Paul O'Flaherty

The Balance Of Power

paul@pauloflaherty.com (Paul O'Flaherty) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:57:09 +0000

The web is undeservedly U.S. centric. I’ve been saying it for years.

Even considering the United States is currently number 2 in the world in terms of internet users (234.4 million) it’s days are numbered, the balance of power will shift.

If it were possible for the United Stated could get every man, woman and child online today, the total number of internet users could only reach 307 Million, which would leave it still over 113 Million users behind China.

China currently has 420 Million users online, but with a population of over 1.3 Billion people , penetration levels are quite low so there is still room for phenomenal growth.

India is much the same with 6.9% (81 million) of it’s 1.173 Billion strong population online. Even if it only reached a 20% penetration (the U.S. has 76.3%) it would rival the U.S.

Think about the following (the text in italics was added by me):

The tenth largest country on the Internet is Nigeria. So although Africa as a whole is often considered to be a bit behind the curve on the Internet, it does have a presence among the top countries.

Seven out of the top 20 countries are Asian (35%).

Five out of the top 20 countries are European (25%). Six (30%) if you also count Russia.

Three of the top 20 are English-language countries (four if you count India – although it is a second language).

Even as we speak the U.S. is being surpassed and has no chance of ever catching up as it has almost maxed out it’s internet penetration (unless everybody starts shagging like rabbits and every family has 6 kids).

We’re about to witness a fundamental shift in the dominant languages used on the internet.

If we really want to succeed in the the largest markets, we’ll have to prepare to target markets with different languages, different cultures and different ways of thinking.

We need to be presenting our content in more languages and we need to stop thinking like the U.S. is the “end all and be all” of the technology and online world.

By staying U.S. or even English language focused we will be artificially limiting ourselves to an ever decreasing portion of the market.

The chart of the top 20 countries becomes so very telling when you look at the red bars. The red bars show the total population on the countries and it’s very easy to see those that have a lot of potential for growth.

China, India, Russia, Nigeria, Brazil, Indonesia all have massive potential for growth, while the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and others have pretty much reached their saturation points.

It doesn’t take much brain power to realize that this chart is going to look very different over the next 5 to 10 years and if we want to capitalize on that traffic and those markets we need to start doing so now.

Thanks to Pingdom for the chart.

A Password Public Service Announcement

paul@pauloflaherty.com (Paul O'Flaherty) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:57:57 +0000

Source?

Podcast: WinExtra on Windows #11: From Earnings To Licenses Microsoft Has An Interesting Week

paul@pauloflaherty.com (Paul O'Flaherty) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:00:47 +0000

This week their was so much to cover and so little time to do it in. We shotgun through a large number of minor stories so that we can spend give the announcement of Microsoft becoming and ARM licensee and some Windows Phone 7 news the coverage it deserves.

Also, this weekend we introduced a new section to the show, where Steven and I share our favorite tips and free software to make your day to day Windows computing easier.

Posts referred to in this week’s show:

Windows 7 Momentum Continues: 175 Million Licenses Sold – The Windows Blog
Microsoft Reports Record Fourth-Quarter Results – Microsoft
Microsoft Earnings Exceed Apple; Dell, HTC and Samsung to Make Windows 7 Phones– SiliconAngle
HP Turns Its Back on Windows Phone 7 - Mashable
HP Windows 7 slates coming “this fall” – CrunchGear
HP Slate Tablet will be Microsoft Based Enterprise Device – ReadWriteWeb
India unveils prototype for $35 touch-screen computer – BBC News
What the Web is Saying: Windows Phone 7 – jkOnTheRun
AT&T put their name down for 8 million Windows Phone 7 devices – MobileCrunch
Would You Pay For A Windows Phone At This Stage? AKA NOW – WMPoweruser.com
4 Actions Microsoft Can Take With an ARM License – GigaOM
WWMD? – Coding Relic
Microsoft Windows Phone Events – Microsoft

This week’s software suggestions:

Enjoy the show

Podcast: WinExtra On Windows Episode 11 – From Earnings To Licenses Microsoft Has An Interesting Week

Don’t miss and episode – subscribe to Winextra On Windows (RSS).

Update on Pearson Vs Mullenweg – Thesis Is Now GPL

paul@pauloflaherty.com (Paul O'Flaherty) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:13:41 +0000

It comes as no surprise that Chris Pearson has finally changed the popular premium WordPress theme “Thesis” to a split license with the PHP being GPL and everything else being proprietary.

Pearson announced the change last night on Twitter but curiously (as of time of writing, nearly 17 hours later) there is still no mention of it on his sites.

Little more needs to be said about this. The inevitable happened.

© Paul for Paul O'Flaherty, 2010. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Chris Pearson, GPL, Matt Mullenweg, Thesis, WordPress

Cam Girl Barbie – Wait Until The Mommies Get A Load Of This (Video)

paul@pauloflaherty.com (Paul O'Flaherty) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:12:16 +0000

I may have started my working day at 5am this morning but it didn’t take long before this WTF moment rolled through my feed reader and left a permament scar on my subconscious.

