Essays

I do a lot of thinking about what Flicker Gaming is, what we’re trying to do with it, and why it’s so damn cool.

But for all that, I don’t spend much time articulating it. It would probably be good for me to spell out exactly what makes Flicker Gaming worth everyone’s time. Let’s start with the premise.

The media business is changing. If there’s one thing that should be crystal clear to anyone paying attention to the internet, technology, and media, it’s that the old rules of publishing are changing.

The internet has empowered people in ways that no other publishing technology has ever done, and media is more than ever a business of aggregation, not distribution.

RSS is the single most important indicator of this change - news, opinions, update, and commentary all make their way into people’s inboxes and feed readers with relative ease. It used to be that there was a press wire, and certain people had access to the news, and the rest of us, for most practical purposes, couldn’t get at the big pulsing pipeline of everything.

Now, that has changed - big news portals like Google and Yahoo!, coupled with millions of blogs and untold thousands of specialized newsfeeds from sites like the New York Times have put practically everything at the fingertips of the average browser. The problem is that there’s so much stuff to go through on an everyday basis that it doesn’t make a lot of sense for people to slog through it just for the few choice gems. So the average user doesn’t.

And news becomes a business of aggregation. This is why sites like BoingBoing, Slashdot, and Engadget do so well. They collect the most interesting bits of news and content they can find, and they funnel it into a high quality channel.

And yes, channels make sense. I’ve heard several people talk about how, with our increasing tendency to purchase music and shows a-la-cart, channels are going the way of the dinosaur. In some sense, this is true - I certainly like to buy my music in single tracks and I don’t always appreciate how restrictive TV scheduling is.

But while I like to purchase my music by track, I really really enjoy radio. I’ve only recently realized how much I enjoy the convenience of not putting together a playlist myself. It’s convenient to have someone else pick out a song list for you, especially if they’re mostly the type of thing you’d listen to anyway - and that applies to things I read as well.

Blogs are perfect platforms for the future of “channels” because each site is basically a continuous collection of someone’s (or some people’s) favorite picks. Whenever I’m short on inspiration, I tend to go looking around the blogs on my blogroll or the feeds in my reader, because there’s almost always someone who’s talking about something that interests me.

What Flicker Gaming does is in many ways analogous to programming a gaming “channel.” Anyone can tune in to our RSS feed and keep up, on a daily basis, with the coolest gaming news, opinions, and commentary that we can lay our hands on. It can be seen as a convenience service.

I want to be careful, though, to emphasize that this is not Flicker’s main service. If the fast-growing social networking craze is anything to go by, it seems to be that community matters online. Personally, I think that a sense of community is one of the most important things in driving practically any internet venture.

Continued reading…

“Once you reach complete trust, it’s over,” My friends Claire, Sabina, and Martin explained to me over a few pints of Guiness in the faint light of a pub in Brighton.

I disagree. I think it has to work because there’s a fundamental difference between loving someone and being “in love.” Or maybe I just want to believe that’s the case.

“No,” Claire assures me, “it gets boring. If you have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, who you can trust completely, then there’s no excitement.”

Maybe that’s one of my problems. I always look for that trust in any relationship—for me it’s a level of comfort, an anchor that gives stability to a good relationship. If you can let your girlfriend go to a party without you, and really know that it’ll be OK, then you’re in a good, trusting relationship.

Of course, Martin says you can never completely trust anyone. But I’d like to think you can. I’d like to think someone could completely trust me in a relationship.

Most of all, I’d like to believe that trust works. I’d like to believe that not all marriages walk a fine line between trust and suspicion. Living a life in a relationship where I should constantly be second-guessing my wife’s behavior is not a life I’d like to live. Somehwere, my mind (or is it my heart) tells me, there’s someone in a marriage of complete trust.

You need to find that person who, once you’re done being “in love” with, you can love.

I’d like to believe it can happen. I’d like to believe that not all women think it ends with trust, because otherwise I’ll be spending every relationship looking for the very thing that will tear it apart. And that is a sad thought.

Wired says: The Podcasting Goldrush Is On.

They’re probably right. Once again (like with blogging) advertisers are being slowly introduced to a new medium, and once again there are going to be a few lucky or savvy individuals who will be able to convert on the opportunity.

The largest problem with advertising on podcasts as I see it is the fact that it’s so damn easy to skip them. When I listen to podcasts, I tend to just jump through the ads (for the ones that have them). The second largest problem is that most podcasts are boring.

When the initial hype dies down slightly, and a few good minds have time to look at what the developing technology can offer, the ones with the right connections (music, mostly) will be able to pull a Calcanis or a Denton and jump in on a completely open market. The real trick will be pulling the fledgeling podosphere together in a way that can be monetized.

My guess is that sponsorship will be a key element, because that doesn’t require the user to listen to anything much. It’s an automatic read next to the podcast title.

