This is why I hate Georgia Tech (after Uga VII died this week).
Georgia Tech Cartoon of Dead Uga
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Yearly Archives: 2009
Remembering Uga VII
Uga VII, Damn Good Dawg.
An Integrated Social Address Book
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mager/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
I have recently come to the conclusion that the future of the address book is in the social realm… and likely includes the cloud.
The big announcement yesterday was that Microsoft will incorporate more social-ness in Outlook, first with LinkedIn (TechCrunch post). Here is the news from LinkedIn and the announcement from the Microsoft Outlook team. Outlook will integrate LinkedIn profiles with Outlook contacts, including activity feeds, profile pictures, and direct links to LinkedIn profiles.
The Microsoft Outlook team actually went above and beyond just integrating LinkedIn, and created a framework for any social network to integrate with Outlook. The framework is called the Outlook Social Connector. In the future, any social network or service should be able to integrate with Outlook in similar ways. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Facebook integration announced next.
The social-ness in Outlook isn’t a new concept. Xobni has for a while offered an interesting Outlook add-in that integrates LinkedIn and Facebook (among other services). WebWorkerDaily recently had a post about making Outlook more social.
As I stated at the beginning, I think the future of the address book lies with social networks and online services. Xobni and Outlook Social Connector are just the beginning of a major trend (on the desktop). But mobile address books have already started integrating online services.
The Palm Pre was the first mobile device to tightly integrate social networks and online services. It’s Synergy feature integrates information from Facebook, LinkedIn, Gmail, Google Contacts, online calendars, and instant messaging services. See here for a good screenshot of a “linked contact”. And here’s Palm’s description of the feature(s) (there are a lot of good pictures on that page):
Pre uses the Palm® Synergy™ feature to bring your Microsoft® Office Outlook®, Google™, Yahoo!, and Facebook® calendars together for one logical view of your day. And if you have contacts stored in those places or on LinkedIn®, Pre can pull in each person’s information and combine it under one entry, making it easier to find what you need.
ArsTechnica has a great article looking at the Synergy feature and the ability to pull contacts and other information into the phone. The CEO of Funambol (a mobile sync solution that I use) thinks that Synergy is the killer feature and has this to say:
But then I added my Facebook account and the magic started. My friends appeared on my contact list with pictures. Where possible, the app merged my Facebook and Gmail contacts (I guess using their email or cell phone or name). Visually, it reminds you if a contact is merged, because you see the contact picture in a deck (easy to see than to explain). You can remove the link, or add a link to connect two contacts that are the same but do not share any common info: for example, my wife that has no email address in Facebook so it could not be linked, but now I have her picture on my phone and it will change if she changes her profile in Facebook. When you edit a contact, it shows you where every field came from. Some can’t be modified (you can’t change any of your friends info from Facebook, they do). It even merged two contacts I had duplicated in Gmail by mistake… Awesome. Sync nirvana. Finally.
Motorola built a similar feature into its recent operating system, called MOTOBLUR. Their description says (and check out the pictures):
Put everyone together in one address book without lifting a finger. Only MOTOBLUR continuously syncs your phone and email contacts with your friends from Facebook™, MySpace and Twitter. Automatically.
And Vodafone has Vodafone 360 (announcement).
But these solutions are just the beginning of the mobile, social address book.
I’d like to see these types of features move to other devices. The easiest way to integrate more social networks and online services would be through Funambol, the open source sync client that supports many, many phones. And since the CEO Fabrizio Capobianco thinks so much of the social sync built-in to the Palm Pre (see above), you would think Funambol would be involved more in the social arena. But Funambol only really has AvatarGrabber (to grab photos from Facebook, etc.), which is a very rough, client-side app (not built-in to Funambol). They have facebook-client project, but no outcome exists (and no Facebook sync). And there was also some interest in a feature to invite contacts into your social network, but again, no outcome.
I’m also surprised BlackBerry hasn’t done more in this arena. They seem to be becoming one of the larger consumer (as opposed to business) phone providers, but even their spiffy new operating system doesn’t have any social features.
So, to conclude, the integrated, social address book is the future. Some type of sync between your phone contacts and your contacts in social networks and online services (ie. Gmail and Google Contacts). This integrated, social address book has really only been deployed at the mobile level on the Palm Pre, Vodafone, and Motorola CLIQ. And on the desktop, really Xobni is the only contender, while the Microsoft Outlook Social Connector (and LinkedIn support) will be coming soon.
I hope to see it deployed soon elsewhere (Blackberry and Funambol?).
Why I Laugh at DMCA Takedown Notices (and Why They Don’t Work)
I seriously love it when a company attempts to shut someone up (to cover up something they *think* is bad) and the attempt to shut up someone causes a bigger story. Like today’s post on TechCrunch about tweetphoto sending a takedown request over a podcast with it’s former CEO (former because of the podcast). The podcast wasn’t incriminating, so tweetphoto didn’t protect their interests, they just let Mike Arrington make them look bad (for good cause).
People, learn that a cease-and-desist order or a DMCA takedown notice will not quiet the damning story. Neither will a gag order (that’s an example). One of my favorite recent examples is the Ralph Lauren scandal involving the photoshopped skinny model and BoingBoing’s response to a DMCA takedown notice:
So, to Ralph Lauren, GreenbergTraurig, and PRL Holdings, Inc: sue and be damned. Copyright law doesn’t give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings. You should know better. And every time you threaten to sue us over stuff like this, we will:
a) Reproduce the original criticism, making damned sure that all our readers get a good, long look at it, and;
b) Publish your spurious legal threat along with copious mockery, so that it becomes highly ranked in search engines where other people you threaten can find it and take heart; and
c) Offer nourishing soup and sandwiches to your models.
Look folks, people notice these things. Especially in the Internet Age. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (like the ACLU for the internet) has even compiled the “Takedown Hall of Shame.” And Chilling Effects has a database of takedown orders.
Stop the thought process that says we can make this better by trying to shut someone up. It doesn’t work and it makes a bigger story.
Georgia-Florida Week 2009
It’s that time of year end, when thousands of Bulldog faithful make the annual weekend migration to Jacksonville, Florida, for the University of Georgia vs. University of Florida football game. The game which is better known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (I don’t care what Iron Mike says).
This year, the game seems to be not too big of a deal. The Gators are ranked #1 in the land, and the Dawgs come into the game with 3 big losses.
I’ve got no reservations about this game. I know we are the underdawgs by 15 points. And we’ll likely be playing against more than 11 men (“I’m sure we’ll get one of those letters that mean nothing, that Bobby [Petrino] got last week, but Florida and Alabama live on,” Kiffin said). But that doesn’t mean that a lot isn’t on the line.
I, for one, don’t want to see Tim Tebow break Herschel Walker’s record for career rushing touchdowns in the Southeastern Conference. Granted, Walker’s was in a different time, when stats were calculated differently (look at the stats, Herschel was better) and even the Junkyard Blawg notes that the comparisons are bogus.
But I want to see UGA win! I’ve been there, felt the pain and heartbreak of another loss AND the joy and elation of a win. That elation is awesome.
We’ve got the team to do it (look at the stars, including AJ Green). But Florida’s going to be coming after us. They are still (???) looking to avenge the excessive celebration of 2007.
Don’t believe me? Read this:
Georgia wants to avenge an embarrassing 49-10 loss. And Florida is still fired up about Georgia’s 2007 end-zone celebration. DT Terron Sanders calls it a “sign of disrespect,” among other things, after Georgia “stormed the field.”
“We feel as if it’s a slap in the face,” Sanders said. “We can’t just let it be a one-year thing where we feel like we took care of it. We always have to look back at it as disrespect.”
I find that funny as hell. Why? Because right after that, this R-E-S-P-E-C-T shouting Sanders says this in the same interview:
Surely Georgia might show footage of the closing minutes of last year’s game, when Coach Urban Meyer called three timeouts, just for kicks.
“I thought it was funny,” Sanders said. “At the same time, I dind’t know if he did it just to try to get more reps in or what…We’re going to go ahead and continue to say we did it to get more game-time experience for the younger players.”
You want to talk about respect? You were up by 39 points. You want respect, you give respect. I have stronger words for this guy, but I’m going to let them slide.
So Florida, we’re coming for you.
More on White House and Drupal
I wanted to write a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the White House Using the Drupal Open Source Content Management System.
There has been quite a bit of coverage following the short announcement about the White House website.
techPresident has a bit more information on why the White House decided to use Drupal as its content management system.
Tim O’Reilly, of O’Reilly Media, posted some thoughts on the announcement. He managed to track down some specifics on what systems the White House used to implement Drupal:
That Drupal implementation is in turn running on a Red Hat Linux system with Apache, MySQL and the rest of the LAMP stack. Apache Solr is the new White House search engine.
He also mentions the White House possibly contributing back some of the code they used to implement Drupal:
The source code for Drupal (and the rest of the LAMP stack) is indeed available, but the modifications that were made to meet government security, scalability, and hosting requirements have not yet been shared. In my conversations with the new media team at the White House, it is clear that they are exploring this option.
The ZDNet open source blog thinks that this will be a good test for Drupal (and, really, open source) security – I agree.
I can’t wait to hear more details.
White House Uses Drupal Open Source CMS
Saturday morning the White House moved to a new content management system, the open source Drupal, for their website. And you can’t tell a difference. WhiteHouse.gov looks the same as it did Friday, but the underlying system to manage the site has changed over to a completely free and open system.
This is quite an exciting development and accomplishment for the open source world.
The Huffington Post has a good article about the new system behind WhiteHouse.gov. Drupal’s project lead Dries Buytaert also writes about the White House move to Drupal and an open source system.
I’ve already added WhiteHouse.gov to the list of Governments Using Open Source CMSs at FollowYourGov.
Moving Goverments Using Open Source CMS
I have decided to move Governments Using Open Source CMSs over to a new website, FollowYourGov.
I started FollowYourGov to chronicle the use of social media and social networking in governments. I hope to show governments taking advantage of social networks to connect with their citizens.
You can find Governments Using Open Source CMSs over at FollowYourGov.
SEC Admits Another Mistake
The Southeastern Conference has admitted to committing another (UGA-LSU excessive celebration call) officiating mistake that likely decided a big conference game. How long will this go on? What do fans have to do to see close games decided by players, and not referees? At least Penn Wagers has stayed out of the limelight.
Update (10/20/2009): Tony Barnhart and Georgia Sports Blog agree that there need to be changes.
Update (10/22/2009): The Southeastern Conference has suspended the crew involved in both the Arkansas-Florida and Georgia-LSU games. Finally. Here’s coverage at the AJC and the Georgia Sports Blog. ESPN has an interview with the head referee of the crew, who offers a mea culpa (and doesn’t get my forgiveness).
History of Georgia’s Hedges
“Between the hedges” is likely the most widely known phrase in the state of Georgia. And for a reason. ESPN recently had a great article on the history of the hedges that grace the football field in Sanford Stadium, and then Georgia Sports Blog linked to an article by Dan Magill about the hedges. And I want to post these here so I will always remember the history. Go Dawgs!