Taking stock of the 'clog'

If you've read my previous BLAB then you would know what I am speaking about. I see little value in one directional blogs that exist to complement once CV. They're nice to have but the with all clutter around, there is little other reason for their existence and time investment.

Hence, after more than 240 posts and 800 days of existence I'd like to take stock of who reads any of these blog posts. Simply comment/ email/ RT with @karlgalea in the tweet / tag me in your facebook status.

I may even set a disclaimer of a minimum interactions before giving up on clogging!

Thanks for reading (and making this more of a clog).

"Clogging" is the new blogging

Why do people blog, tweet or join a network for that matter? Some join because they'd like to have something to say, others really do have something to say and the rest just enjoy joining in.

If your blogging is about attention seeking there is harsh competition in the Attention Economy and you will soon realize that with all the other attention seekers (coupled with the great information clutter), you're in for some hard work.

If your blogging is about what you have to say, rather than about you, then it's all about content. Great content could make some noise.

Finally, there's 'Clogging', it's the new way of 'blogging', unrestricted to the blogging media. In essence, it is when the community blogs. In the latter type of blogging, neither the blogger and nor the content is at the centre. It's the community that makes or breaks it.

Clogging is not limited to blogs. Yes Clogging does happen when a community of people decides to set up a blog, however clogging also happens when anyone ReTweets, Tags, Likes or Diggs content. Suddenly it becomes an online discussion, a clog! Over the past year my clogging increased and my blogging...it's irrelevant to you and me what happened of my blogging career.

So in conclusion, if you want to add some value to this blog...help me make it a good clog, else it's only worth some time of attention and possibly a good post.

How design driven are we?

In 2007 I read 'Design' by Tom Peters and his Essentials Series. Back then, I had bought the book simply because it carried the term 'design' on its cover, in big bold type. 3 years down the line I realize that the best creative people are not those doing 'creative' work but the others who manage to be creative in the coldest of 'office jobs'. The latter manage to turn a boring job into a 'design' oriented career. From the likes of Steve Jobs to the smallest self-employed business that manages to change 'the way we do things'. This presentation is a good taster and a useful reminder.

Design Thinking for Startups - Are You Design Driven?

View more documents from Amir Khella.

Blabs of the Day

Some BLABs that managed to make it through the clutter of the first 5 days of 2010:

Google launches Nexus One
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/01/05/GA2010010502777.html

Apple acquires Quattro
http://mashable.com/2010/01/04/apple-quattro-wireless/

Trendwatching.com issues January Trend Briefing
http://trendwatching.com/briefing/

A decade in review by AP (via @Phaoloo)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/interactives/_national/decade/index.html?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=MULTIMEDIA

Do you live social? (via @AlexGrech)
http://ow.ly/STa9

What we can learn from the Top 10 Viral Videos of 2009
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=141235

Yet another attempt at monetizing content...through twitter:
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=141294

Rants about wasted advertising space

With the holiday season round the corner, much of our marketing budgets will go to the Christmas and NYE's campaigns. I will not go into the the topic of commercialization of the holiday season, and the advertising clutter it brings with it, however, a drive around the island and a scan of the local print and online advertising initiatives makes you shout at the 'Wasted Advertising Space'

Rant #1: If it is ok for the newspaper on Sunday, it is not ok for the long-standing billboard throughout December
Basic marketing rules state that an outdoor banner should not contain more than 5 words. I will be counting the paragraphs of text and essays which some of our billboards feature.

Rant #2: If it is ok for the newspaper, it is not ok for the dynamic online space
Better use of the online space hints at making the most of what the medium provides. We sometimes limit our websites to a passive information catalog. The result is as simple as the passive medium: passive response (if any)

Rant #3: An out-dated message implies an out-dated brand
With all the advertising messages we get to watch/listen to each day, the out-dated once are the most undesirable for both consumer and brand. Let's count the out-dated advertisements in January!

Rant#4: It's a holiday not a trade fair
Yes we have targets, yes it is THE season, but it is not all about your brand. Really and truly it is never about your brand, so if you intend to shout out loud, keep your audience in mind.

Enough rants for the week. Back to positive thinking!

