Zude Super Review: Internet Revolution? 6 Experts Weigh In and a Grownup-Kid Thinks

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A Super Review — What’s That?

Jim McNeil and I played around with Zude for almost 2 hours Friday afternoon. While we talked, I heard the teacher in me say, “Most folks won’t see how this has the potential to change the way we interact with information and each other. Communication is fun again.”

This weekend I’ve been reading the pre-launch reviews. I face my keys and realize that the most useful review is not one person’s reporting of features and facts. So, in the spirit of Zude, I’m building a super review by gathering the relevant insights and information from experts all over the Internet. I’ll throw my grown-up kid thoughts in along the way.

6 Experts Weigh In

I can’t help but begin with the way that Zude was introduced to me.
“Zude is a pretty cool tool that allows anyone—we like to say “grandmas to geeks, coders to kids”–to build a website, from scratch, just by dragging and dropping objects from anywhere on the web. Items like photos, text, videos, even widgets can be built into your page, even if you only know how to click a mouse.” said Matthew Kraft when he extended an invitation to talk with Jim McNiel (CEO) about the product.

How cool Is THAT?!!

“McNiel, CEO, and Steve Repetti, CTO of Fifth Generation Systems, “dropped by my table at the Web 2.0 Expo to show off a very cool Web site tool called Zude. It was the coolest thing I saw at the Expo. –Robert Scoble, May 16, 2007 (check out the video

I’m right there with Robert and Robin. WAY Cool is my answer.

So what makes it cool? Well . . .

“But what’s cool is that you can also import entire web pages, and by dragging the URL into your Zude page you are presented with a choice of how you would like to import the content - as an RSS feed, a full-page rendering of the website, an embedded version of the web-page or even a button linking directly back to the source page.

Zude gives you the chance to quickly and easily bring in all kinds of content (dealing with intellectual property issues falls on your own conscience) and quickly remix it into new pages. As such it serves as nice way to aggregate content whether for your own research or future reference, or to share with friends.” –Robin Good, Master New Media

Finally, life on the web is moving to seamless. (Intellectual property here is also an issue of conscience — or Kinkos saying they won’t make copies.)

Who’s going to love it?

“Although it is unquestionably one of the most revolutionary services to hit the Web in a long time — one that, once out of beta, should prove to be equally usable and useful to Grandma as it is powerful to hackers, corporate developers, knowledge workers, and business analysts — once you’re done playing around with Fifth Generation System’s Zude.com, you’ll probably have as tough a time as I am putting your finger on how to categorize it.” –David Berlind, ZDNet

Why can’t it be a category of one? Cirque du Soleil is. People love what satisfies their needs, wants, and desires.

How does it work?
“Essentially, you create a free Zude account and start with a blank canvas, where you can drag and drop anything from the rest of the Web. When logged in, you simply open a new browser window and grab any piece of content you would like – a photo, a video, a widget, or even an entire Web page – and drop it on your Zude page. From there, it can be manipulated, resized, or even given functions such as alt text or hyperlinks. Thus, Zude can serve as anything form a simple personal site, to a tribute to your favorite band, or become the “ultimate mashup” where you combine information from all of your social networking profiles, blogs, widgets, and favorite web sites.” –Adam Ostrow, Mashable

Ever been stuck in the code of a blog theme?

Zude is like playing in the backyard when we were kids. The focus is what and why — the how comes naturally.

Take a look. Here’s to places folks have already made — enlarge them to take a look. Here’s a link to the LizStrauss Zude page.

How is Zude different from the rest?
“There are two main elements that separate Zude from Netvibes and Pageflakes. Zude is not simply a homepage where favorites are visited and utilized, it has an unlimited depth of possible pages and uses. Secondly, Zude uses a sophisticated and fast cross domain drag-and-drop aspect to simplify and dynamically change the way people add content to their pages.” –Phil Butler, Read, Write, Web

It’s fun to move things around (check out the Monty Python-like image library), and it’s deep enough to hold up to professional intent.

What makes it work?
“Content modules are not widgets, but capsules that can hold any webpage code (HTML, Javascript, Embeds). Zude isn’t aiming to create its own widget standard, but simply allow people to host embedded widgets from other sites on their platform. At launch each of these modules will be taggable, ratable, and sharable, meaning if you see a module you like on another site, you can grab it for yourself (like WebJam). The release will also feature their first module with dynamic content, blogging.” –Nick Gonzales, Tech Crunch

All that and a wireless mouse coupled with an idea or two.

What possible weaknesses do the big guys see?
“The interface is fairly painful to navigate at first, at least in Firefox (it’s supposedly better in Internet Explorer; it didn’t work at all in Safari), but with the end goal of putting together a custom webpage, it’s still easier to figure out than Dreamweaver.

