Professor Wu lays out some interesting information for those of us interested in the Network Neutrality discussion. he presents what is almost a paradox regarding the origins of the safe harbor that shelters YouTube and Google (and the rest of us) from nuisance suits…

But the most interesting thing is where all this legal armor protecting YouTube—and most of the Web 2.0 (user-generated content) industry—comes from. It’s the product of the Bell lobby—Google’s bitter opponent in the ongoing Net Neutrality debates. So, while YouTube may be the creative child of Silicon Valley, it is also, as much, the offspring of Bell lobbying power.

(h/t to shakespierce…)

Jonathan Abrams raked down $13million in VC cash for a stake in Friendster (YASN). The safe bet would have been the $30million that Google was offering. This is a story that’s two or three years out of date but it seems to have grown legs because Google bought YouTube. The cultural poverty, the lack of imagination implicit in riding that Silly Valley merry-go-round, stretching out for the brass ring, over and over, trying to get rich from the business side… that’s what the NYT River of Cluelessness story is about today. It’s not about the fun Abrams had genning up a big social network enterprise in the days when YASN was a new acronym. It’s not about the staying power of useful products and services. It’s simply about the brass ring and the lionization of windfall success.

Any analyst worth her salt knew the potential and the limits of Friendster two or three years ago. The story of Abrams $13million payday remains a nice success story. Belittling the accomplishment because Google-power could have left him enormously better off is shoddy story telling.

Amanda blew into town recently and did some vlog entries including an interview with Madison’s liberal/progressive mayor, Dave Cieslewics (pron. Chess-LEV-itch). Reportedly she also interviewed people from Hybridfest and Prairie Biodiesel, as well as checking in with family and friends, driving an EV1, and broadcasting an interview with WORT. (Thanks to Dane101’s Jesse Russell for these details).

Amanda is paving a pathway of upbeat progressive relationships and engaged environmental concern on her travels. The “car-ma” (sorry…) she’s building is rubbing off on her sponsors, and vice versa one suspects.

Drive on, Amanda!

Stowe Boyd, Greg Narain and Ranvir Gujral have started a new company called Blue Whale Labs. Stowe says,

Blue Whale is a strategic consulting, design and development company for innovative social applications, which is the same space I have been working in for a decade or so. So, don’t expect a big shift in my thinking, blogging, or how I spend my time. I just will be working more closely with my partners at Blue Whale, and getting more involved in actually building the applications that I have in the past.

Of course, the three founders will need more people to fill out Blue Whale, so we will be adding a page here describing what sorts of people we are looking for. We are all about innovation, creativity, hard work, and no assholes.

Read this post and then read this one. After doing so, I felt like the monkey who had solved the “two sticks and a banana” puzzle.

Look at this lovely nest of vipers and anti-fascist pinko ne’er-do-wells I uncovered whilst idly wandering my trail o’ links. They seem to be in league with the great Euro-satan. Probably the ones who have been leaving those hentai links in my comments. I’ve already sent off a note to Alberto about them. Not much chance that Rumsfeld will return my niece, but I might get a nice bonus in next month’s gas ration.

Chris Locke points to the googler’s WorldCat extension… in your Google search precede a title with “find in a library” and the good Doctor Google will do just that.

Little bit of synchronicity here is that I just tumbled to Book Burro (hat tip to the “tech-teach,” Liz Lawley).

Book Burro is a Web 2.0 extension for Firefox and Flock. When it senses your are looking at a page that contains a book, it will overlay a small panel which when opened lists prices at online bookstores such as Amazon, Buy, Half (and many more) and whether the book is available at your library.

Book Burro is cool and it’s got that WorldCat integration too.

I’ve been mulling the almost infra dig treatment that One Web Day received. Oh, there were a gaggle of Berkmanites, past and present, who touted it and seemed genuinely jolly about the prospect. David Isenberg rolled out a nice party in Vienna! But in general it didn’t seem to get the broad positive attention that you would expect a purely altruistic effort to receive. It’s been rolling toward us for a year or more, progressing merrily like a marble on a track. Why didn’t more people know about it? Why wasn’t there a broad celebration cutting across all socio-economic classes, all ages, breaking down gender barriers, banishing ethnic distinctions, just a Mardi Gras of whoop-tee-do with festive netizens around the globe all flushed with endorphins, smiling out of their eyes and open to a wealth of new webular experiences?

Naturally I blame myself.

What did I do besides slap a dorky sticker on my laptop and sort of nibble around the edges of the occasion? Why didn’t I get out there and promote it like a cure for cancer? I don’t know. I’m sorry. Maybe I was too tied up with my PhoneCon 2.0 efforts. I’ll try to do better next year.

Ironic that the ICANNographers would declare a “OneWebDay” to create, maintain, advance, and promote a global day to celebrate online life. HTML and DNS are a swell combination, but people who conflate the Internet and its magnificent potential with the World Wide Web have blinders on.

Is September 22, 2024 the day that the revolution was lost and the vested interests declared themselves victorious?

How many of the celebrants are interested in “what’s next” for the global network? How would the entrenched investors frame a discussion around rebuilding the net? Are browsers and the web the end of the journey?

KC9KDG