WLTC

Why Total Geeks Build Businesses Faster

Why Total Geeks Build Businesses Faster: The name of this article in Business Week says it all. Since I have always had that entrepreneurial itch, the content of the article is interesting to me. A recent survey of business leaders’ attitudes toward IT showed an owner’s level of tech savvy is linked to growth in revenue and employee count. So IT Does Matter!

Victor Keegan: Ignoring open source is costing us dear

Victor Keegan: Ignoring open source is costing us dear

… would have latched on to this new cooperativism which brings people together for a common purpose with a burning zeal. In fact, its wanton neglect could damage our economic prospects.

Cities turning off plans for Wi-Fi

Cities turning off plans for Wi-Fi: I was involved with one and I can understand why they are being shelved. Though it may sound like a good idea, the infrastructure/capital needs are tremendous and the city governments seem more interested in getting freebies than actually providing free Internet access to their residents.

AirPress

AirPress: Live video from a webcam on your blog use Adobe AIR (among other features). This is destined for the main blog but I will have to wait and test it before I can write more about it.

Paid or Free for WSJ.com?

Murdoch’s Choice: Paid or Free for WSJ.com? WSJ might be following the NY Times in making their newspaper site free as well. However, what surprised me about the article was the total audience per year that is quoted. Apparently, WSJ online has about 14 million unique visitors per year which is very odd because weblogtoolscollection.com had an audience of about 1.2 million unique visitors since the beginning of this year. They might also be talking about absolute unique visitors, and is that was the case, weblogtoolscollection.com had about 600,000 of them since the first of this year. I wonder how many absolute unique visitors TechCrunch has.

Microsoft Reveals Windows Vista SP1 Will Install XP

Microsoft Reveals Windows Vista SP1 Will Install XP: That would be very nice. I have yet to upgrade to Windows Vista because of incompatibilities with existing apps at work (some of which I maintain ) but this would work for me. Yes, I fell for this one and I fell hard!

New York Times Online is not a paid site anymore

A Letter to Readers About TimesSelect – New York Times: There is a lot of hype around the NY Times getting rid of their pay site. I support the idea and I love reading the times. But I also like reading the WSJ and the IHT which may have better news coverage but have much lesser quality commentary and reports. I am not sure if I am as excited as some of the other people about a free Times, but it is definitely good news. I now wish WSJ was also free. However, to say that TimesSelect was doomed from the start, might be a stretch.

Youlicit – Find like minded sites

Youlicit: Thanks to a post on Lifehacker, I found this search engine that suggests sites of similar nature from your search request. They also have a Firefox extension that can suggest sites of similar nature much like Stumbleupon. I am not sure I am that starved of browsing material that I would use something of this sort but I found the results for weblogtoolscollection.com interesting. Apparently we concentrate too much on Wordpress plugins and not much else.

Treo 500 Unboxed

Treo 500 Unboxed: Close look at the still-to-be-released-in-the-US Treo 500. I recently bought a Treo 755p and have been very impressed with the phone and find myself depending on it more and more. I like PalmOS better than Windows Mobile and have had very few problems with my phone so far but I am also a relative newbie to the Smartphone arena and am satisfied with a lot less than more sophisticated users. I believe that Palm has a long way to go before they make a truly advanced Smartphone (though I also strongly believe that they are capable of delivering one), the Treo 500 might be a step in the wrong direction. They might win over a few existing Treo users but they need to do much more to really wow the crowd like they have done in the past with the now aging Treo line.

TechCrunch40 List 2007

TechCrunch40 List 2007: The 40 or so companies in the TechCrunch40 list of companies that will either go live at the event or shortly thereafter. I have tested some of the software from companies on this list and they are all quite exciting. I was invited by a couple to attend their presentations or talk with them afterwards but I rarely get out to conferences and this weekend was no exception.

anySIM is here: open source GUI iPhone unlock app

anySIM is here: open source GUI iPhone unlock app: I wish I had an iPhone but I don’t. For all those wishing and hoping for an OSS and free unlock, this looks pretty promising!

Are You Being Cheated by Digital Cable?

Are You Being Cheated by Digital Cable?: Ummm…no!!! I work in the cable business. Trust me, we have more to worry about than cheating the customer out of a few measly megahertz of pipe!

Once you go Mac

Once you go Mac (You can’t go back): I am seriously considering getting myself one of those 24″ iMacs this Fall. I need a new computer, my old Windows box, which I will not get rid of, will serve fine for communicating with work and I have been wanting a Mac since I graduated in 1999. Does that make sense? My wife agrees, but she wants written instructions on how not to break my computer (she worked in cable modem tech support for many years, she knows the horror stories).