Today is MoMo day for the 2nd time in Malta

I will be attending the second round of MobileMondays. The first round saw the launch of the MoMo chapter in Malta, two interesting presentations and some quality networking time.

The second edition of MoMo in Malta will see yet another good speaker and a showcase of a Business Project. I hope to have some time to review the 2nd MoMo in some more details.

More information about MoMo at this link: http://www.momomalta.org/

The URL revolution: A wider World Wide Web.

This longish post was featured in the November issue of Technology Sunday, a monthly supplement of The Sunday Times in Malta

The World Wide Web was conceived some 20 years ago. It is the true embodiment of boundless information which may be retrieved across the globe. Today, the web consists of at least 62.4 million websites which is roughly 8.5 thousand new sites for each day the web has been up and running.

The web resides on the Internet. The Internet was born in the US in 1969. It was born amid fear of conflict and war between the east and the west. Today, it connects 1.6 billion people from the east, west and elsewhere.

Locally, the Internet has also brought about big change. Approximately 108 thousand households and business are connected to the Internet and this does not take into account those of us who access the Internet through their mobile or Internet keys. Hundreds of businesses own a website and hundreds of thousands of us own a Facebook profile.

All the above gives the world reason to celebrate the Internet’s 40th birthday, but surely it does not stop here. There are billions of people who are not yet online.

Primarily some of the biggest third world countries lack the necessary infrastructure to access this amazing tool or enough funds to purchase an Internet connected device. Mobile operators in these countries have teamed up to make up for the lack of fixed infrastructure and users are accessing the Internet for the first time through their mobile phone. The ‘One Laptop per Child’ campaign attempts to provide a simple yet connected laptop to children who have till today never gone online.

So as social as we make the Internet to be, as unbounded and limitless as it is described by the definition of the WWW, the Internet still has some limitations and room for improvement.

In the Internet’s 40th year, ICANN, the Internet’s corporation for the assignment of domain names and numbers, announced the introduction of non-Latin characters in web addresses. So far, more than half of current Internet users had to switch their non-Latin based keyboards to key in a simple URL or email. Even though these users where able to include non-Latin characters in the first part of their email or website, the last few characters, also referred to as the top level domain (TLD), had to include Latin script.

As from next year, the Internet will see domain names and emails in full non-Latin script. Countries like China, the Arab-speaking countries and Russia will be the first to benefit from the new non-Latin scripts in their country codes. Web masters in China may do away with the ‘.cn’ at the end of their addresses and replace it with its equivalent in the new Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).

The move is surely positive for those users who are not as conversant in English or at least, familiar with Latin script. On the other hand, some of the current users, many of them probably residing on this side of the planet, fear this move may hinder the openness of the WWW and create linguistic boundaries.

The truth however is that the popularization of the Internet has made it a social reality and a reflection of what takes place offline. In the real world, some people simply do not understand each other, whilst others make it a point to be conversant in a number of languages. Offline, multi-national companies and global brands have multi-lingual identities which are translated online as country (or at least market) specific websites.

Big countries such as China and Korea did not wait for ICANN to come up with this idea. They have found turn around solutions which allow their many users to key in domains in their own language and be redirected to the original domain.

Apart from the societal aspect of ICANN’s move, the introduction of non-Latin script URLs will mean different things for different players. First of all, as early as today, the move will give rise to a wider range of domain names and therefore create more business for Domain Name registrars. Governments may use IDNs to re-brand their online identities and make the Internet more accessible to the native speaking users.

Marketers and brands should be on the alert to secure any new domain which comes close to their current online addresses. Whilst the new IDNs may offer an opportunity to localize and personalize online brand presence, any user may be faster in purchasing the brand’s IDN version of its online address and trick users through a fake website. The latter is often referred to as a ‘Spoof’ website and may become a security concern, at least initially.

On the technical side, the new IDNs are not as straight forward as the Latin-script domains we have been using for the past four decades. Some online players will need to tweak their popular applications to accept non-Latin scripts.

40 years down the line it is once again conflict (of languages this time) that is possibly about to trigger another big Internet revolution. ICANN’s move has caused mixed reactions in the blogosphere, however, as complicated and difficult as this new online development may be, it’s bridging the gap between the online and offline, making the Internet a better reflection of the real world.