 |
This Blog Thing
by Ross Lasley
As you might imagine, we get lots of questions about buzzwords, and lately many folks have been asking what our thoughts are on blogs. Several of the people at KISS have blogs - Michael publishes restaurant reviews and tasty recipes at Cape Dining Out, for instance.
In exploring the blog option for a new site – kisscomputing.org – Desiree made a comment that I think really captures everything you need to know about blogs:
“It's easier for me to just make a website than it is to use this blog thing.” |
This really struck me, and it is not surprising a geek would think this way. To my mind the entire blog buzz stuff can be attributed to the fact that the vast majority of people feel the exact opposite way – it's easier to blog than to make a website.
Funny thing – while both camps weren't necessarily paying attention, the entire notion of what is “easier” is quickly becoming moot. Soon (or now, depending on your perspective) both options will be very easy.
This leads me to my personal opinion of blogs: there's nothing very special or innovative about them. They are simply old technology in a new box. Yes, blogs usually have RSS feeds, but websites do, too (and had it first in fact); blogs allow visitors to leave comments, but so do websites . . . and eventually all of this is going to be forgotten.
Here is a “how serious a geek are you” test – anyone know the difference between a MBBS and a FBBS? Back in pre-Internet days lots of us had Bulletin Board Systems – typically running in our basements and connected to one or two phone lines users could dial to connect at – gasp – 300 baud or so.
There was a major split for almost a year between the M folks and the F folks – MBBS stands for Message Bulletin Board System and FBBS stands for File Bulletin Board System. In the former, you were limited to posting messages in plain text only; and in the latter, you could post files (usually pictures) – lines were drawn, people were called names, and a serious battle ensued.
What happened? Nobody cared. Within a few years all BBS systems ended up supporting both messaging and files, and the generic term you might know today – BBS - began to be used – in the end people only cared about what it did, and let the geeks worry about the particular type of technology used.
The same thing will happen to blog creation software and website creation software – within a few years no one will even remember the distinction.
One of the most vocal of the “Internet talking Heads” (a topic for another issue) about blogs is a woman named Debbie Weil. She runs a company called WordBiz, Inc. in Washington DC.
KISS designed Debbie's site and worked with her for a few years – Debbie is a serious perfectionist, and it is what makes her good at what she does. She would often want to alter her site three or four times a day, so we set her up with the software we use called Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is the dominant piece of software for web developers and has become pretty much “the” industry standard tool. Debbie – like most non-geeks – had trouble making the software do what she wanted.
Debbie was primed for a blog – perfect candidate as a person who really did want to update their site at least daily but was having trouble with the technology. When Debbie found blogs, she fell in love – today she has several different blogs and has even taken up residence at MonaLisaOfBlogging.com.
I am thrilled to see that Debbie is successfully getting her words out every day and communicating with her readers. It's a great success story – but from my chair the geeky part of it was not the point. If the web site creation software had been as “easy” as the blog stuff, I suspect she would have used that with glee.
To my mind, blogs are basically nothing – a particular type of technology that is getting a moment in the spotlight. At the end of the day, most business people just want the car to go down the road – they don't care how the carburetor works.
How Much Does Piracy Cost?
by Josiah Cole
BSA, or rather, I should say Microsoft/Apple/Adobe released a report in May 2005 analyzing the financial impact of software piracy worldwide. The numbers are huge - - $33 billion in losses, 1/3 of all software installed is pirated, and the value of the all the pirated software coming in at close to $200 billion.
My sarcasm from the first line of this article should be explained. BSA is the Business Software Alliance “dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world.” Furthermore their website states, it is the “voice of the world's commercial software industry”. This basically means that BSA actively serves the needs of it's members by doing these types of reports and research, outlining the impact of digital theft to the world. One would then hypothesize (As I have) that any report being done by BSA on piracy would tend to report larger, or should I say “slightly inflated,” losses, which, in turn, would cause law makers to pass new laws and put more money into pursuing this rampant theft. BSA, of course, denies such accusations and actively defends their model by criticizing people who speak out against the numbers.
Don't misunderstand - - I'm not debating that piracy is a big problem. What I do take offense at is BSA's reporting techniques and motives.
The formula BSA uses to report that huge $33 billion in losses is flawed, and in a big way. They assume for every instance of pirated software a direct loss to the industry. This cannot be assumed, because many people would simply not buy the software if they didn't pirate it.
