WebMink
Simon Phipps's personal commentary

PhoneBlog Update [WebTech]

A couple of observers (Dave Winer [via Sean] and Alan Williamson in the Yahoo group for this blog) have commented things along the lines of "no, no, don't do it that way, connect the phone to the blog software and give people choice". What this doesn't take into account is that Newbay are providing a service for telephone companies to add as a feature for their users, not a hack for the blogerati. Consequently, it has to work with the click of a check-box at the telco's call centre and it has to use existing phone capabilities like MMS or MIDP. Yes, the facilities at Blog City are cool, no doubt (good work, Alan!), and yes, a web service API is the right way to go and yes, that's where the OMA will be taking phone standards in years to come. But FoneBlog is a service designed to help telcos pay off their 3G debt in 2003...

posted at 7:27 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Dawn of the Phoneblog [WebTech]

Today sees the launch of an innovative system called FoneBlog from Newbay Software, to combine weblogs and camera-phones to allow people to maintain blogs automatically on the move - snap, type and send and you've recorded the moment, 'A Website for every mobile phone' as they say.

It's harder than it sounds - yes, setting it up for one person with Moveable Type or something might seem easy, but scaling it as a service for hundreds of thousands of customers is more of a challenge, as us customers of Pyra know all too well. For those interested, it all sprang from conversations Sean and I enthusiastically had during my visits to Propylon in Dublin last year, which Paddy Holahan observed with growing enthusiasm. As Sean says in his blog, "Now things get really interesting..."

posted at 12:33 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

The Penn is mighter than... [SocioPolitico]

Seems Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) has been risking the random pseudo justice of the airport security screeners [via Boing Boing]. I doubt I would get away with it (probably just get a free vacation at Shawshank) but it's something to dream about and the more people who quietly ask questions the sooner we will get the problem sorted out. I think sooner or later it will be necessary to have an impartial observer present at all screenings - I wonder if one has the right to nominate a witness/escort in these matters?

posted at 2:38 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |