The murder of a couple in Florida became headline news all over the US, but the pronouncements of a blogger has turned the case on its head.

Byrd and Melanie Billings, a couple with 13 adopted special needs children, were murdered in their home after an apparent robbery attempt. This was the official police report. But if you ask Rick Outzen, a local blogger and publisher of an alternative weekly, the real reasons for the deaths are far more sinister.

Outzen said that based on what he has heard, Mr. Billings has a seedy reputation and that according to some of the seven people who were charged with the murder, it was actually a contract killing.

Outzen shared his thoughts on the killings on his blog by posting a 277-word post. This has obviously made him quite a controversial figure and his blog an overnight sensation. Six weeks after the incident, Outzen has proven to be quite a pivotal figure in the investigations. In an interview, the Escambia County sheriff (where the killings took place) said that Outzen’s anonymous sources are largely correct in the information that they give.

Outzen’s case has put blogs in a very different light. Blogs are something that can also be taken seriously and also becoming an integral part of the fourth estate.

Geocities was one of those free internet services that, to my mind, really contributed to the explosive growth of the internet. It was also instrumental for many kids learning how to build their own websites.

But as with all things electronic or internet-based — its existence is fleeting even though its impact was undeniably massive. Yahoo!, who acquired the service in 1999 for $3.57 billion in stock, has announced that it will be closing the web hosting service on October 26, 2009 — and with it another chapter in the still morphing life of the internet.

The sobering note said that by the aforementioned date “your GeoCities site will no longer appear on the Web, and you will no longer be able to access your GeoCities account and files.

“If you’d like to move your web site, or save the images and other files you’ve posted online, please act now by downloading your files or upgrading to Yahoo! Web Hosting.”

It’s really quite sad to see another pioneer shutting down. Geocities, at its height, was THE place to be. AEveryone wanted to build their own websites and Geocities was the place to put them in. Geocities was also considered the first online community (remember those webrings?) — the larval stage of what will eventually become the social networking phenomenon that we see today.

Goodbye, Geocities.

Michael Jackson’s death last Thursday shocked the world. And despite the general consensus that Jackson is a has-been, his death proved that he has made an indelible mark on the world. In fact, the outpouring of sentiments on his death almost bogged down all of the social media sites.

Twitters from thousands of people reporting or giving their opinions on Jackson’s death slowed down the popular micro blogging service to a near crawl. It got so bad that Twitter had to temporarily disable its home page search field. Imagine seeing the number of tweets doubling per second! That could be a record of sorts.

But even non-social media sites were also affected. The web sites of Time Warner, Walt Disney, ABC, CBS and the Los Angeles Times, all experienced slowdowns.

So what is the significance of this? It puts into question how different networks — social media, blog networks, corporate sites — and its respective servers are addressing the growing number of internet users. Is there really a proper scaling strategy to account for the continued explosive growth of the internet, especially when we consider that social media sites are actually enticing more and more people to go online? Heck, even my wife’s 70 year old aunt just opened a Facebook account.

The network discusses the growing rift between Steve Jobs and his former CFO regarding and issue that surfaces regarding Jobs landing in hot water with the SEC over some stock options that were seemingly over the edge. Stock options to major companies have always been part of corporate culture and the same is with Apple, one of the biggest earners in today’s technology driven world. The scandal has some millions of dollars in question regarding the value and amounts of shares the former colleagues used to share that some accuse the former CFO of blowing the whistle out on which led to his eviction from the board of directors in 2006. After all the finger pointing and accusations, Steve lands in the sights of the SEC more and more who are interested at the matter due to taxes and other financial issues and so does the long gone Apple executive.
Apple elevates the matter by hiring a former competitor from Palm and the other party hires another top Apple executive and the battle continues between the two principal characters. The events at Apple is no nothing new and anybody in the Valley accepts the fact that this is no coincidence. Technology driven firms fighting out each other, slinging mud left and right is a battle for control or at least a part of the market shares in the ever growing smart-phone market which has boomed in the last few years with Apple at the helm of course with their show stealing iPhone.
Seems corporate life will remain as cut-throat as it always is for all over the industry the same events happen over and over with much documentation on the net with the millions of people, experts and analysts each having their own views. So what do we make of all the fuss? Cash people and lots of it, for these companies make millions if not billions and even such lowly incidents brings publicity which in turn brings in more cash as people become interested in the events and products in question. That is the norm of corporate life, where what you know or don’t know can indeed make or break the bank, figuratively of course or not.

