There are forms of communication Congressional Democrats AREN'T aiming to censor? Scratch that, "Congressmen" aren't ... No man's life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness is safe while Congress is in session. - Alexander Williams via NoiseRiver
You guys should go re-read this post, along with the posts by O'Reilly, Masnick and Aaron Brazell (including his second update). Rizzn, I'm afraid you've wildly misinterpreted what that one guy, Capuano, was trying to say. - Eric Eldon
He's trying to enforce House rules with the intention to censor. He could have written a letter asking to relax these rules, but he didn't. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Heh. Thanks, Veronica. I tried to clearly mark the "boring" and "interesting" parts so that I'd have a better shot at folks making it to the end of the article. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
I don't get it. Currently the making of official posts (including videos) can only be on the government site. The letter proposes ways to allow posting elsewhere, but with care to avoid association with advertising and political material. So there is no addition of restrictions. They are proposing ways to relax the current ones for posting of videos. So yes, that is a knee-jerk post. - Dennis E. Hamilton via twhirl
I also believe that the blogosphere and especially Twitter were "played" by repetitious tweets that kept making the same mis-statement. - Dennis E. Hamilton via twhirl
I am rarely on Twitter and Culberson isn't on FriendFeed. I didn't see his repetitive tweets til much later. I got my news via back channel then saw Culbersons tweets. I read Techdirt and others including Mashable. I'm very much aligned with Mark on this one... While I don't believe it's partisan, per se, it's somewhat appalling that House leadership would go out of their way to squash the ability of Congressmen to talk directly to their constituency without throwing road blocks. That's my beef with it - Aaron Brazell
Did anyone read the letter? It was obviously supporting the use of these technologies to communicate with a constituency. It was simply stating that it should be done in a way within the rules. When a citizen goes to find information they want to know it is true and from the source they are seeking it. There is no guarantee the congressperson on twitter IS that person unless offically sanctioned in some fashion. That's the point! Use the tech but make it so citizens can know it is official. - aka Taylor
It's supporting them in a backhanded way. It's saying "let's create a whitelist." That's censorship, I'm afraid. That means there's a whole lot of places that won't be sanctioned, if the rules are enforced. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
No it's saying lets make sure there are official places where citizens to go where they know they are getting official information. Because I know I'd think twice about believeing 'GWBush' on Twitter when he tweets all apple fans are to be branded with the Apple logo. At least until I went to whitehouse.gov and saw we were to report to the rose garden at 8am. It's not censorship to create a place where citizens know they are getting something real and official. - aka Taylor
think of it like this...i can't go to the 7 Eleven to get an official drivers license. The one I buy from the guy there might have all the right information ... don't make it official...or real. - aka Taylor
What i'd like to see is the gov to invent a token or graphic or something that they can use on a site that denotes an official status. Owner of said site would be required to verify anyone using said token is the official they say they are but that way a congressperson could utilize in new and cutting edge sites instead of having to wait for a site to be "approved". A portable token would give officials more flexibility while still creating credentials...doesn't solve the advertising issue though... - aka Taylor
Here's a question: where does the private citizen end and the representative begin? - Andrew Feinberg
It is, however, censorship to say that a private citizen (ie. a Congresscritter) can't speak officially wherever they please. If they want to speak officially on Twitter, that's their concern. If they want it likely to be recognized as such they'll have to be supported by authoritative sources as deemed by the audience. Mandating authoritative sources may be governmental, but it's a still a regulation of free speech. - Alexander Williams via NoiseRiver
lol. husband Just came in, grabbed a flashlight and headed into the backyard. I'm married to the crazy neighbor! Shhhhhh. There's a raccoon out there! - Shellee
