NowPublic Blog

3:16PM EST: The site is now back up. Thanks again for your patience.

2:45PM EST: The site is down due to database issues; it should be back up momentarily. Thank you for your patience.

This morning (Nov. 29), around 4AM EST, we’ll be doing a little server-database jump that will result in ten or fifteen minutes of site inactivity. We should be up and running again shortly thereafter.

You may notice some additional hiccups between then and 7AM EST; after that everything should be a-okay. If you have any questions or comments, please post them here as comments or (if the site is up, obviously) in the Forums.

If there are any changes to this schedule, you’ll be notified about them here.

There are potential implications for the news business here too:

LOS ANGELES – For five years, John Langley tried and failed to sell a cinema verite-style TV series tracking police officers on patrol. Then came the 1988 Hollywood writers strike.

 ”That’s when Fox bought `Cops,’ because a series with no narrator, no host, no script, no re-enactments sounded very good to them at the time,” recalled Langley, who just marked the show’s 700th episode.

Source: news.yahoo.com

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Tags: America | Angeles | Boom | cinema | hollywood | LANGLEY | means | police | Culture | episode | failed | host | John | marked | narrator | OFFICERS | PATROL | re-enactments | reality | recalled | script | Series | sounded | strike | tracking | tried | verite-style | Writers | YEARS

Today I came across the first example I’ve seen of Twitter poetry.  Could twitter be the re-birth of the art?  Here’s a sample but there is much more.

Deep-fried pants are spying on me. I see them with a contrived nonchalance on street corners reading l’Equipe.

Source: twitter.com via mtippett

NowPublic

Tags: Art | Bob Folder | Culture | poetry | twitter

The beauty industry is in the eye of the beholder.  Behold the blowback…

“Onslaught,” from Ogilvy, Toronto, has amassed about 1 million views on YouTube since its Oct. 1 debut, still well under the 12 million generated by its oft-honored predecessor, “Evolution,” whose viewership also got a boost from the new video.

But even with lower viewership, “Onslaught” already has produced two rather trenchant critiques. The latest, with 40,000 views and numerous blog links, mashes the Dove video with Axe ads and morphs the original tagline “Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does” to ” … before Unilever does.”

Source: adage.com via mtippett

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Tags: Boston | Boston | Toronto | activists | Advertising | attack | Blog | bloggers | blowback | coming | critics | Culture | dove | draws | girls | links | Onslaught | Op-Ed | plastic surgery | produced | self-esteem | ugly | unilever | video | videographers | viewership | views | viral

Welcome, one and all, to our weekly tech team update. Every week we’ll gather the changes we’ve made, bugs we’ve bashed and new features we’ve ported (techy speak for “added to the site”) here for your perusal. We’re doing this in the name of transparency: if we ask you to be transparent in your news stories, we have to be the same in return about our site, no?

This week was easy–there wasn’t anything new to port, so we went bug bashing and swept away some of the small stuff causing you guys grief (broken links, for the most part, and a few other small issues here and there).

A lot of the errors that get noticed over the course of the week are tiny (hence the word “bug”) but they do make a difference to your overall experience. That’s why we whack through this stuff every week, but we also can’t spot everything.

If you see something that you think is a bug, send us an email at bugs[at]nowpublic[dot]com. Next week’s going to be a busy one, so get ready! In the meantime, keep kickin’ news and takin’ names.

One of the most interesting blog / news sites has sadly shut its doors.  I will miss your randomly personalized goodness findory.   Good luck to Greg and his team in whatever they do next.

Thank you, Findory readers, for the last four years. I hope you not only found interesting news on Findory you otherwise would have missed, but also, just by using Findory, took pleasure in helping others find news they might enjoy.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. As of November 22, 2007, Findory has shut down.

It was a wonderful experiment building Findory. Information personalization is in our future.

Some day, online newspapers will focus on your interests, building you your own unique, customized front page of news. Some day, search engines will learn from what you do to help you find what you need. Some day, your computer will adapt to your needs to help with the task at hand. Some day, information overload will be tamed.

But not today. Findory has shut down. The website will no longer carry news, blogs, videos, podcasts, or favorites. The daily e-mails will cease. To ease the transition for users of Findory Inline and the Findory API, empty feeds will be served for a couple weeks.

