الثلاثاء، 15 مايو 2012

Here are 2 new articles from Aaron Hockley

Here are 2 new articles from Aaron Hockley


Copyright Craziness: What If?

Posted: 15 May 2012 08:30 AM PDT

What if a few hundred bloggers got together and we took a quick (very quick) tour through current copyright law?

What if we followed that up with a look at the fact that public perception isn’t necessarily in line with current law?

What if an entire generation generally holds a view on copyright that’s incompatible with current law?

What will copyright mean in five years? Ten years? Twenty? How do we balance the livelihood of creative artists vs. a growing desire for the ability to remix and create derivative woks?

If you’re at WordCamp Seattle this weekend, let’s get together and explore these things during my talk. If you can’t attend, I promise some copyright resources and thoughts will be shared here on my blog on Saturday, and I’ll pass along the video if my talk is recorded.

Why I’m Bullish on Google+ Again

Posted: 14 May 2012 11:32 AM PDT

I joined Google+ on the day that it became available, and have always enjoyed the service. I generally find the web interface to offer a nice, visual view that allows me to easily connect with and browse the work of other photographers. It’s a much nicer experience that some other leading social networks.

While the Google+ web browser experience was pretty good, their mobile experience (at least on the iPhone) was pretty bad. There was a lot of wasted space, navigation was cumbersome, and some serious performance problems made it an onerous task to do something as simple as post a status update or share a photograph. My mobile photo sharing continued to focus on other applications while I mostly ignored Google+ when I was away from my desk.

The lack of a good mobile app led me to question how much time I’d spend with the service in the future. I became skeptical.

And then last week, this happened:

Google+ photo display Google+ photo display

An update to the iPhone app brings a new, beautiful photo-centric display which makes browsing a Google+ steam a very nice experience… arguably even better than the Instagram stream which now looks a bit plain by comparison. It’s easy to +1 photos (just tap on the + count), easy to comment, and the performance when posting new items is improved. In short, Google got this mobile experience right. Mobile photography is a big deal ($1 billion for Instagram, anyone?), and a beautiful mobile experience represents a big plus (pun intended) for Google.

There’s one big piece that’s missing (still): an API for third-party apps. My current mobile photo workflow involves using Camera Awesome to upload mobile photos to SmugMug and then cross-post to social services (sometimes Twitter, sometimes Facebook, sometimes Instagram). If I could post the images easily to Google+ as well, that would be a huge time-saver that could only increase my usage of Google+ while on the go.

I’m on the fence about switching to Google+ as my primary mobile social network (instead of Instagram). The API would make it easier, but it’s not too bad now with the new app. There’s a local Instagram meetup in a few days; I’m curious to hear what other Instagram users think about the new Google+ interface…

Join me?

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