Mahargdom

An article was recently published at readwriteweb.com that brought to mind the changing face of the web and information. Currently, in our Web 2.0 world, we have interactive websites that are built on user content and social contribution, but as we move into Web 3.0, content will be driven by semantics algorithms that are built to filter through Yottabytes of information to create worthwhile content for readers.

In the age of Twitter, blogging, and other social media, the instant availability and breadth of information will not be a problem — the problem will be (and is already) that there is too available information and too much of it. How do you know what to read, how often to read it or what to do with it? The answer is, filters.

Take my previous article where I used the example of 9/11 and said that “Better and better filters will be producing news for our eyes . . .” In the event of another tragedy like 9/11, thousands of people all over the world will be talking about it as it’s occurring, but most of that ‘chatter’ will not be useful to those wondering what is going on. As an example, the most common chat/twitter/post might just repeat information that is already known, or may be asking questions “Do you know what’s going on with the twin towers?” So how do we get “news” from this mess of noise coming across the internet? Filters.

Web 3.0 will be the semantic web and we will rely on algorithms and software to make connections and inferences based on content as to what is related, what is important and what stories and information are connected based on language, geography and profile data on users. In the case of 9/11, semantic filters will be watching for geographically similar excited utterances sharing keywords within a period of time. Once ‘event clusters’ are identified, more advance filtering will take place to try and piece together a picture of what is going on and deliver that information to those who are interested or to other computer programs who are doing meta-filtering (filtering further information that has already been filtered).

A truly semantic web will be able to act as our journalist, filtering through amazing amounts of information, prioritizing, categorizing and grouping them into the kinds of stories and information we want to see, all before the first phone rings at the news station.

KEYE TV reported today that the East Austin Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy High School had started their very own Quidditch league. Class mates assume the well known positions of Beater, Keeper, Seeker and yes, even Snitch.

One word: Ridiculous! I wouldn’t have believed it at all except I saw a similar match taking place on ESPN yesterday. Other than the videos of guys and girls holding volleyballs quaffles and running around with brooms between their legs, the Snitch takes the cake. The Snitch is dressed in tight, and oddly revealing, shiny clothes and has what appears to be a sock with a tennis ball in it hanging out the backside of their shorts. The Snitch then runs around the playing area trying to keep the Seeker from pulling the tennis ball out of their pants.

Watch the video, and then I’d recommend going to Youtube to see this recent phenomenon in action across the country.

I’ve been saying it to friends and colleagues for quite some time, but it’s always nice when a story comes out to reiterate my view. This article was just released around Twitter and how it is impacting the reporting of news. The first mainstream news to pick up the earthquake that was twittered about was an entire HOUR behind. That may not be long by today’s standards, but in a world of instant gratification and instant information, an entire HOUR is a lifetime.

Imagine how different the news would be today, or five years from now, surrounding the events of 9/11. We’d have tweets and blogs and photos and video from all of the planes, from inside the twin towers and from streets, apartments and other vantage points. Everyone would be expressing their fear, outrage and opinions in real time, accompanied by video and photos. Maybe the second, third or fourth plane would have been spared or at the least followed the same fate as the grounded plane in Pennsylvania, if the information access had been more readily available.

Better and better filters will be producing news for our eyes, and better and better delivery systems will be transmitting that data to the people who need it most; be it an evacuation or a plane hijacking.

News is one of the many many middlemen that the current generation will be the last to regard as important. The next generation will see the death of the middleman. With complete information and the abandonment of reliance on information providers, many common positions will go the way of the dodo.

News as we know it, real estate agents, financial advisors/planners, medical diagnosticians, tv cable providers, internet providers and anyone else who makes their living off being a conduit for information will soon be dinosaurs in a world of instant access, free service and community driven behavior. Privacy abandonment, personalization and free service will predominate in the years after 2010, when the next generation will refuse to wait for information and reject information that isn’t completely pertinent to their desires.

The Statesman had an article today regarding a recent audit done by management consulting firm MGT of America. The firm, among other things, recommended the discontinuation of crime fighting copter ‘Air 1.’ Apparently flying a helicopter around is expensive.

Now I’m not going to bore you, or myself, with all the facts and figures, but I think we can all agree that there is simply no cost too high for the protection of our city and our citizens. According to the article, Air 1 responded to over 1,000 calls last year and had about 550 flights.

