11 posts tagged “microsoft”
By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, PhD. Publisher
If you are one of my former 1600 Facebook friends, don't even bother trying to contact me because you can't! I don't exist! I am officially disabled which really means excommunicated!
I guess the YouTube video to the left describes how I feel right now. One of the biggest problems of dealing with many online companies is knowing what the terms of your agreement. Like Internet veteran Rob Scobie I recently had my Facebook account disabled after receiving a warning email that I might be disabled. I think that there is a huge difference between getting a warning email and being straight up cut off by the powers that be at Facebook. My "warning" from Facebook turned into being banished from Facebook in a manner that would have made Charlton Heston's Moses look like he was still included in the Egyptian Royal Family. I was kicked out, thrown out, and literally made an example of because I betrayed the terms of my agreement.
Here is a quick quiz: how many of you really understand the terms of the agreement when you signed up for Facebook
My point here is that I love the Facebook platform, but in their zeal to prevent spam they are persecuting amateurs like me who have no intention of spamming and only intentions of networking. Maybe they should borrow from LinkedIn and allow people to network who belong to the same groups. In my case I was experimenting with teaching a class in South Africa and here simultaneously before taking a trip. So I networked through one of my friends and that was considered a violation because I was adding too many friends too fast.
I have written Facebook several times and I have only received an initial response and after that I have received no response email from Facebook. This is disturbing to me that a company of this size would treat its customers like this and not even both to respond to email with at least a form letter. Hey, I work with the government and even they send you a form email to respond to your email. I realize that I will probably not get my account restored for writing this post but after trying to correspond with them and promising to reform from my "wicked ways" that I did not know I had. All I want to do is network with my academic, technology, media and student friends. I am so disappointed because I feel that the heavy handedness of Facebook is a shame because I think it has the potential to become the platform. I have always liked it better than MySpace but it appears that they don't want me.
My real problem with Facebook is that when you try to find out how many friends that you can add they cannot tell
So here are my questions: what does one do when they run afoul of the undisputed king of social networking? What would you do? In the meantime, if you want to contact me by Facebook you may be eligible for retirement by the time I even get a response, so don't hold your breath waiting. Come on Facebook give me one more chance and loosen up because you are starting to act like Microsoft used to act before they re-discovered customer service.
If you're reading this and you are on Facebook, I hope you learned what I did: Facebook can do whatever they want to do; Facebook will cut you from the squad quick and then tell you to read the vague rules that they wrote to protect themselves legally; Facebook will not give you specifics in plain English on how to stay out of trouble once you have run afoul; Facebook will not give you real due process and you will be punished with a snowball's chance in hell of being reinstated with all of your existing friends; Facebook will not respond to your requests for reinstatement even when you promise to change; Facebook has created rules similar to the credit card companies and you know you can't win appeals with them unless you are F. Lee Bailey or loaded; and Facebook has the best social networking site in the world that will make you an addict as I am finding
Hey I have already lost my privacy, due process, and right to protection against self-incrimination with Facebook. So I
better use my First Amendment right while I still have it! I guess I feel like the guy getting lectured to by Clint Eastwood as Clint is holding the gun to him and promising this gentleman to, "Go ahead make my day!" You never get a straight answer when the person holding the gun is holding all of the cards, has cut you off of Facebook,
and has already shot at you quite accurately. Don't bet on me getting reinstated, especially after this post!
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D.
As Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented the new iPhone yesterday in San Francisco, I had a "eureka moment" where the impact of the iPhone has really impacted two of my favorite things higher education and entertainment. For the purposes of being contrarian I will deliberately start with the field of entertainment.
Despite the fact that there is a real fight between Apple and NBC, the iPhone and the iPod Touch have enabled television viewers to view NBC, MSNBC, and USA Networks programming for free. NBC willingly gave up $15 million dollars in iTunes revenues from Apple because they wanted variable pricing from Apple which insisted on the old $1.99 download model (Apple, 2008; NBC, 2008). Ironically, Apple has begun offering variable pricing to the movie industry now, so maybe the two companies should mend fences for the sake of consumers. For NBC, this is really a lose-lose proposition because NBC and Fox just started the HULU network online to distribute their television and cable shows online (Apple, 2008; Hulu, 2008; Fox, 2008; NBC, 2008; Newscorp, 2008).
