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 Ton Zijlstra is on to something. He describes blogs as "personal presence portals", and then goes on to describe the "awkwardness" that we feel when we go from 'knowing' someone through their blog to meeting them in person. His solution to that is simple: acknowledge the awkwardness explicitly in the first face-to-face conversation, and then work through it. Jon Husband chimes in with the observation that on-line 'presence' is still foreign to us, and we need to learn how to use it, much as at one point in our lives we first learn to use the telephone. So why is it that learning to use the telephone is childsplay, while learning to use blogs, especially when 'enriched' with Skype VoIP telephony, IM, wikis and webcams is so awkward, so hard? It all comes down to the subject of Ton's post: presence. Ton refers to this article that defines presence as a high-quality simulation of actual personal existence, high-quality implying socially rich, perceptually and socially realistic, transporting (in both senses of the word), immersing, and natural. Do blogs, with or without add-on multimedia tools, provide a high-quality simulation of the author's existence, do they have presence? To understand why this question is meaningless, we need to turn to the guru of media, Marshall McLuhan. In his landmark book Understanding Media, almost half a century ago, he explained the difference between media and tools. Communications media are place holders for content, for the message ("the medium is the message"). Communication tools are technologies that deliver the content, the message . In today's electronic age, he said, the two have become blurred together. So my communication media decision tree from last year, reproduced above, while useful, is somewhat flawed, in that it mixes the two together. But if we want to understand blogs, which are part media, part tools, we need to unblur these distinct characteristics. The best way to do this is to understand what, in McLuhan's terminology, the constituent parts of blogs are extensions of. The telephone, a communication tool, is an extension of the ear and the voice. Radio is a communication tool, likewise an extension of the ear and voice, but the radio program is a communications medium, an extension of the programmer's memory (and, if we tape it, an extension of our memory as well). Blogs, like newspaper columns or news digests, are essentially communications media, extensions of our memories, place holders for our ideas and messages. They are not really extensions of our brains, because they capture, like a snapshot, our thinking at one point in time. Although we can try to make them conversational and describe our thought processes in a blog article, they do not, in their simplest form, allow the reader to truly engage our brains in real or close-to-real time. Now, blogs also have two communication tools included: a publishing and subscription tool (RSS), which does transmit our messages (very well), and the rudimentary comments 'thread' functionality which, like a poor web forum, does allow some dialogue with the author and with other readers. The thread is a (lousy, and because it's asynchronous, jerky) extension of our brains. To some extent the Internet itself is a communication tool that disseminates our blog comment; it is the blog's 'printing press'. And by that analogy, RSS is like the delivery truck that takes the newspaper to the subscriber's house -- both are communication tools, though RSS is clearly the superior delivery vehicle. So what? Well, there is a huge amount of discussion about how to make blogs better, how to use them in business, and what their future is, none of which makes the essential distinction between their role and value as communication media and their role and value as communication tools. I would argue that the critical functionality of blogs, both in personal and business use, is as a personal communications medium i.e. a storage space for everything of consequence in our memories, and everything of consequence in that other extension of our memory, the filing cabinet (and its electronic analogue, the 'My Documents' folder). As I've said in my posts on the future of blogs and in my future state visions, I think blogs will eventually (and properly) morph into purer, simpler versions of this one critical functionality -- they will become the proxies, the substitutes for our memories, for use by friends and business contacts when we're busy or away from the high-presence communication tools, by vendors to ascertain our need for their offerings, and by ourselves as a place to organize, store and access our own thoughts and memories, thus freeing up more of our real memories for new ideas and perceptions. There have been some interesting articles lately by people who say that making and keeping huge numbers of dynamic lists and notes, instead of trying to keep all that in our memories, we can actually enrich our brain's power, our intellectual effectiveness and even our intelligence by 'freeing up memory and brain CPU'. Next-generation blogs could be perfect for that, not only freeing up our memories but also allowing others access to our ideas and learnings. So to that limited extent, blogs have presence -- they can be excellent simulations, surrogates, proxies for our personal memories. But what if we need more context to be able to properly understand the message, or effectively use or build on the content of this virtual memory? Then we need high-quality, high-presence communication tools, not communication media. We are rapidly moving towards a convergence of several 'online' communication tools: telephony, e-mail, IM, and potentially voice-mail and videoconferencing. Right now, the content, the stored messages of these various tools are unintegrated, but voice recognition and transcription is quickly improving and we will soon be able to 'record' conversations in any of these media in one simple, intuitive way, and with Simple Virtual Presence we will also have a simple intuitive way to connect with people using any or all of these media. Then we'll need a 'bridge' to allow each of the participants in a conference to see anything in the blog/virtual memory of any of the participants. Until that day arrives, blogs get high marks as a communication medium, but barely a passing grade as communication tools. If the technology developers understand the distinction, and start building tools that are properly engineered for simple, seamless connectivity, then one day the blurring won't matter, and the integration between media and tools will be complete. |
IWantMedia.com
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Denver Post and the Media News Group Partner with NewsGator for Next Generation Media Service
DENVER, CO -- March 3, 2005 -- NewsGator Technologies, Inc., the leading RSS software platform company, announced today the launch of its 'NewsGator Media Platform,' a private label RSS service for the media industry. Media News Group and its flagship newspaper, The Denver Post, announced that they will launch branded RSS readers powered by NewsGator's Media Platform for the Denver Post and other Media News Group properties.
