EchoDitto

I think it’s fair to say that social networking has become the blackhole of online organizing. Everyone from political campaigns to fashion advertisers to indie rock bands are trying to get their foot in the door and participate in the mass movement of social energy. New gadgets and functionalities have emerged as the front-runner to bridle the unruly social network power.

Facebook has evolved from being a mere online directory of users to a platform for online organizing. Recently, Jeff Pulver announced that the Free World Dialup (FWD) has developed an application to allow users to integrate and send Voicemail via Facebook. The application allows you to give a voicemail or send a text message. However, you must be registered and maintain an active FWD account to use the application. Jeff Pulver states, “In a world where Internet Communications is not just about “voice” but rather connecting people with people.”

For two years now, my trusty Nokia 3220 has been at my side. Well, in my pocket. A belt clip is a fashion faux pas, right? Right. Anyway, we are very faithful partners.

It functions excellently as a phone and little else. It has a camera! but you wouldn't want to photograph anything with it. It has a browser! but who reads WAP pages? It does not have a QWERTY keyboard. You must will your texts.

Vermonters have long resisted their membership in the United States, and some rebel separatists are still calling for an independent Green Mountain Republic. Furthermore, the international focus of my alma mater, Middlebury College, certainly adds to the international image. But Apple, and their iPhone partner AT&T, have abused Vermont's desire for independence: iPhones, which are only available in the United States, cannot be purchased or used by Vermonters. In fact, iPhone users who make more than forty percent of their calls in Vermont will be booted from their contracts. The real reason is that Vermont is the only state without AT&T cell service, so the company is forced to cover roaming charges, but the situation smacks of discrimination.

While this may upset Vermont's Apple fanatics, the state, which has been rapidly losing its young, can certainly use this discrimination to their advantage. By courting AT&T users who want out of their contracts, everybody wins. The winters may be cold, but the Verizon reception is excellent.

It's been a bit over a month now, and I have to say that I love my iPhone. It's small--thinner than a Motorola Q, which I think used to be the thinnest smartphone on the market--and lightweight. It works a lot better than my Treo 650, even though the virtual keyboard took a little getting used to. I find that I'm using my mobile email a lot more often than on my Treo, probably because of my iPhone's ability to work well with IMAP folders. The iPod and phone features all work very well.

I'd love to know what percentage Blackberry, Treo, and Sidekick users are aware that they can edit or disable this obnoxious signature from appearing on their emails. My bet is that most people, if presented with the choice, would and DO actually leave the tag on. Sadly, I speak from personal experience.

Why do we continue to willingly muck up our own communiqués with this free advertising? What does this say about us! Surely we'd protest if our mobile providers inserted a similar ad at the beginning or end of our phone calls: "This conversation powered by the Sprint Wireless Network." Totally unacceptable.

Toronto -- I'm here for MobileActive, which is shaping up to be one of the best conferences i've ever attended -- billed as "the first global strategy meeting of activists using mobile phones in campaigns and public interest work." No boring panels, just good old-fashioned knowledge-sharing and collaboration among an impressive group of 30-odd practitioners from the Congo, Philippines, Argentina, the U.S., South Africa, the U.K., among other places.

I had a vague sense prior to arriving that this was going to be a unique experience, and that's turning out to be true Marty Kearns's endorsement was all i needed beforehand, knowing that he has a knack for avoiding the fluff and getting straight to the heart of some critical issues surrounding network-centric organizing and the environmental movement, two shared interests of ours. (I later learned that this entire event was Marty's brainchild, from his home at Green Media Toolshed).

Some of my major interests here are...

A few days ago, The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that 6,000,000 Americans have listened to podcasts-- a figure which I then called "surprising", but should now more accurately call "surprisingly WRONG".

Pew is the primary source for most of what we think we know about how Americans use the internet, so it's bizarre that their own research director doesn't appear to stand behind their methodology or conclusions.

Engadget's Peter Rojas puts it aptly:

"Not that podcasting as a phenomenon isn't growing rapidly or anything, but there's no reason to overinflate its importance, you know?"

Pew should respond officially to the controversy, or they risk damaging their credibility. Meanwhile, I've learned to read the fine print on a survey before I believe it. (Thanks, Reed.)

Yesterday, The Pew Internet & American Life Project published a report on podcasting. Their numbers are a little surprising:

• 22,000,000 Americans own iPods (or other MP3 players), and 6,000,000 Americans use them to listen to podcasts or internet radio broadcasts. (So more Americans listen to podcasts than own reptiles.)
• Nearly half of those who own iPods/MP3 players between the ages of 18-28 have downloaded podcasts.

Read the whole thing for details, but the main take-away is that the numbers seem to back up the hype. (!!)

This week's "looks like a spaceship" award goes to the "iRoamer". ILoveRadio says:

In a couple of weeks, Australian company Torian will unveil launch its "iRoamer" radio technology. Their InFusion Radio will use this technology -- it tunes into Internet radio stations using the same kind of wireless Internet as in people's homes and offices.

"People can now take their favourite radio stations with them wherever they go," a company official said. "Whether they are sitting in a café in Paris, or dining out in New York, the Infusion brings their home town radio with them."

The picture looks like it came from 1979 1982 and is the size of a city block. Maybe it doubles as a DDR-interface or BopIt.

How does it work? We don't know. I don't think cellular coverage is solid enough to reliably stream live high-quality audio, so hopefully the iRoamer uses some new unfathomed mobile-net-access technology. I guess we won't find out until it is unveil launched.

If it is cheap (<$50) and small (like altoids-sized) and actually works, it could RULE THE WORLD.

I've been trying to make Podcasting work. It is a mixed bag.

First off: For all the starry-eyed "TIVO for your iPod" buzz, "podcasting" is nothing new. MP3 blogs have been around for years, and sharing music on your webpage is as old as broadband. "Podcasting" is just a silly new buzzword for some simple RSS/Applescript automation tricks.

For podcasting to be useful to me, music hardware and podcast-aggregator software needs to be built way smarter. I've only used iPodder, but here's what it needs to do differently: