Kindle, Amazon, Technology, Trust

As the Kindle Deletion Disaster continues, I'm seeing a lot of analyses of what this means.  Yes, there's what it does to Amazon, there's the political repercussions (what's to stop a government from manipulating omni-delete features), and there's more to come.  I'd like to add one thing the Kindle Deletion Disaster does to writing: it affects trust.

Trust is a very important thing in the world of media, as we geeks and fans know.  A company can loose trust with a lousy game, by cracking down on fansites, etc.  But the Kindle and similar technologies give companies – and creators – a chance to completely destroy trust in their work by doing boneheaded things.

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Experimentation and the Everything Wars

I wrote previously on the Everything Wars – that now a lot of technical and media companies are engaged in a all-ways confusing knock-out fight because technology and media are so intimate – and the economy so unsure – everyone is trying everything.

One thing that came to mind as I read this over – and prepared for our podcast on the same subject – is that the Everything Wars are going to produce a LOT of experimentation.  Progeeks like us, in media and technology or not, will be affected by this in what we use technically and in our hobbies, if not directly in our careers.

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Review of www.techmeme.com

www.techmeme.com

PROS: A gigantic, constantly-updated news/blog aggregator for tech news, putting articles in context and helpful hierarchies.

CONS: Story focus is largely based on popularity of discussion as opposed to relevancy.

SUMMARY: An indispensable news gathering system that gives you a good snapshot of what people are talking about technology-wise.  Unless your career and hobbies are very distant from technology (and if you're reading this they're probably not), you should subscribe to it in RSS feed or read it once or twice day.

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