PubMatic

PubMatic: I have worked closely with these guys after reading about them on Techcrunch and I was pleasantly surprised. Rajeev was very easy and friendly to work with and he is a good listener (which is a rarity in this web 2.0 world). Use Pubmatic to increase your Google AdSense revenue by letting them determine the best colors for your AdSense ads and also letting them choose the best advertising network for your ads. This does work. My blogs are terrible when it comes to Adsense and there was a 30% increase in revenue when I switched. I just wish (ethical) advertising revenue was as easy to come by as John Chow makes it sound!

WordPress vs Drupal

WordPress vs Drupal: Mostly fair look at WordPress Versus Drupal for building various types of on demand applications and communities.

WordPress Sponsored Themes Ethical Debate

Since I was thrust into the forefront of the WordPress Sponsored Themes debate and I chose the “high road”, I had the opportunity to try an ethical decision making exercise with this ethical question and I wanted to share my thought process. Bear with me, it is long and somewhat repetitive. The first part is the question as I see it, the second part is the various perspectives of for and against allowing sponsored themes and finally my optimal resolution.

(Background edited out …) Many theme designers release themes for use with these blogging tools in order to gain experience in developing themes and to gain in popularity as a designer. Since most bloggers are hobbyists, they do not want to pay money for themes and designers have had to release their themes for free in order to gain popularity. These free themes are downloaded many hundreds of thousands of times a day by bloggers from all over the world and there are many community websites that highlight these themes and provide them as downloads.

However, there is little money to be made in distributing themes for free. Some theme authors have been trying to sell advertising on their free themes in order to make money from their work. Those free blog themes that have embedded advertising in them are termed “Sponsored Themes”. Theme advertising has taken on a dark tone in recent months. Many of these advertisers’ link to sites that are considered spam such as those peddling insurance and get rich quick schemes. These ads are also designed to generate “back links” for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of these spam sites by redirecting some of the “search engine reputation” of the sites they are displayed on to the advertisers’ sites. Since most bloggers are not tech savvy, they do not remove these links and are mostly unaware of the harm that the sponsored themes might cause their blog. Also, in order to prevent users from removing the ads on their themes, some authors have been releasing themes under non-GPL licensing schemes which is illegal under the GPL.

On the positive side, sponsored themes provide incentive for designers to release more themes for free, provide an abundance of themes for bloggers to choose from, are a great venue for ethical and tasteful advertising and they help popularize blogs and blogging. Some of the more popular and ethical Sponsored Theme authors deliver highly aesthetic, useful and beautiful themes with minimal and neatly tucked away advertising which costs them a lot of resources and time to design, build and distribute. These designers would be adversely affected by a blanket ban of sponsored themes on community sites. In addition to the positives of Sponsored Themes, some of the most popular community sites that feature these themes and are run by community leaders also sell ads from spammy advertisers on these sites. Though their ads are not forced upon unwary users, they still cast a dark shadow on the whole issue.

As leaders of the community, do we continue to allow sponsored theme authors to promote and distribute their sponsored themes on our community sites and forums or do we stop the exploitation of unwary users and prevent sponsored theme authors from being able to submit their themes to community directories. For Action is to stop the exploitation of unwary users and stop Sponsored theme authors from posting and publicizing their themes on community sites. Against Action is to do nothing and allow Sponsored Themes to be published on community sites.

“For Action” is to stop the exploitation of unwary users and stop Sponsored Theme authors from posting and publicizing their themes on community sites.

Rights Perspective:

1. This decision would facilitate the generally accepted conventions of social harmony and well being because we would not allow unscrupulous spammers to exploit unwary users
2. If this decision we universalized, we would have less spam and we would be much more productive on the Internet
3. This decision promotes the rights of people to know the truth
4. This decision does not adversely impact the possible users of these themes because it will insulate them from the bad effects of these themes on their blogs

Results Perspective:

1. Since there are millions of bloggers who could be potentially harmed by Sponsored Themes, this decision will provide the greatest amount of benefit to the largest number of people
2. This decision will provide for the best use of allocated resources of the community because it will help the community leaders concentrate on those themes designers who are ethical and provide the highest quality themes
3. This result promotes the goals of well being of the users and the community by protecting users from malicious advertisers and hoodwinking theme designers
4. If all people were valued equally, this action would generally be considered desirable by all because it would make the best use of the resources available to satisfy and help the largest number of people

Relationship Perspective:

