A couple of weeks ago I signed up for the free Google Analytics service. This free Google service tracks web site usage including frequency, type, and source of visits, as well as behavior of visitors after they come to a site’s initial web page. I figured that, if Google was going to be knowing everything about my site in order to help it calculate advertising rates, I should at least take advantage of the data.
For a given technology-based application, system, or service, it's critical for a company to define who owns and is responsible for developing, managing, and running it. Failure to do so can result in "orphan" applications and systems that sit uncomfortably between business and IT, all the while consuming resources (storage space, updates, maintenance, communication costs, infrastructure costs, governance costs, etc.). Even blogs and podcasts can turn into "orphan applications" if we're not careful.
Small web publishers have to work hard to create a coherent web identity. Editorial policy, content, appearance, frequency, and a host of other variables have to be managed successfully in order to establish and maintain market presence and exposure. Heck, just deciphering the meaning of Google Analytics is challenge enough.
You’d think that larger, established names have it made; they can generate significant page traffic and advertising revenue, and they can attract indexing, referrals, and links at a frequency and rate that smaller publishers envy.
Well, it’s not necessarily rosy at the top.
There are a couple of interesting discussion threads going on over at the Freedom to Tinker blog. One is called Not Just Another Buggy Program, the other CD Copy Protection: The Road to Spyware. I reproduce one of my comments below, but I suggest interested readers check out the entire threads if you're interested in some of the business and strategic aspects of what Sony is doing.
Remember the buzz generated by Apple's announcement that they would start selling downloads of Desperate Housewives to Video iPod users?
I wasn't that excited. Others saw this as an indicator of Things To Come. One who obviously "gets it" is Ross Levinsohn, President of Fox Interactive Media, according to an article by Mario Sgambelluri in a recent (December 6) edition of iMedia Connection, a web based source on online media and marketing.
Fellow blogger Martin McKeay (this links to his blog) recently commented on "feedjacking" of podcasts and RSS feeds. He recently started podcasting and has been researching where links originate. He and others (just do a Google search for "feedjacking" to find out who) are noting that it is possible to "feedjack" links to podcasts and RSS streams.
A while back I tried to find out from Sony whether the new Santana album contained the dreaded "rootkit" software.I received an email from SOny today instructing me on how to remove the XCP "rootkit" software. Only problem is, the new Santana album uses Sunncomm copy restrictions software. This may have just been a simple error but I do feel sorry for the people who have to mop up this sad affair.
Cisco has announced plans to buy Scientific Atlanta, and Microsoft has announced an agreement with the cable TV industry to include digital cable card support in the next version of Windows. So what, you say?
It’s all related to “convergence” where a Brave New World is heralded by the unification of the Internet and cable based home entertainment. That means more choice, more quality, more service, more innovation, and just plain more quality of life, right?
Maybe.
Perhaps Sony BMG's mistake was that, out of technical ignorance, it let the technology manage its business processes, not the other way around. It sounds like Sony BMG did not understand how to manage those things it thought it had under its direct control (the DRM software in question). This is despite the fact that Sony's other divisions create industry leading consumer and professional technology.
Technology, Copyright, and Fair Use
One of Gillespie’s themes is that Fair Use made a lot of sense when obtaining permissions was cumbersome and onerous. According to Gillespie, this justification is becoming less valid given that systems such as those developed by the Copyright Clearance Center are so easy to use. He then goes on to discuss the arguments for Fair Use that relate to support for free speech and criticism.
A question I’m researching is how companies might be able to use blogs to support important communication functions such as project management, employee relations, and damage control.
I just received in the mail today from Amazon.com a copy of the new Special Collector’s Edition of the 1953 sci-fi classic film, War of the Worlds. This extraveganza of 1950’s ray guns, Martian fighting machines, and gorgeous Technicolor has been a favorite of mine for many years. It’s the only film I know, for example, that features the original jet powered Northrop Flying Wing in one of the military’s futile attacks on the Martians. And those manta ray shaped Martian machines with the flexible “cobra” weapons are just so cool!
But wait — there’s more.
Checking my RSS news feeds this morning I discovered several postings around the Web that seem to say that Sony's original "rootkit" DRM not only hides itself in the bowels of the Windows operating system, it also installs a mechanism whereby, when the CD's "play" command is selected, information is sent back via the web to Sony about that event.
This paper discusses key issues that management should consider when redesigning an automated voice response system that supports customer service.
Sony is issuing software patches through the Internet. Mainstream media (such as this morning's Washington Post) have picked up the story. There's no telling how this will spin out. At minimum, it will make more people suspicious of music publishers.
I got an email this morning from Apple announcing the availability of the new Santana album via the Apple music service through iTunes. Since I don't buy through iTunes anymore (I'm concerned about DRM incompatibility and incompatible shifts in the platform in the future) I decided to investigate buying the CD. I know, I've publicly sworn off music CD's due to DRM incompatibility issues, but I've been listening to Santana ever since Woodstock.
What is a "rootkit"? Till this morning I didn't know. Then I read about Sony's use of "rootkit technology" for implementing their Digital Rights Management (DRM) system from their "protected" music CD's.
If you haven’t checked in on the Cassini Huygens mission lately, you really should. A good place to check is at the mission’s NASA JPL web page.
Who cares about Chinese astronauts? I do. But not for the same reasons I may have cared many years ago.
Today BBC Online published an interesting editorial about the Google Print Library project by Bill Thompson, a digital author, editorialist, and blogger. Thompson comes down against "authors" and for Google and offers some interesting views on copyright, including a statement that it is a mistake to compare copyright with "traditional" concepts of ownership and property.