Sure the Austin Police Department underestimated the cost of each flight hour by a factor of 7 and 1/2 ($1000 vs $7500 actual), and sure the police officers themselves have named the helicopter ‘Air None’ because it never seems to be available when they need it. But just think how much cooler the police department is with a helicopter patrolling the skies.

I think that they just need to run the math again and they’ll realize that ‘Air None’ is a result of too few helicopters and that the inefficient use of fuel costs is due to lack of coordination in the air (Austin is a large city for just one helicopter). What we really need is about 12 more and the creation of a new Air Fleet Unit out there fighting for continued justice on the streets.

Common auditors, we all know that sometimes the best way to save a buck is to just buy 12 helicopters

Scott Roberts, the owner and land owner of the Salk Lick BBQ, will be revamping the land around the landmark bbq joint and creating spas, $1 million dollar homes, lodges, vineyards and more. His goal is to turn the Austin’s beloved brisket and sausage locale into an uppity closed-gate community of millionaires called ‘Driftwood’. He is, however, leaving the restaurant open so that the new rich inhabitants can make fun of all the country bbq folk and college students mix nicely with the existing customer base.

Frankly, I have to agree. The times that I’ve been to the Salt Lick, I’ve always thought the area needed a bit more class… all that sauce and beer…tsk tsk

Update: Apparently my commentary isn’t enough =) — here are some articles that also talk about this news:

Austin American Statesman
Austin Business Journal
Austin360

So maybe it’s not for free, but it is definitely exciting to see ABIA expanding their routes. Of particular note are San Fransisco, Cancun and Orlando (because that’s where Disney World is — not to mention the Internal Sign Association Expo every other year.

The Austin airport really lacks the level of customs stations that I’ve learned to love at Houston, so I’ll be curious to see how they handle the increased volume. See more in this Statesman Article.

There is apparently a website that was developed by Online Pictionary. Groups of people join and watch someone interactively draw a series of pictures while they to guess what is being drawn. The things to draw are displayed on the screen to the drawer and the fun begins. You do need a critical mass of people for the game to work, and often when you go to the site the room will be empty. The site is also SEO defunct, but with a few changes I’m sure it would rank highly in Google and would get plenty of traffic to keep the games ongoing.

Ryan also has a blog for the XSketch program where he updates players on new software development features.

Very cool.

In these days of Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook, Flickr, and Mobile Phones, social media marketing is all the rage. I love reading about clever ideas companies and groups use to promote themselves through social media. Radiohead recently held a remixing contest for one of its songs “Nude” (Wired). The contest elicited 2,300 entries or so, and helped propel Nude into the Billboard Hot 100 for Radiohead (the first song in 12 years to make it there).

The reason, however, that this type of social media is so effective is that Radiohead is already so well known (Steve Colbert did something similar with his Green Screen Challenge). As more and more people engage in social media marketing, the PR effect will wear off and we will be looking for better and better filters to keep it away from our daily lives just like we rely on the fast forward on our DVRs to keep away TV ads.

This story in the New York Times hits close to home for me. New York recently passed a law that we at BuildASign.com watched very closely. The law changed the definition of ‘nexus’ to include the receipt of referral fees within a state.

The article and bill are both interesting, but the underlying problem is much larger than what is presented in this bill. Most people have no idea how sales tax works or that it’s actually called sales and use tax. The ‘Use Tax’ portion refers to the obligation of users of goods to pay sales tax if the tax was not collected at the time of purchase.

This means, that if you buy a book from amazon.com and are not charged sales tax, you have an obligation to report use tax to your home state. The government doesn’t enforce this because it would be very difficult to hold people accountable and audit out of state transactions. Your state also can’t charge amazon.com for the sales tax because amazon.com is legally not within the state and the state can only tax those that have ‘nexus’ which is a fancy way of saying ’sufficient contact.’

This is a HUGE loophole in sales taxation and allows out of state vendors an enormous competitive advantage over instate vendors, which seems like the opposite outcome a state would prefer. As an example, Texas is currently charging an 8.25% fee for residents to purchase their Real Estate Signs from BuildASign.com (an Texas company) when they could buy the same product from any other state and not get charged that sales tax fee.

There are billions of dollars lost to states through this loophole and it will one day be closed off, but as you can see from the article, there are billion dollar corporations who will fight long and hard to maintain their tax advantage over the local guy.

At the Alamo Drafthouse, IronMan (JetPack PI) made an appearance and flew around showing off his sweet jetpacks. Here is the video link, it is definitely worth watching.