1. This decision reinforces my responsibility to promote the health and integrity of the blogging community by forcing me to make the difficult choice and try to protect the users that build up the community
2. This decision should help the relationship of the blogging community with the organizations that develop blogging software and run the community sites because the organizations will be making a concerted effort to try and protect their users while proving them with the best themes possible
3. This decision will promote due process for all parties concerned because theme designers will still be able to design themes for Sponsorship if they so choose but we, as leaders of the community will not condone the activity
4. This decision will be fair to all concerned, especially the two stakeholders who are the least advantaged, namely the designers and the users of the themes. Designers will be able to make the choice between promoting their themes on community sites and having sponsors on their themes and users will be able to choose the themes they want to download and use and will be completely aware of any sponsorship of these themes

Reputation Perspective:

1. Human qualities demonstrated in this decision include courage to make the right decision even if it means causing some controversy
2. This is the decision that I feel I ought to make since this is in the best interest of the users and the community. I do not believe that I will have to visit this again
3. This decision is honorable. The users of these themes are not always aware of the ads and do not know for sure how badly these ads might affect them and their blogs. Also, the advertisers themselves are not the most respectable people and indulge in shady practices even on their own websites. So it is honorable to take a stand and promote and support only what we think is the best practice.
4. This decision should not make me question my ethics because I this decision will ensure that I do not compromise what I believe is right for short term benefits of some of the people concerned. Winston Churchill said if you continue to feed a crocodile to appease it, someday it will eat you and I believe that is a true statement in this case.

“Against Action” is to do nothing and allow Sponsored Themes to be published on community sites.

Rights Perspective:

1. This decision promotes fairness in the compensation of people and the distribution of resources because it allows theme designers to distribute their themes for free but also allows them to make a little bit of money from their designs
2. This decision allows the individual the ability to live their lives the way they choose to because users who prefer free themes and would not mind having advertisers links at the bottom are free to use those themes without worrying about the ill consequences
3. This decision will ensure that all individuals are treated with respect and time and effort that went into designing of the themes is compensated for with the price of the advertising on the themes
4. If this decision were universalized, we would have lots of new themes to choose from and the blogging community would benefit from the free themes that would be distributed. The Sponsored Theme community would also prosper due to the association with the larger theme population

Results Perspective:

1. This result would promote the greatest amount of benefit for the greatest number of people because the largest number of stakeholders consists of users. These users would benefit from the large number of choices they would have in free themes. The other large group of stakeholders consists of the theme authors who would also benefit from the exposure and the money they would generate from advertising
2. This promotes efficient and fair distribution of resources amongst the stakeholders because though the designers are releasing their themes for free, they will still receive compensation for their themes and this incentive will go a long way in helping them create more themes
3. This decision will promote wealth for the designers of themes that can find advertising for them and it will also promote and it will promote fellowship amongst the theme users in the community who will use and enjoy the free themes
4. If all people were valued equally, this decision would generally be considered desirable by all because this would help and compensate both the provider of the service (theme authors), the beneficiary of the service (theme users) as well as the financial community (advertisers)

Relationship Perspective:

1. This decision promotes my responsibility to promote the health and integrity of the community because this decision would encourage theme authors to write more themes which would in turn benefit the users and the community
2. This decision is fair to all, especially the disadvantaged because the users and theme designers are not the people who have much say in the community. They are the ones that have to fight for their rights and this would ensure that both users and designers get what they want
3. This decision promotes due process for the concerned parties because Sponsored Theme designers get their chance. If users did not like sponsored themes, there would be no market for them. However, since there is a thriving market for them, this decision could give these designers a chance to correct the errors in their ways if they so wanted.
4. This decision promotes fair distribution of benefits and burdens because the burden of doing the right thing is shifted to the user from the leaders of the community. The users are provided with enough information about each of the themes to know whether they are sponsored or not and what harm Sponsored Themes can bring to them or their blog. At that point, it is up to the user of the theme to decide between the good and the bad.

Reputation Perspective:

1. This decision demonstrates compassion towards the designers who work very hard to bring these themes to their users and courage to make the difficult choice. It will also display my commitment to public service and my commitment to self-regulation by the users of themes
2. The outsiders should think that the community promotes entrepreneurship and listens to and thinks about its users before making decisions for the community. They would think that free enterprise is welcome and warranted within this community.
3. I would want leaders of any other communities I am involved in to make the same kind of decision concerning me. I consider myself capable enough to make the right decision about themes and can judge the risk and the rewards on my own without my community leaders telling me how to think
4. This decision is honorable because it gives the designers a chance to make their money from a very difficult market, it gives the users the opportunity to decide on their own how evil Sponsored Themes are without us telling them that they are bad and it generally adds more themes to the pipeline and makes blogging more popular. As leaders of the community, that is the honorable thing to do though it might be the more difficult choice.

