February | 2009 | Peter Bihr

Meet up at CeBIT (4-8 March)

26-02-2009

Kindly invited by T-Systems MMS, I’ll be at CeBIT, Hannover. It has been a while since I visited CeBIT the last time. While I loved going there as a student, I somewhat lost interest in the exhibition as the focus – at least in my perception – was too much on hardware and not so much on web technologies. Clearly, the organizers are trying to change just that. The Webciety is an extra area that revolved around the intersection of life & internet, i.e. digital life and culture. If you’re more into enterprise stuff, the Cebit Global Conference program might hold something for you. Either way, I’ll be recording interviews for part of the time (full disclosure: paid gig), partly scouting for interesting stuff. (I think I’ll be paying a lot of attention to the next generation of mobile devices, there’s some hot stuff coming up.)

There’s also going be a pl0gbar, ~~Thursday~~ Friday from 6-10pm, also at the Webciety area (Hall 6, booth T3.02.), make sure to drop by and say hi. I’m looking forward to meeting up with interesting folks, so get in touch (peter (at) the wavingcat.com or via twitter) if if you’re planning to be there!

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Nokia E71: You won’t fall in love, but it’s rock solid

By: Peter Bihr

22-02-2009

gadgets, product design, review

I just switched from Blackberry to a Nokia 71. Since I asked a lot of questions during the switch and the Twitter crowd was incredibly helpful and kind in sharing their tipps, I’d like to share my experiences for those who are trying to decide if they, too, want to switch over to Nokia. So here’s what I noticed, the pros and cons, as well as a few hacks and software tipps to get it up and running as painlessly as possible.

Super-brief summary up-front

Pros:

Beautiful, premium, awesome hardware.
Great form factor. Very, very slim.
Good software support (runs on Symbian S60).
Great feature set. (Private/business mode, connectivity etc)
Strong battery (3 days).

Cons:

Slow, awkward browser.
Disappointing camera.
Haven’t found a decent Twitter client. (Tipps?)

That said, here’s what the Nokia E71 looks like:

Nokia E71

E71 keyboard

Pros and cons There’s a raving Nokia E71 review on WIRED where you can get the basic info about the phone. After using the E71 for a few weeks, I don’t share all their excitement, but agree: It’s a pretty darn good phone, “rock solid” as a friend pointed out.

First, a look at the hardware: The E71′s form factor and hardware is awesome. It’s plenty of metal and no cheap plastic. It seems very scratch-resistent. It’s super slim (10mm). It just feels great. It has a full QWERTY (or in my case QWERTZ) keyboard. The keyboard has a nice click (maybe just a tad too light) and keys that are kind of small, but still work pretty well. Switching from Blackberry, they feel a little crammed, but it’s lightyears ahead of typing on a touch screen. The keyboard, like the rest of the phone, feels solid and premium.

This picture gives you an idea how the form factor compares to the Nokia’s direct competitors in the field, the Blackberry Curve and the iPhone:

Nokia E71, Blackberry Curve, iPhone

It has a 3.2 million megapixel camera, which sounds great, but delivers surprisingly disappointing quality. The built-in light, it seems, can’t be switched off, and it seems that the camera definitively needs it. Compared to the Nokia N97, the E71 certainly scores low. Particularly in low light, the white noise makes the pictures look really sad. For comparison, two pictures taken with my E71:

Nokia E71 shot of some tags Image: Some tags in the subway shot with the E71 cam in low light. The white noise is unbearable. (Open photo in full size.)

Nokia E71 shot of an airport display Image: An airport display shot with the E71 cam. In bright light, the image quality is ok, but certainly could be better. (Open photo in full size.)

Wireless support and all work a charme. Also, I fell in love with the battery life. Depending on use, the phone lasted between two and three days per charge. After my one-day Blackberry battery, this feels grand. (Good thing, too – the E71 doesn’t charge via the mini USB cable but needs the extra Nokia charger.)

