The Pirate Bay has been around for more than three years now, but it never really had an online community for people to discuss filesharing issues with fellow pirates. But now, together with the relaunch of SuprNova, they opened up a new forum at SuprBay.org.
Source: Digg / Technology
AFP - The mercenary US mobile telephone market faces a rough shake-up after authorities set new rules for auctioning airwaves, boosting users' freedom to switch providers and access the Internet by phone.
Source: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed under: Gaming
Amidst all of this not-exactly-forthright price cutting going on with the Xbox 360, it looks like Microsoft has finally launched a more organized method of detailing and tracking the process of sending your faulty US-based Xbox 360 back in for repair. Reportedly, the new web portal allows American console owners to register their machine, attach a Windows Live ID, schedule a repair, and track the status of said mending. Additionally, users who register will supposedly receive a five dollar credit towards out-of-warranty repair service should they need it, but considering that the warranty was just extended to three full years, you should be covered for a good while yet.
[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
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Source: Darren Murph
According to the Wall Street Journal, a coalition of left-wing bloggers is trying to form a labor union that they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining and set professional standards.
As much as the days where bloggers were a novelty has passed, is blogging, or for that matter the various content creation forms of Web 2.0 ready for organized labor?
Most people contributing to new media sites, including user generated sites such as About.com and Mahalo do so on a contractual basis. Most content creators do not work under employer/ employee relationships, most are paid without tax being deducted; in the most these are not regular style jobs. There is a reason for this, because in the vast majority of cases bloggers or content creators take these jobs as hobbies; the income earned being additional pay to existing employment.
And yet the going rate for a blogger is remarkably low. Whilst at the top networks such as Weblogs Inc. and Gawker pay their writers starting payments of around $500 per month, many smaller networks tended to favor a revenue sharing model that rewards popular topics over effort. They do so whilst the network operators keep the majority of profits for themselves.
As David Krug at Telegraphik puts it:
While some bloggers in networks are making pennies per the hour the network CEO’s and support staff are raking in huge salaries and getting VC Money to help furnish their homes. I don’t like it. It smells funny.
The real reality for most chasing a quick buck from blogging is that all bar the top of the blogosphere succeeds in raking in a lot of money. A quick look at the various Problogger style sites and ebook salesman is like looking at an Amway presentation: it promises riches but for the vast majority always fails to deliver.
I’m not entirely against unionized blogging; in a free society there should be no limitations on organized labor, but any realist will know that ultimately the market decides upon what is reasonable pay and conditions. The vast number of people looking to make a second income from blogging already own and write their own blogs and don’t make much money; simply a low paid network blogging job is often more than what they are making from their own blogs.
As long as the supply of labor that will accept low rates exists, no amount of organization will create a marketplace that provides pay rates that are equal to that of comparable fields such as journalism. Exploitation only exists where those being paid do so because they have no alternative; bloggers have many alternatives, although most do not involve blogging itself. A fair wage is a noble cause, but one that will always be undercut as long as there are more potential writers than positions available.
Disclosure: I was previously involved in the blog network industry and hired bloggers.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: Duncan Riley
Reuters - Mobile-phone giant Nokia will start to
use Microsoft's copy protection software to boost the use of
wireless entertainment, like music and videos, the two
companies said on Monday.
Source: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Reuters - A blogger calling himself "Fake
Steve Jobs," whose parody of the Apple Inc. chief executive
amused and enthralled Silicon Valley, revealed himself on
Sunday as an editor of Forbes business magazine.
Source: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Social music marketplace Amie Street has closed a Series A round of financing led by Amazon.com. The amount of Amazon’s investment and the terms are not disclosed.
We’ve been big fans of the model and the recent investment shows Amazon is too. On Amie Street, music is not sold for a flat rate, but rather fluctuates based on demand for the song. Artists upload their music (DRM free), which users can download at a starting price of free. As a song’s downloads increase, the price starts to rise, all the way up to $0.99. If a song gets to $0.30 or so, you know its popular. The artist keeps 70% of revenues after the first $5 in sales. SellABand also has a socially driven music monetization model.
Users are rewarded for recommending hit songs with credit for purchasing additional music on Amie Street. The more popular a song
becomes after a member has recommended it, the more credit he or she receives to spend on music.
No doubt, Amazon’s recent payments system seems an ideal fit for the system as well.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Tags: music, social, marketplace, amazon, techcrunch, web2.0
Source: Nick Gonzalez
The National Science Foundation is planning to award I.B.M. a $200 million contract to build the world’s fastest supercomputer in Illinois.
Source: JOHN MARKOFF