I think 99.9 percent of the submitted punch lines will be less funny than my original. After all, I’ve had a lot of practice. But with volume, that still leaves room for lots of comics that are better than the original. But we’ll see. This new model makes mocking your co-workers and boss a competitive sport, so it should be lots of fun. I submitted two alternative punch lines today myself, trying to top my original. It’s addicting.

Our very own Danny Williamson is part of the funnier 0.1% remashing the comic strip below:

 Original:

Williamson Mashup:

One thing that continues to amaze me is how little we value the privacy of our personal information online. The amount of information we are willing to provide to use services online is immense and our concern over divulging it seems to be almost non-existant.

Although the Federal Trade Commission proposed that companies involved in online advertising create a self-regulatory code to limit the use of sensitive information in their use of ‘behavioral targeting’ - where ads are targeted based on a user’s web browsing behavior, a recent article in the New York Times describes the measures taken by the newspaper industry in response.

The use of such regulation codes is a valid concern for the newspaper industry as more and more people are abandoning their newspaper subscriptions and turning to the web to find their preferred news source online. Furthermore, the large abundance of free online news sources limits the ability of these news sites to charge readers for content. The associated revenue loss has to be made up somewhere and news sites are looking towards behavioral targeting to make up the difference.

In a filing by the Newspaper Association of America, an argument was made that the relevant advertising created through behavioral targeting amounts to good customer service. While this might be a bit of a stretch, there is some benefit in viewing more relevant ads which are more likely to fill some unmet need, yet this benefit comes with the cost of privacy infringment.  Are more relevant ads really worth revealing what websites i’ve previously browsed or which terms i’ve previously searched for? how can we be sure that this information remains in the right hands?

Such privacy issues will surely become greater concerns in the near future as increasingly sophisticated technology written about here is continually finding new ways in harnessing personal information with the goal of making our lives easier. MIT medial labs has created a mobile phone service dubbed ‘Social Serendipity’ where strangers who, according to their personal profiles, are compatible with each other are notified when in close proximity to one another. Initial testing has shown positive results yet there is still hesitation about revealing such personal information. Such innovative applications will continue to emphasize the trade off between increased convenience and the resulting loss of privacy so how do we move forward and capitalize on these new technologies without giving up our right to privacy? Are these privacy concerns actually safegaurds to our well being or are they just short-term barriers to inevitable advancements in the way we live our lives?

I must admit, walking around the deli ordering various cheeses while having a strange man following steps behind me so as not to severe the connection was an unusual experience. It made me think of how digital transactions evolved from physical ones to make exchanges easier and the impact this would have on an already threatened business model. Copyrighted music is already being illegaly exchanged on peer to peer networks in mass quantities but the proliferation of bluetooth devices is allowing this exchange to happen offline as well.

As history has shown, the optimal strategy for the music industry to pursue would be one that does not inhibit the new method of exchange but rather benefits from it. An interesting model proposed by Microsoft involves monetizing such off-line exchanges by paying users commission to sell the content to others. The idea is that by allowing a user who has paid for the digital content to continually re-sell the content to others, a viral off-line peer to peer market would be created where revenue is shared among resellers and the content’s copyright holder. While the idea is innovative and seems promising, it has not gained much support from media player manufacturers who would need to upgrade their devices to provide a transmission technology such as bluetooth. However, the increasing convergence of digital media players and mobile phones into one (bluetooth supported) device will only proliferate off line digital media sharing and will make this issue a hot topic in the near future.

Similarly, many entities are looking to use the collective intelligence of internet users and are finding innovative ways to harness this power.  A good example is Google’s Image labeller game which pairs users against each other in a competition to label images thereby helping to improve the quality of google image results.

However,  emerging Web 2.0 technologies such as Blogs and Wikis provide a new challenge in how to organize the vast amount of emerging qualitative data such as opinions on blog posts or reviews of feature films. Online prediction markets provide a glimpse into the future of  how such collective intelligence could be gathered.

