New on datadirt: Rate reader comments

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Many Facebook users have wished for a dislike-button. But the biggest social network on the planet obviously doesn't want to start click-fights for popularity: “If you love something, like it – if you don't let it go”. I'll try a different approach and offer you the full binary options aka the two basic emotions: I encourage all readers to use the new “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” symbols below every single comment to express their opinion:
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WordPress vs. Thesis

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Is it legally and/or ethically okay, to build a business based on a GPL licensed software? To those of you unfamiliar with the not-so-uncomplicated details of open and commercial licensing, this question may sound like a question you'd ask a student of media law. But theory turns into virtual reality when we take a closer look a Thesis, a very popular WordPress theme.

Unlike most themes, Thesis isn't available for free. Christ Pearson is selling his template for $87 per personal site, and so he's been racking up sales. Why do people pay for Thesis when there are so many free themes available? This question is a lot easier to answer: Chris thought about what pro customers want and started to offer a flexible, highly configurable theme which caters almost every need of professional publishers and pro-bloggers. But even though his sales figures are skyrocketing, Matt Mullenweg, founder and head of WordPress.com/.org argues that Thesis violates the GPL license – because GPL-software not only is freely available (in source code), but the GPL (Gnu Public Licenses) also states that all products built upon GPL software must also use the same license. In other words: It's illegal to make money on the hard (and free) work of others.

Today mixergy.com invited Chris and Matt for a Skype discussion which covers some very important aspects of software licensing:

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World Blogging Forum Vienna 2010 – the next 10 years in digital media

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On November 13th, A1 Telekom Austria and datadirt, the proud and happy author of this humble blog, invite international top bloggers and Austrian social media geeks to join the first pro-blogging conference in Vienna. The conference focuses on the future of digital media. We will discuss the impact of the internet on various aspects of our life in the next ten years: how will our jobs change? How will our personal life change? What's the next stage of social media? The official homepage wbf2010.at will soon be online soon. The event will take place at A1 TA headquarters at Lasallestra?e 9 in Vienna – we got a main hall plus various smaller conference rooms for break-out sessions, of course all equipped with stable WLAN.

Austrian bloggers and journalists are warmly welcome. There is no entrance fee; due to the capacity of the venue the spots are strictly limited though. In the next weeks, we will invite our international guests and give away all tickets via weblogs and media partners. Secure your spot now and join us: the first ten spots are available… NOW! Read more

SymbianGuru.com shuts down: No more love for Nokia

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SymbianGuru.com used to be my favorite website for all things Nokia-related. But it seems that Symbian 3.0 is going further down a dead-end road, and even the Guru himself can't stand Symbian any more. And that's why he decided to shut the site down and switch to Android. Usually, I'm not a big fan of Ol'Google's Enterprises, but in this case I totally agree: Nokia used to be the number one mobile market mover, but recently they've done a terrible job. And when I read Guru's final article, I realized that both our experiences with Nokia's smartphone flagship N97 are frighteningly similar.

Please read the original posting – there's not much more I can add except for this comment:

I own an N97, and it get's crappier with each firmware update. Since the last one, *every single action* has to be confirmed twice. (Like: “Do you want to allow *insert-computer-name-here* via Bluetooth.” User clicks yes. Next step: “Do you want to allow *insert-computer-name-here* via Bluetooth.” User clicks again. Every single time. I'd love a third button: Yes/No/F**king yeah, I told you before, stop nagging me twice every time!).
The OVI service is a disaster as of yet – I mean, the different parts work fine, but there is no master plan; even gaming isn't integrated. OVI to me seems like one huge roof over a lot of very different isles.

