Category: society

Nationwide Study: Drivers O.K. With Cell Phone Ban

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 08

New technologies may spring up to help drivers who support a cell-phone ban but still want to pick up the phone

What do e-mailers feel about that?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 01

Just got back from a the Digital Impact Conference, where Peter Himler had me on a blogging panel with Lockhart Steele of Curbed; Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat, Danny Shea, media…

When cell phones ring in church…

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 23

Something I heard from Watts Wacker, the futurist, at an event we both spoke at last night (at Sacred Heart University). A while back, he said, cell phones starting ringing…

Smithsonian: a pygmy on the Web

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 25

A Wright brothers’ glider at the Smithsonian I stumbled upon this interesting mea culpa from the Smithsonian Institution. The skinny: One of the world’s great powerhouses of knowledge in…

Starbucks Wi-Fi: From first to last

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 23

My son, a college student, says that he’s recently been studying at a Starbucks. Why? Because they “don’t have Wi-Fi.” This means he doesn’t get distracted by the Internet, as…

How long will this blog post last?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 21

Whimsley has an intriguing blog post asking, simply, how long that post will last. What is the event that will exterminate that blog post, or this one? Is it just…

Web standards for the blind

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 08

Good piece here from Ars Technica on IBM’s efforts to provide easier Web access for the blind. It makes more sense to draw up these standards earlier than to retrofit…

Rubel wrong on Renaissance dead-end

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 09

Steve Rubel writes that the future belongs to deep specialists and asks if this is the demise of the Renaissance person—the Leonardo-types who can master multiple disciplines. He cites Seth…

Friends: What are they now?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 30

The growing meaningless of the word friend—and the need for a new taxonomy for relationships in the networked world.

What we can afford to forget

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 22

I Twittered a couple hours ago, asking people about what we can now afford to forget. The answers that have come in so far (from strussell, beckiparkhurst, letsknit2gether, abfdc, sraposa,…

Want me to spend? Give me cash.

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 01

Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, blogs about economic stimulus. His point is that our behavior hinges not just how much money the government gives us, or when, but also…

Supermarket surveillance: Up to 120 cameras

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 21

Those interested in surveillance should subcribe to Bruce Schneier’s blog. Great links and insights. Two recent ones. This one, from Popular Mechanics, describes the state of the art in security…

Eavesdropping in an Indian resto as market dives

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 14

While I munched on chicken curry, three Indian men at my table discussed money, real estate, and the economy in the most personal terms. I thought I’d share what I…

Photographed dog tag brings back camera

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 08

Just heard this story from a friend. Her sister lost her camera on a Florida beach. The people who found began looking at the pictures. One of them featured a…

Air Force on blogs: Tune out

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 29

Looks like the Air Force is cracking down on blogging, including even reading blogs on the job. (ex Wired) Long story short: Information is at the heart of a global…

Cheating in school = collaborative innovation?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 05

A colleague who came into my office (to give me yet another math book) talked about how he used to cheat in high school math. He described networks of collaborators…

Twitter and TiVo: a bad combo

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 22

I had the Giants-Packers game cued up on TiVo and was waiting for my son to come back from a lacrosse game. I turned to Twitter and GASP, everyone was…

The reconquest of dead time

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 27

Long ago I used to ride night buses in South America. Nights are long near the equator. The buses were dark, but often too bumpy for sleep. This was in…

The long tails of our lives

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 16

How will you be remembered 100 years from now? I was thinking about that this morning. Most of us, if we’re remembered at all, will be summarized in one sentence….

Web 3.0: Loosening the reins

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 27

Valeria Maltoni has a nice big link-laden post on Web 3.0. (a subject that has generated a lot of conversation here.) She talks about a Web that is smaller, not…

How do we die online?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 09

I typed in the wrong email address while logging onto Netflix this morning, and I was horrified to see this message: Welcome back Mary Jane! Restarting your Netflix membership is…

Starbucks: the hegemonic language

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 06

I walk into a Peet’s coffee shop in the Great Northwest. (It’s across the street from a Starbucks.) I order a double tall soy latte. “What size is that?” the…

Baby carriages, Red Sox

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 30

Trivia. Have you noticed that baby carriages are huge these days? As a father who hasn’t wheeled one around for nearly 14 years, I’m stunned by their girth. They have…

Autumn of Multitaskers

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 23

Walter Kirn discusses the scourge of multitasking in the latest issue of The Atlantic. (Most of the article is behind the firewall.) It’s worth reading—if you have a nice big…

Is freedom of speech in decline?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 18

I’m thinking about all the trouble you can get into in this country for saying the wrong words. If words are “hurtful,” hateful, politically incorrect, stupid, ill-chosen, even misinterpreted, they…

iPods for the blind

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 10

Just got a comment to a post I wrote long ago (after my iPod’s screen was smashed) about the difficulty of navigating an iPod for the blind. Who could enjoy…

Encourage girls to play Halo

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 09

This study indicates that video games boost ‘spatial skills,’ and that girls who play them not only narrow the gap with boys—but hold onto the gains over time. Here’s the…

Conversations are no solution

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 04

Max Kalehoff begs advertisers to stop using the word “conversation.” Here, here. It’s turned into a tiresome cliche (and I say this as one who has used it in its…

Get your greasy fingers off my TV!

