TV on cell phones is coming...and it's going to be big.

It is already gaining customers in the US, and service providers worldwide are currently testing various content-delivery styles (broadcast or on-demand), and ideas have even circulated to enable anyone to make their own content available via cellular television.

Photo credit: Michael LaFramboise

Although no version of cellular television is strong enough for mass market use as of yet, this could soon change. “TV on the cell phone is OK now,” said Clay Owen, a spokesperson for Cingular, an American cellular service provider already offering TV in select markets, "but it's going to get dramatically better later this year when the networks are upgraded"

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Automated Recommendation Systems have proved vital in recent years to building careers for independent authors, musicians and filmmakers as they allow people to discover and purchase works from artists they would almost certainly not have found otherwise.

They are key to the Long Tail business model, and will soon be popping up in other parts of our lives, providing suggestions in areas we never expected. Imagine a supermarket with an ARS telling you “customers who liked this food also bought…”

Photo credit: Elena Buetler

Although ARS are best known at Amazon.com, iTunes, Netflix and other heavily trafficked sites, their popularity is spreading because of the advantages for merchants and customers alike, with independent artists reaping the benefits.

The producers of TheWeblogProject take note of technological trends such as this and document what the effects will be for all small, independent producers. But the proliferation of ARS is causing a major shift for upstart artists and consumers alike, as is detailed in this piece by Joshua Porter.

Continue reading... | Posted in Tools and Utilities |

A couple of interesting tools that you can use to to monitor what is happening on Del.icio.us about TheWeblogProject.

You can use these bookmarklets to simply check the TWP popularity or also to monitor the TWP "top 20 bloggers" election

This nice piece of code is by Alan Taylor.
It's a del.icio.us comments bookmarklet that shows you notes that people have made on any page that you're visiting.

Continue reading... | Posted in Tools and Utilities | Comments (2)