot of people. Even if you wanted to just build a simple SMS-based service, you would need quite a lot of investment of at least time, if not capital, to interface with the network: you need the PC with a bunch of cell phones attached. Or buy a platform from an operator.

Open WLAN, however, means that you can start to innovate at very, very low costs. Web space is cheap, PHP can be done by anyone, and startup costs are minimal. All you need is the idea, and the tools and the knowledge are mostly there already. Granted, you can also run a browser-based application on a 3G phone, no problem, but this always is at cost to the user: the browser-based UI is not optimal for a small device. And developing an optimized GUI for a mobile device is difficult and sometimes nerve-wrecking.

You can split the space in two ways: you can concentrate on innovating vertically : building entire solutions from the low bits to the end application. Or you can innovate horizontally - build platforms which allow other people to innovate and build upon.

3G or WLAN.

It's just like "Nokia or Linux".

I'm not saying Nokia wasn't a success, obviously it was (and is). But I do believe that in the future, it's more probable to see a new Linux-like success story than a Nokia-like success story coming from Finland. Which is why supporting platforms for free innovation would be so important.

Larry Lessig to speak in Finland

Larry Lessig to speak in Finland 05/21/2004 06:54 AM
(Via Jyri). Toimitus suosittelee, ja kiroilee kun ei itse pääse paikalle.

KUTSU

Avoin luento ja keskustelutilaisuus
Professor Lawrence Lessig Helsingissä
"The Future of Copyright, Culture and Creativity"
Maanantaina 24.5. klo 17.30
Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamo, Töölönkatu 51 b

Tervetuloa avoimeen keskustelutilaisuuteen Professori Lawrence Lessigin kanssa Helsingissä maantantaina 24.5. klo 17.30 Korjaamolla, Töölönkatu 51b. Professori Lessig on yksi maailman tunnetuimpia ajattelijoita, kirjoittajia ja luennoitsijoita digitaalisen kulttuurin, median ja tekijänoikeuksien kehityksestä. Nyt suomalaisella yleisöllä on ainutlaatuinen mahdollisuus kuulla ja haastaa kansainvälistä vaikuttajaa. Teemana on "The Future of Copyright, Culture and Creativity."

Tilaisuuden järjestää Aula. Aula on avoin verkosto, joka tukee ajatusten vaihtoa poikki rajojen.

Tätä kutsua voi lähettää sähköisesti eteenpäin kaikille kiinnostuneille.

* * *

INVITATION

You are invited to an open discussion with Professor Lawrence Lessig on Monday 24.5. at 17.30 at Korjaamo, Töölönkatu 51 b in Helsinki. Professor Lessig will speak on "The Future of Copyright, Culture and Creativity" followed by a discussion with the audience. The event will be held in English and is free and open to the public.

The event is organized by Aula. Aula is an open network that promotes the exchange of ideas across boundaries.

Please forward this invitation to anyone you feel would be interested in attending.

About the speaker

Lawrence Lessig (http://www.lessig.org/) is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, he was the Berkman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Lessig was also a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and a Professor at the University of Chicago Law School. He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court.

More recently, Professor Lessig represented web site operator Eric Eldred in the ground-breaking case Eldred v. Ashcroft, a challenge to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Lessig was named one of Scientific American's Top 50 Visionaries, for arguing "against interpretations of copyright that could stifle innovation and discourse online."

Lessig teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, law and high technology, Internet regulation, comparative constitutional law, and the law of cyberspace. His book, Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace, was published by Basic Books, and The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World, is available from Random House. His most recent book, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity, is now available online at http://www.free-culture.cc and from Penguin Press.

Professor Lessig chairs the Creative Commons project (http://creativecommons.org/faq). Professor Lessig is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a board member of the Center for the Public Domain, and a Commission Member of the Penn National Commission on Society, Culture and Community at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Lessig earned a BA in economics and a BS in management from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in philosophy from Cambridge, and a JD from Yale.