The iPhone changed the debate in favor of Apple because even iPodTouch owners can view NBC content for free rather than downloading. NBC may have created more iPhone and iPodTouch owners who can view NBC content and save money during tough economic times. The fact that many young viewers of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann are becoming very politically active and are tech savvy has benefited the Obama Campaign which has relied heavily on podcasts, blogs, YouTube and the Internet to campaign and to raise record campaign donations from ordinary Americans. The fact that the new iPhone will operate on AT&T's 3G network which will make the device a fully functional convergence device with less problems than its predecessor which operated on the notoriously slow EDGE network.
The iPhone and competing devices will make it possible for new entertainment content that can air on iTunes,
Amazon, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and the Zune Marketplace. Smaller content creators now have outlets for their program offerings, and major networks can also air programming on the third screen first and wait for programs to get popular before airing them on USA, MSNBC or NBC. The iPhone and the iPod have been critical to transforming the political process and the entertainment business from a revenue generating and a pure entertainment perspective.
However, the iPhone and the iPodTouch has already impacted the biggest entertainment business of them all: higher education. If higher education can extend the best parts of its NCAA model to the academic side, it will create a business that will rival the major networks, publishers, and music content providers. Furthermore, this organization would also be a major online player too, since most of the people from the tech world have higher edudational roots.
Finally, the most important reason that higher education will change higher education is the delivery of content. Apple delivers more digital content than anyone in the world, and the company has created a future gold mine with its free podcasts which inevitably will be branded with ads from NCAA corporate sponsors on the academic side. The day will come when Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will all benefit from residuals of ads placed strategically within podcasts. Apple's new iTunesU has been extremely successful in its first full year of operation.
Did you hear that sucking sound? That is the
sound of big media publishers screaming when colleges begin to create
their own digital publishing outlets that will enable professors to
teach and publish online simultaneously.
Administrators are going to
have problems with the whole tenure process since they love hiring
adjuncts on the cheap! The real question becomes this: what will they
do when the first academic rockstar professors are born! Even if they
win the intellectual property war, which is not a given, many
professors will simply jump ship and sign better deals with
universities because of the new crop of intellectual property
attorneys. Stay tuned because I hear a storm coming!
Now that's edutainment!
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin face an interesting next four to five years. As the United States is finally adopting high definition technology and true convergence with devices like the iPhone, mobile software like Android, social bookmarking sites like Digg, and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace becoming mainstream, Google faces it biggest challenge: becoming big like Microsoft without being perceived as evil as some regard Microsoft. This will be tough after the bitter fight with regulators when Google acquired one of its largest advertising rivals and Microsoft poured it on about Google being monopolistic and dangerous.
Now, as Microsoft is trying to acquire Yahoo, it is Google that is playing the role of spoiler to Microsoft's ambitions. Microsoft has acquired exclusive advertising deals with Facebook and Digg which are two of the major players on the social media front and look to be the next Google. Microsoft was pro-active and invested heavily in Facebook, and that is what earned Microsoft equity in Facebook with the opportunity to buy more. Moreover, it kept Google out of the picture for the foreseeable future by obtaining ownership. Microsoft did not get equity with Digg, but in effect it did by creating an exclusive advertising with Digg which I believe is a real long term competitor for Google.
Google understands this fact which is why it immediately developed its own version of Digg. Google is fighting desperately to keep Yahoo free from Microsoft without appearing too much like the monopoly that Microsoft has described it as being with its complaints to regulators. Frankly, Google needs a cutting edge social network in this country. Orkut which Google owns is huge in Brazil and India, but not in the United States. Orkut needs a major upgrade to compete here in the states, but I believe that Google should do it. I also believe that Google should consider a joint project with Apple and Yahoo to create their own social network. This could Yahoo the needed advertising revenues and Apple the social network that it needs to promote its product and services to its extremely vocal fan base so that it can head Amazon off at the pass.
If Google really puts money and creativity into Orkut while simultaneously working a social networking alliance with Apple and Google would actually help to promote Orkut which could be a default site in its Android mobile operating system.Google has to do something, but it will have to use partners to do it if it does not want to become evil. It has two partners in Apple and Yahoo who face considerable threats from Amazon and Microsoft. Even though Apple and Microsoft are big partners, there is real tension in that relationship as Apple gets bigger, and has the ultimate chip of licensing its operating system in an open environment. Microsoft is also providing the software to Amazon which is now doing quite well with its own media store, Amazon Unboxed, and its Kindle reader and multi-media player.
Apple also knows that it needs a promotional vehicle to help it sell its AppleTv because unlike the iPhone, Macbook computers or the iPods that sell themselves with advertisements; AppleTv is a product that is unique and requires a longer look from average buyers who can benefit tremendously from this project. The solution to this problem seems quite simple to me: Apple and Google should form a strategic alliance with Yahoo, buy equity in Yahoo, form a separate social networking firm with Yahoo where Yahoo can lead as long as Google gets the advertising and shares it with Yahoo; Yahoo creates the social network that links directly to iTunes and a new Apple Digital Store that directly takes on Amazon; and Yahoo can really push its news, flickr, email and television service which is a natural fit for iTunes for downloads with ads or without and for live streaming with advertisements.
The networks are greedy, are jealous of Apple and Google, and will be compelled to release their shows. Why? Well, the writer strike just ended and they need the money; the writers need money and have finally realized that they can control their content and get paid through online distribution on YahooTv, iTunes, YouTube and GoogleTv. AOL is a juicy purchase waiting to happen, and if Google can engineer a joint deal with Apple and Yahoo to save Yahoo, it can easily put together a favorable deal with Time Warner to jointly purchase AOL as long as there is an agreement in place to provide this alliance Time Warner content at favorable rates.
Google becomes the white night by saving Yahoo; Google creates a social network that it desperately needs for its ad service and search; Apple gets a badly needed social network for its loyal fan base and a promotional vehicle for its AppleTV which can record and download the content through iTunes on the Yahoo site; and finally Yahoo keeps its independence, makes plenty of guaranteed money, and can focus on its creativity and promote its news, flickr, email and other services. At the end of the day, Google may get richer but so does all of its partners and new partners that they will bring in to make this thing work. So can these visionaries succeed and innovate without being evil? Yes, it can but they need the power of coalitions. Google must adopt the tactics of a start up to prevent from being cast as evil because then when Microsoft attacks Google it is attacking Apple, Yahoo and all of the other partners that Google will bring to the table who will be part of the Google eco-system.
Well now that my holiday vacation is officially over, it is time to get back to work my friends. I really like what Apple is doing with the Macbook Air product. I am sure that the movie and music industries will love it because it prevents the ripping of DVDs and CDs. The Macbook Air has been critiqued by many because it does not allow one to do these very things. However, this machine was not designed to do that, it was designed to be a different kind of machine for people who hate carrying around heavy laptops for meetings, for travel and for college. The MacBook Air also offers colleges and universities a chance to distribute content through iTunesU via iTunes without having to worry about infringement issues that have seen many universities sued by the music industry. The fact that it is so light and stylish many women may buy one to supplement their PCs or their existing Macs. I say this because I witnessed a similar thing occur in the late 90's when lighter digital cameras and pro-sumer cameras began being rolled out by Sony and other camera manufacturers who made a business decision to appeal to this valuable market. All one has to do is to witness what Apple did by creating multi-colored iPods and smaller versions of the iPod like the mini and the nano.
On another front, I loved the fact that the iTunes Store has added movie rentals from all of the major studios at reasonable prices. I think that Apple should offer a movie subscription plan too, if they want to solidify their position in this market and take on NetFlix. Apple should consider offer subscription plans for music and television shows as well. It will be free money, and it will still give folks and option to buy. In fact, subscribers may be more interested in buying after viewing or listening to a movie, a show, an album or a music track. If Apple is going to remain customer driven it will have to do this.
