• dropsafe : Thunderbird: Just because it’s open source doesn’t mean it’s not shit
  hear! hear! and I speak as an open source afficionado. the trick is to get enough people with skillz to care. And them keep them caring… not easy.
  (tags: opensource problem software alec)

• BBC NEWS | England | London | Man killed wife in Facebook row
  (tags: facebook online socialnetworks law london crime)
• BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Woman in jail over virtual murder
  (tags: games online crime japan)

• Celebrating iCalendar’s 10th anniversary: The best is yet to come « Jon Udell
  (tags: RSS udell aggregator calendar syndication)
• Micro Persuasion: RSS Adoption at 11% and it May Be Peaking, Forrester Says
  (tags: RSS trends feeds pr newsfeed technology socialmedia micropersuasion)
• Help Desk, Customer Support & Customer Service On-Demand Software From Zendesk
  (tags: web2.0 tools business customerservice service SaaS application productivity)

• Madeline Von Foerster's Amazon Cabinet | Leo Plaw – Fantastic and Visionary Artwork
  held at customs because some muppet thought it was old masters work and wouldn't hear otherwise…. in the end, all work out well but shows the power of petty and ignorant officials.
  (tags: art government stupid power)

• Having Conquered Flickr & Yahoo, "The Newsfeed" Is Now the Dominant Info-Metaphor of Our Time – ReadWriteWeb
  feeds feeds everywhere. what does that remind me of?
  (tags: web2.0 RSS trends design feeds Flickr FriendFeed lifestreaming readwriteweb newsfeed Mine!)
• Alleviate Poverty | Breadline Africa Worldwide Blogger Bake Off
  (tags: WebDesign inspiration africa recipes bread)
• Twist – see trends in twitter
  (tags: data web2.0 Marketing graphs trends socialmedia tools twitter analysis tracking visualization)
• Plodt
  interesting functionality. tracking your own data streams and seeing them in a different light.
  (tags: data web2.0 tools trends twitter visualization mashup tags tracking Mine!)
• How the financial collapse killed libertarianism. – By Jacob Weisberg – Slate Magazine
  a very stupid article indeed. btw, free market defense is not libertarianism.
  (tags: politics government history economics regulation crisis finance libertarianism recession)

• Making the Hard Calls on APIs
  looking into APIs
  (tags: web2.0 Flickr API webdesign datastore)

• Blogging = Freedom | Linux Journal
  excellent post. blogging is certainly not passe, still closest to the internet ideal of independence, openness and distributed conversation.
  (tags: internet Blogging socialmedia docsearls freedom wired twitter facebook open)
• Why E-Mail is Failing Us – The Social Enterprise
  spot on
  (tags: web2.0 Enterprise2.0 email business human productivity)

• The idea of “Open Source DRM” makes me want to vomit with rage | Hardware 2.0 | ZDNet.com
  great headline and spot on article
  (tags: DRM opensource copyright music stupid)
• Links » WTF Does Open Source Have To Do With Business Models?
  indeed. Because-effect model is a good way of thinking about FOSS.
  (tags: opensource benlaurie businessmodel business software development FOSS)
• Will the credit crunch help CRM? : Tomas Kohl
  (tags: mineproject CRM VRM Mine! trends user-driven)
• SpeechTechMag.com: The Creepiness Factor
  interesting, worth reading and should add to the privacy debate
  (tags: privacy business communication speaking)

We have a venue and a speaker for this month’s VRM Hub evening gathering. We are meeting at GfK NOP office, Room 15, 9th floor, Ludgate House, 245 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 9UL (map). Thanks to Nick Buckley we will be able to use a meeting room at GfK NOP office up to the end of February. Many many thanks!

Also, we have a speaker for this meeting – read a person who kicks off the discussion – Peter Parkes, a veteran member of the VRM Hub community and a social web (power)user will be talking about ‘VRM and the battle for relevancy’. His site is Peter Parkes and he is part of the team at we are social.

I don’t think this is about whether VRM relevant or not – one of the things very clear to me from talking to people about VRM for the last two years is that it is very relevant. The issue is how, not why. So interested in Peter’s take on it.

If we end up talking about something else that’s fine too. But at least now we have a speaker, er, topic to kick around.

So please do join the discussion, which will start at 6pm, carry on until about 9pm. Then we might retirw to a nearby pub, which is what usually happens. Look forward to seeing you there. Sign up here.

cross-posted from VRM Hub

• Innovation vs. Litigation – Advertising Age – DigitalNext
  rather badly written but towards the end some good points
  (tags: web2.0 socialmedia legal tips Strategy corporate)

• Being smart about Web mail | Defensive Computing – CNET News
  useful
  (tags: security email gmail protection web tips)
• Google's Schmidt: Brands to clean up Internet 'cesspool' | Outside the Lines – CNET News
  wrong. brands are not the way. and people don't pay for 'content' because they are no longer 'consumers'
  (tags: publishing advertising journalism brands google)
• Open source enables value-based business models | Negative Approach – CNET News
  (tags: opensource businessmodel software trends)
• Has open source won–or has it lost? | The Pervasive Datacenter – CNET News
  (tags: opensource businessmodel software business)

• In Defense of Piracy – WSJ.com
  (tags: piracy copyright lessig amateur art culture music media)
• Lords of the Blog
  (tags: UK legislation politics houseoflords parliament government london blogging)
• Study: Social Media Transforming Our Influences on What to Buy – Mashable
  (tags: advertising Marketing socialmedia shopping trends behaviour trust branding influence)