I'm going to buy Yahoo. Not shares of Yahoo, but Yahoo. How am I going to pay for it? Glad you asked. The savings from not buying Google will more than cover my purchase. Next up, Microsoft. (Which I'll pay for by not buying IBM.) See how easy this is? McCain's a friggin genius. - Rick Klau
Can I like for the commentary from Rick? :-p - Aaron Brazell
so where can one get that mug? seems we're in concensus - Cee Bee
the link behind it leads to a 'store' page that's in Farsi - so I'm thinking probably NOT in the U.S. :( I looked - couldn't find anything like it. - Lucretia Pruitt
Funny - I recently had to explain the problem with this concept to our 4 year old after she hit her sister in the head with a stick and thought "sorry" made everything okay. - Jonathan Beckett
wake up... it will pass and it should. these men have not allowed one terrorist attack since 9/11. waterboard em I don't give a damn. out the nipple clips on Osama's henchmen. - Noah David Simon
Wow... just wow. Clicking 'Like' just doesn't seem to be fitting. FF needs another option methinks... Anyway, this is disgraceful. - Jamie Clark
now let's see WHO in the Senate actually votes for this. Who's for change ? - Andrew MacNeill via twhirl
The bill passed, like 9 months ago, something like 406-6. It's law. Weren't you all calling your Senators when this was up for the vote last fall? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H... - Adam Turetzky
Ah... Well both my Senators voted against (Mikulski and Sarbanes). DSo that's good. We still got rid of Sarbanes though (he didn't run for re-election). Ben Cardin is the new Junior Senator from the People's Republic of Maryland. - Aaron Brazell
It seems USA is truly heading towards being a totalitarian state - Brian Sullivan
Technically, it is Congress giving Bush a pardon he wrote and inserted in a bill. But he won't escape international prosecution because of this. - Mitch Ratcliffe via twhirl
So is this like asking for forgiveness for something he may or may not do now, or in the future or may have done in the p... oh, damn! I've gone crossed eyed! - zoblue
caffertyfile@cnn.com <- Don't let someone go away just like that. - AJ Batac
Where does responsibility end? Congress voted for the things he's being potentially accused of, as well. Do they get punished for war-crimes? What about the faulty intelligence gatherers? What about folks like Gore and the Clintons, who also supported the Iraqi war? What about the folks who voted for the folks who voted for this war? It's easy to pick on the President because he's a retard, but that doesn't make it sporting. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
that's kinda funny. I love when companies don't get along - Stefan Hayden
"Although the majority of the [Apple] stores contacted by AppleInsider said they were still unsure whether they'd be selling the new iPhone, one representative ultimately confirmed that Rogers and its partner stores will be the only place to buy iPhone 3G come Friday. Canadian Apple retail stores will, however, have demo units on hand the same day." -- http://tinyurl.com/5usz7a - Ken Sheppardson
Cablecos and Telcos control the market too much in Canada. They overcharge us and undeliver on content, service offerings and customer service.It's good to see consumers potentially having a hand in Apple's decision. - Chris Herbert
It's allegedly in response to "confiscatory" rate plans proposed by Rogers. - bob corrigan
To counter all of the iPhone craziness, I am getting a Blackberry this week. - pcnerd37
Drama! You mean I can't get it at one of the 6 Apple stores in 4 cities!? http://www.apple.com/ca/retail... I have to go to one of the 390 Rogers retail stores. OH NO! - Andrew Smith
Good for Apple. The plans rodger's is offering are ridiculous - Will Hirsbrunner
Neither breaking news nor is the iPhone 3G pulled back from Canada. Only a mistake from Michael Arrington.... - Matthias Schwenk
Saad! Just hope the northerners don't make their way down to Seattle and clog up my line! :P - John Barker
In Portugal Vodafone is selling the iphone 16GB at €399,90 plus €29,90/month with 100 minutes, 100 sms and 250GB data limit. - Pedro Fonseca via twhirl
Michael, don't become valleywag. At least say "pulls iPhone 35 from its stores in Canada" - though I seriously wished they could pull the iPhone completely. Rogers needs to be taught a serious lesson. - Kamath
I went to the Eaton center Apple store last weekend and asked about iphone cases (didn't even mention the new iphone). I got a curt "I don't think we will we even carrying the iphone at the store". - Kamath
“Alright, we're in a debate here. Is live streaming a good idea or is new media really going to way of "get it when you want it" which negates putting archived media on a live streaming server? Opinions!”
