Since I've read these slides by Jyri Engeström at an OpenSocial meeting I've been thinking if writing shorter and more frequent blogs would be the right way to go.
At the moment I write at two blogs and one microblog. But I also have five inactive blogs.
Here I try to discuss ideas that some people (including me) are really interested in thinking about a little further, to understand what is going on in the environment around us and how it makes a difference in our lives, so that maybe we can shape the future to our best interest. The posts usually have a minimum length so that the ideas can be expressed with a beginning, middle and end. At my other blog I write short news on a more general and popular theme, geek stuff. If I count the number of words written at each blog, they are more or less the same, although at my other blog they are spread in a larger number of posts.
Now, let's see some numbers from Google Analytics. For the blog with shorter posts I have four times the number of visitors I have here, but the average time on site is exactly the same. That almost makes me think I should focus on writing shorter posts with more frequency. On the other hand, the feedback I get from the readers of this blog is much more insightful. So I'd be trading quantity over quality. And I don't want to do that.
However, I can't say there is a linear function between the length of the posts and the value it adds to my own life. When it comes to microblogging, if I interact with the right community of people I can extract useful information while not spending too much time writing or filtering a flood of posts.
Of course, considering that the content of my blogs are very different from each other and that my audiende is very limited I can't really generalize my findings. But one thing that every blogger should keep in mind is who is the target audience, what they expect from you, and what you expect from them.
2008-07-07
2008-06-18
Firefox Viral Marketing
Looks like the viral marketing has been working well for Firefox 3. You can keep track of the progression at the download counter page.
It would be interesting if they released a graph of downloads per hour.
It would be interesting if they released a graph of downloads per hour.
Wikia Search Again
Two weeks after my last rant, I just would like to say that I feel things are working better in the project now. People are being able to discuss ideas and there is better communication about what is going on.
2008-06-03
Wikia Search New Launch
Today a message has been sent by Jimmy Wales to the Wikia Search Mailing List:
My first question is how the other people who wrote reviews knew about it already. Did they find out by themselves as soon as the got up in the morning, or were they told about it? And in this second case, they were told by whom? Anyway, the real question is how come the list of people who are really interested in the project never knows what is going on in it?!
Is Jimmy Wales following Jason Calacanis strategy and thinking the main advantage of having a community is doing viral marketing of their product? But hey, the people subscribed to the Wikia Search list knew that the new features of Mahalo were being launched before it was publicly announced! So looks like Calacanis is doing a much better job at that. To be fair, Jeremie Miller told us they planned to launch the new features sometime (almost one month ago), when John McCormac asked if there was any updates. Now let's compare that with the almost daily updates that I received when I was in the Mahalo list.
So, basically, this is how it works: if you are a developer, maybe you can find your way through the code (after you find the code itself, which isn't exactly a straightforward task), and then you can try to contribute. From the activity I see on the dev lists they don't talk much to each other, but it is enough to get things done. However, there is one not so little problem with this approach: although they say the project is open source, there is no license! And if you aren't a developer, your contribution is limited to promoting the site and using it.
Now, about using the site. They really have new cool features! The interface improved a lot and you have much better control over the search results. You can not only give a rating to each link, but also edit, delete, add, etc. I think this is how it should have been from day one. There is even a feature in which you can change the background of a search result to add a relevant image. On the other hand, the index doesn't seem to be that much better. It's still missing lots of sites and sometimes the same site appears more than once. So I'm not sure it is really ready to be used in large scale yet, what is important to get the critical mass needed to make collaborative production work.
Wikia Search started as four organizational principles: Transparency, Community, Privacy, and Quality. But the real work is done by a small group, cathedral style, ignoring feedback that comes from the outside. So far the search quality isn't high and even the privacy isn't that much respected considering anyone can see the IP of the people who edited anything on the search results.
But it is slowly getting better. Let's see what comes next. Maybe they will even figure out how people can actually play a larger role in it.
Just pinging this list to make sure everyone here is seeing the new
launch today... lots of new features, new and much better index, etc.
Getting favorable reviews so far...
My first question is how the other people who wrote reviews knew about it already. Did they find out by themselves as soon as the got up in the morning, or were they told about it? And in this second case, they were told by whom? Anyway, the real question is how come the list of people who are really interested in the project never knows what is going on in it?!
Is Jimmy Wales following Jason Calacanis strategy and thinking the main advantage of having a community is doing viral marketing of their product? But hey, the people subscribed to the Wikia Search list knew that the new features of Mahalo were being launched before it was publicly announced! So looks like Calacanis is doing a much better job at that. To be fair, Jeremie Miller told us they planned to launch the new features sometime (almost one month ago), when John McCormac asked if there was any updates. Now let's compare that with the almost daily updates that I received when I was in the Mahalo list.
So, basically, this is how it works: if you are a developer, maybe you can find your way through the code (after you find the code itself, which isn't exactly a straightforward task), and then you can try to contribute. From the activity I see on the dev lists they don't talk much to each other, but it is enough to get things done. However, there is one not so little problem with this approach: although they say the project is open source, there is no license! And if you aren't a developer, your contribution is limited to promoting the site and using it.
Now, about using the site. They really have new cool features! The interface improved a lot and you have much better control over the search results. You can not only give a rating to each link, but also edit, delete, add, etc. I think this is how it should have been from day one. There is even a feature in which you can change the background of a search result to add a relevant image. On the other hand, the index doesn't seem to be that much better. It's still missing lots of sites and sometimes the same site appears more than once. So I'm not sure it is really ready to be used in large scale yet, what is important to get the critical mass needed to make collaborative production work.
Wikia Search started as four organizational principles: Transparency, Community, Privacy, and Quality. But the real work is done by a small group, cathedral style, ignoring feedback that comes from the outside. So far the search quality isn't high and even the privacy isn't that much respected considering anyone can see the IP of the people who edited anything on the search results.
But it is slowly getting better. Let's see what comes next. Maybe they will even figure out how people can actually play a larger role in it.
2008-05-27
Wiki Books
Once Alexander Pope wrote
But I'd like to share with you some books written collaboratively that are worth reading:
- The Wealth of the Networks
- Code 2.0
- Wikinomics Playbook
Forever reading, never to be readThat is what is happening here. Lately I've been too busy reading so I didn't have time to write on this blog.
But I'd like to share with you some books written collaboratively that are worth reading:
- The Wealth of the Networks
- Code 2.0
- Wikinomics Playbook
2008-05-08
Wikia Search Hype Cycle
The graphic above is known as the Gartner Hype Cycle. Wikia Search had its peak of inflated expectation on January 7th, and this is where I think it is now.
Are you going to help take it to the next level?
2008-05-07
Meta-info
I'll use this post to explain about the title: Iridescence is an optical phenomenon in which the color seen in a surface changes according to the angle of view. This means that when more than one person is looking at the same thing from different perspectives they can be seeing different colors. This is how the stuff I plan to write about here works: different people see each project by their own point of view and contribute to it in a holistic way, creating a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. The name Iridescence is based on the Iris character from the Greek mythology, a messenger who travelled around bringing news to the mortals, and as such can represent the communication power of the Internet.
Update: change of plans, this blog isn't moving anywhere for now.
Update: change of plans, this blog isn't moving anywhere for now.
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