CoComment—which just upgraded to version 2 Beta yesterday—leverages existing communities to build a meta one around the active interactions readers have with content providers. It not only keeps tabs on each member’s blog or forum comments, but it allows interaction to be handled in one place. There are also many points of articulation for discovery of new blogs and communities, as well, adding a social networking component to what was otherwise a very isolated act.
Finding the Bloomington Blogosphere
The Hoosier Times recently upgraded and expanded their blog directory. The Bloomington Alternative also has started offering blogs to go with their free online content. The more such efforts, the better. In my ongoing quest to identify all of the local bloggers, I’ve updated our OPML file to allow you to keep tabs on the Bloomington and Monroe County community, as seen through citizen journalists.
Chore Wars
Although Kevin “claims” to have mentioned this site previously, last night the Chore Wars site came to my attention and I set up our family adventure. Each person can set up their own character, choose “adventures” (read: chores) and do them, claim them, fight a monster and get some treasure. Here are some of our [...]
Invitation to Web 2.0
For anyone who is interested in trying out Pownce, Freebase, or Spock, I have several invites available for each. Post a comment or contact me off blog to request one. This offer is open to any BlogSchmog reader, but specifically it is aimed at Bloomington IT and School of Informatics folk who want to explore a year-long development project to benefit the local community.
VCs want traction
There are a lot of great comments attached to venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky’s post explaining why investors funded Twitter. One of them suggests what is attractive about Twitter is the foundation of active members of their community, a population that continues to grow.
Getting the low down with FeedUp
The first trip down a river takes longer because there are more things to see, while later trips are focused on either the destination or what is noticeably different from the last boat ride. The same is true of online searches, where people familiar with a topic don’t what to see what they already know. Kosmix’s FeedUp service, currently in alpha, is a way to turn searches into an RSS feed showing recent news on a topic.
Cashing out
I wonder if I grew my beard ZZ Top long and quit drinking soda, like my pal Evil Spock, if I could increase the value of my corpse from $4540. Of course, what good is the extra travel money if I can’t enjoy the conference.