We've been particularly busy lately. A TypePad blogger recently recommended we create a "cheat sheet" to all the new features. Rather than a cheat sheet, I prefer to think of it as a "Best of" list. So, without further ado, here are my favorite new TypePad features since August. (Yes, just since August!)
- Add a TypePad Favorite button to your blog and let your readers show the love
- Add video with the click of a button
- The easiest way to blog? The new TypePad bookmarklet and microblog themes
- Manage your blog on the go with iPhone, Pre, and Android mobile blog support
- Full TypePad integration with Facebook Connect for sharing and commenting
- New widgets to supercharge your small business blog from FormSpring, Freshbooks, and BookFresh
- Engage your blog readers with the TypePad Follow widget
- And of course, the biggest of all, the new TypePad. Check out the TypePad overview from Professor Wibbels.
Stay tuned for some step-by-step instructions on how to get the most out of the new TypePad.
November 05, 2009
November 03, 2009
Rachel Happe: The Social Organization: It's the Trough of Disillusionment and So Much More
We're in for an interesting ride. The social software market is going through a bumpy patch. The 'trough of disillusionment' is the third phase of Gartner's Hype Cycle and I think we are in its valley in the social software market. For those that aren't familiar with the model, it's below:
via www.thesocialorganization.com
Great post by Rachel. Really thought provoking.
November 02, 2009
IAB Lobbies Against Proposal To Expand FTC's Power
The online ad industry is sounding the alarm about a new bill currently pending in Congress that would expand the Federal Trade Commission's power by making it easier for the agency to create rules and to bring civil lawsuits.
"There are reasons why there have been limits on the FTC, and we want to see those limits preserved," says Mike Zaneis, vice president for public policy at the Interactive Ad Bureau. "This is legislative priority No. 1 for our industry."
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act (H.R. 3126) cleared the House Energy and Commerce committee last week and now moves to the full House, where it's expected to pass. But the proposal's fate in the Senate is uncertain.
The current House version creates a new consumer protection commission while also beefing up the FTC's power in a few key ways. The bill removes administrative hurdles to the FTC's rulemaking ability, makes it easier for the agency to pursue civil litigation, and allows the FTC to target ad companies that aid and abet unfair practices.
These new powers are so significant that industry observers are already saying the bill would effectively make FTC Chair Jon Leibowitz an "Internet czar."
October 30, 2009
October 29, 2009
Freaked Out Over SuperFreakonomics
In fact, Messrs. Levitt and Dubner show every sign of being careful researchers, going so far as to send chapter drafts to their interviewees for comment prior to publication. Nor are they global warming "deniers," insofar as they acknowledge that temperatures have risen by 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century.
Associated PressBut when it comes to the religion of global warming—the First Commandment of which is Thou Shalt Not Call It A Religion—Messrs. Levitt and Dubner are grievous sinners. They point out that belching, flatulent cows are adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than all SUVs combined. They note that sea levels will probably not rise much more than 18 inches by 2100, "less than the twice-daily tidal variation in most coastal locations." They observe that "not only is carbon plainly not poisonous, but changes in carbon-dioxide levels don't necessarily mirror human activity." They quote Mr. Myhrvold as saying that Mr. Gore's doomsday scenarios "don't have any basis in physical reality in any reasonable time frame."
More subversively, they suggest that climatologists, like everyone else, respond to incentives in a way that shapes their conclusions. "The economic reality of research funding, rather than a disinterested and uncoordinated scientific consensus, leads the [climate] models to approximately match one another." In other words, the herd-of-independent-minds phenomenon happens to scientists too and isn't the sole province of painters, politicians and news anchors.
But perhaps their biggest sin, which is also the central point of the chapter, is pointing out that seemingly insurmountable problems often have cheap and simple solutions. Hence world hunger was largely conquered not by a massive effort at population control, but by the development of new and sturdier strains of wheat and rice. Hence infection and mortality rates in hospitals declined dramatically as doctors began to appreciate the need to wash their hands.
Hence, too, it may well be that global warming is best tackled with a variety of cheap fixes, if not by pumping SO2 into the stratosphere then perhaps by seeding more clouds over the ocean. Alternatively, as "SuperFreakonomics" suggests, we might be better off doing nothing until the state of technology can catch up to the scope of the problem.
via online.wsj.com
Just reading SuperFreakonomics now. So far, it's better than the first one. The simple message: incentives matter. Haven't read the global warming section yet, but it's interesting to see the blowback they've already received.