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 20

Just got a press release from Westinghouse Digital Electronics. According to a survey, here’s what people want in a future TV: Voice recognition Touch Screen 120hz Refresh Rate Wireless Energy…

Brand names that don’t travel

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 19

Most of you probably know about the alleged botched branding of the Chevy Nova in Spanish-speaking countries, where “No va” means “It doesn’t go.” (Actually, when I lived in Latin…

Online Privacy and Small Revolts

Posted by: Heather Green on September 18

I recently did a short story on some companies, including Spock, Wink, and Rapleaf, that are aggregating data from social networks, blogs, and Web sites online, whether for people search,…

Which numbers do you need to know?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 25

Would you believe that until yesterday, when his brother forced him to learn it, our 15-year-old didn’t know his own phone number? It makes sense. A little more than a…

Big discussion of future of learning

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 22

Just have to pass this link along. I was reading up on Danny Hillis, one of the pioneers of supercomputing. And I came across this 2004 discussion on Edge.org, in…

Skype aftermath: Thriving with faulty technology

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 20

Is iffy technology like Skype a scourge or a Godsend? Or a little of both? Time was, our phones in the United States were nearly as reliable as AAA bonds….

Emerson on books

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 16

I came across a volume of Emerson’s essays yesterday in a Starbucks, and I read, for the first time in decades, his 1837 talk on The American Scholar. Here’s a…

Meetings: the nexus of the information economy?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 08

Do you ever hear anyone praising meetings? I high-tailed it out of the editing business largely to avoid them. And yet, here’s IBM’s Irving Wladawsky-Berger singing their glories. (ex…

Response to Danah Boyd: Peer review or lynching?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 26

danah boyd blogged about race and class—and now discusses the firestorm that followed

How we all contribute to the digital library

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 18

How we could all devote brainpower to digitizing the world’s texts.

We’re getting dumber

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 17

Lost and misplaced data spells enterprise amnesia

Brain to fingers: Put something in mouth

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 06

Fewer people are smoking, and I think many are compensating by cradling a cell phone to their cheek.

Are you a pitgoat?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 05

I hadn’t heard the term “pitgoat” before. It stands for: People In The Grip Of A Theory. Allen Stairs, a philosophy professor in Maryland, discusses in comments on Joel Achenbach’s…

Walking season: Where are maps for NYC?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 21

I came across this excellent walking site for London, Walkit.com. (ex BadScience) You punch in where you want to go, and it lays out a walking route, tells you how…

Cars roll into consumer electronics

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 18

My wife asked the mechanic if we should think about trading in our 10-year-old Nissan for a Prius hybrid. “No!” he said. What mechanic in his right mind would urge…

Innovation 101: Sgt. Peppers

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 08

Here’s a good post from Valeria Maltoni on the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ Sgt Peppers album. She discusses the album for business lessons: taking risks, trying something new, innovating…

Craig’s advice: Take a deep breath

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 07

We all have problems, some of them very serious. Rejection, failure, mortality. They create anxiety. And an entire industry of climbers and has-beens gets paid richly to give us advice….

Artists to the war

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 28

David Carr of the NY Times writes about tight Pentagon restrictions on war coverage in Iraq. No photos of wounded without their permission, and tighter rules about soldiers’ blogging. (Here’s…

If the rest of us used Facebook like the Northlanders…

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 26

Kristine Lowe reports that 3% of Norway’s population has a Facebook profile. And some 450 articles about Facebook have popped up in Norwegian media in the last two months. Norwegian…

An economy of tune-ups

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 07

Waiting in line at my local branch of PNC bank, I see they’re offering financial tune-ups. Yesterday, my research (whether you believe me or not) carried me to the e-harmony…

The Banality of Personal Life and Where Twitter Comes In

Posted by: Heather Green on May 07

Thinking about Twitter and Ross Mayfield’s idea about the messaging of the mundane.

Who is sick? Who posts?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 23

Just taking a quick look at Who is Sick, a Twitter for illness (ex Matthew Hurst). I’ve talked quite a bit with researchers at Yahoo about this type of service….

Economics home-schooling: the roller-coaster method

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 20

This noise from my laptop draws my 14-year-old over to my perch on the couch. I’m watching this video roller-coaster ride of real-estate prices from 1890 to the present. (ex…

The Internet, Activism, and the Environment

Posted by: Heather Green on April 15

Step It Up, a massively distributed demonstration pushing for cuts in greenhouse gases that I wrote about in a story recently, took place yesterday. A group of recent Middlebury…

Casino surveillance: gentle big brother

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 15

I had the privilege last week of visiting a surveillance room of a major casino in Las Vegas. (Not allowed to say which) They have banks and banks of TV…

MySpace ethnography

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 12

Here’s the link to that Danah Boyd talk in Boulder I mentioned last week. Fascinating if you have an hour. I haven’t listened to the other talks yet, but plan…

Blogging Code of Ethics and Personal Responsibility

Posted by: Heather Green on April 09

While I was walking down the hill to the ferry this morning, I was thinking about the blogging code of conduct. It resonates with me and I think the reason…

Hamm takes on Lou Dobbs

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 06

Just catching up with the fight our colleague Steve Hamm picked with the angry CNN anchor, Lou Dobbs. Lots of comments. And since Steve’s blog covers the near borderless…

Those Darn Student Climate Activists: They Use the Web

Posted by: Heather Green on April 05

So my excuse for talking on this blog about a story I did about the rising movement of climate activism on campuses is that…they use the Web to organize…

Men get hot, women get cold, men go bald

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 05

Cognitive Daily came up with data showing that if men controlled the world’s thermostats, we’d have cooler houses. More men go through life feeling hot, while women, on average,…

Procrastinating

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 28

While procrastinating this morning, I came across this amusing zefrank video on procrastination. A fellow procrastinator (a foreign service officer at the State Dept., no less) e-mailed it to me….

