http://scrawford.net/blog Fri, 16 May 2008 23:59:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Wikis are extraordinarily useful but essentially flat resources. It's tough to conceive of a wiki being made up of structured data; indeed, a key concept behind wiki-ness is that anyone can edit and make the wiki wiser, and we don't force people to edit in particular ways. So ... http://scrawford.net/blog/the-mashable-wiki/1171/ The FCC released a notice yesterday asking many questions - they boil down to something like "How on earth do we go on with the idea of a public-private partnership for the D Block?" Here's the background:  As part of the structure of the 700 MHz auction that concluded recently, the ... http://scrawford.net/blog/d-stands-for-slightly-desperate/1170/ In The Deal of the Century, the 1987 classic account by Steve Coll of the breakup of the Bell System, one of the Bell local operating company presidents (pre-breakup) is furious about MCI's attempts to build microwave private lines for companies. Here he is, arguing to the AT&T chairman ... http://scrawford.net/blog/hitting-the-nails-on-the-head-in-canada/1169/ Going offline briefly. Here's something from The User Illusion for you, at p.220: Our actions begin unconsciously! Even when we think we make a conscious decision to act, our brain starts half a second before we do so! Our consciousness is not the initiator -- unconscious processes are! ... http://scrawford.net/blog/blog-break-6/1168/ The new Clearwire could be game-changing, but the rules of the game may not be quite as Clearwire presents them. I have been wondering since last July whether something significant would happen in the Google/Sprint world. The deal announcement earlier this weekseems to be that key development. ... http://scrawford.net/blog/the-new-clearwire/1167/ In response to my post a couple of days ago about the possibility that VZ might not plan to comply with the 700 MHz "open platform" rules, someone wrote: would you have the FCC mandate that every mobile device must be capable of running every operating system? If Verizon sells me ... http://scrawford.net/blog/tying-subsidizing-and-ims/1166/ During which OneWebDay will host a panel discussion - and Stephen Colbert will receive a Webby. More details here. http://scrawford.net/blog/internet-week-new-york/1164/ Last Friday (HT:  IPDemocracy), Google filed a petition [PDF] asking that the Commission ensure that Verizon understands what those "open platform" requirements for the C Block really mean.  Verizon has taken the position in the past that its own devices won't be subject to the "open applications" and "open handsets" ... http://scrawford.net/blog/700-mhz-update-will-vz-comply-with-the-rules/1163/ I have a favorite book:  The User Illusion.  Yesterday, starting another read of it triggered the realization that it was my first introduction to undecidability, complex systems, the Turner halting problem, information theory, Maxwell's Demon, and a host of other related concepts, people, and ways of looking at the world ... http://scrawford.net/blog/consciousness-raising/1161/ I've had a Twitter account for a while, and at the beginning of this month I started writing feverish tweets about OneWebDay progress - I'd been told that was essential. Well, last night on a call someone said: "I don't email any more. I don't IM. I don't ... http://scrawford.net/blog/short-form/1160/