Sites such as Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSE) and Intrade use the power of the market to trade idea futures in order to aggregate opinions into one coherenet metric and make predictions on various topics. Such sites have been proven to be extremely accurate in the past with the HSE accurately predicting 7 out of 8 top category Oscar winners in 2007.  Since prediction markets provide a forum to aggregate information in an engaging and fun way, their popularity will only continue to increase. However, marketers are still experimenting with various forms of prediction platforms with sites like Predictify that provide users with a simpler way to make predictions. Such prediction platforms can benefit marketers by providing them with access to critical consumer data as well as a forum to engage customers. Thus, marketers should not overlook this innovative method of harnessing the collective intelligence of customers while at the same time creating a new platform for engagement.

The most obvious solution that comes to mind is introducing ads into the site, however, this issue is definitely a hot button within the Wikipedia community with concerns being raised that the introduction of ads would jeapordize Wikipedia’s Neutral point of view – a fundamental Wikipedia principle – that has played a major role in the site’s success.

The article describes how most of Wikipedia’s editors and some board of trustee members are strictly opposed to advertising and when the issue was raised in 2002, a Spanish-language branch was so concerned that its members quit and created their own version of Wikipedia. 

The way Google is able to maintain credibility by clearly distinguishing between natural and sponsored search results may provide proof that Wikipedia may be able to do the same. Thus a key consideration for Wikipedia would be to integrate the ads into the site design in a way that they are not confused with content nor are they intrusive or annoying.  

Recieving roughly 300 million page views a day which could potentially translate into hundreds of millions of ad revenue dollars per year, Wikipedia cannot afford to overlook this potential source of revenue.  Especially when these added dollars can provide richer content such as pictures and videos , further enhancing Wikipedia’s appeal. However, the question remains – can Wikipedia do so without hindering its credibility and neutrality?

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a way to bring this classification system into the physical world. The best part is - the tagging is done automatically. By attaching a tiny camera and LCD screen to a pair of oversized glasses, researchers have created the ’cyber goggles’ that automatically scan what the user sees and identify objects in real time.

Many of us have experienced automated tag suggestion applications. However, at least in my experience, these have usually provided innacurate suggestions. The ‘cyber goggles’ on the other hand have proved to be very accurate by being able to correctly identify 60 everyday objects as demonstrated at the University of Tokyo last week. Designed to serve as a high tech memory aid, the cyber goggles provide a glimpse into the future of augmented reality that can eventually be used in a number of different ways. For example, the image recognition technology can be used to search through long videos to automatically identify certain images.

Not surprisingly, this type of technology is already being used in Japan where people can use the camera on their mobile phone to scan and recieve more information about all kinds of objects including CD’s, books and DVDs. J-Magic, the company offering this service claims to have about 45,000 scannable products in its database.

The ‘cyber goggles’ are most notably intended to solve the annoying dilemna of lost keys or remote controls, however, as one commenter notes – what happens when you lose the glasses?

Players earn ‘datapoints’ by simply surfing the web and can use these points to plant mines at various popular websites for other players to find. Less violent players can choose to leave gifts instead. Players can create quests for other players that involve following paths and finding missions along the way.

The potential to draw users to various websites through these quests creates plenty of opportunities for monetization, however, an article in Gigaom notes that the developers are currently not thinking of monetization options but instead focusing on finding new ways to turn surfing the web from “a mostly random activity into goal-directed fun.”

This development brings us one step closer to the idea of the internet browser being the ultimate social networking platform as PMOG might eventually provide IM, photo sharing, event planning and other typical social networking services.

The recently launched Flock Browser has attempted to be the leader in this space by providing an open source browser with enhanced social networking functionality.

While some may view PMOG as another inconsequential passing fad, Tim O’Reilly points out that this provides a glimpse into the future of the next level of “electronic augmentation of the world in which we live.” If the rapid adoption of Massively Multiplayer Online Games such as World of Warcraft, which as of January 22, 2008, has surpassed 10 million subscribers worldwide, has shown us anything, its that the potential for these types of games is massive.

It will be very interesting to see what new features PMOG adopts as the road ahead will provide plenty of opportunities as Gamelayers developers ponder: “How do you design a game where all of human data is the playfield?”