What can I say about “Video Girl Barbie” (a genuine Mattel Barbie) that Paul Carr of TechCrunch doesn’t say in the video below?

Pedobear will have a field day with the doll that allows you to record without anybody knowing.

Here’s a choice quote from the press release that Paul Carr reads out:

… featuring camera video in her necklace, unsuspecting subjects won’t know that Barbie is watching their every move…

Best be careful when “strange” uncle Tom turns up with some new Christmas presents for the kiddies

© Paul for Paul O'Flaherty, 2010. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Barbie, Children, Mattel, Paul Carr, techcrunch, webcam

Steve Jobs, Reality Distortion Field And Cutting Users Fingers Off (Video)

paul@pauloflaherty.com (Paul O'Flaherty) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:27:26 +0000

You don’t have to understand the language in order to understand them meaning and sentiment behind this Steve Jobs and Apple orientated video. The scene with jobs cutting off the guys fingers is awesome.

Podcast: WinExtra On Windows #10 Microsoft Silently Connecting The People Network

paul@pauloflaherty.com (Paul O'Flaherty) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:09:49 +0000

Last week was a fairly quiet news week from a Microsoft perspective but it didn’t mean that Steven and I couldn’t find loads of tasty tit-bits to talk about in the latest episode of the WinExtra On Windows Podcast.

Posts mentioned in the show:

Microsoft exec mocks iPhone 4, dubs it Apple’s Vista - ComputerWorld
What people are missing about the “Apple’s Vista moment” comment – WinExtra
Prediction: This Statement Is Going To Come Back To Bite Microsoft In The Ass – TechCrunch
Windows Phone 7: Don’t bother with this disaster – InfoWorld
Windows Phone 7: Don’t Bother with this Disaster. Hmm…. – Phone 7
Microsoft co-founder pledges fortune to philanthropy – Silicon Republic
Microsoft Says 12th Alleged Russian Spy Was Employee – Bloomberg
Microsoft: ‘If we don’t cannibalize our existing business, others will‘ – Mary Jo Foley
Microsoft says 74 percent of work PCs still use Windows XP, extends downgrade rights (update 2) – Engadget
Outlook Evolves Beyond E-Mail with Social Connectors - PC World
Microsoft Pays Mobile App Developers to Catch Apple – Bloomberg

Enjoy the show

WinExtra On Windows Episode #10: Microsoft silently connecting the people network

Don’t miss and episode – subscribe to Winextra On Windows (RSS).

© Paul for Paul O'Flaherty, 2010. | Permalink | No comment
Post tags: iPhone 4, Microsoft, mobile, Outlook, Paul Allen, Vista

How WordPress Could Eliminate The Thesis Problem Without Going To Court

paul@pauloflaherty.com (Paul O'Flaherty) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:30:50 +0000

Matt Mullenweg doesn’t really want to take Chris Pearson to court over his Thesis theme violating the GPL license. I’m sure he’d like to sort it out behind the scenes and without all the drama and FUD that a drawn out court battle could create.

Also, I’m sure Chris Pearson doesn’t want it to go to court (despite what he says) as the legal costs, potential damage caused his reputation and a loss of business, as well as just the “told you so” attitude of the blogosphere, would be beyond a royal pain in the backside.

It’s time to stop the war of words and for WordPress & Mullenweg to show the color of their convictions.

Here are some ideas that WordPress could implement to effectively make it impractical for people to use non-GPL themes.

Block sites using licenses violating themes from accessing services such as Akismet, VaultPress, WordPress stats etc. In the case of Akismet, it’s fair to assume that 90%+ of sites using premium themes like Thesis are commercial, make these sites pay the $5 a month for the commercial licence.

Yes there are (may be) alternative services but when clients start asking developers why they can’t use these defacto services, the developers will be between a rock and a hard place. Either they lie to their clients or attempt to explain how WordPress is claiming they are violating the license, but aren’t really. Not many clients will want to be on-board with a developer at that point.

WordPress could take a leaf out of Microsoft anti-piracy playbook. WordPress installations can poll a regularly updated blacklist of violating themes and if a user installs one, have it display a warning in the admin panel that the theme is violating the licence (with suggestions for alternative themes?). If you want to be really heavy handed have it appear in the footer as well so that visitors can see it.

Yes this may seam a bit harsh, but there is nothing that will shake a clients confidence in a developer than the software screaming at them that it is being naughty.

You could go even further than warnings and start disabling functionality, but that is hurting the client and not something you’d want to do if you want to keep them on WordPress.

This would be neither anti-competitive or in violation of law (I’m not a lawyer but reasonably certain), and if a developer feels that it is, the burden is then on them to take WordPress to court and prove that WordPress is at fault, rather than WordPress having to worry about suing individual developers who abandon the GPL just because they feel like it.

© Paul for Paul O'Flaherty, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments
Post tags: Chris Pearson, GPL, Matt Mullenweg, Thesis, WordPress