Attending last year’s vlogeurope conference, some friends there invited me to join Twitter, which is a micro-blogging community. More or less it is just a very limited RSS feed you get from twitter – limiting postings even beyond SMS size to 140 letters. So just another format for self expression – limit what you are doing or thinking to 140 letter. Since the introduction of Twitter a lot of online communities like StudiVZ and Facebook integrated their own micro-blogging tool, giving their users the opportunity to micro blog what they are doing, but none of them so far offers as many compatibility options like Twitter. Currently my new blog posts become announced on Twitter using Twitterfeed, and all my twitter postings also appear in my Facebook account. All my twits, or however you my call this micro blog entries are also displayed in my sidebar.

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Web-Site at 21:36 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

[Trigami-Review]

Ever tried to use video calling on your brand new UMTS phone? Guess most of us will answer that question with a clear “No”. Rates up to 0,99 EUR, while a normal call is priced at 19 cent or is even free (since many of us have flat rates) this feature is still really uninteresting. It also requires UMTS connection enabled – and most us will switch of this feature, since it is power consuming. Well, I don’t want to write a statement on why not to use that feature, but rather point out a possibility on why it might be interesting.

The Berlin base ViiF mobile Video GmbH, which calls there product “your mobile entertainment community”, offers a service which could get you to at least try out the video call feature. There software uses this video call feature as interface to get videos of your phone and into the internet and vice versa. Currently this feature is free for customers using the German O2 network. All that is needed is an UMTS connection and a call to the service number 22557. No special software or data rate needed!
Especially the feature enabling direct vlogging caught my attention – media directly to your personal weblog is the promise you get at the ViiF homepage. Unluckily I’m currently at my parents place in Truppach with no UMTS coverage, so I won’t be able to try this feature before I at least visit Bamberg or Bayreuth. But I’m really curious, whether this vlogging feature will work any good, since I’ve tried to start a kind of mobile vlogging some while ago, but never kept up with it. If the ViiF service produces any reliable quality I might get back on track here Also it will be interesting to see, which kind of Media they will offer in there community. Probably some of me readers in an UMTS area could try the feature and comment a few words about this?

As long as the ViiF manages to keep there call rates low, considered an enabling technology – enabling to distribute and receive content without having to subscribe to expensive data rates, and without having to tweak your mobile phone too much. With all those mobile carriers still trying to get back the billions they invested in UMTS licenses and their UMTS network, I really hope this can be done, our mobile market needs such innovations - at decent prices, though! I’ve subscribed to the ViiF-Blog and will be watching their progress. Also expect me trying this vlogging feature soon.

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Media at 17:25 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

Disclaimer: This is a paid posting, powered by trigami.

Ever wanted to include a basic survey to your blog? If your Blog script or provider is not offering the required functionality for you, you might want to have a look at Netvoting.com. This new web 2.0 platform, which is currently been tested in a closed beta does not only act as a community to share votings, but also offers little widgets for your blog to include. Writing this article for Trigami, I have had the chance to participate in the beta and get a look at the platform.

The community is set up with all current Web 2.0 features, like folksonomies and user profiles, the possibility to connect to other voters, groups and comes with a kind of standard web 2.0 design. So it is quite easy to play around there, and the handling is easy, too. Of course the connecting element in this are the votes you can offer there, and in which you can participate. The downside of this element is, the fact that every vote you cast can be viewed by other users of the community. I’m not sure how the privacy of this information will be handled in the full version. But the creators should really create a feature to create some privacy here, e.g. only let connected people see your votes. For me personal the community would be pretty much useless, without such a feature, since I don’t fancy strangers knowing every vote I cast there. I also won’t need the feature of this voting widget, since s9y comes with a very own plugin to create polls.

Well, we will see how this community develops once it’s launched! Probably interesting to come back once there is a little live there. If you want to have your own look you might want to register here.

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in Lost and Found at 00:24 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Starting tomorrow with a get-together at the Klosterbräu brewery, I will attend a Workshop about further developments of the internet in Bamberg. Since the workshop is about new movements in the web, of course current web technologies are used to support it. You can have a look at the workshop weblog or even use the workshop wiki. Using the conference tag "dnn2007" pictures taken can be found at Flickr, articles related to the workshop can be discovered via technorati, and also related links via del.icio.us.

The program is very promising, and I’m looking forward to interesting discussions.

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in university at 01:48 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Talking with other students in higher semesters about blogging, there is one question that I get asked quite often: Don’t you think that blogging might endanger your job chances? Lately the German business magazine “Wirtschaftswoche” titles “Karrierekiller Google” (Career-killer Google) and talks about a few examples were a search on Google unveiled unwanted Details about persons, who then didn’t get certain jobs they applied for. Martin Röll discusses the article in his blog and criticizes that the “problem” with Google unveiling information is not approached dialectical. Many careers might be initiated just because of information Google unveiled! Jochen Mai, the author of the article also made a posting on the article in his blog.

My personal approach to this topic is very optimistic – searching for my name on Google will get you quite interesting information on me, but so far there is nothing I’d have problems to justify. Most of the links you will get will lead you to sources, which I can influence. So I think blogging keeps me in control of information that is available on the net (I doubt that someone will really "stalk on me" beyond those many many informations given there) – but if you discover a potential problem feel free to inform me.

Posted by Jürgen Hösch in on subject at 13:11 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)