At the end of his posting, Symbian-Guru included a message to Nokia. I totally agree:

To Nokia, you guys are losing. Hard. Wake the hell up. Doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results is the definition of insanity. I?ve been a huge Nokia fan since my 2nd cellphone, and I just can?t do it any longer. You guys aren?t competing like you once were, and everyone but you seems to see that. You used to build the world?s best smartphones, the world?s best cameras, the world?s best GPS units ? you?ve lost pretty much all of that, and with nothing to show for it. You unveiled your Ovi vision over 2 years ago ? I was there. Today, it?s still a complete mess. I have to log in every single time I visit the site ? regardless of how many times I check the ?remember me? box. I spent 6 months (and about 3 hours at Nokia World 2009) trying to find someone to help me with Ovi Contacts on the web ? no one knew who to point me to. You spent millions of dollars purchasing your Ovi pieces ? Ovi Files, Ovi Share, and a host of other little companies ? are you proud of what you ?built? with them? Most of your own employees (that I?ve talked to) don?t even use them, so why should I?

WordPress 3.0: Thelonious rocks and Kubrick retires

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Today, the WordPress team released the long-awaited version 3.0 – the third major release of our favorite blogging cms comes with a ton of extremely cool new features: WordPress and WP-MU haven been completely merged, which means that you can now run an unlimited number of blogs from the same installation. Also, the infamous Kubrick theme finally retires and gets replaced by Twenty Ten. Of course the new standard template proudly shows off all the new bells and whistles, including a greatly improved handling of menus, post types and taxonomies. The backend interface has become a lot lighter, 218 programmers contributed 1.217 bug fixes and feature enhancements. Check out the video tour posted on the official WordPress blog:

The new version is ready for download – I haven't upgraded yet but I will keep you updated on my experiences as soon as datadirt is powered by WordPress 3.0!

datadirt Videopodcast: Eric Qualman’s Socialnomics

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Eric Qualman is the author of “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business”. More than 2 million viewers have seen his “Social Media Revolution” video clip. In June 2010, Eric gave a keynote presentation at Meshed conference in Vienna. After his presentation I sat down with Eric and we chatted about the changes of our media environment. Enjoy the new datadirt video podcast!

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Geeky Folks: Barcamp Vienna Gallery

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Last weekend's unconference at Microsoft in Vienna was the biggest Austrian Barcamp so far – the social media scene is growing, interest in social media platforms, new technologies and the paradigm shift in marketing has increased immensely over the last couple of months. This is not a big surprise: more and more people understand that the web 2.0 is not about a new generation of buzzwords that pollute the same old powerpoint presentations, but about a fundamental paradigm shift in the way companies communicate with their customers:

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Interview with Thomas W. Malone: Collective Intelligence, Privacy and Small Towns

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In the newest issue of my video-podcast MIT Professor Thomas W. Malone talks about his reasearch on collective intelligence and the changing notion of privacy. Professor Malone is the founding director of MIT's Center for Collective Intelligence. In 2004, he published The Future of Work, a critically acclaimed book about the impact of electronic communication on management, organizations and business. Before he started teaching at MIT, Mr. Malone was a research scientist at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. So enjoy the podcast which contains a short introduction, the interview plus two exlusive bonus tracks :pimp:

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Concerned about your Facebook privacy?

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Back in the 90ies, more than a dozen search engines fought for the user's attention. A couple of years later (almost) only Google was left. Do we face a similar development in the field of social networking? Taking a look at the latest Facebook figures, I'm inclined to answer this question with yes. Yet their ever-growing social graphs make more and more users nervous, and even though Facebook in my opinion is doing a good job giving the user control over his content, Reclaimprivacy.org might come in handy. Read more

Quiz Result: I’m a Twitter bad ass!

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Not that wasn't aware of this, but now it's official: I'm Twitter bad ass, says SEM-Group.net's Which type of Twitter user are you? quiz I found via SEOSmarty:

Learn Which Type of Twitter User You Are
datadirt's Result: Twitter Bad Ass
You Tweet like a bluejay on crack! You spend hours upon hours each day/week
finding quality content and relevant news to tweet to your followers. You have a reputation for tweeting quality content and along with this comes a small cult
following that thanks you. Excellent job you “Twitter bad ass”!

Twitter bad ass
Quiz School Take this quiz & get your result

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