I am sorry to see Findory go. Though it will not be Findory doing so, I continue to believe that the future will be personalized.

- Greg Linden, Founder, Findory.com

Source: findory.com

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Tags: linden | ADAPT | blogs | Building | Computer | customized | daily | E-MAILS | ENGINES | enjoy | favorites | Findory | focus | greg | information | interests | longer | missed | news | newspapers | online | others | otherwise | OVERLOAD | personalized | PLEASURE | Podcasts | Readers | tamed | TASK | Technology | unique | using | videos | Website | YEARS

Vancouver Web 2.0 Companies Join Forces to Create First Full-Service, Open Source, Web Agency

Vancouver, BC, Nov. 20, 2007 – Web design and development firm Raincity Studios has agreed to acquire long-time partner Bryght in a deal announced November 20, 2007.  The expanded company will continue to create custom web applications and community websites as well as offering hosting and infrastructure support and services to clients around the world.  Robert Scales, Raincity Studios’ Founder and CEO says, “Adding the Bryght team’s deep technology expertise in open source and new media is a key step in growing our vision of an open and international company.”

Raincity Studios and Bryght are part of the recent web media growth dubbed “Web 2.0,” and this acquisition provides further evidence of the growth in the Vancouver technology industry. Adam Gooch of New Media BC agrees saying, “This announcement is exciting for the local tech industry as Raincity Studios and Bryght are perfect examples of the rapid success achievable in the Vancouver new media sector with a good plan, talented team and hard work.”

The deal took flight while Scales and Kris Krug, now-former-President of Bryght, were in China scouting a new office location in Shanghai when they decided their companies’ complementary services could be enhanced by joining forces.  Krug, the newly appointed President of the new company, saw the growth potential saying, “By joining Raincity Studios, we can capture market leadership by responding quickly to the unmet demand for Drupal development services worldwide while also offering an increased service roster to our existing growing client base.”

Scales agrees, “Our internal philosophies and open cultures match perfectly so I expect an exciting year ahead on both sides of the Pacific as we continue to build up”.

The new 22 person company will now offer vertically integrated web design, development and hosting services to a client list ranging from The Grateful Dead to SPIN Magazine while adding more “turn-key” web products.  “Bryght’s hosting customers will not be affected through the transition but will notice a company name change on their invoice,” points out Krug.

Both companies were among the earliest to develop businesses utilizing the Drupal open source software platform and have participated in the growth of a world wide services market which grew from $100K in 2004 to an estimated $50M in 2007.

Dries Buytaert, founder of the Drupal project and President of the Drupal Association says,  “Bryght and Raincity are long-time contributors in the Drupal community who have demonstrated how to successfully build a business using Drupal through knowledge sharing and participation.  Their support has been an important part of Drupal’s success.”

Founded in 2003, Raincity Studios has worked on hundreds of web projects including sites for SPIN Magazine, Rapspace.tv, Ozzy Osbourne, Kelly Clarkson, plus trade organizations China Access 2008 and New Media BC.  Services include information architecture, graphic design, coding, and new media marketing.

In 2004, Bryght became the first commercial company to focus exclusively on the Drupal open source platform by providing managed and mass-hosting services, as well as consulting and support to a select group of clients.  Additionally, Bryght conducted research and development around other open web standards along with participation in the world wide Drupal software development community.

Contacts
Kris Krug, President, Raincity Studios kris@raincitystudios.com, phone: +1 778 898 3076 (North America)
Robert Scales, CEO Raincity Studios robert@raincitystudios.com, phone: +1 604 618 4997 (Europe / Asia)

NowPublic

Tags: China | Vancouver | Vancouver | Bryght | Drupal | Kris Krug | Money & Stuff | raincity | robert scales | Web 2.0

This is serious…

Big phone and cable companies are trying to get rid of Network Neutrality, the fundamental principle that prevents
them from discriminating against your favorite Web sites and services.

How does this affect you?

Source: savetheinternet.com via mtippett

NowPublic

Tags: cable | Censorship | Comcast | companies | internet | lieberman | Network | NEUTRALITY | november | NowPublic | Phone | Save the Internet | Technology | verizon