I also think radio will be OK so long as HD services are introduced.

This is actually about a week late (it’s a funny concept that things on the internet can be “late,” isn’t it?), but I wanted to comment on Fred Wilson’s post about the blogosphere.

Basically, Fred describes the expanding “blogosphere” in three ways: posting, subscribing, and tagging. I agree with him on all three points, and it’s fairly well thought out. His definition of a “post” is free-form and broad (like it should be), and he’s correct in how tagging has become a (ridiculously?) important part of tracking the posts that are out there.

But I think he missed a beat: Linking.

Now it’s true that the internet itself is essentially based on hyperlinks, so saying that blogging is can seem like claiming that monitors are held up by the floor because desks are, too. But I think that links entertain their own important purpose in the blogosphere. They’re the bread-and-butter of posting, browsing, and ranking.

A zillion posts a day follow this simple format (see current post):

Someone’s saying something (link)here!

I disagree. I want to say this! And here’s a (link) to someone else who agrees with me!

And these links (along with blogrolls) form the basis of “browsing the blogosphere” — which I do quite frequently. Many people are probably in the habit of cruising their newsreaders once or twice a day. The way I expand, modify, and update my list is by clicking. Over half of the blogs I currently read appeared on my screen by following post-embedded links. It’s like a high-profile trackback.

Also, links are a measure of importance. In my mind, this blog will start being a decent blog when people start linking back to my posts. If I get a thousand views per day, and no linkage, it probably means I’m boring.

This is why I link generously. It’s the blogging form of “props,” and it helps people discover new blogs.

I began this summer with cleaning. It’s probably the first time in my life I’ve ever been part of “spring cleaning,” at least not to any voluntary degree. But was was most amazing about the whole process (and it’s still not done, so I should say what is most amazing) is rediscovering the things that I’ve kept.

I don’t generally throw things away. Not only do I live in Seattle, where the three R’s—Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle—were impressed upon me at an early age, but I seem to have a natural tendency to get attached to things. Nostalgia is my enemy.

I found a four-year-old bag of peanuts from a baseball game (unopened). I found my orange and white striped Karate belt from (probably) around 5th grade.

I also found out that I’ve kept pretty much every receipt since I turned 18.

The amazing thing is that I still had trouble convincing myself to throw things out. As time passes I associate different things with different stages of my life; certain video games, stuffed animals, or a pair of sunglasses will conjure up a set of memories that I don’t want to lose. It’s as though I’ve chosen to index my fondest memories with the scattered contents of my room, and throwing away a bookend could mean forgetting a portion of my childhood.

And I’d like to think of that as an excuse for all the things I refuse to throw away. Because looking at my shelves, it’s clear that I don’t collect what’s valuable so much as I collect what’s valuable to me.

Sometimes that’s a bag of peanuts.

I find that while I subscribe to a large number of newsfeeds, there are only six or seven that I make sure I check every day. These feeds enjoy a special “A list” category in my feed organizer, and I’ve actually added two of them to my Google homepage.

What strikes me about these blogs, however, is that they focus on niches I don’t know much about.

Probably my favorite and most avidly read blog is TheFerrett. I know this because when I or my friends say “TheFerrett said…,” we don’t look at each other like Dr. Doolittle wandered unexpectedly into the room. An excellent writer and web designer, he writes about politics, writing, and coding. When I started reading him (about two years ago), I didn’t know much about politics or coding, and “writing” for me consisted mostly of puking up Jane Schaeffer.

Another one of my favorite blogs, one that I just started reading at the beginning of the summer, is the Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson, who writes about a mix of his family, the internet, and venture capitalism. On the big list of “things I don’t understand,” Venture Capitalism is pretty damn near the top. Until a month ago, I didn’t even know what, precicely, a VC did.

I suppose that if I had to label the theme of my own blog it would be largely “technology.” So I wonder how many people are going to end up listing me in their readers as their little window into the world of technology and gadgets—because the amazing thing about reading a blog is that you get both a window into a world that interests you and a friend. It’s like having that go-to guy for each of those areas you’d like to know more about but just don’t have the time or energy to find out yourself.

Appropriately following my previous post on how cool Steve Jobs can be, I thought I’d take a second to flesh out my disagreement with the way Apple names their operating systems.

“Tiger” and “Panther” are the official names of the two most recent iterations of the Mac OS (correct me if I’m wrong), and I find these names annoying. I understand the names are supposed to imply that the OS’s represent the “sleek, feline power and speed” of their namesake, however I feel like it’s a bit “posh,” for lack of a better word.

I just get this image of someone saying “I’m not a barber, I’m a hair stylist!” And I think Apple perpetuates that image. So, regardless of the quality of the product, I get a sense of snobbishness with the name. I guess that’s why I disagree with that image.

Don’t get me wrong — “Windows Vista” isn’t much better…I think “Windows 2005″ would’ve been great. I tend to pick on Apple because they sound so ridiculously euphemistic to me.