John Edwards has gone dark on Twitter

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 13

Fred Wilson is in Austin, falling for Twitter. Matthew Hurst shows that the uptake of this bulletin board of what people are doing at this very instant is soaring. The…

Treating college students like school children

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 12

For students to find out who they are, parents have to let go. I now hear from my son, a phd student, that he has to mark attendance for students…

How journalists face the evolutionary test of lice

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 09

I read in yesterday’s Times how our own evolutionary changes made life miserable for lice. (Here’s Science) The trouble was that as we descended from trees, we were losing much…

What iPods can tell us

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 07

What conclusions can you draw from me based on the 3,000 songs on my iPod? No doubt marketers have thought about this treasure trove of tastes, moods and inclinations. But…

Which cities have the best user interface?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 04

Khoi Vinh, online design director of NYTimes.com, looks at cities as applications, each one designed with intuitive design. This is nothing new to urban planners, of course. But I’d…

On jury duty: Fighting over soaps

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 27

Jury duty in Newark. The administrator explains the process to me and about 100 of my sullen Essex County peers: You’re performing a valuable service and duty to democracy. There’s…

We’re blind

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 22

Blind to data, that is. This presentation by Hans Rosling of Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet introduces Gapminder, which now has a Google service. The idea, which I think is very powerful,…

Overheard in the pizzeria: Pre-adolescent business

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 15

I was eating a slice of pizza on a snowy afternoon in my suburb. A group of boys—I’d say there were seventh graders—was making a lot of noise at the…

How blogs are like religious missions

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 15

In the course of my research, I came across Breakthrough Media, a company that helps churches find members and build communities. As I read Eight Key Ingredients of a…

Stopping in Houston? Who do you call?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 06

I changed planes in Houston, looked at my watch and had a quaint 1980s thought: Maybe I had time to call a couple of friends in the 713 area…

Who has time for revenge?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 14

The latest BusinessWeek has a cover story on revenge, and its central role as a motivator in the world of business. My question: Are these revenge-minded leaders more primitive than…

What consumers need: Time

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 12

We have two old cars with combined milage of a quarter million miles. Our TV set, a 27-inch Zenith, is about as fat as it is wide. But if we…

Consumer Electronics 2007 Sales to hit $155 Billion

Posted by: Heather Green on January 06

That’s a 7% jump, pretty nice for the CE industry. The data is coming out on the eve of CES of course, from the Consumer Electronics Association. And while much…

Aggregating Activism

Posted by: Heather Green on January 03

The Internet aggregates more than videos. I was reminded of this this morning, while reading a story in the Times today about how the resilient fight of a Romanian farmer…

Now for Fido: Yoga and a double soy latte

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 02

Just came across this story about $130 massages for dogs. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that dogs are different. They’ll lap from a dirty puddle over bottled Vittel any day….

No education in second kick of mule

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 27

I’m enjoying reading people’s favorite proverbs posted on the Washington Post’s global blog. A lot of them come at the expense of President Bush. But there’s plenty of wisdom…

Everything’s a mash-up

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 26

David Weinberger listens to a mash-up of a Beatles album (Amazon link). He sees the CD as an example of the miscellany that we’re threading together online: But the…

How many people do you converse with?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 22

Have you seen those cartoons where two or three of the faces are drawn, and the rest are shadows? I think that’s the way many of us live. We…

Scrooge’s elixir

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 21

I’ll confess. I’ve been feeling like Scrooge this holiday season. Even while wrestling the tree into the house the other night, I fretted that it would cover my sweater with…

Shhh. Publishing holiday secrets in The Wall Street Journal

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 20

Chicago Cubs pitcher Glendon Rusch, who makes $3 million a year, has a secret. He’s going to “surprise” his wife this Christmas with a $122,000 Aston Martin. Since it’s a…

Gap between our interests and our blogging

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 15

We’ve started an experiment at home. We’re occasionally watching the evening news. If forces us to look at stories we normally wouldn’t read. Most of them, I’ve noticed, (along with…

Favorite euphemisms, anyone?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 13

Officials in Greensboro, N.C. don’t want to put up signs in parks telling homeless people to scram, so they put up a sign with some “camping” rules. “Camping is…

14-year-old’s Nintendo investment: jury still out

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 11

I told my 14-year-old at the start of the school year that he could invest $3,000 of his college money in the stock of his choice. He came back a…

YouTube and NYTimes Blocked by Iran

Posted by: Heather Green on December 05

Reporters Without Borders reports that the Internet baby and the Gray Lady have both been added to Iran’s blacklist of sites that are blocked. That, according to Reporters Without Borders…

Crap floats

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 05

I’ve been reading about Niall Kennedy’s prank, in which he apparently tweaked Microsoft by subbing a salacious photo for the Flickr pic of his that they’d posted without permission. Robert…

Alcohol: More important than the Net?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 04

What would communications be without alcohol? Maybe we’d all keep our secrets. Just imagine you work at Apple, a secretive place if there ever was one, and (probably over drinks)…

Borat in Argentina

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 29

Daniel Rubin’s Blinq blog, from the Philly Inquirer, picks up an automatically translated version of the Bush daughters’ romp in Argentina. It reads, as he says, like Borat’s next…

Facebook Responds to New Report on Accesibility For the Blind

Posted by: Heather Green on November 24

I meant to post about a report from the American Foundation for the Blind on the lack of accessibility for the blind at social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook….

Home from college

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 22

Since I posted the day I sent my son off to college in the Midwest, here’s the read now that he’s back. He likes French and is going to start…

Looking for the math of politics

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 16

I’m on the hunt for political animals who do the math, who use databases to target voters with customized ads and calls. This seemed to be the rage in…

IBM on Second Life: More than PR

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 15

It seems like a PR stunt to give IBM CEO Sam Palmisano an avatar and have him make a presentation on Second Life. All kinds of companies are rushing…

Exit polls: Publish them early and often

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 07

The Wall Street Journal reports that journalists with access to exit polls today will be in lock-up. The idea is to keep early numbers off the blogs. Perhaps the best…

Unhappy datum

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 27

Looking through this grammar check (ex Pro-blogger) I came across one of my bêtes noires (note fancy French plural.). Datum. It’s the singular of data. But does anyone use…

What’s a waste of time?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 26

Lots of good responses to the Web 3.0 post. For me, it’s a good exercise to look at the various trends we see—the growth in computing power, the movement…

Are we entering a new Jazz Age?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 23

Are you jazzy enough? We grew up in an industrial age where big organizations operated like orchestras. Everyone played a defined role in rigorous, finely-synchronized ensembles. At least that was…

Is the Blackberry stealing readers from BusinessWeek?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 12

A very critical story about BusinessWeek just came out in The New Republic. The story, behind a firewall, says that we’re turning into the People of the business world in…

Yahoo’s time capsule: Aren’t we creating one every day?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 11

I read news about Yahoo’s time capsule. (ex MIT) We can all contribute our thoughts, poems, pictures and songs. But doesn’t it seem strange to be assembling a formal time…

We’ve been numbers for ages

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 10

When I tell people about the book I’m writing, and how companies are going to get to know us better and better by analyzing our data, they often reply,…

Why we’ll OD on coffee

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 09

Steve Rubel laments the passing of Tower Records, and wonders if book stores will be next. No way, I say, as long as book stores remain seductive places to hang…

New baseball gameday: data paradise

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 04

Uh oh. I’m supposed to be working, and I’ve just come upon the brand new Major League Baseball “Gameday.” It’s a statistical treasure trove that you can watch in nearly…

Why bother with college?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 04

I was talking yesterday to, Michael Schwartz, the Harvard microeconomist who just joined Yahoo’s research team. He and others will be using microeconomic techniques to model and predict the behavior…

Hola Bank! Me llamo Steve

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 30

It’s the mantra in every industry: Know your customer. In the years ahead, companies will be busy figuring us our through our data, developing chummy relationships, selling us customized services….

Singing to our emotions

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 17

Did you ever notice when you’re jilted or mourning, or otherwise emotionally vulnerable, all the songs on the radio seem to be written for you? I’m living that phenomenon…

Covering tragedies: A personal account

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 12

Should the press cover people’s personal tragedies? No doubt, they sell papers and attracts viewers. But is there a reason to tell these stories, for the victims and their community?…

Social networks: Pressing employees to share their links

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 11

This BW Online story details how companies are using employees’ links in social networks to hunt for job candidates. … Carmen Hudson, manager of enterprise staffing at Starbucks, […

It’s writer’s block, not spam, that’s killing email

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 10

Fred Wilson blames AOL’s bad spam filters for ruining email for his kids. I disagree, and believe that even the best spam filters would leave lots of young people indifferent…

Our own history: What do we leave behind?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 07

Turns out that I inherited my father’s photographic slides, shoe boxes jammed with tiny images of Egypt, Russia, Japan. If the box says 1972, it must be Alaska. I take…

Facebook revolt: Not all friends are equal

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 06

The revolt against Facebook’s new news feed feature is growing by the thousands, minute by minute. A boycott is scheduled for Sept. 12. (ex Frank Gruber) CEO Mark Zuckerman…

The Mayo Clinic: An information company

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 03

I’m at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn. I came here largely to learn about an alliance between Mayo and IBM to mine a century of medical records looking for…

Advice for a freshman

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 30

I just sent my 18-year-old off to college. As we drove toward the Newark airport through the morning darkness, I tried to come up with advice. He tolerated it, maybe…

Stolen Cell Phone and Breaking Down Boundaries

Posted by: Heather Green on August 30

On Jan 3, 2008, following much response to this post, we’ve decided to cut off comments. The trouble is that the comments have nothing to do with what we’re talking…

A different kind of work on vacation

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 27

Why is it that vacations feel like work? Even though I barely turned on this computer in our week on the Jersey shore, each day was filled with challenges and…

Do we spend less on tech?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 18

Our colleague Mike Mandel posts stats showing that tech spending in the U.S. is at the lowest level (as a percentage of GDP) in 11 years. Interesting points in comments….

Irreversible processes

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 15

This is the summer to end all summers, at least as far as my aged parents have been concerned. I’ve been away in Portland dealing with family matters and have…

The State of Student Activism

Posted by: Heather Green on August 13

What’s the state of student activism these days?

How cell phones are killing our confidence

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 03

Disney is harnessing technology to help parents monitor kids. And what happens when the battery dies or the kid ventures into a wireless dead zone? Fear, and in some cases,…

Supercomputer: 4 bdrms, S.Jose, near HW101

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 02

Last week I took a stroll through the freezing data room at IBM’s mountaintop laboratory at Almaden, Calif. I was told that the supercomputer there, the 29th fastest in the…

Meebo Widget Untethers Instant Messaging

Posted by: Heather Green on August 02

Meebo, a startup that lets you instant message across different types of IM software, is releasing a widget that lets you embed instant messaging into Web sites, including social networking…

Vacations = Work

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 01

David Weinberger lists the troubles of vacationing. I’ve recently been noticing that vacations resemble work to such a degree that unless you really work on how you think, they’re virtually…

Well-wishers beware

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 31

A neighbor just urged me to “Have a safe trip.” I might be inclined to say that to someone flying into a war zone, but do we really need it…

Immigration detour: A Mexican tale

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 30

Long before I’d heard the word Internet, much less blog, I worked as bureau chief in Mexico City for BusinessWeek. Before that I covered the border in El Paso….

Google for the blind. How about iPods?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 24

Good news that Google is developing search engine technology for the blind. What I’d like next is technology to help the blind navigate an iPod. When the screen on…

Vulnerability: Why journalists should blog

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 22

Vulnerability. It’s a good thing. It’s what people need to establish healthy relationships, and it’s why journalists (among others) should blog. This thought occurred to me when I was…

MySpace spawns its own ecosystem

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 21

Steve Rosenbush writes about the evolving ecosystem around MySpace and compares it to those around Windows and Apple’s iTunes. Perhaps the clearer parallel would be eBay, which has developed into…

Employee Bloggers: Move to France

Posted by: Heather Green on July 20

Ah ha! Another reason to move to France. Amid all the hubbub about blogging and employees being fired, an English French woman who was fired by her employer in France…

youth and email: the fear factor

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 20

Steve Rubel notes a study that teens view e-mail as old school. It’s been trending that way for a while. When I interviewed college students two years ago for an…

Pew Blog Study Shows the Lure of Storytelling is High

Posted by: Heather Green on July 19

A new Pew study finds that most people who blog do it to tell stories about their lives—not to write about politics, tech, or media. One interesting tidbit: About 55% of bloggers write using a pseudonym.

On Updike and the Future of Books

Posted by: Heather Green on July 18

I am so glad that Jeff Jarvis has brought up again the whole issue of John Updike’s concerns about the future of books and being a book author. Because I…

Working For Clams at Online World Whyville

Posted by: Heather Green on July 17

Pointer to a story on BWOnline about Whyville, a Second Life for kids that focuses on education.

Soccer and American hegemony

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 11

I’m really enjoying the comments on yesterday’s soccer post. The conclusion I’m reaching—and tell me if I’m stretching—is that most of the world would like Americans to love soccer, to…

Crying, diving, head-butting: My only World Cup post

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 10

Three points about the World Cup, and then I’ll shut up about soccer. * I hope Zinedine Zidane’s vicious head-butt was satisfying to him. I’m betting that it cost him…

The blogosphere isn’t poisonous—but the name may be

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 05

I’ve been thinking about yesterday’s post (which I inadvertently posted twice). It’s easy to say that the presence of millions of bad bloggers doesn’t weigh down the good ones….

The blogosphere is not “credible”

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 04

Steven Straight leaves a comment on Heather’s post warning that the blogosphere is losing credibility. (I left a comment on the post, but don’t feel like waiting for it to…

Engineering our coffee, our dogs: The coming backlash

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 02

I’m in a Starbucks in Portland drinking a small latte with an extra shot. I have orders to take home an eight-ounce latte, half skim… you get the idea. Made…

Mixing sports and politics: a Big 12 business network

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 30

Business leaders in Austin are proposing business and tech-development cooperation in the Big 12. An interesting idea of harnessing networks based on sports and broadening them. Smart leaders in every…

Nokia and the paranoia economy

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 29

If Nokia ever equipes mobile phones with metal-detectors, as its reported patent filing suggests, we’re in big trouble. (ex Gizmodo) Imagine the fear and paranoia on earth if the world’s…

$100 laptop jumps 40%

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 23

Bruce Nussbaum writes that the much anticipated $100 laptop— the centerpiece of an effort to bring more of the world online—has jumped to $140. Price can come down as volume…

Mark Cuban: the missing numbers in a championship

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 23

I’ve written more than once that I’m writing a book about data, and how mathematicians and computer scientists are mining, analyzing and modeling our data to redefine our lives…

Back home, they know your mother’s maiden name

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 19

Think of a “security solutions” expert at one of the portals or e-commerce sites. He looks around the room at his colleagues gathered in Dulles or Sunnyvale any tech exurb,…

World Cup Blogs?

Posted by: Heather Green on June 18

I am glued to the World Cup games this weekend and am wondering whether there are some blogs that are breaking out as must reads. Up until now, I have…

Informal survey: Apple primed for gains

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 17

Our 18-year-old is going to college next fall, and is bugging us about getting him a laptop. He loathed the underpowered iMac we had in Paris six years ago, and…

Bloggers are rats with bleeding paws

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 14

If you have a couple of minutes, check out BusinessPundit’s post on how bloggers behave like rats in a Skinner box. It’s a question of how often we’ll go back…

Speaking English at Geno’s

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 13

Geno’s, the legendary cheesesteak shop in my hometown of Philadelphia, is now being sued for a sign demanding that patrons order in English. Read the hundreds of comments, and you…

Dow 36,000: If not a hearty meal, at least it’s cheap

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 12

Dan Gross lost a bet and had to eat a chapter of boom era relic, Dow 36,000. I checked Amazon and saw that his meal was going for 50 cents….

Back to Blogging

Posted by: Heather Green on June 12

Back to blogging after a couple of week’s vacation in italy.

How about a print-out of the Web?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 09

Josh Hallett worries that everything we’re writing online could end up, decades from now, locked on obsolete, unreadable technology—like those Neil Diamond eight-tracks up in your attic. He says that…

Burger King Fans Unite….in France

Posted by: Heather Green on June 05

Al Cabino, whose tagline is “Internationally renowned sneakerographer” reports on consumer activism in France. I.E. some folks are using blogs to petition for Burger King to come back to France.

Podcasts for occupational therapists: A shot in the dark

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 31

I read this note on Dave Winer’s blog: Fran: “I talked to over one hundred occupational therapists, and only 3 had ever heard of podcasting.” My first thought: What…

More controversy over Ford ads in gay magazine

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 28

Should Christians boycott Ford? That’s the question posed on the Pine Blog following the lastest publication of Ford ads in the gay press, this time in the Advocate. I’m…

Inside the Hotel Chelsea

Posted by: Heather Green on May 27

An intriguing blog—the Hotel Chelsea Blog—written by two long-time inhabitants of this storied NYC hotel.

Workblogging Blog: A Treasure Trove of Anonymous Blogs

Posted by: Heather Green on May 26

James Richards’ blog is a great source for delving into the world of employee blogs.

How about a national identity and health IDs?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 24

How much of our medical data is flying around from doctors to insurers to credit card companies? Lots. And yet when we go to a hospital emergency room they don’t…

Da Vinci and hard math

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 22

Naturally, The current top books section of Technorati includes two versions of The Da Vinci code. But sandwiched between them is a 530-page math tome, The Pi-Calculus. Bruce Silver…

Are books dead?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 20

So here I am on book leave, and the ever provocative Jeff Jarvis declares that books are history. As David Weinberger taught me, they limit how knowledge can be…

I am an entrepreneur

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 19

“Entrepreneurs are risk takers and dreamers and doers. Entrepreneurs and small businesses play a crucial role in the U.S. economy.” -President Bush The Fed-Ex man just delivered my certificate…

RFID: Tracking every step of a conventioneer

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 13

I’ve spent the last couple of days at a Marketing Metrics conference in Austin. The theme, which we sounded in the math cover, is that data analytics are growing more…

A law against MySpace in schools could backfire

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 12

OK, it makes sense to try to keep cyber creeps out of schools, but a law banning social network sites? That could keep out even Yahoo and Google. UPDATE. By…

I’ve got just the car for you

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 09

Maybe I’m just too lucky. I’m flying to Austin tomorrow, and when it comes to renting a car in the heart of Texas, they have great deals on SUVs! I…

Reporters and the Eddie Haskell syndrome

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 27

This post from Knoxville discusses the waiter syndrome: Judge people by how they treat others, not by how they cowtow to power. It reminded me of an article I read…

BW’s Rob Hof spawns an avatar

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 22

Here’s a fun cover story by BW’s Rob Hof about virtual gaming. I especially like the end, where he gets mad at a few virtual squatters who have invaded his…

Babe Ruth would languish in a world of business process outsourcing

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 20

Last night in Philadelphia, I watched a pitcher almost singlehandedly win a baseball game—with his bat. The pitcher was Cuban-born Livan Hernandez. He’s a veteran for the Washington Nationals. He…

Save the Internet—and tell me why it’s in danger

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 20

OK, maybe I’ve been in a math-bubble for two months. But when I read Jeff Pulver’s plea for a movement to save the Internet (thanks Joho), I’m not sure what…

One cafe, one pad of paper, a sharpened pencil

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 19

Ernest Hemingway had a simple formula in his Paris days. He’d go to a cafe in the morning with a pad and a sharpened pencil. Then he’d write. Not to…

Agent says hostage book could be big: Duh!

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 19

An literary agent who wants to represent freed hostage Jill Carroll says that her book, if she chooses to write one, would be big. I have no reason to disagree….

Social networking sites will lead to more snooping on workers

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 18

Visible Path has raised $17 million in venture funding. The idea is that they’ll help corporations understand the social networks within companies, leading to better connections with suppliers and…

Microsoft’s photo innovation will point to us

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 16

Microsoft’s Chinese lab has come up with a search service based on camera-phone pictures. Pondering Primate writes, “The camera on your mobile phone is your “mouse” and every physical object…

Why did we get to hear the voices from flight 93?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 13

Did we have a right to hear the voice recordings from flight 93? Or did we just “benefit” from the prosecution’s strategy in a criminal trail? Are there other documents…

Talking about continual government surveillance

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 12

A bold proposal from a French software executive. Every vehicle in France, he says, should ping its location every five seconds. That way, authorities can take down their radar and…

Heartless U.S. vs. soulless Europe

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 05

When I lived in Europe, I often heard that the United States was a heartless society. Now that I’m back here, I’m hearing the equally simplistic line that Western Europe…

MySpace’s explosive growth: What does it mean?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 05

Om Malik details the growth at MySpace, which now appears to be the Web’s second most trafficked site, trailing only Yahoo. The crowd there has quintupled in the last year….

My kids play violent video games

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 04

A judge has overturned a Michigan law banning the sale or rent of violent video games to minors. He says the games represent free speech. If I even mention this…

The enormous advantage of writing from the United States

Posted by: Stephen Baker on April 01

Here’s Michael Lewis, author of Liar’s Poker and Moneyball, on the advantages of being a writer in the U.S.: “The stories we tell about life in America have a…

Federal Election Commission Rules in Favor of Blogs

Posted by: Heather Green on March 28

Missed this yesterday, but in a big decision and a victory for political bloggers, the Federal Election Commission ruled yesterday that the only political activity it would regulate would be paid Internet ads

Trucks on beaches, the ultimate wedge issue

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 28

Just one off-topic post following a weekend in lovely St. Augustine. When people who drive trucks on beaches want to sunbathe, stroll or swim, do they choose traffic-free beaches? Or…

Fred Wilson, Animated Heads, and Yikes!

Posted by: Heather Green on March 27

On being greeted by an animated version of Fred Wilson when you visit his blog.

Blogger Coffee

Posted by: Heather Green on March 18

A new take on blogging and morning coffee.

Would you take steroids to make you smarter?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 14

Mike Mandel has a very provocative post about steroids. Would we risk using them if they made us 30% smarter? How about if we knew our colleagues were using them,…

How do we cope with what we just can’t know?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 13

The guy at breakfast had the phone clipped to his ear, its green light blinking every three or four seconds across the table to his wife. I looked at him…

When does your mind rebel?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 11

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about why I was a near failure in math. A lot of it has to do with my inability in my teenage years to…

Chinese Bloggers Shut Down

Posted by: Heather Green on March 08

Reuters has a story about China shutting down two bloggers who are critical of the government. Looks like this is happening now because the national parliament is meeting. Update March…

Do you remember high school math?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 06

If you’re interested in education and how much math we need, read the comments on this blog. The post discusses a girl who dropped out of high school in Los…

If book publishing is dying, have I made a bad mistake?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 03

In this wide-ranging interview with Esther Dyson, (Thanks Jason)she compares Yahoo!’s development approach to intelligent design, and contrasts it to Google’s wild evolution. She dismisses the idea of the…

Trawling for giant calamari online

Posted by: Stephen Baker on March 02

Susan Crawford compares the Internet to the vast unknowns of the oceans, and says we need an explorers club to plumb its depths and send back reports. “Even beyond…

The book is about math

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 22

Publishers Weekly posts a note about Stephen Baker’s deal with Houghton Mifflin for a book about math.

What’s Up With Celebrity?

Posted by: Heather Green on February 21

Will the virtual community save us from celebrity culture?

Pew asks: Will our data be visible to all?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 21

A Pew Internet study asks if our lives will become increasingly transparent by 2020, and whether Luddites will rise against the spread of technology. One thing’s for sure. Those who object will be called Luddites.

No Olympic Buzz?

Posted by: Heather Green on February 17

NBC Olympics Overtakes American Idol on the Web, According to Nielsen//NetRatings

What Do You Like? I Like That Too.

Posted by: Heather Green on February 16

I stumbled across this post about the self-reinforcing nature of popularity (and the implications for sites like Digg etc) just today(Via Rex Hammock). It strikes a chord with me, because…

Is small yesterday’s big?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 12

If the common phrase “small is the new big” emerged last summer, is it new anymore—or even true? Same with the Long Tail.

What happens to superstars in an age where small is big?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on February 03

What happens to our celebrity-driven culture, and to People Magazine, in an age where the new big is small?

Are You Dooced If You Quit?

Posted by: Heather Green on January 31

If you quit your job and stop blogging anonymously, were you dooced?

Blogging Congress

Posted by: Heather Green on January 26

Pointer to CNET story about Congresspeople who blog, blog, blog.

How our sites are used when we die

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 23

After a hit-and-run accident in New York, a young woman’s Friendster site becomes a source for newspapers and digital rubberneckers.

Reporting on the Job: Take Two

Posted by: Heather Green on January 05

Thinking about Steve Rubel’s post on the question: To what length should bloggers go to verify the truth?

Haiku, Oh Haiku

Posted by: Heather Green on January 03

Join in the haiku contest. Please…

Is it worth it to live in New York?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 26

Is it worth it to live in New York City?

What are you reading this week? How about something different?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 24

How about recommending some books totally foreign to the theme of this blog?

Why the transit strike scares one suburban homeowner

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 22

Transit strike sparks telecommuting—and fears about housing prices in suburbs of New York

Strike Trek: Day 2

Posted by: Heather Green on December 21

It was a little warmer today walking in, and of course, once you start walking, you warm up. Frankly, the streets are a lot quieter than normal and it’s more…

Blogging From a Cab

Posted by: Heather Green on December 20

In the midst of the NYC transit strike and on the look out for blogging taxi drivers.

Basketball blog follows unlikely odyssey of Shavlik Randolph

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 18

Comments in a basketball blog tell the long Cinderalla story of Shavlik Randolph of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Yes, Rob, lots of things are worse these days—but you can’t beat the convenience

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 12

We sacrifice quality in music, phone conversations, meals and movies—and get a big dose of convenience in return

Your Patience Please

Posted by: Heather Green on December 10

So Steve is away this weekend and I am not going to have access to the blogging tools necessary to keep communication going on this platform….so your patience please with…

Bubble, Bubble

Posted by: Heather Green on December 08

Though a little late in pointing out a post by Tristan Louis on bubbles, am doing so anyway. Need to be vigilant about bubbles.

Florida superintendent blogs and gets hundreds of comments

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 05

Florida’s St. Petersburg Times hosts a lively school superintendent blog from Piniellas County Schools.

Snowy morning in Jersey, why doesn’t our school superintendent blog?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on December 05

School superindents need a way to get out the news on snow days. Why not blogs?

What will be the next Google?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 30

John Batelle asks if Google is bumping up against its limit. If so, who or what will be the next global tech giant?

