Unfortunately For The U.S. Government You Can't (really) Control "The Internet"

And while Congress attempts to craft legislation that gives the President emergency powers to "control the internet", the reality is that it's not possible. The "internet" is just too big for any state actor (or group of state actors) to effectively control.

Can Congress figure out a way to regulate certain parts of the internet? Sure.

But "control" the whole shooting match? No way.

Just ask China why it's impossible to do.

Twitter's 140 Characters Now Know Where You Are, And Can Show The Whole World

Via Twitter's blog:

We're gearing up to launch a new feature which makes Twitter truly location-aware. A new API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. Folks will need to activate this new feature by choice because it will be off by default and the exact location data won't be stored for an extended period of time. However, if people do opt-in to sharing location on a tweet-by-tweet basis, compelling context will be added to each burst of information.

For example, with accurate, tweet-level location data you could switch from reading the tweets of accounts you follow to reading tweets from anyone in your neighborhood or city—whether you follow them or not. It's easy to imagine how this might be interesting at an event like a concert or even something more dramatic like an earthquake. There will likely be many use cases we haven't even thought of yet which is part of what makes this so exciting.

A brave new world indeed.

Love Mac Computers? Read This.

The 4,000 word Steve Jobs profile that Apple initially tried to kill.

Fascinating.

Late Summer Fun

This got a few chuckles around the office today:


Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

Businessman Mark Cuban Blogs On How News Corp Should Sell Online Content

Mark Cuban attempts to crack one of the most vexing problems facing media companies today - How to effectively sell content online:

So what should you do to sell your online content ?

The first thing you have to do is realize that internet consumers are only fine with paying for content when the following two criteria are met:

1. It is easy to buy.

2. It is easy for any consumer to assign a “perceived value” to the content and you charge less than that amount.

2a. Remind yourself that just because you assign a specific value, doesn’t mean the consumer will. Case in point are newspaper sites. Consumers might adamantly believe that your writers are better than AP writers. They might believe that your site uncovers news that MSNBC.com doesn’t, Unfortunately for you, because it’s all free to this point, they aren’t saying to themselves “wow, the only way I have EVER been able to get this is news is by paying $2.99 a week and now I can get it from Fox for only $ 2 per month. It’s not going to happen. Instead, it will be “I like the NY Post. I love Page Six. But I’m not going to pay to get what I have always gotten online for free. Not going to happen.

So what Fox, and any media conglomerate has to do is find DIGITAL or INCREDIBLY HIGH MARGIN products that have a perceived value to the consumer, that you can bundle with your online content.

Let me give you an example.

You could offer a “Newsjunkies Subscription” that includes:

a. Access to every Newscorp news website from around the world (excluding the wall street journal). From the NYPost to the UK’s Sunday Times, Sun and more.

b. Your choice of any 2 books from our Harpers Collins collection. That’s right. Pick any 2, from our Best Sellers list, or from the special list we have put together specifically for newsjunkies like you. Its your choice if you want them in hardback, paperback or e-book format.

c. A subscription to our news magazine, The Weekly Standard. The choice is yours whether you would like it delivered to your emailbox, printed and mailed to you or both !

d. A $99 credit at a special edition of The Fox Store that we put together exclusively for our News Junkie Subscribers. You can pick from newly released to DVD movies or from our classics. Its up to you !

So to summarize. In addition to Fox websites from around the world, a $ 79 dollar annual value, you get:

2 books from our Harper Collins collection, with a value of up to $79.

a subscription to the Weekly Standard, worth up to $ 64 (in a deal with its new owner)

a special $99 credit at The Fox Store where you can pick from an amazing selection of movies and tv shows.

For a total value of $ 321.

Because our Fox News Junkie Subscribers are critically important to us, we are offering this special package for a limited time only. This amazing package can be yours for the low low price of only…

$ 9.95 per month with a minimum commitment of 15 months !

Read his whole post here.