News that all major players in the electric car race have standardized their plugs for a combined effort is welcome news indeed. but is it really a question of feasibility and inter-cooperation? Nope, it’s about dominance in a rising green car market that rivals the likes of events in the IT industry where profits is a direct result of dominance of a budding market worth billions. From Europe to the US, these auto makers have seemingly agreed to take up the cause and band together to come up with products that would work all over the globe. Electric cars in their many forms and shapes are sen to become the transport industry’s future for our most popular mode of conveyance the lowly automobile is the major source of one of the most damaging greenhouse gasses the world over. Electric cars are clean and more efficient that their oil-based counter parts yet they are indeed having to deal with such trivial issues as a standardized plug that would allow a European made car to work in the US.
Imagine a simple issue as a PLUG becoming the nagging point in the industry who claims to be aiming to provide a better world for the rest of us. The auto industry has been the major and is one of the most polluting industries in the history of this earth and it’s about time they took up the cause. Or simply put, it might be a simple way of avoiding the fate of the many other automakers who have already succumbed to the economic crisis that have come and gone, sending them into oblivion as history’s unsuccessful companies.
It’s about time these people placed profits behind the main and ultimate goal of the drive to come up with feasible electric vehicles and that is to lower their impact on the world. Imagine an issue as simple as a plu which you can in theory change with ample know how or can you? The issues plaguing the auto industry is far beyond helping the earth and is more on the profits they will be making, for they are businesses after all and the main goal of businesses is to make money!

Years back when the industry was still in infancy and Microsoft has been ruling most of the IT industry in terms of profits or should we say overall dominance, Yahoo and Google came up with the bright idea of a system that would allow subscribers of their free web-based email service to do lots of nifty stuff with contacts and friends who also had accounts with the same email services. Microsoft has introduced the same functionality to their long standing HotMail web-based messaging service which many have been waiting decades for. Yahoo and Google have long been in the fray of web-based systems and it seems Microsoft, the former dominant software maker of days gone by is finally realizing the benefit of such additional services for their many HotMail users.
Many say it’s about time and others say they shouldn’t have bothered but anyway, it is up and it’s getting better. Hotmail has long been the free email system of choice in the UK and in the US but when Microsoft introduced the infamous Ms Messenger which like their other software products can be compared to an old clunker against Yahoo and Google’s Corvette’s. The many errors, requirements on the hardware and software side, just for you to properly access the Messenger service dissuades people from using it and add to that the ever invasive WGA that installed itself whether you like it or not many began to shun away from MS Messenger and Microsoft’s overall image in the industry.
They might be a fledgling in that arena but they will surely catch up, this may sound crazy but it adds more options for users on the already congested Yahoo and Google servers. Maybe Microsoft is getting more life out of super-computers in their data centers that used to be the best, trying to get more out of them int he face of stiff competition that has steadily nibbled at their profits. Or whatever the reason for the late introduction, we might never know (ask Gates ?!????).

From the Gawker network, the ever updated source on information on new media has raised the alarm on the adoption of new media by traditional print publishers. This has become the norm of today’s economically challenged firms, go to the net but many questions have been raised about such a move since the net was born and began to spread its global reach. This would not only be wise, but would allow these traditional print media to maintain their diverse talent pool while they try to find a way of salvaging their other businesses in print. They however sight the should we call lack of sight on the importance of reliability wherein many a story have had to be told, re-told and then edited just because they are getting the news out so fast, that traditional editing and even spelling checking isn’t possible.
The infusion of traditional print in electronic form has plagued the realm of new media making it more muddled than ever before. i mean, new media is already on the rocks with the advent of blogging and twittering which has rattled the realm so much it needs a reality check to separate the factual from fiction. Though new media may be a jumbled mess of everybody who wants to say anything about anybody, it is part of the evolution of the net which was seen as the next big leap for the aging technology that started out as a cold war defense network. Much of the net has information that can be called anything other than factual but that is what the social internet is all about. Getting the masses to control what is in and what is out, where the truth outlives the tons of lies that gets indexed by spiders just as well if anybody foolish enough just happens to want it.
Traditional print however electronic it will be will always be traditional for they rely on good old responsible journalism, the only problem they face is that are they ready for the influx of criticism that we have all gotten used to on the net. They used to be the authority on information with the headlines and printed news deemed as truth, with the internet, they get the information out faster but any inconsistencies are quickly quelled and made apparent. Imagine a newspaper that has already been printed with a million copies and getting each one, changing a misspelling or headline. the speed the internet offers is the bane for traditional print media entering the fray, they’re simply not used to it. They’d better do more work on their publishing skills if they are to continue their ventures into the realm of virtual space, for their sake and ours.

