David Weinberger, on Bush’s request for an additional $120,000,000,000:

“What if we earmarked $200 billion to make the world more peaceful? Which would be the better investment? Which would make our children safer?”

Dick Hardt:

“A goal of Identity 2.0 is to mimic aspects of identity transactions that work well in the physical world.”

1. Go to your favorite blog.
2. Find the email address of the owner.
3. Email them and tell them what you think.

I’ve done this about 5 times over the past few days. I got to thinking while I was in Seattle last week meeting folks whose writing I truly enjoy that I don’t really tell them that. I mean, they could die tomorrow and never know that I really appreciate what they’re doing. For all they know, they might be like one of the three folks in Garden State yelling into the gorge.

All five times have been rewarding. I don’t always get a reply, or I get one indirectly, but at least they know that even though I’m lurking I do appreciate the work they do. It only takes 30 seconds.

Have you gestured a hug toward a blogger today?

Could someone answer why Google doesn’t provide a paid version of Gmail?

It would seem to make sense on several levels:

1. Revenue from something other than Advertising. Google’s recent stock dip suggests that ad revenue might not grow like mad forever.
2. It would make their free email service look better.
3. Some people (executives, usually) just like to pay for stuff. Don’t know why…
4. It could possibly pay for the incredible hosting costs of supporting Gmail.
5. Their investors might sleep a little sounder.

Continue Reading: Why Not a Paid Version of Gmail?

Kathy Sierra, soft-spoken in person, kick-ass writer, on her time at Search Champs:

“Usability schmusability… where’s the part where we talk about how this helps the user kick-ass?”

Kathy’s doing great work: Here’s her feed.

Boy, this one is right up my current alley (see yesterday):

Richard MacManus interviews Digg founder Kevin Rose:

“The problem with rating individual users is that it really doesn’t scale well. We have 160,000 registered users and it would be impossible for everyone to go through and directly rate everyone else. What we have created, which is quickly becoming a popular way to discover new stories, is our friends system. This enables you to create a group of trusted users who read each others articles and trust each others content.”

Ed Batista on Wikipedia:

“Of course we sacrifice accuracy at the micro level–with no editorial apparatus constraining the system, anything you read at any given moment could be total bullshit. But in a free, open and fluid intellectual market, bad ideas will eventually be driven out by better ones–and sooner rather than later.”

The most important statistic on the Web in the last year is the one delivered in a NYTimes article last week: Like This? You’ll Hate That. (Not All Web Recommendations Are Welcome.) [behind paywall 🙁 ]. The statistic involves media, technology, and the ever-increasing burden on our collective attention.

Here it is: 2/3 of Netflix rentals come from recommendations.

Continue Reading: The Most Important Statistic of them All

The modern-day Gutenberg responds to the 455! comments left after it was discovered he had a blog:

“I just played my part. I built on the work of others — the Internet, invented 20 years before the web, by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn and colleagues, for example, and hypertext, a word coined by Ted Nelson for an idea of links which was already implemented in many non-networked systems. I just put these technologies together. And then, it all took off because of this amazing community of enthusiasts, who have done such incredible things with the technology, and are still advancing it in so many ways.”

He’s also building the Semantic Web himself.

And he thinks you should have your own URI!!!

By the way: here’s Tim’s feed.