This drives me to the real beneficiary of all of Apple's new efforts: AppleTV Take 2. Steve Jobs admitted that Apple did not get the job done with the original AppleTV, and he was right. This product needs to be where Apple needs to direct its energies for the foreseeable future because it will act as a centerpiece for all of its offerings because of its storage capacity and its ability to tie the computer, the iPhone, the iPod and iTunes together. Apple needs to create its own original content development line and create exclusive deals with the writers once the strike is settled. This will give the writers a chance to develop, distribute, and produce their own products, so that the studios cannot use their heavy-handed tactics on the industry, on electronics makers, and most importantly on the public.
Two of the best examples of this are Apple's distribution of podcasts, and especially its iTunesU content. Apple has not really begun marketing its iTunesU content likes it need to do because if it did Apple could drive iPod and Mac sales through the roof because of all of the concerned parents who want their kids to succeed in the classroom. The Duke iPod project provides hardcore research on student performance that will only serve to justify parents' buying more Apple products. Now that I have digressed, I will return to the importance of original content and why it is important for the Hollywood writers to cut individual and collective deals with companies like Apple. The writers will not win this strike no matter how great of deal they get unless they create their own content distribution centers on places like iTunes, YouTube, AmazonUnboxed, NetFlix, Facebook, Google Tv and Zune Marketplace. All of these online entities desperately need their own original content that is independent of the studios, the networks, and the cable companies.
Why? Have you witnessed the vendetta that NBC Universal has exercised on Apple by pulling its offerings from YouTube, starting HULU, and cutting a deal with device maker SandDisk which is a good manufacturer but they are not in the Apple class, and they are not where the customers are. The customers reside with Apple, and even a Microsoft deal by NBC will not solve this problem. This is like a manufacturer saying I will not put my products in WalMart because I do not like how they operate. NBC does not understand retail, and it is showing. A basic tenet of marketing is that you have a place or distribution where customers can easily buy your goods. How do you throw aware $15 million in profits, and try to play the pimp game by asking for iPod profits like the music industry tried to do to Apple and they failed badly too? Just because Bill Gates and Microsoft caved into the music industry's shakedown by giving them portions of their profits from their Zune media player out of desperation for any market share does not make the industry behavior questionable. If there was real enforcement by the FTC and FCC, there might have been anti-trust investigation into these kinds of deals. If the movie and music industries want all the profits, they need to create their own devices. Oh that's right Sony is doing that and Apple is still dusting them up royally. HULU and rthe rest of the industry owned sites are digital immigrant efforts from digital immigrant companies who are fighting against digital native companies like Apple and Google who understand digital natives and concepts like ease of use. It will take another decade for them to get it right so that the new blood is in charge. Steve Jobs is not Bill Gates! Steve Jobs is an old school player, a real baller and shot caller as the hip hop generation says. NBC made the mistake of trying to pimp a baller, and they got played. Viacom is trying to do the same thing with Google about its YouTube copyright violations even though CBS has a huge YouTube presence.
The writers are the X factor because they can even out the playing field, sign their own individual deals through a special emerging artists and producers program through Apple. If Apple leads, Google, Microsoft and Amazon will follow! It will provide writers, the true content creators, the opportunity to get paid as producers, and to get their worth. This is America, and its the MLK holiday, so why not have a little justice in the industry for a change. Finally, I will keep advocating that Apple develop its own open social network that could act in concert with an AppleTV network of original content just like Fox is doing with MySpace. Google could handle the advertising, and Yahoo could help with the email and other features. Could you imagine all of the Mac, iPod, iPhone, AppleTV and iTunes customers having their own social network? It would instantly be a game changer, and it may make Microsoft wonder why it spent so much money for the Facebook deal. It would also give Google a chance to fire back at Microsoft for taking its Facebook and Digg advertising business away from it. It would also give Google a chance to become a real player in the game. Remember, Yahoo still has the most viewed online news among key demographics that advertisers love. So Steve what is taking you so long to make this happen? Think different again! Make it happen! You can keep the .Mac for pro users, and save it at the same time! Let's here your take, do you agree or disagree?
I love it when the mainstream media, also known as the MSM on the net, finally grasps a concept that I have known in my professional, my academic research, and my professional research: convergence has not only linked the world it has transformed the world. The United States literally went wild this year with the introduction of the iPhone, the iTouch iPod, the classic iPod, Google Apps, the Wii and new marriages of Digg and Facebook with Microsoft. In fact, the iPhone was named the invention of the year by Time Magazine as the first massively adopted convergence device that has an ease of use and innovative features like touch screens, iTunes and You Tube with the Mac interface. A report by the USA Today demonstrates the power of convergence worldwide, and how it has already conquered Japan and people are turning to handhelds like smartphones, handheld media devices like the iPod, gaming devices, and cell phones instead of personal computers.
Experts like Tapscott & Williams, (2006); Steve Jobs, (2007); Bill Gates, (2007); Marc Prensky, (2006); Henry Jenkins (2006); James Paul Gee, (2003, 2004, 2005); and others have been predicted the convergence avalanche. The recent development of the Internet, the iPod, the personal computer, and web-based tools like You Tube and Facebook into single convergence devices that can held in one's hand is the clearly the future of entertainment, learning, government, commerce, home, and work in one device with a quality web camera and video camera with note taking and large memory capacity (Gates, 2007; Jobs, 2007; Pavlik, 2000; Tapscott & Williams, 2006).
The personal nature of cell phones has now extended past the traditional web experience provided by the personal computer. Personal computers, like laptops, are portable, but lack the personal portability and the ability to make calls on the run. Increasingly, our cell phones are becoming portable handheld electronic extensions of our minds, our personalities and our core beliefs and values. McLuhan (1967, 1968) suggested that would occur in the 1960's that we would live in a connected electronic global village and that the medium would be the message.
To be sure, we are moving closer to Star Trek than any of us ever could have imagined more rapidly than most people could have ever thought.
Here is the USA Today article below.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/computing/2007-11-04-japanpcs_N.htm?csp=Tech
By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, Publisher & Executive Producer
The cloud based iPhone with cellular service would be a blow to telecomms, who definitely want to control the web, because the iPhone would be an open phone and allow Apple to be independent since Microsoft has said its not bidding on spectrum space so that means that Microsoft will be working with the telecomms and cable firms. Apple should allow third party applications and reserve the right to approve them all just like Facebook does and end this stupid cat and mouse game. This is wasted energy. Apple has been in the phone business for less than six months and is acting worse than Microsoft and the worst telecomm over opened iPhones. The deal with AT&T has helped AT&T with its horrible EDGE service and Apple is getting its image killed trying to battle their own customers just like the music and video industries. Now isn't that ironic, Apple the maverick pro-consumer brand is acting totally corporate? I am an Apple fan but you cannot make this stuff up, its real. Apple needs to modify that deal or prepare for the day that deal ends quickly because Apple needs a 3G phone and it needs a better network.
