There has been a lot of negative press around Twitter around the blogosphere lately. I still run into a lot of clients especially who ask me what the point of Twitter is and I explain the concept of micro-blogging to them and the beauty of API which 9 times out of 10 draws a blank stare. But my focus today is about usability and Twitter. I just freshly downloaded and installed Firefox 3, and to my utter joy and astonishment 95% of my add-ons updated automatically and now work in the svelte new interface that is FF3. One of the add-ons that didn’t upgrade properly was my twitterbar extension which has proved very useful, if not a little clunky over the last few months. So in search of an upgrade, I went to the FF add-ons webpage and searched for a new Twitter extension. And lo and behold, I found something that made me feel joys in my soulz. A little plugin called TwitterFox. In every way it exceeded my expectations (which were still resting on the laurels of Twitterbar). I installed, and the interface, functionality and workflow was beautiful. I tweeted how it was going to change my twitter experience forever. I even caught a few @ messages I had missed before. I was so happy, that I forgot momentarily about Twitters woes and the questionable ‘meant to be a CMS but is something else altogether’ system its built on. Oh well, at least I still have my beautiful red TwitterFox icon.
Just got a beta invite for something (firefly) that I think is making the “social networking” boundary blur terrifically. It’s basically a nice little app that adds chat functionality to your site. Check down in hte first column widget pane to have a go. Very nice.
As everyone knows with the sheer volume of information being digitally produced on a yearly basis now, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a big issue. Music companies have been seemingly floundering on what to do about an ever increasing amount of piracy.
But in the face of all the old school flaccid record companies whipping themselves into a frenzy and trying to nail water to a wall by further alienating their audiences with DRM idiocies such as Sony’s root kit debacle, Trent Reznor seems like an artist who understands the power of the web as an information platform. The fact that there is a NineInchNails flickr account with official photography that is released under a Creative Commons license is case in point that Reznor is web savvy. The release of his new album Ghosts from his website and the structure of the packages available for download is nothing short of pure genius. The Ghosts website states that the album contains “Almost two hours of new music composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall”. Navigate through to the order page, and you’ll see that there are several options for obtaining a copy of this new album, and also that 2500 copies of the limited edition $300 package are sold out. So thats $750,000 up front which seems like a pretty reasonable start on album sales. But by structuring the packages with varying levels of benefit ie. - ” $75 Deluxe Edition: Ghosts I-IV in a hardcover fabric slipcase containing: 2 audio CDs, 1 data DVD with all 36 tracks in multi-track format, and a Blu-ray disc with Ghosts I-IV in high-definition 96/24 stereo and accompanying slideshow.” Reznor has included something for everyone. I downloaded the 9 free tracks, and I must say they are very good.
I’m definitely going to pay the $5 and get all 36 tracks based on the “taster” above.
So how does this relate back to Information Architecture? It’s important to have a good understanding of web technology, and even more important to understand trends and where the web is going. Creative Commons is growing bigger, and will only get better. And as people who understand these things like Trent Reznor advocate Creative Commons in an innovative and exciting way, the bar will get raised across the board so that not only will consumers be delivered products that they want, and are excited by - but the artists will also get exactly what they deserve for their work.
Go - click on the image below and download it, it’s good:
I'm an Information Architect working in Wellington New Zealand who deals a lot with web standards, conventions and best practice every day. This is the place where I place findings, musings and facts as a repository for myself and anyone else who might benefit.
As everyone knows with the sheer volume of information being digitally produced on a yearly basis now, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a big issue. Music companies have been seemingly floundering on what to do about an ever increasing amount of piracy.
I'm an Information Architect working in Wellington New Zealand who deals a lot with web standards, conventions and best practice every day. This is the place where I place findings, musings and facts as a repository for myself and anyone else who might benefit. 