Commercial bl0gs entering Finland

Commercial bl0gs entering Finland 04/08/2005 06:39 PM
My my, what an interesting week this has been: First, Blogilista goes commercial, and now Pirkka-magazine has launched a number of commercial blogs. The Finnish blogosphere reacts with violent distrust and confusion.

I see no problem. These are clearly blogs, simply because th e only meaningful definition for the world blog is based on form, not content. They're not lying about their affiliation. They publish polished content. In fact, I find it wonderful that a media publisher dares to go and try and embrace the new media. They even publish Atom feeds for all blogs! Way!

However, entering the blogosphere may be more difficult than just dumping Movabletype on your magazine web site: people will look at these blogs. They will discuss. They will find crap on them (if there's any). They will write about it. And it's difficult to ignore them, if you want to keep your credibility. Other bloggers will call your bullshit - and very likely, someone in that bunch is at least equal in writing skills and more knowledgeable on the subject than you. And they know it.

Now the question is how much integrity Pirkka wants to have: do they just want to publish news articles in a blog format - or do they really want to go full out and really try to embrace the dialogue that comes with the format?

You see, whatever else blogs may be, they work best as a personal media. You need to let people write with their own voice, not just copying material from others - even if you have all the rights to do so. It's the power and bane of the format; a personal touch creates reader loyalty, but it also means that you have to get involved in your writing - "laittaa itsensä likoon", as the Finns say. And that is not easy.

Welcome to the crowd! I'm happy you're here, anyway. People will grumble, but there's always room for one more in the jacuzzi.

(A quick hint to Pirkka writers: Read http://www.corporateblogging .info/, and Scoble's Corporat e Blogging Manifesto. Understand. Internalize. And stop posting articles from one person under the name of another... That simply takes away credibility from the author.)

(And a quick other hint to people who complain about these being on blogilista.fi: get a clue. Really. Would you stop using a phone book simply because it contains company phone numbers, or stop using Google because it's *gasp* a profit-making company? That's exactly what Blogilista.fi is - an index of blogs, nothing more. It ain't your personal blogospheric community where people live happily and go to the woods to get undressed and hug each other in a blogoslavic überbliss. If you don't like the direction they're taking, learn to use RSS and site feeds, and make your own personal bloglist.

Blogging in Finland is finally growing up. The hype around blogging will cease in a year or two, and hopefully we then can better understand what the media is and what one can do with it. And then we can get back to the really important thing: writing. Writing about your dog, or your political views, or celebrity divorces, or company products, or food, or your sex life, or whatever pleases you. Some bloggers will gain prestige; some bloggers will become influential; some bloggers will make many people laugh; some bloggers will make many people weep. Some will be completely ignored. Most will just for

...

Nokia phone explodes in Finland

Nokia phone explodes in Finland 11/06/2003 11:14 AM
Counterfeit battery to blame

How to create a user style sheet, or:
How to remove the Basecamp ad in Ta-da
lists

How to create a user style sheet, or:
How to remove the Basecamp ad in Ta-da
lists 03/14/2005 06:08 PM
User style sheets are powerful tools for changing the way that browsers display web pages. Here's a short tutorial on how to create them along with a very simple example.

Educators Flocking to Finland, Land of
Literate Children

Educators Flocking to Finland, Land of
Literate Children 04/09/2004 08:02 PM
If one trait sets Finland apart from many other countries, it is the quality and social standing of its teachers.

Finland telecoms: Nokia unveils handheld
internet tablet

Finland telecoms: Nokia unveils handheld
internet tablet 06/24/2005 03:06 PM
Ebusinessforum.com - Fri Jun 24, 12:15 pm GMT

¿ADSL 1Mb de Wanadoo a 39€?

¿ADSL 1Mb de Wanadoo a 39€? 05/29/2004 04:42 PM

MSN Launches Blogging Service

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