Trapster provides an API for integration with connected GPS Devices and there is also a Trapster Google Mapplet dubbed the ‘Trapplet’ that displays the reported speed traps on Google My Maps. The Trapster website notes that there are various static speed trap reporting websites out there such as this one but they are not useful since police change speed trap locations so often and thus only a real time updated mobile application such as Trapster can really be effective in avoiding speeding tickets. The great thing about Trapster is that unlike most community driven websites or applications, you dont need a critical mass to benefit from the service. Only a few active users in your area reporting live speed traps will suffice.

Police radar detectors such as those made by Cobra or Uniden are illegal in Canada but if the Trapster application becomes popular enough to render police traps futile – will the application become illegal too? How can such a law be enforced?

The project is in its infancy right now but its future prospects seem very promising. The first step will be to pool together a large collection of educational assets mainly through a combination of licensing activities, incentives for community-based authorship, and university collaborations. Following that, Flexbooks will continue expanding its knowledge base and team up with various print companies to provide paper-based materials in addition to its core set of online offerings. 

Why do we need Flexbooks? the makers of Flexbooks CK-12 explain:

“Today, textbooks that are used in K-12 system are limiting, expensive and are difficult to update. Because of this, K-12 teachers find it hard to introduce new concepts and cater to different needs. What we need is a more flexible and less expensive system to create and distribute books and online content. FlexBooks, by their very nature, satisfies this need. They contain high quality online content, and are easy to create, update and print. They provide a new system that will follow an open source philosophy to place content on-line that can be “mixed, modified and printed.”

The way it works is simple. Greenbook uses funds generated through sponsorship and advertising to purchase renewable energy certificates from its provider 3degrees who sources these certificates from various providers of renewable energy. Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) are a way for producers of renewable energy to seperate commodity electricity & environmental benefit into 2 seperate components in order to more easily facilitate the production and distribution of renewable energy. When a REC of a given unit of energy is purchased, that unit of renewable energy is inputted into the power grid and therefore displaces the same amount of fossil fuel energy as the American federal law mandates that those who manage the power grid purchase renewable energy whenever it is available. Every month Greenbook purchases a certain amount of RECs/CO₂ reduction through sponsorship and advertising and distributes it among current users*.

As Greenbook relies on sponsorhsip and advertising to generate revenue the more users that join – the more money raised and the more CO2 emmissions reduced. It doesnt stop there. Greenbook is using a wide array of offerings and fully leveraging community involvement to help save the environment. The application provides a forum where users share environment saving tips with each other combined with a rating system that pushes the most popular tips to the top of the list. Tips range from keeping your tired inflated properly for improved gas mileage to buying your food from local producers which reduces transportation pollution. Although some tips are not as useful as others,

the large supply of helpful suggestions provides an effective platform to collaborate and inspire others to live their lives in a ‘greener’ way. Greenbook even provides a shopping service with an array of pre approved ‘green’ products (powered by Amazon). In the near future, Greenbook plans to launch a suit of games that users can play to win credits to purchase more RECs and further reduce CO2 emissions.

Greenbook is effective not only because of its direct positive impact on the environment but also because of the large amount of environmental awareness it creates. One issue to wonder about is whether geographical boundaries will play a role in the popularity of this service. Since the unit of renewable energy that is inputted into the power grid is sourced from various regions that most likely will not be close to a user’s location, might users turn away from this method of CO2 reduction? Surely, global warming is a global cause for concern but won’t people prefer to minimize ommissions closer to home?

*for those who really want to make a difference 3degrees offers a footprint calculator on its website that allows users to instantly purchase renewable energy certificates equal to their carbon footprint.

After installing the software I was surprised to discover there were no songs available to download. Despite claiming to have deals in place, it turns out that Qtrax has not even closed a deal with one major record label although claiming to have signed up at least 4.

With all of these negative features its hard to believe the venture has recieved $30 M in funding and recieves 1,464,000 unique users per day since its launch 3 days ago. Furthermore, the launch of such an out of date and unappealing program has even raised concerns that there may be a stock scam involved.