I enjoy live streaming...when my connection allows me to watch it...but shedules being what they are these days I don't watch half as much as I would like to..so then I usually resort to watching recordings(if there is one) at a later time. I guess that really isn't an answer so I will say the way of "get it when you want it" is probably the way to go these days. - Bryan Jones
I watch a few Shows Live when i get the chance, its going back to the old media way, but with all the great content of new media. i personally, think that LIVE adds a certain excitement, that you can't get from pre-recorded stuff. it also, gives producers certain freedoms where things dont have to be perfect. - Absalon Isaac Prieto
We do our WorkFastTV show (about how the Internet is changing work) live because then we can have audience participation. Last week we had 70 people watching and participating and it was really great. - Robert Scoble
Our debate centers around two things. First, our media is all music or podcasts, etc. So we'd be compiling it to stream. However, there's a chance some shows might be done live but, the way we work makes that difficult to schedule. I used to do live shows and the participation was awesome. We're more curious if this is a good idea to do..fill a stream with archived media and do live once in awhile or...just stick to the format? - Candace Holly
I like to watch a live stream and participate if possible. Generally I'll go back if it had great contnet. More often than not I'm not available for the live feed and I'll watch it later and read the comments if available. - Janet Fouts
It's a mix. Live will never completely die, because there will always be times we want to kick back and listen/ watch as opposed to seek. As Scoble notes, live streaming also allows for audience participation as well, not huge numbers, but as a content creator that participation can add to the final product. I know in podcasts previously when there has 40 ppl listening in that we've had audience questions, read some of the comments out, that sort of thing. - Duncan Riley
I agree that the audience participation is a great benefit of live streaming, however, living across the world (Thailand) from most of this content usually prevents me from enjoying that benefit. As long as content is available for download (preferably by RSS) then I am all for the live streaming. - Dan Evans
There are times when you will want to stream and then probably also release as a podcast. You are serving 2 different audiences. Additionally, you will want to put one touch media players on yoru site to serve those people who view directly from your site. So the answer is YES. - Douglas E. Welch via twhirl
@Douglas currently on the site we have a player where you can click to play all the podcasts. It's just a regular flash plug in though. If we went live with some things, the live show would be archived into a podcast as well..of course some of the live aspects are cut for a podcast audience. You are right, it's two different audiences you work with when doing that. - Candace Holly
If only I could stream. My DSL is only 1.5 mbps. That's what I get for living in the beauty of nature. When I go to download an HD movie it says "will be ready to view in 12 hours"! (It usually takes 4). My upload doesn't even handle Slingbox! Takes the spontaneity out of it! It would be nice to just cruise and say, "Yeah, I want to watch that now." Maybe when it reaches the boonies... - Barb Gonzalez
It seems in the television medium the DVR has already proven that people want to view content on their own schedule. I think there are a small group of the "always connected" that like the idea of "Join me now I'm streaming live on Qik", but I personally would prefer to wait an hour or two and watch a better quality, well produced video. - Kevin Shannon
I don't care in the slightest that something is live, unless it's a sporting event. And I don't care about sporting events. - sarahlefton
I think you can always have the best of both worlds. Tweet when it's live, tweet when it's polished. Either way you're getting the content out.. and your audience knows what standards of professionalism to apply for both. It's the technology that hasn't yet caught up to this yet. You can't stream from a minidv yet, and no one wants to watch video from an n95 edited together. - daniel morgan
@l0ckergn0me ; You would be the best person to expand a bit on that balance. You broadcast live practically all the time but I've seen where you release recorded content. I'd wonder how well it works for you and which you get more traffic/listeners from etc. - Candace Holly
My friend Chris Bachmann said it best today: He's a time shifter. No time for live shows, subscribe on his ipod - Aaron Brazell
@Aaron - I sort of subscribe to that school of thought. I don't have the time or ability for a live show. If I want a show/podcast it goes on my iPod and I listen to it whenever. - Candace Holly