Let’s look at the software side. The E71 runs on Symbian OS, S60 more precisely, meaning it’s open source. (The iPhone’s walled-garden mentality really deterred me from getting an iPhone.) There’s plenty of software and apps available for S60, with more coming out every day.

Applications are plenty, get them wherever you want. You don’t need an Apple store to buy authenticated applications. That said, I’ve been trying to use Twibble as my Twitter client, but I’d love something faster and less awkward. (Can you recommend any alternative? Twibble is no comparison to Twitterberry goodness. I haven’t found a good WordPress blogging app yet. Google Maps, Google Mail and the Nokia software suite are pretty awesome, and even though I haven’t really tested it I hear the office support works a charme. The built-in browser seems slow and awkward at best. Certainly, the browsing experience could be improved a lot. (Strangely, that’s a point the Wired review doesn’t even mention.)

Syncing is a strong side of the E71. It comes with built-in Microsoft Exchange functionality, and a dual mode that allows you two separate private and business life, including separate calendars and email. Neat! My setup as a freelancer is built completely without any of the bigger corporate solutions, and based heavily on the Google suite. It took some tipps, digging through forums and tinkering, but I got the phone to sync with my Gmail address as well as Google Calendars. Mail syncing was easy. (I did screw briefly: Switching from POP3 to IMAP, I accidentally had the phone try downloading some 40.000 messages, which broke it a few times. “Breaking” in this context means anything from freezing to deleting the email profiles and settings, as well as a lot of rebooting.) The calender was a bit tricky, but in the end I got it working with some outside help by using Nuevasync with the phone’s Microsoft Exchange syncing tool. (That way you can sync up to 8 Google Calendars two ways.) It now seems to be working fine.

So where does that leave us?

Nokia E71

Nokia E71: You won’t fall in love, but it’s rock solid The phone does everything it should, and most of it very well. You won’t find anyone worshipping it like an iPhone, though. It’s a tool, and a good one. It’s not the kind of gadget that invites you to play around with it constantly, though. If you’re looking for something a little more playful, you should go for the iPhone instead. If just the camera could just be somewhat better. Besides, I’ll be happy with it the moment I find a better browser and Twitter app. For freelancers it can definitively replace a Blackberry. The full keyboard and the awesome battery life make it a decent choice.

In other words: Don’t expect to love this phone. But you certainly won’t regret getting one.

Images:

E71 by Simmessa (Some Rights Reserved)
E71 Keyboard by Andrew Currie (Some Rights Reserved)
BBCurve, E71 and iPhone by Atmasphere (Some Rights Reserved)
Graffiti tags and airport displays were test shots with my E71
E71 kiss by Alexandre Fugita (Some Rights Reserved)

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Adopt a word: Prandicle (and why the Oxford English Dictionary is doomed)

By: Peter Bihr

15-02-2009

collaboration, commons, connected world, How to work the internets (not)

Ever wondered what happens to old words that get out of use? Well, I guess they just disappear, usually. So far, the official way of this happening was (again, I’m guessing here) when they got edited out of the dictionary of choice. So the Oxford English Dictionary launched a lovely campaign, plus website, called Save The Words. There, you can adopt a word and pledge to “to use this word, in conversation and correspondence, as frequently as possible to the very best of my ability.” I love the idea, and adopted the word prandicle, meaning a “small meal”. So from now on I can say stuff like “Oh dear, shall we have a prandicle in the near future?” (Neat, eh?)

Prandicle

There’s two things that struck me as odd, though. First up, I checked if the word was on Wikipedia. Turns out, it’s not at this point. I wanted to add it, but one of the governing rules of Wikipedia is not to write an article that consists of just a sentence, or a link, or with weak references. So I tried to go the way of all initial research, i.e. I googled for “prandicle” with seriously limited success. The word hardly exists outside the context of this campaign website. Makes sense, I guess, after all that’s why the campaign to save the words was started. Still, it’s curious to see how a word could completely disappear because it was out of use before the web emerged.

