Its a well documented fact that old media, newspapers especially, are spiraling downward toward oblivion but in the last two weeks we’ve seen a couple of bone-head plays that seem to indicate broadcast television, maybe even cable TV, is worried too! Two huge sports bodies have tried to ban social media from their games and venues, which IMHO, is like trying to hold a waterbed over you head. No matter where you put your hands, some other part is going to sag…you just can’t make it happen.

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Just about everyone expects the folks over at Facebook to open up most or all of the user-contributed data to developers tomorrow! Its far short of “breaking news” but it does have some pretty big implications for the way us social media folks live and work.

First, what exactly does it mean that Facebook is exposing their user-contributed data to developers? Well, mainly it means that there is about to be an explosion of apps that interface with and make use of Facebook data, not the least of which will be the messaging available on “The Wall.”

Marketing folks, especially Internet marketers, have been salivating over the thought of having unfettered access to Facebook user data. Just think, not only do I know who you are and what you like and where you live and etc, etc… but I know it about all your friends too! AWESOME!

So, is this going to be another backlash like the Facebook terms of use update a few weeks back? I’m not really sure, I kinda think the terms of use update was aimed at making this possible. I think that the real power of this new avenue into Facebook user-contributed data will manifest itself outside Facebook. Kinda the same way the impact of AOL email manifested itself outside of AOL. Yeah, they made it available and easy to use for the masses, but that just opened the door to a whole new world of possibilities.

I think the AOL example is important for Facebook in another way too. Yes, AOL did really well for a while and made TRUCK LOADS of money, and now look at them. They got way too happy with themselves and worked their way right out of a job. Could the same thing happen with Facebook? Maybe, the scary thing is we don’t even know what we don’t know yet!

Look for mergers too… or at least some way to mash up all your feeds that’s better than anything we have today. I’m a HUGE fan of TweetDeck, in fact its open right now as it is almost all the time. Now that I can send and receive Facebook updates in TweetDeck, I don’t got to Facebook nearly as often…and I can’t tell you the last time I was on the Twitter site. Add to that FriendFeed and all the numerous knock-offs and you simply have too many status update like feeds to keep up with. Something has to give.

Anyway, look for lots of news out about Facebook tomorrow, April 27th and if you’re a Facebook fanatic, watch closely!

Ok, so after a little title theatrics…here’s the real question. Is the rapid adoption of Cloud Computing sounding the death knell of the personal computer? I have a few definite opinions to go along with a whole litany of questions!


What is the Cloud and Why is it Appealing?
According to the complete compendium of human knowledge (aka Wikipedia), Cloud Computing is a concept that uses the Internet as delivery platform for applications and services hosted online. Probably the oldest example of the concept (although it was never called that back in the day) is Yahoo! Mail. The app resides on the server along with your data (email messages) and is easily accessible from any computer with a web browser (PC, Mac, Linux…doesn’t matter). Now there are countless companies offering “cloud” based services. Google is of course the biggest but hundreds of others are out there too.


The clear appeal of Cloud Computing is ease of access from anywhere and no installed software. It is the concept of no installed software that has the choir warming up for the funeral of the PC. If I can do everything I need to do from any browser, the “PC” is now just a platform for the browser…right?

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