Jason Buberel 's BestNetTech Comments

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  • On the post: Will Murdoch Kill The One Smart Part Of The WSJ's Paywall?

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2009 @ 04:02pm

    Re: You may not...

    Overcast-

    You may not care, but there are certain aspects to the content available on the WSJ.com that are either mildly scarce or at least hard to find from other sources. That is why WSJ.com is one of the rare news sites that has a reasonably sized subscriber base.

    For people who live/breath within the financial and investment communities, the WSJ.com does have unique value. It is the casual WSJ.com visitors (you, me) who are not part of the close-knit community that Murdoch is apparently willing to lose.

    I for one can't wait until he makes his move.

  • On the post: eBook Market Gets More Crowded… But… Still Many Limitations

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2009 @ 10:45pm

    Is the lending really all that "limited"?

    When you state that "the lending is pretty limited", in what sense did you mean that?

    From what I can tell, their lending implementation is better than what can be done in the world of paper-books in at least one aspect: When you lend the book to a friend, you still retain a copy that you're able to read. Hard to do with a paper-book.

    Demanding that the devices and the BN.com bookstore be completely DRM-free sounds to me like a totally unreasonable demand. DRM is not, be definition, pure evil IMO. The support for ePub means millions of public domain books from multiple sources can be read, which is really quite amazing, IMO.

    In general, this looks like a strong step in a good direction. I'm still a big user of audio books/audible.com, but if and when I do return to the printed word, it will most likely be in eBook form.

  • On the post: eBook Market Gets More Crowded… But… Still Many Limitations

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2009 @ 10:38pm

    Re: well, there are those who do...

    Although I will admit that the flow is not yet a flood, the sales figures cited by Amazon for the Kindle do support the claim that there are people out there that are very convinced.

    I predict that it is largely a matter of time and refinement before paper-based books eventually fade away. It may take 2-3 decades, but the advantages are clear albeit not very cost competitive at this moment in time. But costs of the devices will start to drop sharply as competition increases (already seeing this) and usage increases (already seeing this too).

  • On the post: Connecting With Fans Via Live Theater As Well…

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2009 @ 10:14pm

    Enough already - just bought my tix for Oct 10th matinee

    I think this is the third time you've raved about this one (if you include Twitter) - so I figured it just had to be the most amazing thing since sliced bread.

    I hope you're happy now!

  • On the post: Fine, Let Newspapers Collude

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2009 @ 10:06am

    Re: That would be copyright infringement....

    I would think that standard damages for copyright infringement would apply - regardless of whether the original content had been behind a paywall.

  • On the post: Fine, Let Newspapers Collude

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2009 @ 09:44am

    Another challenge I wish they would accept

    A while back, in response to critics within the newspaper industry, Google threw down the gauntlet w.r.t. Google News:

    Original Post on Google Blog: Google says use robots.txt

    Use robots.txt to block the Google Crawler, and we promise to never refer traffic to you ever again! Has anyone taken the challenge? Dare they?

  • On the post: Crowdsourced, Cloud-Based Anti-Virus? Lots Of Buzzwords, But How Does It Work?

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2009 @ 06:16pm

    Re: Re:

    Heck yeah! Being smart and careful is just as effective as an AV package in most cases, and has a much smaller memory and performance impact on your PC.

  • On the post: The Death Of Paid WiFi

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2009 @ 07:53pm

    But Paris, France seems to be lagging

    Spent 10 days in and around the Paris city center, and in all that time managed to only find a single free (with password, obtained from staff, and only if you knew to ask for it) Wi-Fi network. Everything else was pay-only and locked down.

    And interestingly, the % of Parisians at coffee shops with their laptops was at least an order of magnitude lower vs. the US. Laptopping over coffee is just not part of the culture, which probably keeps demand for free Wi-Fi below the threshold of most business owners.

  • On the post: James Boyle On: Strategies For The Digital Age: Beyond Mocking the Clueless

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2009 @ 06:12pm

    When the tragic commons is exhausted

    This feels to me a bit like a tragedy of the commons situation: As long as reasonable quality investigative journalism is available for free, most people will avail themselves of that free resource. If that business model is in fact unsustainable, the providers of it will eventually fold. Over time, that unlimited free resource will become limited, thereby forcing the free-loaders to either:

    1. Pay for the product they once obtained for free.
    2. Find a new source that is still free
    3. Go without the product

    My feeling is that the market for investigative journalism needs another 3-5 years to reach a new level of homeostasis. In that time, we'll see plenty of death and rebirth.

  • On the post: Hulu Admits: Content Companies Boxee'd The PS3 Too

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2009 @ 06:28pm

    Re:

    The content partners are the people who signed the contracts that made Hulu possible. Get over it. Someone owns the content, Hulu just broadcasts it.

  • On the post: Hulu Admits: Content Companies Boxee'd The PS3 Too

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2009 @ 06:26pm

    Re:

    They are for-profit entities acting in their own self interest, which is what their executives are legally obligated to do.

  • On the post: Cargo Cult Science In The Newspaper World: If We All Charge, People Will Pay

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2009 @ 11:01am

    Re: Good point

    The right bet to make would be that by then end of their year of charging, they will either have reverted to free or declared bankruptcy.

    And I hope to see others take the Google challenge: Put up the Robots.txt blockade, and just see what happens. That should be good for some laughs too.

  • On the post: Artificial Scarcity Is Subject To Massive Deflation

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 07 Jul, 2009 @ 08:24am

    Re: The new business model

    It is funny that you should mention this possibility today:

    http://www.itwire.com/content/view/26117/1090/

    It appears as though Microsoft has acknowledged that in matters of software, using IP to prevent competition (or even mimicry) is a losing proposition. So they went ahead and changed their license agreement to specifically allow free and open-source implementations of their CLI and C# development tools.

    But in other parts of the industry, threats of lawsuits against open source projects have been occurring for the last 4-5 years, IIRC.

  • On the post: California Promises No Sales Tax Due To Affiliates To Keep Amazon/Overstock Affiliates Happy

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 06 Jul, 2009 @ 09:17pm

    Hurrah for CA!

    This was a surprise indeed. CA needs all the business-friendly policies it can get right now, and this is a good step in that direction.

    Heck, the combination of Amazon Prime (essentially free shipping) and no physical presence in the state (no sales tax) is what makes Amazon.com such an amazingly good deal for CA shoppers.

  • On the post: Free Does Not Mean No Business Model

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 08 May, 2009 @ 08:38pm

    The next time somone makes this mistake...

    ...simply ask them how much they paid for their Google-related services last month.

    Then ask them whether or not they think Google has a business model.

  • On the post: The Conversation Is What Matters, From Learning To Journalism And Beyond

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 02 May, 2009 @ 04:32pm

    Re: Making it conversational

    I agree that most news 'discussion' platforms do not do enough to make conversations:

    1. Easy to follow.
    2. Simple to participate in.
    3. Structured enough to be coherent.

    However, I do think that there are technical solutions to many of those problems. Features such as

    - auto notify me of replies to this thread
    - well designed conversation visualization tools
    - real-time 'reply posted' notifications, as in Gmail

    Tools such as these make it much more satisfying to actually engage in longer more fulfilling discussions.

  • On the post: The Conversation Is What Matters, From Learning To Journalism And Beyond

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 02 May, 2009 @ 04:01pm

    Re: Moronic, stupid, ignorant

    There is certainly some of that in every crowd. One solution that I like and have seen implemented elsewhere:

    Charge reasonable fees for the ability to participate in the conversation, making it a premium service.

    It can still be pseudo-anonymous (site visitors may not know who you are, while site operators do), but by charging a fee for what the users value - the feeling that they are interacting with the author n a meaningful way - you only get comments from people who are willing to put their money where there opinions lie.

  • On the post: Yet Another Journalism Professor Gets Nearly Every Fact Wrong In Saying Google Needs To Pay

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2009 @ 06:38pm

    For some background on the author

    Here is his Stanford faculty page:

    http://communication.stanford.edu/faculty/brinkley.html

  • On the post: Investigative Journalism Done Better, Faster And Cheaper Without Newspapers

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2009 @ 12:57pm

    Re: Myth 1 isn't completely true

    The role of PR in disseminating information about a company is an interesting perspective on this.

    In the pre-PR-age, did reporters mostly talk to company officers (board members, executives)?

  • On the post: Investigative Journalism Done Better, Faster And Cheaper Without Newspapers

    Jason Buberel ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2009 @ 12:54pm

    Re: I see a problem...

    Boring, but perhaps the only profitable newspaper in Chicago?

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