Ian McAllister's Blog: Tech

Twitter and Summize are now One

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:57:50 GMT

I just found out, via a tweet from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, that Summize is joining Twitter.

This seems like a great win for both companies. Instead of going to Summize.com you can now search Twitter from http://search.twitter.com/. Try it out. I did some searches on Amazon and Kindle. Here's a selection of my favorites:

-Ian
http://twitter.com/ianmcall

Massive leak of Qwest customer data

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:05:36 GMT

It appears that hackers have gained access to large amounts of Qwest customer data. Approximately 235,000 customers (587 pages with approximately 400 customers per page) were compromised in the Seattle area alone and reports are coming in that customer data in other cities across the U.S. has also been compromised. To gain publicity for their exploit, and perhaps thwart online forensic investigation, the hackers printed and bound the leaked customer data and left a copy on my front porch last night. The hackers, or perhaps temporary day labor they contracted, appear to have distributed the book of leaked Qwest customer data from a non-descript van in the dark of night.

The hackers identify themselves by the handle, “DEX”, which is likely an abbreviation of “Digital Exploiters” of “Data Exploiters”. In classic Web 2.0 fashion, the hackers appear to have created their own ad network and have included ads for local businesses in the bound books of leaked customer data. I’m comforted to know that if Qwest sends goons to hurt me for leaking this exploit that I’ll have the names and numbers of several personal injury attorneys within easy reach. I only hope that they don’t beat me about the head and neck with the behemoth ‘yellow’ book of leaked business customer data that accompanied the ‘white’ (actually gray) book of leaked personal data.

When contacted, Qwest stated that they were aware of the issue but would not comment further. They asked that further press inquiries be directed to Qwest's Department of Candles.

Ian McAllister
http://twitter.com/ianmcall

Three things I've done for the first time this year

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:44:08 GMT

1. Make significant contributions to a political campaign, orders of magnitude greater than in my prior adult life. I'm a scrooge when it comes to donating money, so this is notable.

2. Try to convince a friend to change which presidential candidate they are going to vote for. I've never cared enough to invest the time before.

3. Actually be excited about who our next president might be.

The political figure who brought about these firsts is Barack Obama. If he can bring about these new behaviors in me, just think about what he can do for the rest of America, and how he can change the rest of the world's opinion of America.

Oh, and if you see me plaster a bumper sticker on my car then you'll know I've really gone off the deep end.

Blogging Hiatus and Where I'm Posting Now

Mon, 19 May 2008 21:19:43 GMT

Things are busy here at Amazon and at home with my two munchkins, Anders and Solveig, who turn 4 and 1 this weekend, respectively. In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been doing a lot of blogging lately. I have a list of about 20 topics that I'd like to blog about but, alas, I never seem to make the time. Instead, I've been spending a lot of time on Facebook in my work capacity as Manager of the Social Applications team at Amazon. I post and comment on articles there instead of my blog, and of course I upload photos and make weak attempts at humor or irony via status messages. Same goes for Twitter. I actively maintain my LinkedIn network and find LinkedIn incredibly useful for posting jobs and keeping tabs on professional contacts. I have a profile on MySpace and will probably add more friends to it once my peers start showing up there as well.

So, the long and short of it is that if you've subscribed to my blog at some point and want to keep in touch, then you can:

A. Friend/follow me on the any of these channels you find relevant:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=578798383

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ianmcall

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmcallister

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ianders

B. Keep my blog's FeedBurner URL (http://feeds.feedburner.com/ianmcallistersblog) in your list of feeds. When I start blogging again, hopefully soon, I'll keep it at that url but likely use a new TypePad blog instead of this one since Spaces doesn't appear to let me moderate comments.

Thanks for listening.

-Ian

Resources on Facebook and Social Network Usage and Behavior

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:17:35 GMT

Like many of the over-30 set in our industry I have a LinkedIn profile that I maintain but until recently I tended to observe other social network sites like Facebook and MySpace mostly from the sidelines. Once the Facebook platform launched I decided it was time for me to get off the sidelines, immerse myself, and really try to understand what really drives adoption of and participation within these sites.

Along with that immersion, I've tried to leverage other people's efforts at understanding social network usage and behavior. I've listed a few of the more valuable resources below.

Blogs

apophenia - Danah Boyd's blog featuring formal and informal research on social software and social networks. I won't call out specific papers. Instead, just go to Danah's best of page
Read/WriteWeb - Good analysis of Web Technology news in general with frequent coverage of Facebook and social network happenings, including the initial Facebook Platform launch
The Facebook blog (official blog)
FaceReviews - Facebook news and application reviews
Inside Facebook - Facebook news and application reviews

Wikipedia entries - quick source of stats, people and dates

List of social networking sites, including description, user count, and registration type (open, invite, etc.)
Facebook entry
MySpace entry
LinkedIn entry

Papers

The Role of Status Seeking in Online Communities: Giving the Gift of Experience - A fantastic paper that, while not targeted specifically at social networks, does a great job at really trying to explain the difference between status and reputation and how users attempt to create digital identities through the content they create. I took many, many notes while reading this paper.
(I wish there were more good papers to list. I've read many, but gotten real value from few. Sigh. Drop a comment if you have any favorites.)

I don't have many resources specific to MySpace or LinkedIn yet. Maybe I will once they open up their platforms and I spend more time researching them.

Ian McAllister's Blog: Tech

Twitter and Summize are now One

Massive leak of Qwest customer data

Three things I've done for the first time this year

Blogging Hiatus and Where I'm Posting Now

Resources on Facebook and Social Network Usage and Behavior

Two Conclusions After Experimenting With Twitter

You Can Help Find Jim Gray (Lost at Sea) - Here's How

What Makes A Great Web 2.0 Service? Fred Tells Us...

Please update this feed's URL

5 Things to Think About When Your Web 2.0 Startup Dies

All I Want For Christmas Is A 3D Printer

Thoughts on the State of Search, plus my $0.02

Meet up at Web 2.0 conference

Do Contributors Want To Turn Their Hobbies Into Jobs?

How Google Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Click-Fraud

See You at Supernova

Amazon.com Groceries - Not just for hermits

Flickr is hiring...in San Francisco

eBay, Rapleaf, and the Realities of Walled Gardens

Real Analysis on Squidoo by TechCrunch

Doing Scary Things at Microsoft

Windows Live Product Search Beta Launches

Microformats for Dummies, as Told by Master Foo

DDoS Attack Against SixApart