From the Blog herald: The recent issue that involved John Stewart on his unwarranted rap on social media or the new internet is a bit unwarranted for as the post in the Blog Herald says (by : Chris Garett), there are a lot of truths but also misconceptions about the whole social thingy. First, for example blogging, it started out as a medium on the internet where anybody who wanted to write about anything (mostly their pitiful lives and their utter uselessness roles in society), much like newspapers of days past which started out as mere advert pages that were finally congealed into a more compressed form that included advertising as well as some useful stuff to gain the interest of the reader. Get hold of any newspaper (if you can still find one) and what do you see? Headlines, articles, commentary and advertisements, wait a minute, ads. We’re getting warmer! Don’t tell me you haven’t earned a buck from social media(your bosses companies sure have!)
Now head to the couch and turn the TV on to watch a re-run of his performance(John’s), what comes after and in between takes, adverts. Almost alight! I mean we all love a laugh or two from time to time, who doesn’t? At this time in history when people are losing jobs, companies are closing shop and everybody else is saying that life is gonna get worse, a laugh would be nice. All the facts about social media is that it is surely aimed at two of many things, marketing and content. Take away content and you’ll get a glimpse of why blogging has become one of the most prevalent forms of social media, then comes twitter, which took social media to new heights and places on all those tiny devices. There are truly a ton of junk on the new internet, especially from social media sites and applications but all of this stuff are aimed at (ding……ding …..ding) like humanity, the right to expression. Don’t say he doesn’t blog or twitter himself, come on, everybody does. Now whether its for their love life, miserable life, community life, responsible life or whatever purpose they want their lives to become, they have the right to do it just as John has the right to ridicule our art, craft, trade and lives.
More power to you my friend, and may Twitter…. well, Twitter you back! Laughter is still the best medicine.

Follow Up: Hands up John, your show and network have gained thousands of links and thus hits on your episode meaning people are watching you and your network is earning moolah!

Digitization has been approached with caution by major publishers for quite sometime mainly due to fears of piracy and other content related crimes. The current economic conditions makes it relatively expensive to pursue conventional print media and has given way to these people to finally realize that it is the way to go. Major titles from McGraw hill and others have taken up the call and are beginning to experiment with digitization for their book titles. According to CMS Wire, the avenue is the one to pursue for it opens up a whole new arena of profits for publishers due to the advantages and marketing advantages of viral marketing and SEO.
The recession is biting hard and everybody feels it, the inhibitory costs of traditional media had to give way to digitized forms such as Books on CD’s, DVD’s and many other electronic formats that are designed to work with proprietary devices like the Kindle. One of the leading global electronic publishers iPublish has begun offering publishers their platform for delivery and marketing of such products delivering them to customers through digital forms. O’reilly media through a webcast entitled “What Publishers need to Know About Digitization”, highlights the advantages and tools needed to fully appreciate such advancements in technology into the traditional media front. Along with support from many industry leaders from both sides, the webcast aims to bring to their attention the fact that print is getting more and more expensive each and everyday and that the only way for them to adapt and take on the untapped internet market is with such an innovative approach.

So much for the power of blogging, but employees who are not careful on what they post on blog sites may end up losing their jobs if they are caught incidentally by their employers when they post something negative about their company and workplace.

Many would say, this is not something in the employee handbook, but then again, this can always be amended at anytime that companies and organizations would wish.

“If there is a negative impact on the organisation’s corporate image which is so serious that it breaches the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, the employee could be dismissed for gross misconduct,” she warned.

Cautioning employers to pay attention to worker’s blogs, Dowling added that blogs could provide evidence of other conduct issues, uncover workplace discrimination or bullying or even leak confidential financial information or new product details.

With the prospect of supremely cheesed off employees whistleblowing dodgy company practices, Dowling added that, “Employers need to ensure that they carefully consider the impact of blogging on their organisation and take appropriate steps to minimise any potential risk.”

Source: Digital Lifestyles. Blathering Work Bloggers Risk The Boot

[tags]blog news, blogger, problogger[/tags]