Optimal Resolution

For me, the optimal resolution is to stop the exploitation of unwary users and stop Sponsored Theme authors from posting and publicizing their themes on community sites. So we are for action. This was a very hard decision to make but after looking at all the lenses from both perspectives, we as leaders of the community cannot condone a practice that preys upon the weak and the unaware. We cannot stop the practice of Sponsored Themes completely and they will probably continue to be developed and posted on websites, forums and blogs that are outside of the community control. However, we will not allow these to be advertised or publicized within the websites that are controlled by the community and will actively purge out those Sponsored Themes that were posted in the past. We believe that this will help highlight those designers who do not practice questionable methods and will spur new development in both design of and involvement in the free themes community.

Rights Perspective:

1. This decision would facilitate the generally accepted conventions of social harmony and well being because we would not allow unscrupulous spammers to exploit unwary users. This would ensure that users are not harmed through the acts of unscrupulous advertisers and designers and we do not condone these methods.
2. If this decision we universalized, we would have less spam and we would be much more productive on the Internet. This decision might just force Sponsored Theme designers to realign their thoughts and reassess their reasons for harming their own users
3. This decision promotes the rights of people to know the truth. The users really need to know how much they are being hurt and how their actions are hurting the Internet and its users
4. This decision does not adversely impact the possible users of these themes because it will insulate them from the bad effects of these themes on their blogs. Without Sponsored Themes, more free themes from honest and hardworking designers will get attention and these designers will get the attention they deserve.

Results Perspective:

1. Since there are millions of bloggers who could be potentially harmed by Sponsored Themes, this decision will provide the greatest amount of benefit to the largest number of people. Along with bloggers who use themes, the designers who deserve the attention and accolades will get their due.
2. This decision will provide for the best use of allocated resources of the community because it will help the community leaders concentrate on those themes designers who are ethical and provide the highest quality themes. We will not spend our time and meager resources in supporting and promoting an unfair practice that hurts our users and our way of life.
3. This result promotes the goals of well being of the users and the community by protecting users from malicious advertisers and hoodwinking theme designers. Users will be insulated from having to understand the technical details of “black hat SEO” and will reap the benefits of free themes without any strings.
4. If all people were valued equally, this action would generally be considered desirable by all because it would make the best use of the resources available to satisfy and help the largest number of people. This desirable result can only be achieved if we prevent Sponsored Themes from appearing on community websites.

Relationship Perspective:

1. This decision reinforces my responsibility to promote the health and integrity of the blogging community by forcing me to make the difficult choice and try to protect the users that build up the community. The community will not get fragmented through finger pointing and lack of concrete direction. We will know where we stand with Sponsored Themes.
2. This decision should help the relationship of the blogging community with the organizations that develop blogging software and run the community sites because the organizations will be making a concerted effort to try and protect their users while proving them with the best themes possible. This is the best use of our resources and the best that we can do for our community.
3. This decision will promote due process for all parties concerned because theme designers will still be able to design themes for Sponsorship if they so choose but we, as leaders of the community will not condone the activity. We will not discriminate theme designers based on their past but will only pass judgment on their work and their use of their abilities in the future. Sponsored Theme designers are welcome to build community sites of their own to distribute Sponsored Themes.
4. This decision will be fair to all concerned, especially the two stakeholders who are the least advantaged, namely the designers and the users of the themes. Designers will be able to make the choice between promoting their themes on community sites or having sponsors on their themes and users will be able to choose the themes they want to download and use and will be completely aware of any sponsorship of these themes.

Reputation Perspective:

1. Human qualities demonstrated in this decision include courage to make the right decision even if it means causing some controversy. This decision will not be welcomed universally and there will be strong opposition from Sponsored Theme developers and might even result in a small drop in the user base. However, this should iron out at the end.
2. This is the decision that I feel I ought to make since this is in the best interest of the users and the community. I do not believe that I will have to visit this again. Sponsored Themes hurt our users, weaken the community and label us as honey pots for unscrupulous activity on the web.
3. This decision is honorable. The users of these themes are not always aware of the ads and do not know for sure how badly these ads might affect them and their blogs. Also, the advertisers themselves are not the most respectable people and indulge in shady practices even on their own websites. So it is honorable to take a stand and promote and support only what we think is the best practice.
4. This decision should not make me question my ethics because I this decision will ensure that I do not compromise what I believe is right for short term benefits of some of the people concerned. Winston Churchill had said that if you continue to feed a crocodile to appease it, someday it will eat you and I believe that is a true statement in this case.