It’s also easy to make a really ugly, graphic-heavy web site, replete with clashing colors. As we learned from MySpace, self-expression isn’t always pretty.” — Adena DeMonte, Giga Om

“My only concern is that the platform is too flexible and that users faced with too many choices will shy away from the service.” –Nick Gonzales, Tech Crunch

Kind of sounds like the first release of desktop publishing, doesn’t it? Look where we are with that idea now . . .

Conclusions of a Super Review from 1 Grownup Kid

Why did everyone fall in love with the iPod?
It wasn’t only the technology.

The IPod worked because it was fun. When folks used an iPod, it changed how they felt about themselves and how they experienced the world.

Where are the people in the tech reviews? The facts alone don’t tell the whole story. If they did, the Edsel would have been a hit and the VWBeetle would have been a bomb.
Customers choose what works by what works to make their lives easier and more enjoyable.

Work, play, who we are — surely not perfect and it takes a few minutes to find your feet — sounds like life to me.

Try Zude. I’d really like to know what you think.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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5 Leading Bloggers and 5 Reasons on Why We’re Blogging Less

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What’s Your Reason?

Blogging less. . . . Some folks say it’s because bloggers are moving to social networks. That made sense at first. But does the rise of social networks really have anything to do with blogging less? I took a closer look. Five bloggers I highly respect gave other reasons.

1. I have to pay the rent.

Hugh MacLeod at gaping void gave 6 answers to why we’re blogging less. He used one of his illustrations from 1998, called “Dorothy.” It says:

My flame has gone out
My fuel has been spent
I forgot how to love
I can’t pay the rent

2. I got some kind of busy.

In That Blogging Less Meme, Josh Hallett says

Yeah there was the meme going around about blogging less. A good friends recently said, “Yeah, I live that meme…no need to post about it.” Ha. Well I’m living it as well.

All my friends that work in the space are busy, very busy. We’re all damn busy.

I used to blog quite a bit in what could loosely be termed the ‘thought leadership’ vein….that was commentary on this evolving world of social media. It was great for business development, but then I ended up getting busy, too busy to blog :-)

3. I’m talking in shorter bits.

Last March, Steve Rubel was predicting this in Twitter, Human Attention and Moore’s Law.

Ahh, Moore’s Law. Thank goodness for it. Moore’s Law says the speed of chips and storage capacity double as they get shrink in physical size and get cheaper. Therefore, everyone benefits. This includes consumers/users and developers/producers (which frequently overlap in this new era). It gives rise to new services like Twitter.

However, there’s a serious catch. Your brain does not obey Moore’s Law. It’s aided by it, for sure. But the truth is. there’s only so much you can pack in there. That’s why David Allen sells so many Getting Things Done books. . . .

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Will people spend less time writing or reading blogs and more time Twittering? I posed this question on Twitter and got a resounding no. I am not so sure.

4. I think blogging more means blogging less.

Eric Kintz says blogging less isn’t the point in Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore.

If you want to be a top 50 Technorati blogger, you will most probably still need to post several times a day. But for the rest of us, we should think seriously about the added value of frequent blogging. Actually, according to Technorati, only 11% of all blogs update weekly or more. What will matter more and more is what you write and how you engage, not how often you write.

As the blogosphere matures, the measure of success will shift from traffic to reader loyalty. As Seth Godin says in his post, “blogging with restraint, selectivity, cogency and brevity (okay, that’s a long way of saying “making every word count”) will use attention more efficiently and ought to win.”

5. My blog is not my life.

I like the way Deb Weil approaches it. Why I’m blogging less . . .

Because I’d rather be planting my garden. Or picnicing with Lucy, age 3 - see feet at left.

Are you blogging less? If you are, what’s your reason?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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Bookcraft 2.0: 7 Reasons eBooks Are Losing Readers

Filed Under Business Book, Successful Blog, Trends | 29 Comments

eCards, eBooks, NOT eNough eTime!

Do you read eCards?
Most of us don’t. We have our exceptions. We read them — IF they come from our children or a dear friend. We read those because we love the people who sent them, and we know they spent time to choose the right one.

We also read eCards WHEN we know someone is going to TEST US. . . . Did you like the dancing bear I sent you? . . . We read them THEN, but we don’t like it. No, uh-uh, not one bit.

Do you download eBooks?
Most of us do. We download them; print them; and read them — or we set them aside and forget them. eBooks used to seem a bargain. After the third, fifth, seventh download, we’re finding they’ve got their drawbacks. The investment seems to grow with each one.

Some of us read them on our computers. But most eBooks are darn long for that.

Are you less interested in eBooks now than you were a year ago?
Another isn’t as appealing to me. Even the free eBook doesn’t do anything – because free is far from free.

7 Reasons eBooks Peaked in Their Life Cycle

Are you less interested in eBooks now than you were a year ago? Do you think it could be because an eBook isn’t really made to serve you the way quality products are?