J.B. Holston, the President and CEO of NewsGator, said, "We're thrilled to be working with The Denver Post to apply our industry-leading software platform to help extend their brand with the power of RSS. After a thorough review, Media News Group chose the 'NewsGator Media Platform' because it is the most scalable, cost-effective, and reader-friendly solution available on the market. We're very proud of our partnership with one of America's leading media groups."
The NewsGator Media Platform is powered by NewsGator's industry-leading NewsGator Online system, which manages hundreds of thousands of RSS feeds for tens of thousands of individual end-users who access their content synchronized across a myriad of devices. NewsGator is working with a wide range of media and other enterprises around the world to leverage that system to manage private-labeled RSS readers. NewsGator's Media Platform is the only service that supports web, desktop, mobile, Media Center, DivX, and a wide range of other RSS applications and readers, all seamlessly synchronized. NewsGator's interface and interaction design experts work closely with clients to create a consumer-friendly experience around the client's brand, leveraging the power of NewsGator's rich RSS aggregation and reading capabilities.
Mike Higgins, Senior Vice President and COO of Media News Group Interactive said, "We believe that RSS-based reading is the next generation for a rich, personalized experience for our readers. We're extremely excited to partner with NewsGator, the clear leader in this space, around this vital industry innovation."
Gil Asakawa, Executive Producer for The Denver Post said, "We're excited to be working with NewsGator to develop a tool for our readers to take advantage of the burgeoning RSS universe, and to personalize their news from The Denver Post. There's a huge opportunity here to popularize RSS as a mainstream format."
About Media News Group
MediaNews Group, Inc is the nation's seventh-largest newspaper company, with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. MediaNews Group and its subsidiaries publish 47 daily newspapers and 110 non-daily publications in 10 states, with daily and Sunday circulation of approximately 2.2 million and 2.5 million respectively. In addition, MediaNews Group owns a CBS affiliate in Anchorage Alaska and four radio stations in Texas. MediaNews Group maintains 74 websites for its daily newspapers and an umbrella website, www.NewsChoice.com.
NewsGator Offering in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 Enables Users to Read Selected Content, or Watch On-Demand Video Content
DENVER, CO - June 4, 2004 - Today, NewsGator Technologies announced that the recently launched NewsGator Media Edition is featured in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004's "Online Spotlight," an online guide created specifically for Media Center Edition PC customers that offers a central location for them to find the latest third-party services and software, such as music, movie trailers, news updates and even Karaoke.
NewsGator provides a mechanism for Media Center PC users to easily find NewsGator software and services online, without having to separately download anything from the NewsGator web site. Both text and multimedia content is supported, and information that has not already been viewed on another device can be displayed by synchronizing user subscriptions with NewsGator Online Services.
"We're excited to be included in Online Spotlight - this will dramatically increase our visibility to the many thousands of Media Center PC users," said Greg Reinacker, President & Founder of NewsGator Technologies.
NewsGator Media Center Edition is included as part of NewsGator Online Services. NewsGator Online Services includes three other content reader editions, which allow users to read content they have subscribed to from any web browser (with Web Edition), any email client (with POP Edition), and from a mobile wireless device (with Mobile Edition), which is a powerful feature for road warriors who use mobile devices to access information while on the road. The service also provides exclusive, subscriber-only content to its subscribers, as well as the ability to search for content that matches a specific keyword or URL, and return that content in a feed. NewsGator Online Services pricing starts at $5.95/month per user.
