Google? Pirate?

So Barack Obama thinks SOPA is not worth the paper it is printed on, and Rupert Murdoch, @therealshitmydadsays, thinks Google is a pirate.

That's interesting thinking. Obviously Murdoch wants his newspapers to be online but behind paywalls and not accessible through search engines. If you are paying, you obviously know the name and the domain name. Show up and read. You found me when you paid for the subscription.

I don't know where to begin. I mean, a search engine is a good thing, right? Or am I missing something here? Do we want to go back to the good old days of the Yahoo directory?

Murdoch seems to think the internet was designed to save him the costs on paper. ("Why can't you just read the paper on your computer?") Everything else should remain the same.

SOPA Is So Going Down

Image via WikipediaAnd now the White House is against it. And looks like the bill is nowhere close to hitting the floor of the House. The authors and proponents of the bill have been caught flat-footed. They obviously did not see this coming. Ever since the advent of the internet I have not seen the tech honchos getting this political. Everyone and their competition is up in arms.

I mean, can you imagine Google and Facebook and Twitter all going offline, even if only for an hour, to protest this well-intentioned piece of legislation? That would end up the biggest media event globally.

The often told story is that the old media people who have the politicians in their back pockets got those mercenary politicians to bring forth this awful, awful bill. That is only part of the story. The real story is that the Internet stands to challenge the nation-state itself. Those politicians on Capitol Hill spend much time thinking they are the center of the universe. The Internet is barking at them saying the universe has no center. Everywhere you stand is the center of the universe. And so there is this major culture clash.

The Censorship Bill Is About The Nation State
Assange: An Information Bin Laden? I Think Not

The Internet will win. The nation state will fundamentally transform itself, or it will lose.

White House: Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy
Ars Technica: Obama administration joins the ranks of SOPA skeptics
TechDirt: SOPA Delayed; Cantor Promises It Won't Be Brought To The Floor Until ‘Issues Are Addressed’
GigaOm: Tim O'Reilly: Why I'm fighting SOPA
Ars Technica: Under voter pressure, members of Congress backpedal (hard) on SOPA
CNet: Wikipedia considering joining SOPA blackout protest

Mujhko Pehchaanlo: Don 2

Twitter Should Open Up Its API ---- To Google

Twitter misunderstands real time.

Google Plus Plus Google Search

Real time is not just real time as it is happening right now. Real time is also real time as it happened in real time two years ago. But Twitter thinks only your 3,000 or so latest tweets are relevant. It does not destroy the old tweets, but it disallows access to them, which in my book is akin to destroying them.

My single biggest frustration with Twitter has been that I can not search through all of my own tweets. If I could, Twitter would be my Dropbox. But no, Twitter would not open up its API.

Twitter Is Seeing Rebirth
Twitter Asks
Being Able To Embed Tweets Is A Revolution
Twitter At Five: Not Spitting Out Well

Twitter opening up its API would mean Google being able to access all tweets without paying Twitter. Bad deal for Twitter? No. Like Jeff Jarvis says, do what you do best, link to the rest. Twitter does not do search right, if at all. My tweets belong to me, not to Twitter. At the least I should have access to them.

All tweets ever tweeted becoming fair game to Google Search would enhance the piece of real estate called the tweet tremendously. It is in Twitter's interests to open up. Lift the iron curtain. Mr. Dorsey, tear down this wall.

TechCrunch: Twitter Really, Really Hates Google’s New Google+ Integration

30-Storey Building Built In 15 Days

Via Ujwal Thapa

Social Media Week Is Upon Us

There is an email in my inbox this morning. It is from Social Media Week. February 13-17, used to be first week in February. Two years back I was trying to go to as many events as possible. Last years I said I would go to only two or three but ended up going to many more. This year I was thinking I will stick to a few. But now I am in a mood to not fight the urge. Just let it go. This year I might again attempt what I tried two years back: go to as many events as possible.

New Business Cards

You start by looking at the schedule and using the Save To Favorites feature. The only guiding light being Event Name.

Google Plus Plus Google Search

Image by Squidooer via FlickrMonths and months back, more than a year back I went on record hoping Facebook would do this, it would let me search through all my wall posts, and the wall posts of all people I might be connected to. I guess I was waiting for Google Plus the entire time.

Search, Plus Your World

Google just married social to search. I can't search through all my wall posts on Facebook, to my great consternation I can't search through all my tweets (They are all on your servers!). But now I can search through the walls of everyone I might be connected to on Google Plus. Tremendous value has been added.

Of all the features that have been added to Google Plus since its launch, this is the most exciting to date. I am digging it. Facebook had the option to get into search last year but instead it outsourced that to Microsoft. And Microsoft did not quite do it. I guess search is hard to do. Google has the secret sauce.

The Google search engine suddenly has become more valuable. This is not just about Google Plus. This is not even primarily about Google Plus. You smell a conspiracy. Google never meant to launch a social network like Facebook. It always meant to add the social layer to search itself. It was always about search. Google Plus perhaps is smoke and mirrors.

A Smart Movie Theater Screen

People talk about the TV screen. And there the problems stand in the form of legacy companies sitting on mountains of great content they are not willing to share in new ways. The technology part is easy.

But I'd like to talk about the movie screen at the movie theater. Digital screens could still have projectors. But there would be no physical film. And the theater owner would not decide what movie to play, or even the show times.

Every movie ever made anywhere would be an option. Once a certain number of people buy tickets to that movie, it would get scheduled to play. Some places that number might be 10, some places 50, some places 100. The movie owners get their cut. The theater owners get their cut.

And you'd get to see online how close to the threshold a particular movie you desire is. You could run social media campaigns to get your friends to join you. Ticket buyers would thus help with the marketing.

No movie would ever get old. All movies would have immediate global distribution. I think the results would be surprising. Bollywood might take over the world at that point.

Seven Screens

Vinod Khosla At MIT

The Movie Industry's Non Innovation

Image via WikipediaSteve Blank has a great blog post cross posted on ReadWriteWeb.

Why The Movie Industry Can’t Innovate and the Result is SOPA

This year the movie industry made $30 billion (a third of it in the U.S.) from box-office revenue. But the total movie industry revenue was $87 billion. Where did the other $57 billion come from? ..... From sources that the studios at one time claimed would put them out of business: Pay-per view TV, cable and satellite channels, video rentals, DVD sales, online subscriptions and digital downloads. ..... Today it's the Internet that's going to put the studios out of business. Sound familiar? ..... Why was the movie industry consistently wrong? And why do they continue to fight new technology? ........ But why does the movie business think their solution is in Washington and legislation? History and success. ...... when they hired Jack Valenti, who ran the studios' lobbying efforts for the next 38 years. Ironically, it was Valenti's skill in hobbling competitive innovation that negated any need for studios to develop agility, vision and technology leadership. ....... The incumbents tend to have short-sighted goals and often fail to recognize that more money can be made on new platforms and distribution channels. ...... Ironically, the six major movie studios have a great technology lab in Silicon Valley with projects in streaming rights, Video On Demand, Ultraviolet, etc. But lacking the support from the studio CEOs or boards, the lab languishes in the backwaters of the studios' strategy. Instead of leading with new technology, the studios lead with litigation, legislation and lobbying. (Imagine if the $110 million/year spent on lobbying went to disruptive innovation.) ......... The fact is piracy is rampant in all forms of commerce. ..... Grocery and retail stores euphemistically call it shrinkage. ...... SOPA gives corporations unprecedented power to censor almost any site on the Internet. ...... What the music and movie industry should be doing in Washington is promoting legislation to adapt copyright law to new technology- and then leading the transition to the new platforms. ..... Studios are run by financial managers who have no corporate DNA to exploit disruptive innovation

I think of the Internet as one big farm. It is the farm that feeds you mindfood. Movies are mindfood. Of all technologies that were ever invented for the creation and consumption of mindfood, the Internet is the best by a wide margin. The movie executives fighting the Internet is farmers saying keep me away from the farm. What kind of farmers are these people?

Microsoft Finally Cracked The Phone

Image via WikipediaIt is like Google finally cracked social with Google Plus. Microsoft, long ridiculed, might finally have something to offer in the phone space. And because of its alliance with Nokia, that has global implications. As in, they could scale fast. Watch out. There is a third player in the game now.

The New York Times: The Critics Rave ... for Microsoft?

While the likes of Apple have captured our imaginations with nifty products like the iPhone, Microsoft has produced a long list of flops, from smart wristwatches to the Zune music player to the Kin phones....... Unlike other handset makers creating devices with Microsoft’s software, Nokia is not also developing Android phones. ..... The next major version of software for PC’s, Windows 8, will look a lot like Windows Phone, which Microsoft hopes will help it work better on tablet devices. A Windows Phone-like makeover was also part of the new software update for Xbox, which along with Kinect is one of Microsoft’s few consumer hits. ....... The tale of how Microsoft created Windows Phone starts with the introduction of the iPhone, in 2007...... Windows Mobile had a complex array of on-screen menus, including a start button for applications that was borrowed from Windows PCs. The software ran on sluggish devices that had physical keyboards and, in some cases, styluses. ....... Once the iPhone exploded into the marketplace, Microsoft executives knew that their software, as designed, could never compete. ....... The decision was to start from scratch, a move that had serious consequences. Not only did it delay a Windows phone, it gave Google an opening to woo Microsoft handset partners to Android. ......... the Zune HD came out years too late, well after the iPod had cemented its lead. ...... Microsoft gave its handset partners detailed specifications of the types of technical innards required, including processors with certain amounts of power and screen technologies. Handset makers grumbled about the rules, but the result was phones that ran better. ........ “The company is being somewhat bold and saying what worked for them in 1992 won’t work now.” ....... this year is crucial; it will show whether a respected product is enough to help Microsoft make up for lost time. Even if it feels good to be a favorite of tech critics for a change, Microsoft needs a blockbuster in the mobile business, not a cult hit.

I think Microsoft finally has a mainstream product in the space. That would be a first.

Engadget: Nokia Lumia 900 coming to AT&T, further details expected on Monday
The Nokia Blog: NYT: Nokia Lumia 900 Going Official January 9th, Sleek & Metallic

BusinessWeek: Nokia Said to Announce Plans for First Microsoft Phone for AT&T

..... the device may sell for $249 with a two-year contract ....

The Verge: NYT confirms Nokia Lumia 900, headed to AT&T

..... if the rumors hold, we're looking at a 4.3-inch WVGA display, 512MB of RAM, and 8-megapixel camera, all running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.