So I wanted to go back to the Oxford English Dictionary (oed.com) to find out more about my linguistic adoptee, and that’s when the second problem struck me: The OED is completely hidden behind the paywall. I should have known that, after all that’s party of why Wikipedia is so incredibly successful: The traditional dictionaries aren’t accessible from the web. At the OED, you can’t even get a simple free trial unless you’re an institution. Private users are required to pay 195 British Pounds (roughly 280$ / 220€) plus VAT. Upfront. Not even a test. Is this a joke?

Of course you could come to different conclusions. Either you say “ok, premium content, I’ll happily pay more than 200 Euros per year for a good dictionary. It’s how it works”. Or you go the directly opposite direction, which was my initial reaction. That is, you close the window. It’s a single click, it’s free, and you know very well that all words that are actually used are in the Wikipedia. (I double checked for “prandicle” in an old “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary from school days, and it wasn’t covered there either.)

Like this, the OED is simply doomed, unless it can live off institutional subscribers completely, which in the long run I doubt. They need to find a way to live off the web, and offer their basic services for free, or they’ll simple cease to play any role in the dictionary space, or even cease to exist. Maybe it’s not too late.

Still, prandicle is a nice word. Please, OED, don’t let it go to waste by hiding it behind a paywall.

(via AlienTed)

Update: The Enyclopedia Britannica seems to have a better approach. Sadly, they don’t know “prandicle” either. Anyone with references to put the word up on Wikipedia, please get in touch ;) Update: Wordia has a nice collection of words, described mostly in videos. (Thanks, Stuart Brown!)

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Could Crowdsourcing Help Save the New York Times?

By: Peter Bihr

14-02-2009

media, social media

The New York Times is in trouble, big-time. That’s about all everybody can agree on. (The opinions on consequences and options differ widely. Check out The Atlantic’s judgement and Jeff Jarvis’ comments, for example.) To get an idea of how bad the newspaper is hit, here’s the figures quoted in The Atlantic:

Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good.

Now that’s the NYTimes. For other papers the future looks even more bleak. After all, the NYTimes has some advantages over their competitors: A long-standing tradition and strong brand, national (rather: world-wide) distribution, and extremely high journalistic standards. Also, being the respected news organization the NYTimes is, they have a strong supporter community. (I’ll come back to the community at the end of this post.) That said, continuing business as usual surely isn’t an option. So what is?

Cutting costs has been proposed a great many times (and sadly led to mass layoffs). Micropayments have been discussed. Ditching print for online has been proposed and done. (The Christian Science Monitor will switch from print to online-only this April.)

A completely different way, and probably a much better one, is the one proposed by Janet L. Robinson, the president and chief executive of The New York Times Company. Instead of cutting down, Robinson proposes to aim at keeping up the major asset the NYTimes has over it’s competitors – high-quality journalism:

“As other newspapers cut back on international and national coverage, or cease operations, we believe there will be opportunities for The Times to fill that void,” she said, for both readers and advertisers.

This sounds like a plausible way to go. More importantly, though, it also just like a generally good idea, eh? The New York Times has proven over and over again, that they know how to work the web, and have experimented a good deal over the years. Just now, they launched a prototype of an experimental user interface, the Article Skimmer. (More prototypes.) Certainly not the next big thing, but a solid experiment in other ways of displaying news.

New York Times Article Skimmer Prototype (Screenshot)

But back to the community. The NYTimes clearly has a strong, and large, community of supporters. (And that’s both private readers and instituions of all sorts.) Couldn’t the paper go the way of many a web projects and give their community the chance to support them directly? We’re talking community support of all sorts: Fundraising, marketing, but also content. Why not adapt a citizen reporter segment of sorts, a strong online community site, all that kind of stuff? Surely there must be a way to crowdsource for effort and cash when one of the flagships of old-school quality journalism is at stake?

I would give a few bucks to rescue the NYTimes. And I’m not even based in the U.S.

