Ten years ago I was educating people about what they might expect from their websites. For many medium and small businesses, it was their first website, and they wanted to know how it was going to make them money. Nowadays, a web presence has become a part of almost every business’ “price of admission”. Ten years ago, you weren’t credible without a business card and a Yellow Pages listing, and people were already seeing that before long a website would become a part of the minimum credibility standard.

Hugh MacLeod really captures it sometimes, even if you sometimes have to pause a minute to decide whether you agree or disagree, and in what way. That’s how it is when he explains the main point of the Internet.

Perhaps the Internet has helped redefine “socializing” as well. But it’s just that — the Internet is all about connecting. Whatever your ulterior motive, it’s about connecting first. And even if the Internet really only represents a potential cash cow in your mind’s eye, if you don’t connect, really connect, it won’t ever become that for you. So consider what it is you’d like the Internet to be for you, then ask yourself: “What kind of connections do I need to make in order for that to take place?”

An article on TwiTip this morning says Twitter will replace Google search. Excuse me? My first response is that this prediction is like trying to convince a gardener that the hoe will replace the spade. It seems we have a need for both, if you ask me. I’ve been using Twitter lightly for a couple of months now, mostly for following a few Twitter streams that are of interest. This is, in fact, how I found the article with which I’m disagreeing. Twitter is in fact a highly useful tool, provided you apply it to the proper job… and though it can be used in this way, search is not the job to which it is best suited.

The article uses the example of a business professional who needs three images for a presentation the next morning, and can’t find the specific ones she wants on a stock photo site.  Turning to Twitter,

I’ve often wondered about the relationship of corporate size and corporate wrongdoing. Is there a connection beyond the coincidental, beyond what one would expect statistically by the fact that more people means more opportunity for wrongdoing? One of Google‘s well-known guiding principles has always been “do no evil.”¹ I have to credit them for the gutsy move of putting it right out there like that… but you know eventually it’s going to draw criticism. Given Google’s now-gargantuan size, this motto, and a recent event or two, it only makes sense to see if these dots connect with my recurring question about size and evil.

An excellent visual explanation of copyright law and fair use has been circulating. It’s an excellent summary worth far more than a mere 1,000 words and was originally created by Erik Heels to explain the concept to a youngster. I’ve heard it said that you don’t really understand something until you can explain it to a child… and if that’s so, then

Michael Geist has done a video presentation to put the issue of piracy in Canada into proper perspective. It’s a good picture of “the rest of the story” and leaves you thinking that Canadian law is being far too readily influenced by US lobby groups who aren’t telling the whole truth. Makes you wonder what kind of agenda they’re pushing, as they aren’t going to accomplish what they claim they will through this means. You’d think they have to know that…

Steven Silvers thinks that email might make news media interviews obsolete, but he dislikes the practice of conducting interviews via email. Personally I don’t mind, but Steven has a point.

Tom Purves observes that Canada [is] Worse than 3rd World Countries when it comes to Mobile Data Access. Although globally Canada has one of the higher percentages of people online and one of the higher percentages of broadband users, those who access the Internet using a PDA or cell phone are paying through the nose… to the tune of $1,600 to transfer 500MB of data.

Well, I’ve delayed comment until now, but the dust is settling and it’s time to say something. Not to kick up the dust that doesn’t need disturbing, but because I feel that somethings ought not pass without comment, and this is one of them.

Firstly, if you aren’t up on the blog-world, you won’t have a hot clue what I’m on about, or who Kathy Sierra is. But you should. Kathy is one of the brightest lights in the blogosphere, and her blog, Creating Passionate Users, should in my humble opinion be required reading for anyone who designs software, user interfaces of any kind, for people who manage such projects, or for anyone who is particularly in the wired end of the business world. Kathy is a thinker and a writer, and some of my all-time favorite blog posts have come from her virtual pen.

Congratulations are due Dave Winer of Scripting News, the longest continually running blog on the Internet — April 1, 2007 clicked past on the weekend, marking ten years for the site. That’s right, Dave Winer was blogging on Scripting News before there were blogs. For posterity, he has archived the original page from April 1, 1997… just in case you don’t remember what the Internet looked like in 1997.