“Chelsea’s become too clean. We need something different.” Solange Umutoni is not talking about the floodlit circus that used to be 27th Street. Nor is she referring to its formerly notorious nightclubs—places like Cain and Bungalow 8—where the most illicit vice is now cigarette-smoking. Ms. Umutoni talking about art. It’s December 4, 2006, and we’re […]
The Poop on Albany’s Drinking Water
Posted signs at Bowman Park in northeast Albany, Oregon, warn against coming near the water. They have been there since November 24th, 2006, when heavy, seasonal rains led to the release of dilute, raw sewage from the Albany Wastewater Treatment system into the Willamette. Despite recent dry spells, the signs have remained in place. If […]
Digg to Feature User-Generated Content
Digg, a news website that ranks links according to user votes, may be ready to shake things up a little more. A friend familiar with the matter tells me that the self-proclaimed "user driven social content website" has plans to start featuring user-generated content. Presently all listings on Digg point to external sites. What would […]
Biological Control May Beget Exotic Invaders
It’s not easy to be good. You thought you’d do the responsible thing and buy some ladybugs (technically beetles and not ture bugs at all, known as ladybirds in the UK) at the store to keep your roses clean instead of spraying poison. Little did you realize, you could be harming your local eco-system and […]
Open Source Transparency — The End of FUD
Open Source Transparency: The End of FUD Dan Kusnetzky, EVP Marketing Strategy and Paul Sterne, CFO An Open-Xchange Position Paper This position paper will address the question, "Can the open source approach to software development promote transparency and remove FUD — fear, uncertainty, and doubt?" By requiring that the source code is freely available to […]
Open Up the Business Model: How Citizen Journalists Get Rewarded
About 50 million Americans have added their original content to the Internet’s bounty. Most haven’t seen a dime. Five of the ten fastest growing brands on the Web rely on users for content. Most, like MySpace, Flickr and Heavy.com, do not pay their contributors. But the tide may be changing towards systems of compensation. Interestingly, […]