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NYC Open Office Trip

By: Peter Bihr

14-02-2009

biographies 2.0, connected world

I heart New York In April/May I’ll spend a few weeks in New York. After all, what really makes a web freelancer’s life so good is the ability to work from wherever there’s an internet connection. So I’ll be working from NYC, and of course I’d love to meet up with as many of you in the tech and web scene as possible. If you happen to be located in the city, drop me a line (peter at thewavingcat.com) or get in touch via Twitter, and let’s meet up.

I’m not sure yet where I’ll be working from: My apartment, a coffee house, a co-working space? (Recommendations?) Taking a cue from the rockstars over at The Next Web, I tend towards doing something similar to their Open Office Trip. I love the idea of crashing at the office of cool web companies occasionally to get to know you, and get some work done. So if you have a spare desk, a chair and wifi for a day or two, you’re my hero.

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German Market Can Be Tricky. Try Anyway.

By: Peter Bihr

12-02-2009

blogging, campaigns, connected world, culturally insensitive, social media

Recently I’ve noticed a lot more inquiries coming in from agencies abroad, mostly the U.S. or UK. ~~Two~~ Three things I found noteworthy there.

photo credit: Seite-3

1) There’s more and more agencies specializing on Social Media. Over are the days where one ad agency covers all web needs. The agencies are going niche, which is mostly a good thing, I think. There might be a consolidation at some point in the future, but for the time being we’re (hopefully) going to see some more specialized agencies, or at least dedicated units.

2) Some feedback I’ve been getting is that said agencies get in touch also because of the simple fact that I blog in English, i.e. I’m accessible. I never expected to be such an important factor, but it is. The German internet scene (or rather, the whole country, to some degree) operates mostly in German. Not too odd, obviously, but still something to keep in mind when entering the market.

3) Interest in the German online market is increasing. It seems like there’s a strong trend, but that may be my skewed perception. The problem for particularly American companies and agencies: Europe is perceived overseas as one market, but within Europe it’s perceived as a large cluster of individual markets. (European countries do operate within a certain European framework, but culturally and most of all language-wise every country needs to be addressed separately. I know that at least Nicole Simon will agree with me on this one.)

It’s the last point that leads to some trouble – the German online market, particularly the blogosphere, can be a bit tricky at times. There’s no way you can just waltz in an push your content at bloggers and get away with it. You need to invest time and effort to build connections to bloggers. (Same should be obvious for bloggers world-wide, obviously. But trust me, Germany can be particularly tricky, and I know a number of you have made similar experiences here.)

Yesterday I emailed a few times with Monique Elwell over at U.S.-based Social Media agency Conversify, who seem to get it right. There’s a few brief thoughts I shared with Monique that I’d like to share with all agencies and companies thinking about tackling Germany, copied & pasted straight from my email:

The German blogosphere is oddly under-developed compared to the U.S. and France (which has an extremely rich blogosphere), with sometimes strong anti-commercial notions, but it’s changing rapidly, with more semi-pro/event/corporate blogs popping up quickly.
Pricing structure for consultants etc is similar to the U.S.
The German blogosphere is, language-wise, very German-centric. Not too many bloggers blog in English, but a good deal understands/speaks English. It won’t be a problem to find folks whose English is good enough to do everything you need.
Technical infrastructure for event bloggers (wifi, 3G and all) is ubiquitous and very well developed (equally or better than in the U.S., minus the Bay Area)

Of course that’s not to say that you shouldn’t touch the German market. Quite the contrary! Just do it right. Take the necessary time (I know it’s hard, working on a tough deadline), and build lasting relationships. Get someone on the ground to cooperate, and give them the freedom and autonomy to adapt your client’s message to fit the community. Don’t assume that you can jump a cultural gap without any friction. I’m sure you preach the same thing to your clients for your home markets.

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Peter Bihr

Meet up at CeBIT (4-8 March)

Nokia E71: You won’t fall in love, but it’s rock solid

NYC Open Office Trip

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