Knowledge workers: We’re on our own

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 29

Knowledge workers increasingly will be severing ties to companies and selling their services piecemeal

Murrow: Today he’d seem pretentious

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 27

I finally saw the Murrow movie, Goodnight and Good Luck. I was struck by the elegance and formality of the language Murrow used, and by the fact that he actually…

Pocket watches are back

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 26

Cell phones are the new pocket watches

On a Blogger’s Changing Gender

Posted by: Heather Green on November 15

Pointer to the New Yorker story about Underneath their Robes, a blog that tracks the judiciary and whose anonymous author writes in the persona of a woman, even though he’s a man.

Jargon talks its way into the porn biz, too

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 14

Even the porn business descends into tasteless and boring business jargon

What is so amazing about reading a blog?

Posted by: Heather Green on November 14

Is it so shocking that mainstream reporters would read blogs?

Blogs breed Jargon

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 13

Blogs foster jargon, which can limit their appeal to a mainstream audience.

Blogging—A New Leisure Option

Posted by: Heather Green on November 11

Pointer to the AP’s look at how some senior citizens are taking to blogging.

Geat Victory over Judith Miller

Posted by: Heather Green on November 10

Huffington is right. Judith Miller’s resignation from the New York Times is a “great Victory for the Times newsroom, the blogosphere, and journalism.”

Why jargon leads to dead-ends

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 09

Why tech jargon is likely to go the way of the dodo

France is Burning—Bloggers Jump In

Posted by: Heather Green on November 09

BW Paris correspondant Andy Reinhardt has an interesting story about some ads on Google has kicked up a political storm in France over the riots—and how bloggers have joined in.

Just a disease, and Steve Rubel is blogging about it

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 01

Steve Rubel blogs on his skin cancer, and Google drops cancer ads on his page.

Hacking: Do employers hold it against you?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 01

If hacking’s a ticket to a mainstream software career, why can’t drug dealers land jobs with big pharma?

Death By Blogs? Not so fast….

Posted by: Heather Green on October 21

WPP Group’s Neil French, who resigned this week amid some remarks over women at an ad industry event is now blaming his fate on blogs.

Women Bloggers

Posted by: Heather Green on October 11

CNET’s top 100 blog list could do better in including more women bloggers.

Should we teach diplomats how to ping?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on October 04

People are coming up with ways to wink and sigh electronically

If you’re snooping at someone’s profile, Friendster’s telling

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 30

Friendster starts telling us who’s looking at our profiles (but appears to have dropped the program)

Plazes: Time and Space Online

Posted by: Heather Green on September 23

About Plazes, a new social networking service that uses location mapping to help people find each other in the real world.

How much economics do we need to know?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 22

A back-and-forth in the Wall Street Journal explores how much econ Joe Schmo should know.

Finished Best of the Web Report

Posted by: Heather Green on September 16

BW’s Best of the Web special report that accompanies the that people helped shape with a survey online is now out.

Yahoo and Brewing Mistrust

Posted by: Heather Green on September 15

BW’s Ben Elgin wrote in this week’s magazine about some of the criticism Yahoo is attracting and whether it’s justified or not….

AOL Survey Says…..

Posted by: Heather Green on September 15

AOL survey finds that nearly 50% of bloggers say they blog as a form of self-therapy.

The trouble with Katrina message boards: Too much chat

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 08

Angry political debates pollute Katrina disaster recovery sites

Habitat for Humanity and Katrina

Posted by: Heather Green on September 06

Rex Hammock writes about Habitat for Humanity’s Operation Home Delivery, to help those who don’t have the money to rebuild.

Pitch in with ideas for rescue2.0

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 06

Points to a Jeff Jarvis post on building a citizen network to respond to disasters.

An editor looks to duck duty: Will teachers please blog?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on September 06

A beleaguered editor of school newsletter tries to entice teachers to blog

Online Giving for Katrina

Posted by: Heather Green on September 02

Convio said it processed more than $44 Million in 48 Hours in online donations for the Hurrican Katrina relief effort.

Totally Off Topic: Pandora

Posted by: Heather Green on August 30

I like writing about blogging, but sometime a person has to break out of their mold a bit. So here goes. I started listening to Pandora today, a music service…

Blind user frustrated by Blogger

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 23

A blind blogger reports problems with Blogger

The CBC lockout: Labor speaks with many blogged voices

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 20

CBC lockout shows how different labor relations will be in a world of blogs.

Back in the Swing

Posted by: Heather Green on August 18

I was only gone a few days (hanging out on the warm, warm beaches of Florida’s panhandle)….but geez it’s hard to get back into blogging. I read through some blogs,…

Comscore blog study puts women in a pen

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 09

New comscore study appears to consign women bloggers to a category all by themselves

What will be free?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 02

Jimmy Wales asks for 10 Things that will be Free. How about 10 free things that we’ll have to pay for?

Wanted: Global bike maps

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 20

A call for cyclists to create an open-source map of bike routes—if they haven’t already done it.

History site shows presidential campaign ads

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 19

A new Michigan State site shows presidential campaign ads

Forget about toothpaste. Education needs a consumer revolution

Posted by: Stephen Baker on July 06

New math teaching tools will create loads of data on how students learn—and could lead to a bottom’s up reform of education.

Bono has the tech world figured out

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 15

U2’s Bono is carrying U.S. tech titans into Africa with the power of persuasion.

Where is the digital divide?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on June 03

Blogspotting points to a CNET report on the digital divide, and mentions two other divides: wireless and broadband