Bitcurrent: Networking, technology, and web operations

Introducing “Rented Metal”

Over the coming weeks we will be transforming Bitcurrent from a blog into a site that represents more what we do - produce events, content and research. The first step of this transition is that from now on, all Cloud Computing related blog entries will appear on our new cloud-centric blog. We ...

Why aren’t there any smiley hashtags?

Hashtags are the standard way of adding meaning and context to online content, providing explicit context and making it easier for computers to understand what's being said. And emoticons are a de facto standard for expressing sentiment that work across cultures and languages. Why haven't we combined the two? Hashtags ...

Launching Cloud Connect

In a few weeks, we'll hold the inaugural Cloud Connect in Santa Clara, California. It's actually the continuation of a series of events David Berlind launched around cloud computing, plus a spinoff of last year's Enterprise Cloud Summit, plus a bunch of new content. We're pretty excited, because this is the ...

The perils of inadvertent sharing

There's hidden plumbing behind our online lives. As we link our online accounts to one another, it's easy to lose track of what's connected to what. Social sites make it easy to inadvertently share content with an audience you didn't know you had. Social sites that want to quickly generate ...

Why you should let your computer spy on you

Have you ever found yourself using your computer and thinking "No! That's not what I meant. Isn't it obvious what I'm trying to do?" Today you can use your computer for an ever-increasing number of activities - planning a holiday, reading the news, creating music, chatting, shopping, budgeting or just ...

A Q&A on cloud computing

Recently, some journalism students from the American University in DC asked if they could interview me about cloud computing. As I wrote back to them, I realized that the discussion was different from what I usually talk about when it comes for clouds. These are journalism students, and they likely ...

Rogers takes Android users off the air

In an effort to force users of its HTC Dream to do a software update that fixes a 911 call bug, Rogers has disconnected Internet from all its Android customers. Here's the full text I just received on my phone: Rogers/Fido Safety Message: URGENT Reminder 911 Calls HTC Dream software update: ...

How many Google App Engine apps are there?

I'm in San Diego today with Lenny Rachitsky of Webmetrics, talking about possibilities for cloud research. We were discussing App Engine penetration, and fired off some searches to try and see how much attention the Google Platform-as-a-Service is getting. This is speculative at best, and fairly imprecise; but we did ...

A look back at 2009: The year of Twitter

Back in mid-2008, Twitter was just another Web 2.0 application. Industry watchers were beginning to take notice of its million or so users and speculate if it might be the start of something bigger, but most people hadn't heard of it or didn't "get it". Here at Bitcurrent we pondered the ...

The perils of backchannels: Why Twitter should never take center stage

Backchannels are all the rage at tech events these days, connecting presenter and audience like never before. They allow audiences to get more value from a presentation by communicating with each other about it. And the audience can feed back to the presenter, which helps him stay on track and ...