Of the many charts and graphs they show, they outlined which countries see the most piracy. Vietnam, Ukraine, China, Zimbabwe and Indonesia round out the top five, all with piracy rates over 87%. My question to BSA is this: “ If you “cracked down” on piracy, do you really think your average Zimbabwean or Chinese citizen would then go out and purchase a legal copy of Microsoft Windows XP or Adobe Photoshop? The answer is “NO” for most countries, and I sense the high cost of these applications would dissuade many in the US from making the purchase, too.
Piracy does hurt the software industry, especially the smaller niche markets, but not as much as BSA would like you to believe. I believe strongly that piracy can help the industry grow, albeit in an unconventional way. Let me give an example for the United States and economically thriving countries that can be applied to other nations.
Many kids pass through grade school and college swapping music and pirated software among their friends. Others access it online, and distribute it through online friends. What all these kids and young adults have in common is a small bank account. College tuition, no allowance, and a steady job of mowing lawns won't cover the cost of many programs like Adobe Photoshop ($600) or Windows XP. However, when these people grow up, graduate and get jobs or start companies and need software, I would imagine a lot of them actually buy the software this time around. Using the software when they are younger allows them to try many more software titles that they wouldn't have access to if they had to buy them all. Learning the interfaces of software available and developing bonds with programs lays the groundwork for the titles will be bought later in life when the earning power is greater. This contradicts BSA's conclusion that there is a direct loss to the industry when software titles are pirated. These people would simply not buy the software they pirate on a 1 to 1 basis due to the prohibitive cost model.
This example can be extended to the “developing” world where piracy is a much bigger problem. These countries won't “grow” up in the same manner as American kids do but as the countries mature economically, these “pirates” will be converted and will buy the software they've been pirating all this time. (The interesting sub plot to this is that developing countries are turning to free Open Source software that directly competes with the BSA member's products.)
The answer of course is not to let the world pirate without any penalties or enforcement, but I do believe many times the owners of software and media licenses underestimate the power of piracy to help their industry grow..
In a perfect world the members of BSA and all software creators would get every penny for their work, and frankly they do deserve to get some of that “pirate booty”. Employing a partisan lobby group to put out inflated reports, though, is not acceptable. What I would enjoy seeing is a report by BSA that addresses my point above, What are the possible positive effects piracy has on the market?
There isn't enough time to discuss all angles here so tell me what you think.
Related Articles:
Apple computer: Is Piracy the Pathway to Profits?
Microsoft to Introduce Cheaper Version of Windows
|
Here a laptop, there a laptop, everywhere a laptop |
|
by Michael
McGrath
An interesting stat crossed my desk
last week. Current Analysis, Inc., a market research firm
in San Diego, CA, reported that notebook
computers outsold desktop models for the first time in May. Notebooks represented
53% of the units sold in the United States during the month,
up from 49.7% in April. These sales results included both
personal consumer and small business purchases.
Notebook prices have dropped 17% in the past year, whereas
desktop prices have fallen only 4%. It's easy to see why
notebook sales would rise - 17% on a $1,500 notebook is
pretty substantial when compared with 4% on a $700 desktop.
Notebooks and their performance, though, too, have improved
quite substantially. Longer battery life, and features such
as wireless Internet access, better graphics, and the ability
to play DVDs has made them competitive with desktop models,
the report noted.
Last year at this time, 80% of notebooks included wireless
Internet access; now, 95% of them do. It's a more mobile
world we live in, and the need to be online is extending
to include more hours of every day. I've noticed recently
that people expect replies to emails on the same day they're
sent, using email almost as an instant messenger, and the
computing mobility notebooks provide, along with wireless
Internet access and the ever-increasing number of “hot
spots,” will make this expectation more common over
time.
For myself, I prefer not to be that much “on call.” I'm
a copy writer, and there are just no such things as copy
writing emergencies, notwithstanding some folks' opinions
to the contrary. This is one of the reasons I will not join
the 53% who purchased notebooks last month. I just don't
want to be reachable all the time. There are other reasons,
of course, but I'll give this one for today.
|
|
Shameless Plug |
|
A very good friend of Amy's is performing
a one woman show tomorrow night, June 16th, 7:00PM at the
Crown & Anchor in Provincetown, MA.
The show is comprised of "individual shots" from a play
by Eric Bogosian called "Drinking in America".
Guaranteed to make your stomach ache with laughter, and
leave you feeling lucky to be on this small rock we all inhabit
together.
If you live on Cape Cod, check it out. You can call (508)
487-1430 for tickets.
|
|