I think Live Streaming is appropriate for things that involve interaction with the users in real time, like Leo Laporte in his Daily Live Stream. (twitlive.tv, 11-4pm PST all days cept Mon and Fri.) where he anwsers real time questions. While things like Cali Lewis's Geek Brief (geekbrief.tv) delivers information without interacting in real time with users. Both are very entertaining, and they use the medium that suits the type of prodcast better - Chacha
yeah live is overrated but can be useful as stated by Chacha i'd even go so far as to say I prefer studio over live in music too - Cecil Sandus
@Chacha - The only issue I have with twitlive.tv is that it doesn't always feel like the chat interaction is really utilized. The interaction usually happens in-between shows. Plus he has two or three seperate chat rooms. The stickam chat, the IRC chat, and the TechGuy IRC. The interactive nature is split and that seems to hamper things. When Leo is talking to the chat audience I can never tell which room he is chatting with. I wish Leo would do listener call-ins like in episodes 1~50 of twit. - Rob Shepard
I really like live streamed shows, it shows a bit more of the presenter(s) prsonality, I also like live shows for some of the bloopers that can occure and personally I love hearing them reading a message from me more when it's live for some reason. - Jaithas
i wouldn't recommend filling a live stream with pre-recorded content all the time, i think that live content is a pleasant suprise for the viewer.it does add a layer of interactivity that fans love. The prerecorded material can still be served via the traditional method (podcast or flash player) that gives everyone the chance to check out the material even if they didn't get a chance to catch it live. - Absalon Isaac Prieto
Really digging The Wire. May be the best television I've ever seen. The writing for this series is unbelievable. So many little nuances. Omar's my favorite character so far. 2 more episodes of the 3rd season and then on to the fourth. - Thomas Hawk
I haven't seen any seasons. I need to sit my ADD behind down and watch all of them. An acting/writing teacher friend of mine never stops talking about the fabulous writing on this show. - Anna Haro
I actually really enjoyed Season 2. The dock workers made for great TV. - Thomas Hawk
@TH--I just read your comment about the writing. I'll start season 1 tomorrow. - Anna Haro
When you get to season 5, look for the artwork on the wall of the drug dealer's lawyers office wall. I know the artist who did that. Robert McClintock. http://www.robertmcclintock.co... - Aaron Brazell
@Aaron B.--wow, that's cool. I have a problem with instant gratification, so I may have to sneak a peek at season 5 first, just to see the artwork! - Anna Haro
Ahahahah... ok I get it now. Quick, someone Digg Kevin's tweet and then we can all laugh at how lame twitter is when it buckles under the load of a Digging! - Paul Short
If he paid attention to me, he would have known better. :) - Aaron Brazell
I would have made them stand in the corner and think about what they've done, but I guess I'm just old-fashioned like that. - Daniel Smith via twhirl
Im confused about this. For instance, I've noticed on many occasions where you basically say something like: "Come follow me over on FF, the conversation is over there". Isnt that the same thing? Trying to get people to come follow you? I dont mean to be critical, just trying to understand. - Andrew Baron
:D I unblocked him just to verify, and yes it was him!! - directeur via NoiseRiver
Somewhat relatedly, it's weird that I didn't think twice when Louis Gray asked us to digg a story for him. But in hindsight if it wasn't someone I knew, I would've considered it spamming/gaming digg. Interesting. - trextor
He needs another pole to broadcast actually, he won't participate in the discussions. I hate this kind of mentality. - directeur via NoiseRiver
Andrew I don't remember ever asking you to follow me. If I ever do, yes, that should earn me a block. There is a big difference between saying "here is a conversation" and "follow me." - Robert Scoble
Kevin pissed off the Friendfeed hall monitors. ;-) - Chris Baskind
directeur: exactly. This is my way of helping retard Twitter-style noise here. - Robert Scoble
LOL, I just submitted his tweet to Digg. - Paul Short
Here is a conversation about following me... I wonder if that would fly. :) - Aaron Brazell
trextor: agreed. That is interesting to watch. - Robert Scoble
Aaron: you are always experimenting with my block button. I will call you director of block R&D. :-) - Robert Scoble
Being a good sport gets the Like button! :) - Aaron Brazell
Robert, right. I blocked him before because of this actually. Look at his digg page for example. He submitted only 374 news on Digg ang got 364 popular. I don't know if we see the same thing, but it looks _wrong_ for me. - directeur via NoiseRiver
Robert: I'm directeur! Don't mess with my brand ;-) Aaron is just Aaron! And please follow me! oh wait, you're already following me! :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
I've seen a few people post follow me messages. I'm here to follow not be followed - LPH
I just blocked someone for being a total asshole. Can dish it but can't take it. Know what I mean? - Dennis Howlett via twhirl