In the world of publishing, an eBook at its core is unfinished. It’s basically what would be sent to a printer. The eBook format makes sense for the most time-sensitive, changing information, such as Aaron Wall’s SEO Book — accurate, well-designed content, which includes free lifetime updates.

The speed at which I can get an eBook no longer means much when I consider what I invest to take it off my computer. I am the printer, binder, shipper, warehouse. When I download and print an eBook

I pay for the paper, the ink, and the wear on my printer.

It’s my time. It’s my computer. It’s my schedule that makes room for the download.

I get inconsistency and often more work than I bargained for. Would that every eBook was held to Aaron Wall’s standard of content, editing, design, and production. His book looks, reads, and prints like a dream. No I don’t know him. I appreciate quality.

They are not books. Books rarely fall apart when we turn the page.

An eBook takes up far more space than a bound book.

No matter how compelling the content, an eBook is an unlikely gift.

No eBook could hold a place of honor on an elegant bookshelf or coffee table.

As a delivery system, an eBook is unconstructed, low design packaging that benefits the author/publisher, more than the customer/reader. It’s not Web 2.0. It’s less choice than fast-food, usually with less quality control.

With what time I have to read, I read things I want to keep. An eBook is a pile of paper from my printer. It is not made to deliver reading ease or pleasure.

A traditional book is less expensive. It’s designed to be read, easy to navigate, and it fits elegantly on my shelf. If you can only do it one way, a real book serves more readers in presenting information in a printed paper format.

Time, money, paper, ink, space, aggravation . . . what have you spent on eBooks?

Yeah, I could leave an eBook on my computer and read it there. There’s a list to go with that too. It starts with using resources and keeping me on my computer even longer than I am now.

To put it plainly, I’ll pump my own gas, because it’s faster. I’ll print my own boarding pass, because I don’t have to stand in line and wait. They both save me time and don’t tie me up or tie me to my computer.

Most eBooks deliver too little and cost too much for me. For a product to win on speed and low-cost design/production value, we have to get something real in return that we want.

I’m not. Are you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you make a plan to meet your goals, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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A Story: New Media and the Writer/Blogger Girl

Filed Under Successful Blog, Trends, ZZZ-FUN | 20 Comments

Improbulus, I Don’t Know

The question was set. What is your diet of new media? What do you consume? Make a list if you would. Put the most consumed at the top of the list. . . .

Shortly before SOBCon, my friend Improbulus asked that question. I wanted to answer, but truthfully, I didn’t know what to say. Sad to say, my mind might be clever and occasionally a risk taker, but my reality is flat out boring.

I’m a dreamer. Like Christopher Columbus, I’ll go sailing off to the edge of the planet in the most rickety ships. (Okay, so maybe his ships were state of the art, but mine wouldn’t be — unless Terry Starbucker and Chris Cree made sure things were in order.) I’m a pizza and beer kind of girl. I still like my music on CDs, preferrably timeless, musical, and with great lyrics.

I’m not sure I know what new media is.

New Media and the Writer/Blogger Girl

This is the story of new media and the writer girl who became blogger girl. . . . It begins with knowing that, as writer girl, all I need s is a great keyboard, a fabulous display, and my BOSE headset that sends back sounds bouncing off walls — so that I don’t have to, bounce off walls, that is.

A telephone is useful, but optional. Well, this writer girl talks a lot, so maybe it should be on the list.

Life was simple in Web 1.0.

The world changed when I started blogging. Read more

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Net Neutrality 01-30-07

Filed Under Business Life, Community, SOB Business, Successful Blog, Trends | 2 Comments

Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Is Net Neutrality A Myth? [via Light Within]

The advocates of net neutrality have, at first blush, one overwhelming argument in their favor. The Internet was designed to be a dumb network, with all the brains and innovation residing at the ends of the system. As such, all bits of data traveling over the Internet would be treated equally. This “end-to-end” design principle is the essence of network neutrality and, the proponents of mandated net neutrality argue, must be maintained to secure the Internet as we know it.

This essential characteristic, it is argued, precludes the owners of the Internet’s “pipes” from engineering any intelligence into the network’s architecture–and thus any differential pricing–since all the intelligence must reside at the edges. Proponents of mandated net neutrality managed to force the adoption of some net neutrality provisions into the recent merger agreement between AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ) and Bell South.

But in ” The Myth of Network Neutrality and What We Should Do About It,” Robert Hahn and Robert Litan of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies argue that, contrary to the claims of regulated neutrality proponents, “all bits of information are not treated equally from an economic standpoint.” They argue that “the Internet is not end-to-end now and was never designed to be strictly neutral.”

How can this be? The engineering architects of the Internet drafted the technical rules in informal papers called Requests for Comment. The early drafters of the Net’s architecture, according to Hahn and Litan, “recognized the need to offer priority to some packets over others.”

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

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