Category: Web, Tech & Design

Blogging, What Next?

I remember some time ago, on the way to a meeting with a client, a friend from work and I were talking about my blog and how I never imagined it’d get me into the World Summit on the Information Society, and then to London for the Global Voices Summit, …etc.
He said it was all great and stuff, but then asked: “But then what?”
This is a question a lot of non-bloggers ask, and it’s quite a logical question actually, I mean nothing really goes on forever, not even our passion for certain things, everything seems to move on, leave place for something else.

The question actually brings up two thoughts, which are:
– What will come next after blogging as a net phenomenon?
– What will come next for this blog?

Regarding the first point, I think it’s obvious that we’re moving more and more towards a more open, more social, more discussion oriented internet. So just like the old static website and discussion forum converged into a blog, I expect we’ll be seeing more and more communication technologies and ideas being merged to create the next big thing.
And with higher connectivity and faster connection speeds, more and more will be realizable and accessible to more people.

As for what will happen to my blog, well I’m having a great time with it now, and I don’t see myself letting go of it anytime soon.
I mean, in the end, I think I’ll always have something to write about, an opinion to share, a flag to raise, and a need to express myself. And the way I see it, this blog will exist as long as all that does.

So in response to my friend, and all those who ask this question, a blog is not something you do to get somewhere, you do it because you feel like it, because you have this certain need to. So when you blog, you’re not really thinking of what you’re going to do in the future.
Of couse there are the professional blogs and profit-oriented blogs, and those have specific goals, but other than that a blog is more or less a personal space for the blogger to write about his personal or professional thoughts, experiences and ideas.

Arabic iPod to be launched soon

It seems like an Arabic version of Apple’s hugely popular iPod will hit the market soon.

Elias Abou-Rustom, general manager of Arab Business Machine, Apple’s independent marketing company for the Middle East, says that Apple is working on it and that a prototype has already been made available to them.
He predicts it will be launched in the Middle East in the coming months.

I think this is a really good move by Apple. The Middle Eastern market should be a very interesting one for Apple, and I think that up to now they hadn’t realized it’s full potential and didn’t really try hard enough to market and sell their products in the region.
Hopefully this is a move in the right direction and that they will give more importance to the region, and try to market and distribute their products better than just a few small appearances in some expos.

A few months ago, I wrote about how Apple was overstocked on iPods, while some of us in the Middle East wanted to buy some, and were ready to pay the price, but couldn’t find any.

[Via: Moey]
[Source: Gulf News]

Less Than A Blink To Judge Web Sites

A new study by some Canadian researchers has found that it only takes an internet user one-twentieth of a second, which is less than half the time it takes to blink, to judge a web site aesthetically, a judgment that influences the rest of their experience with the site.

The study was published in the latest issue of the Behavior and Information Technology journal. The author said the findings had powerful implications for the field of Web site design.

“It really is just a physiological response,” Gitte Lindgaard told Reuters on Tuesday. “So Web designers have to make sure they’re not offending users visually.

“If the first impression is negative, you’ll probably drive people off.”

That makes me wonder, how many blinks do you give this blog?
And while we’re at it, what do you think could make it a better experience for you?

[Source: CNet News]

toot goes live…

A while back, while checking my blog’s statistics, I found a number of visitors coming from a site called “toot” that I didn’t know about.
When I checked the site, which was still in test mode, and not even in alpha, as they put it. I really liked the site’s idea and got all excited about the project.

I also found out that most of the people behind it are good friends of mine: Ahmad, Jad, Wael and Roba.

So what is toot?
toot is a handpicked aggregator for the Arab blogosphere to provide quality reading, both in Arabic and English.
What is quality reading or not is decided through a voting system through which people show their interests.

After the initial test period, then another phase of further development, the switch was turned on at toot on 01/01/06. It’s still not even alpha, I guess they’re borrowing a page from Google’s Betas here, but the site is up and functional.
Only 50 blogs have been chosen for this initial period. Luckily for me, both my English and Arabic blog have made it into the selection. Hooray 😉

I’m personally very excited about this project, as I’ve already expressed to my friends, and I congratulate them on this great idea, and on a successful implentation of it.

I love the site’s design, it rocks big time. But then again, what else could I expect from the guys at Syntax, but a beautiful, usable, tasty design?

I wish the toot team all the best of luck, and again guys, if there is anything I can help with, please do not hesitate to ask.

Google PC, Google Cubes?

Rumour has it that Google will this week unveil a no-frills personal computer costing as little as $200.

Despite its low price it would enable users to collect and store internet-delivered content such as films, music and photos then show it on TV.

Speculation is mounting that Google co-founder Larry Page will use a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday to unveil details of this low-cost computer or internet-enabled device that will run on a new operating system developed by Google.

According to the LA Times, Google will announce details of the new device at CES, where it could also unveil its partnership with Wal Mart to sell the machines.

The report follows comments made by US analysts just before Christmas, suggesting Google would expand into hardware.

In a briefing note, Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck said the US online giant would launch Google Cubes – simple network-based boxes that could link and control home entertainment, computer and automation systems.

If this turns out to be true, it’ll be a very very interesting development in the PC world. Google would be directly taking on Microsoft and their Windows OS, and that promises to be one hell of a show.

[Source: Guardian Unlimited]

French Parliament Legalizes P2P

The French parliament passed 2 amendments yesterday that legalize file exchanges on the internet via P2P (peer to peer) networks.

So from now on downloaded copies of songs or movies are legal in France as long as they are for non commercial use.

That basically means that everyone can download whatever they want from the net for free and that it would still be legal.

Anyway, according to Bader, even if the law passed at the parliament, it still has to go through the senate, then the President to be signed into effect.

[Source: Yahoo News (FR)]

Performancing for Firefox

I’m writing this post in a new tool called Performancing for Firefox, which is a full featured cross platform blog editor that sits right within Firefox.

It plugs into Firefox like any other extension, is configured easily to have access to your blogs and gets you going in a few seconds.
You push F8 and you get a frame inside the browser with the editor, your blog categories, your latest blog entries and your saved notes.
It seems like a very efficient and quick way to blog, that I’ll be playing around with further.

I think it’s cool that we’re seeing a whole range of applications that can be plugged into browsers to make user’s online experiences easier, more practical and efficient. It only makes sense after all that everything we do on the internet can be done through the same window.

Global Voices 2005 London Summit

So, I’m back to Tunisia after a wonderful week in London, that I’ll be getting into further detail about later. This post is about the Global Voices 2005 London Summit that I was there to attend and how it went.

First of all, it was great meeting all the really interesting bloggers from all over the world who were there for the summit. It was such a pleasure and so much fun getting to know them all and talking about our local blogospheres among a bunch of other issues.

As for the summit itself, it was really exciting and many interesting points were raised that are open to an ongoing conversation that will continue after the summit.

The main points that got me thinking and that I will be posting about individually soon, are:

– Bloggers vs. Mainstream media
– Bloggers complementing mainstream media
– Global Voices, what next?
– Projects around Global Voices
– What makes a successful blogosphere

These are all very big and general issues that we could go on forever talking about and discussing. Anyway it’s good that they were all opened for us all to think about and talk about further through our blogs, on irc and when we get to meet.

I’d personally like to thank everyone involved with the organization of the event, who did a great job; Reuters for being a very generous host; and all the people who took the time out from their busy everyday lives to come to London and make it a success.

For more details about the summit, here are some interesting links:

Free Ad-supported PC

Free Ad-supported PC

AsiaTotal is offering free computers called IT PCs to the developing world, with a catch: the machines’ keyboards are lined with hotkeys that take their users to sponsors’ retail websites.

It’s a desktop design, and can only run on external power; it uses WindowsCE as its core operating system; it includes a variety of basic utility applications, but users cannot load new programs onto it; it has no hard drive, using instead smart cards to store user data, and a small 7″ flat screen; it has a modem for connecting to the Internet, and possibly an ethernet port (based on a photo on the site), but no wireless connection.

On their website they say: “It has been developed, designed and manufactured to be distributed free in order to enhance the lives of the millions of people in the world who – for economic reasons – are not connected to the Internet. A way to move them out of the digital underclass.”

I think ideas like this one and the $100 laptops are great ones. But I’m not sure that the business model behind this project is such a good one, especially the way they’re looking at it.
If this pc is aimed at people who, for economic reasons, are not connected to the internet, then those same economic reasons are most probably going to stand in the way of them buying anything online from those sponsors too.
Anyway, I guess we’ll just wait and see how it goes.

[Via: BoingBoing, WorldChanging]