I can strike down another draft post I’ve had waiting for a while, because Microsoft apparently hasn’t gone batty with names like I was under the impression they had.

Unlike Apple, which actually releases operating systems with names like “Tiger” and “Panther” or possibly “Grouse,” Microsoft has announced the official name of “Longhorn”, and it’s not an animal (or part thereof).

I’m a fan of names like “Windows” or even “OS 9″…these names described the product. “Tiger” sounds like a really horrible cologne.

Watching the Daily Show last week, I heard John Stewart make one of the most salient observations about this administration i’ve heard. He said, more or less:

This administration doesn’t worry about accusations and scandal, they just flood the market. There’s so much misinformation flying about the media and the country that nobody knows what to believe or pay attention to.

Ben Adlin wrote an excellent post the other day outlining the media flip from Rove to Roberts. And this is precicely the type of media manipulation Stewart was referring to. One week ago, we had a top administration official (who, before we knew who it was, was supposed to be fired regardless of their identity) apparently responsible for treason against the United States rightfully at the center of the media’s attention. Today, we spend prime-time newstime debating the pros and cons of Bush’s new Supreme Court nomination. A nomination that cannot be acted upon until September, when congress is back in session.

Yes, the Roberts nomination is an important, news and debate-worthy topic. But not when it’s being used to distract the public from a serious crime that (it seems) was quite likely commited by the senior advisor to the President.

So how about it, Media? Let’s keep investigating!

I’m going to start a new series here at Jason-Preston.com, and it’s going to be an ongoing work. Whenever I come across something that’s highly successful, but shouldn’t, as far as I can tell, pay the bills, I’m going to post about it. Maybe there’s some key answer that just hasn’t occurred to me yet–feel free to enlighten.

To kick it off?

WordPress. This wonderful system is what I use here to do my blogging. There are no ads on this site, and you know what it costs me to use? Nothing. You know how many ads are on the Wordpress front page? None. This thing is run by a guy named Matt, who, as far as I can tell, shouldn’t be making any money. How does he eat?

As a follow-up to my last entry, it also occurs to me that Technorati isn’t necessarily dead in the water.

This blogspotting entry that I linked to in my last post quotes Wyman (lead man at PubSub) as saying:

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a startup (read Technorati) to invest in that technology. It’s probably a great learning experience. But you can’t build a sustainable business standing in front of Google.”

But actually, there are two reasons I think it does make a fair amount of sense to be Technorati. The first is that Technorati (and Blogpulse) are both blog-tracking tools as well as searches. Technorati avidly tracks tags and helps categorize blog posts similary to the way the Yahoo! directory categorizes web pages. Blogpulse has excellent “buzz” tools, tracking the most-linked to sites for a day, most yapped about news, etc. These are services that Google, Yahoo!, and MSN are unlikely to offer.

Also, developing a solid, reliable algorithm *first* is never a bad idea. Remember when Yahoo! search ran off the Google search code? Yahoo! has a long history of finding good ideas, and either buying up the company or licensing the services for their use. There’s no reason to suspect that “Yahoo! Powered by Technorati” is a phrase we’ll never see.

I’m a day or two behind on this bit of news, but I might as well echo what’s being said on A VC, Blogspotting, and Jason Calacanis’ blog.

There’s been some dissatisfaction with the available blog searching tools recently–and I can’t quite say I blame the blogosphere. I myself have never had any problems with Technorati, but it’s no secret that as the blogosphere has boomed, their level of service has sagged under the oppressive weight. In the wake of all this, get ready for the gaints: Yahoo! has decided to enter the blog search arena. And you can be assured that Google won’t be far behind.

Blog searching is going to become one of the more important searches on the web as more and more people begin to blog and read blogs. The big step however, isn’t going to be coming up with a way to effectively search blogs–serach technology shouldn’t have to change too much as blogs get integrated into search databases–but integrating search into newsreaders.

When do I get my GoogleBar for SharpReader? That’s what I want.

** x-posted on the Blog Business Summit blog. **

After mulling over it for a while, I’ve finally coughed up a half-decent explanation about why I think podcasting is changing the broadcast audio world.

First off–what is podcasting? It’s essentially a name for releasing mp3 files on the internet as a show or a blog. Usually, you can either download a podcast from a web site or subscribe to a feed using something like iTunes, which downloads episodes automatically whenever they’re ready.

So–why is it revolutionary? Podcasting is helping to change audio publishing in three ways:

1. It continues the blog trend of turning mass media upside-down
2. It’s delivered through RSS
3. It’s an on-the-go media solution

[click to continue…]

Happy 4th of July.

Be it in your mind a day symbolic of America’s great triumph over the tyranny of British injustice and the repression of freedom, or a day symbolic of the gaudy and imperialistic failure of the American system, it’s still a holiday. And holidays are for partying.

Party on, America.