Besides let AT&T enforce the open phone issue. It's their phone lines they know what people are doing and they should kill phone service of people who decide to go open or dare I say sue. Obviously, if a phone goes open, the other telecomms could kill the iPhone on its line. There are only two companies left how hard could it be. However, this issue points out how important it is for Carter Rules to be extended to cell phones so that the US can join the rest of the world with open phones and cheaper prices and more access. For readers who do not know the Carter Rules forced phone companies to allow people to buy their own home phones or opened phones from non-AT&T approved manufacturers before the split of AT&T in 1984 when everyone paid monthly fees for phones I know it sounds so 20th Century but this is how it was until a manufactured sued after the phone companies used the same excuse the Apple and many telecomms used about the device being bad for the network. Ha! The courts did not buy this line then and people are not buying it now and Apple needs to stop carrying water for AT&T, who I actually like better now, Apple is just a manufacturer. You don't see Research in Motion, Motorola or even Nokia doing this with their popular lines of phones like the Blackberry, the Razr or the Nseries. Apple needs to tell AT&T that this issue is hurting Apple and will hurt sales for everyone and take AT&T to court eventually while developing a truly open 3G phone. Apple was right to want control over its phones the telecomms do not make phones and should not be allowed to dictate any more to consumers with closed phones which are not legal in most European nations. Can the US please get with it, do you know we are barely in the top twenty as far as being fully digitally connected and we do not have HD yet either? South Korea is number one if you are interested,
AppleTv has not sold well because the HD, storage capacity and DVR capabilities have not been exploited full by Apple and it has not been marketed properly either. In fact, there are three companies who are actually in business to exploit these three features, and at least one the companies is in Northern California, A social network would ber a perfect place for Apple to market its devices, its brands and its services. The social network could be called the iTunes Network and it could use cloud based applications of iMovie,iChat, iPhoto and Garageband for short clips to get people to buy more Macs. AppleTv would be the Tv network online that shows continues shows with ads included in them with hosts and Apple could also develop original content of its own so that this could turn into an online television network of its own for professional content providers, up and coming content providers, and consumer generated content. Apple's logical partner would be Google because Google can sell all of the advertisements and push its search and YouTube brands. Besides the GoogleTV brand has not set the world on fire and it could benefit as the for-profit version of YouTube where legal user generated content could be sold or rented. If Apple gets these things rolling it can also get its on-demand movie rental service and its movie download business a boost by having independent, old and some features as advertiser based movies.
Apple could then create a mobi-version of this network for iPhones for people on the go that could run through the iTunes Network and AppleTv. However, the real coup for AppleTv would be when AppleTv ran iTunesU programming through televisions for students and professors with ads attached as billboards, icons throughout like soccer games or through straight up advertising and allow the school to choose the advertising as a revenue generator. Naturally, all of this programming would run through the iTunesStore and the iTunesNetwork and AppleTv. Finally, Apple needs to invest in the spectrum with Google and get its own space on line and partner with Cisco, its iPhone partner, and Intel on creating the cloud based system. Quest, which need a partner any partner to be relevant after being dissed by the government and other telecomms for not working with the government on domestic spying, could be its telecom partner for billing purposes if it decides to enter the residential or corporate side for its computer sales, future iPods with limited calling and iPhones.
Microsoft is setting up a siege of both Google, Apple, Sony and Nintendo for the long haul through Facebook and its networking power and advertising and through Digg's rating. Apple has to be careful now. On one hand revenues are skyrockets as Macs are selling like hotcakes, iPhones are the rage and iPods are the king and iTunes is the engine that drives them all. On the other hand Apple is involved in an unwinnable war with hackers and its customers over the iPhone and with its content partners on pricing. Apple created the model for successful online music and video downloading and partnering it with the iPod, the Mac, PC's, and now the iPhone. Apple has to make up its mind: is it going to expand its market by marketing its software to PC's and cellular phone makers or will Apple stay too close to the vest with its technology and get left behind when the future is clearly open sourced software especially since Microsoft has cut deals with most of the open sourced developers. Apple needs to make peace with the content owners and sell the content for the price that the content owners want to sell it for and when people stop buying and start pirating then Apple can make a case. Apple should lose the ego and think about the customers who want to download to their Apple network content to their ipods. Apple needs to recognize that Amazon, Microsoft, Sony and the networks are creating their own distribution centers online and they cannot afford to lose marketshare as HDTV will be the law of the land within 2 years. Apple needs to develop relationships with Digg and Facebook for iTunes and for free podcasts since Apple and Microsoft are technically software partners on the Mac, the iPod and the iPhone. Apple can then begin working on creating its own social networking group for all of its iPod, iPhone, Mac and iTunes users and others who want to join the Mac family. The .mac experiment should stay for premium customers who want extra bandwidth and other services. Apple would develop the iTunes Network where it would stream or allow downloadable versions of shows with ads attached so that people can download what they want on AppleTv.
CBS MoneyWatch presents a brief story on the Facebook site.
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