What I don't like is all of his fan base coming over here not even knowing how to use ff, or caring to use ff, but just adding him simply because they like him. Sigh... I was back and forth on the reason you were blocking him, but I completely understand now. - Dennis Jackson via twhirl
Go home, Dennis. You have more important things to do than waste time on FriendFeed anyway, right? - Aaron Brazell
I'm yet to block anyone. I think I just like being annoyed. - Mike Lewis
(Raising hand timidly) How do you define begging for followers? What action signifies that? - Abby
haha, I guess I missed the memo that we entered high school again. I need to brush up on my drama. - Danish Khan via twhirl
Scoble, did you also pass him a note after class? Does this mean you're not BFF anymore? - Matthew Mamet via Alert Thingy
Since we seem to be following high school metaphors- Anyone? Bueller? (I'm seriously curious) - Abby
OMG this is funny and ridiculous all at the same time! LOL - Susan Beebe
I resolve to remain BFF with Robert Scoble even though, upon occassion, IMO he more or less suggests that people follow him. - ron k jeffries
Susan, I'm seeing this exactly the same way, gotta love the friendfeed sagas - Dobromir Hadzhiev
@David I'm at MCO in Orlando, FL - not a great airport to be stuck in - Jennifer Van Grove via fftogo
Watches CNN for the latest Airline mutiny , No wonder they spend so much time making sure the passengers cant carry weapons : - Earl E Morningwood
the general consensus is that US Airways is predictably bad...tonight I found out about the estimated departure time from orbitz about 30 min before any announcement was made, still in a holding pattern & hoping the crazy cruise ship man to my left doesn't go AWOL - Jennifer Van Grove via fftogo
Mark - this is completely different. The one you linked to discusses the right panel that's not a default so-to-speak. This analysis today is based on the defaults that FF is providing to 9 people. It's not the same and I don't believe in linkbaiting. - Allen Stern
This is important and should be fixed. The decision was probably made to help entice A-listers to the service, but that's no longer necessary. Thanks, Allen. - Sprague D
The real problem is these services are really lame if you have no friends. This was an attempt to fix that problem. I agree though that FF should only recommend participants on the first few screens. If you aren't participating why would FF want to feature you? - Robert Scoble
Great video -- and yea definitely not the same post. I would see this an expansion into the topic and showing the results of tracking the patterns of a new user signup experience... - Gary Bacon II
i´m just subscribed to robert - for me the other 8 people have no value in their content and i wondered all the time why they are there... but robert should be default ;) - Dieter Schwarz
Robert's point is fair. The defaults shouldn't be a random selection of users, but a few of the most dedicated participants. I look forward to seeing edythe replace Arrington. ;-) - Sprague D
Great post Allen, FF is also VERY susceptible to bots doing mass adding. I haven't really seen any one take advantage of this yet. Then again, its not easy to see a users followers/following stats. - sean percival
i only saw this as a problem if you tend to be a sheep and just subscribe because a service recommends someone vs default which to me implies they auto subscribed you when you start which they did not, i'm only subscribed to a few of these 9 folks, very similar to who i've sub'd to in other services - this seem a bit of a mountain out of a mole hill to me folks - mike "glemak" dunn
Great post. In order for FriendFeed to become mainstream they should watch this video! Otherwise FF will risk being a web 2.0 only social network. I understand why FF is by default adding Scoble and other early adopters though...word of mouth! It's to attract the fast followers.... like us.....creating the herd effect so to speak. I would suggest that FF still have these guys as a default(maybe under the category web 2.0 thought leaders?) but add a default page based on interest areas as well. - Chris Herbert
Great job on researching. I definitely realized that FF was not nearly doing the job Facebook does when looking for friends you may know or recommendations. - Adam Helweh
This isn't cool. In my book, this is kissing up to the big guys so they'll talk about you and get you exposure. Whether they know it or not still doesn't make it okay. - Raoul Pop
@mike, if you want to know why what is presented to the "sheep" is important, check out Chris's reference to "herding". Chris, if they want to become mainstream they need to change the target of their marketing from "fast followers" to common users, who would also like the chance at building an audience. A good way to do that would be by randomly presenting dedicated users. - Sprague D
Maybe I am not getting it but I do not see the appeal in having many strangers follow you just for the sake of following you. I mean, I see Robert Scoble with 20,000+ followers but he could not know 1/10th of them even if he wanted to. Maybe I am missing something. - Paul L. McCord Jr.