This business model is not entirely flawed, however, as the idea of ad supported free music holds great potential if executed properly. The way video game producers are changing their business models provides a great example. Electronic Arts has recently announced it will be releasing its latest game Battlefied Heroes for FREE. The game will be distributed online only and will be supported through advertising and micro sales (players can purchase upgrades for their characters). Although 95% of players dont buy anything, this model has worked for EA in the Asian market and they hope to bring that success to North America.

It seems the music industry still has a lot to learn but with so many great examples around its hard to understand why the pace of change is so slow.

Last week in this post I described how the owner of Plenty of Fish.com is able to earn $10 M per year by leveraging the sites users to perform the tedious labor required to operate such a site. This posed the question of how much profit can be made before donators demand a piece of the pie: Quite a bit it seems as Facebook has recently announced its intention of leveraging its users – without compensation – to translate its site into various languages.

The ‘translation’ application has already been downloaded by several thousand users from networks such as “Madrid” or “Berlin” who will work alongside professional translators hired by Facebook. Users of this application can translate words and phrases from a list that Facebook provides or may choose to search through the site and translate the words Facebook has highlighted. 

This example provides some insight into how great of profits such a crowdsourced effort can bring in before donators demand compensation. Although Facebook doesn’t report its annual earnings, this approximation estimates its annual net income to be roughly $50 M. What’s more perplexing is that this ‘translation’ application doesn’t seem to be very entertaining and yet it is still attracting thousands of users. Imagine what an application that was fun and served an underlying purpose at the same time could do. In fact, that is exactly what Google did with Google Image Labeler that lets players compete with each other to label and tag images to improve the quality of Google’s image search results. 

The possibilities would only be limited by creativity but one thing is certain – there will not be a shortage of eager volunteers ready to put in the hours. However, this begs the question – why are these users performing such tedious work for free? Do they really see Facebook as a worthy social cause? Or are they simply that bored?

The eagerness of consumers to get involved provides a large opportunity for social networking sites such as Facebook. For example, to reap the benefits of complimentary consumer involvement, new Facebook applications targeting selected individuals (based on their profile information) can get consumers more involved in the product development process. The already available demographic information can save companies an enormous amount of time that would have otherwise been spent surveying consumers to find the right demographic, provided these users are willing to make their information available. Given the willingness of many Facebook users to allow various applications access to their personal information, it seems these companies should not have a hard time finding eager and willing consumers to contribute their thoughts and opinions. In fact, MySpace is currently in talks with market research firm Passenger regarding the creation of private communities within MySpace that will foster market research. 

The great opportunities that Web 2.0 offers , such as harnessing the collective manpower of satisfied and willing consumer volunteers, does have an ugly flip side, however. For as many delighted customers that exist out there, there are always a few disgruntled ones who are not afraid of making their voices heard. Dell found out the hard way when a frustrated customer posted his negative customer service experience on his daily blog which started a downward spiral that involved many other dissatisfied Dell customers and eventually led to Dell’s stock plummeting 45%. 

Frind suggests that his customers are willing to put in the hours, free of charge, because “Lots of people feel like they want to give back to the site because it’s free.” Thus, in order for firm’s to take advantage of this trend, they must give off a positive image in that their product/service should be perceived as beneficial for the community.  Whether the quality of this ’free’ labor is up to par may be questionable, however, companies should not overlook this potential source of complimentary work.

The best part of this new service is that users will have fully customizable privacy control settings so that they are able to set permissions to various degrees on who is able to see their location and to what detail. This concept is not new, AIM offered its users a location sharing feature last year but My Loki will make this feature accessible to many new platforms.

It seems the goal is to provide users with a quick way of updating their networks on their whereabouts in order to better facilitate potential get-togethers with friends in close proximity, although the users who will likely most benefit are frequent travelers. The potential for this service to really take off might also depend on the rate of adaption of Wi-Fi capabilities into mobile phones (the company plans to extend to windows mobile and symbian platforms) and the availability of Wi-Fi networks.

MyLoki provides a great example of placing more oil into the gears of social networking facilitation. Making it easier to track friend’s activities will surely increase networking efficiency but whether the potential benefits of location sharing outweigh the drawbacks – mainly the lack of privacy – remains to be seen.