"Media Center PCs allow consumers to have faster and more efficient access to all of their favorite digital content when, where, and how they want," said Brad Brooks, Director of Marketing at Microsoft Corp. "With the NewsGator Media Center Edition, NewsGator Technologies is delivering a complementary and innovative service that will let Media Center Edition PC users easily access their customized choice of news services."
More about NewsGator Media Center Edition
This is the latest step in the "any time, any place, any device" strategy that distinguishes the NewsGator product line. NewsGator Online Services allows users to read one set of content from any device, without duplication. The combined power of NewsGator Media Center Edition and Online Services offers customers a productive and fun way to access their personalized subscriptions and information from any device, whenever they need it.
SnapStream Spotlight Enables Users to Read Selected NewsGator Content and Watch On-Demand Videos in Full-Screen Interface Mode With Firefly PC Remotes
HOUSTON, June 25 - SnapStream Media, Inc. (http://www.snapstream.com), a leader in PC entertainment products, and NewsGator Technologies announced today the inclusion of NewsGator Media Center Edition in SnapStream Spotlight. SnapStream Spotlight is a new addition to the Firefly(TM) PC Remote package.
The Firefly PC Remote with SnapStream Spotlight brings the latest online movies, radio, news and music into the living room by leveraging the power of the PC and the Internet. SnapStream Spotlight serves as a portal to various online media providers, such as NewsGator, for Firefly PC Remote users. Its savvy interface makes it easy to access online media content in a living room setting.
NewsGator Media Center Edition is a part of NewsGator Online Services. It allows users to easily find NewsGator software and services online without having to separately download anything from the NewsGator web site.
SnapStream Spotlight and NewsGator Media Center Edition provide Firefly PC Remote users a way to access NewsGator content and watch on-demand videos away from the PC desktop.
"We are excited to have NewsGator Technologies on board for our latest entertainment PC offering, SnapStream Spotlight," said Rakesh Agrawal, President and CEO of SnapStream Media, Inc. "The new SnapStream Spotlight feature, along with Firefly PC Remote, allows users to control media stored on the PC in a living room setting. SnapStream Spotlight and NewsGator Media Center Edition open doors for Firefly PC Remote users by giving them another way to access online news content."
"NewsGator Technologies is pleased to be a part of the SnapStream Spotlight launch," said Greg Reinacker, President & Founder of NewsGator Technologies. "With SnapStream Spotlight, even consumers without Media Center PCs can enjoy the convenience of what NewsGator Media Center Edition has to offer."
ABOUT FIREFLY PC REMOTE
Firefly PC Remote gives users remote control access to audio and visual media stored on their PCs. It is sleek, lightweight and designed to fit comfortably in the user's hand. It is an RF remote and can transmit signals through walls and up to 30 feet away. Firefly comes with its own media center software, SnapStream Media's Beyond Media(TM) Basic, but is also compatible with others such as Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Media Center Edition. Beyond Media Basic is a PC entertainment gateway with included music, video and photos players.
ABOUT SNAPSTREAM MEDIA
SnapStream Media, Inc., a leading developer of digital entertainment products, was founded in 1999 by Richard Kuo and Rakesh Agrawal. Houston-based and privately held, SnapStream Media's vision is to build high-quality consumer entertainment experiences that leverage PC technology. The company's personal video recording (PVR) software, Beyond TV(TM), was called "dazzlingly cool" by the Los Angeles Times, referred to as "an idea whose time has come" by the Associated Press and declared "better than TiVo" by Maximum PC. Interested parties can find more information about SnapStream Media and its products at http://www.snapstream.com.
ABOUT NEWSGATOR MEDIA CENTER EDITION
This is the latest step in the "any time, any place, any device" strategy that distinguishes the NewsGator product line. NewsGator Online Services allows users to read one set of content from any device, without duplication. The combined power of NewsGator Media Center Edition and Online Services offers customers a productive and fun way to access their personalized subscriptions and information from any device, whenever they need it.
newmediamusings.com/blog/2004/08/open_media_the_.html
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defenddemocracy.org/in_the_media/in_the_media_show.htm?doc_id=25
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The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
Wigobyte (whose USB drive/cell
charger we 
This
isn't so useful for most of us, since it uses a Korean-standard phone
plug, but it's a neat idea all the same. The Mvolt-200 isn't just a
USB memory stick—it doubles as a emergancy cell phone recharger.
Manufacturer Wigobyte isn't making the Mvolt-200 yet, anyway, but is
currently looking for distributers for which it can become an OEM.