I thought this might be the way for FriendFeed to gain popularity as well. Get some of the most active internet peeps on Friend Feed, make them feel that their subscribers are coming in droves, and the rest will follow. Yes, no? - Adam Helweh
Paul: I actually agree. Who is following you is not important. Who you are following is VERY important. I'm following about 3,000 people right now on FriendFeed, all hand added (I just added you for making a good point). - Robert Scoble
Raoul: when I joined FriendFeed I wasn't on the list. I moved up the list because I brought a lot of people into FriendFeed from my popular Twitter and blog. Live isn't fair sometimes. You might notice that FriendFeed is at the top of TechMeme right now and that FriendFeed is growing very rapidly. But I'm writing a blot post about the "Participation Premium." If life is unfair, why are 5,000 more people following me than Mike Arrington? After all, his blog is more popular than mine is... - Robert Scoble
But Robert, why are that many people following him at all when until recently he didn't even participate here other than posting his feeds? - Cyndy
Robert: people follow you because you follow them and pass along the conversations so others can enjoy too. Mike A. doesn't include everyone.. - LPH
Sprague: what I would do if I were FF is this: I'd have config options based on interest areas, top FriendFeeders, recommended FriendFeeders, and "randomizer" (as you suggested), and most popular FriedFeeders. - Chris Herbert
It's not the same 9 people everytime. It depends on who you subscribe to. There is a short list of prominent people on FF that get recommended, but in order for them to be recommended they have to be a contact of one of your existing contacts. The list is in alphabetical order by first name. If you don't have any contacts FF won't recommend anyone to you. - Thomas Hawk
Thomas: not true. I just signed up a new account and it recommended users to me. - Robert Scoble
cyndy: ff primarily is a very valid presence aggregater - whether someone then chooses to interact in ff via comment/like is secondary to me - mike "glemak" dunn
Thomas is referring to the "Recommended" link on the friend settings tab; Allen's video is about the sign up process. - Sprague D
It seems to me, with all the social aggregation, FriendFeed should be able to discern your interests and participation among other networks and provide an appropriate set of defaults at signup. TweetStats.com can show who I most actively talk to on Twitter, for instance, and as one element of an algo maybe that data can provide a better cross-section of suggested followers. - Aaron Brazell
You may be interested in a little personal research I've done to find out the social weight of FF users and the number of followers: http://user21.com/2008/07/04/f... - atzmon
I'd call these defaults an excellent marketing campaign from FF's standpoint. Those default FF users pretty much represent the same echo-chamber 'attractors' in the technology/web space. I think it's a little disingenuous when you ask how those people became popular FF users. It's obviously a well calculated way to market to the major technology attractors; or was that comment meant to be tongue in cheek? - Jim McCusker
hmmm Robert, I signed up a new account as well and found that under the "Recommended" link it wouldn't recommend anyone to me unless I first added at least one person as a contact. - Thomas Hawk
Thomas - what I am discussing is the people you are presented with when you create a brand new account - not on the right side - Allen Stern
Thomas, check out Allen's video, it's cool. - Sprague D
@atzmon, your list ranking users by #subscribers shows (for the top 10) almost perfect correlation with the "defaults" presented to new users. If Allen needed any more proof of his thesis, there it is. - Sprague D
So........ why is it a big deal to have so many followers on FF? Is it worth it? Is it beneficial? Why is everyone trying to have so many followers? - ChaCha Fance via Alert Thingy
Why do all the interesting posts seem to happen on Sunday when I've got family things to do?! I appreciate the recommend list because I'm relatively new to all of this. Scoble and Lois Gray are a good "in" to all of the noise (good human filters). - James Hull
@James, I think Allen's original motive for posting was that there are *many* excellent "human filters" available here, but because of a marketing decision by FF, only a certain few are provided as default recommendations when new users sign up. - Sprague D
My main complaint with your video is that you printed out the pages from FriendFeed. Who uses printers anymore? Couldn't you have taken screen grabs? - Ben Kessler
I wonder if they will make the suggested changes - and if that would help people find new folks to follow. - Eric
this is the top story on Techmeme right now. - Thomas Hawk
