Tag: web 2.0
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An interview with Martin Mills
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Andrew Orlowski
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It’s the conventional wisdom amongst some Reg readers that “the evil record labels” are dying, and deservedly so. But such a simplified view of the world overlooks the contribution of the independent sector – which operates very differently to the Big Four. Independents have a different business model, and have embraced digital networks as an…
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Sadville bans usury
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Andrew Orlowski
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The global financial crisis has encroached on that escapist Garden of the Id, Second Life. Linden Labs is to ban virtual banks from the virtual playground, the operator said in a statement yesterday. The problem is that the virtual money-lenders operate rather too much like their real world counterparts. wrote Ken D., yesterday “Since the…
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Teachers: Feel my Truthiness – Jimbo
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Andrew Orlowski
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Yes, it’s that time of year when children eagerly gather round a kindly old man with a beard. He makes great promises to them, if only they just work hard enough. But they just get a load of obscenities back. Only it’s not Santa. Wikipedia’s Maximum Leader and peripatetic salesman Jimmy Wales breezed into London…
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How Web 2.0 concentrates power, and makes Microsoft stronger
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Andrew Orlowski
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One IT Manager, bemoaning his lot to me, recently compared the rise of Web 2.0 enthusiasts to the problem the Police has with Freemasons. The blog and wiki evangelists within are not as secretive, of course, but they’re equally cult-like: speaking their own language, and using the populist rhetoric of “empowerment” for relentless self-advancement. He…
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I’m in privacy trouble … bitch
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Andrew Orlowski
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Three weeks ago, Facebook unveiled a three prong strategy to monetize its active base of 50m users. (See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/09/facebook_analysis/.) It hasn’t taken long for one those prongs to go prang. Facebook’s privacy-busting referral scheme called Beacon is to be modified. If you buy something elsewhere on the web, this information is piped back into your…
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MPs reject Ofcom’s Nathan Barley quango
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Andrew Orlowski
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In a victory for Register readers, MPs have rejected Ofcom’s proposal for a publicly-funded new media quango. The Commons’ select committee for Culture, Media and Sport rejects the idea that the creation of a “Public Service Publisher” gatekeeper would help the market. The report is here, while the Ofcomwatch blog broke the news here. The…