A couple days ago Lauren Weinstein showed all us, not just in Canada, why we need net neutrality.  In the post, there is an image of the basic Google page with information injected by Rogers at the top (click for full sized version).

This is scary stuff.  Wired picked up the story and got some comments from Rogers:

Update: Rogers vice president of communications Taanta Gupta confirmed that Rogers is experimenting with this technique as a way to communicate with its customers.

"We’re trying different things, and we’ll test customer response," she says.

Gupta says that the bandwidth limitations have been in place for some time now, and that the ISP currently doesn’t have a standard customer notification procedure.

"This is useful information for the customer to have," she says. Source: In Test, Canadian ISP Splices Itself Into Google Homepage | Threat Level from Wired.com

So if Rogers can put that information in there, they can re-route you to a URL of choice.  I’m not technically savvy enough to know if this could be defeated by using OpenDNS, but how many home users know how to make that switch at home?  Yes, I know ISPs have always been able to do this.  Telus got in trouble a while back when they blocked access to sites put up by striking Telus workers.  They were smacked down by the government on free speech grounds.  But, what about blocking access to download sites?  What about putting a toll on some sites and not other.  What would you do if presented with a page that said "the site you are about to visit will cost you an extra $0.05 per megabyte, but if you visit our preferred site, the download is free".

The question is then, will our pro-business government allow this?  Lauren asks an even deeper question:

Question: Will Web service providers such as Google and many others, who have spent vast resources in both talent and treasure creating and maintaining their services’ appearances and quality, be willing to stand still while any ISP intercepts and modifies their traffic in such a manner?

Maybe the extension to that question is–will they pony up cash to ISPs to prevent it.

More: Michael Geist, ArsTechnica

About a month ago Darren Barefoot sent me this charming cartoon (why, why couldn’t you have used pics where I have facial hair?)

Regardless, of course I jumped at the chance to test-drive a colour laser printer!  Even if it’s just for four months.  My review is long overdue, but hey I have unboxing pics!

First off, this bugger is heavy.  Like 78 lbs.  I wish I had seen the "lift with two people sticker" before I hefted it onto the file cabinet (strong like bull, smart like Coke machine). As for set up, well it had a ton of tape and things to keep things in place during shipping.  Since this printer costs about $1000 MSRP, yeah, good call.  Okay it was annoying to find and pull off all the tape, but well.

Loading the toner cartridges was a breeze.  All are colour coded and slide in nicely.  Wish there was more of a positive click when it’s in place, but a quick glance is enough to check.

Software.  Well this is where Brother let me down a bit.  On Vista I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get the installers to run.  The old Vista admin privs thing.  A royal pain.  And even though my printer got onto the network without a problem and I could print to it just fine, the network-based admin tools can’t connect to it.  I think it’s a firewall issue.  I haven’t tried to track this down.  On my XP machine, well few more hasseles. Some install probs and same network admin problem.  Actually I couldn’t get my XP machine to print to it through the network.  This probably can be found and fixed, but when you want to print something and expect it to work…

However, I had a spare USB cable lying around and direct USB connection worked without a hitch.

I haven’t tried the remote software for scanning or faxing yet.  I did go through the process of opening ports in my firewall sw to allow this.  Yeah not for the faint of heart.  Remember though, this particular printer isn’t intended for the home user, this is a printer for a small office.  Faxing, very nice.  Sheetfed (print must be up), dial…zap.  Done.

Now you buy a colour laser for, well, colour printing.  The quality is excellent.  I’ve printed basic documents, maps, even pics straight from my camera using PictBridge and was really impressed.  No, the photos aren’t framing quality, but that’s fine, the are nice for a show around kind of thing.  The printer has a nice power save/sleep mode that takes a bit to wake up from, but I consider this a plus.  The activity light starts to flash as it is waking up and getting data so you know something is working.  Once it’s awake and working, wow, nice fast printing.

Bottom line: This isn’t a home printer, but I still love it.  And my kids made nice cards for their grandparents with it (which will go over very well).  Really, the ideal users are a small office of a few people.  The scanning, faxing, and copying from the machine is nice with big activity buttons.  I don’t know about toner costs, etc, but…inkjets are so expensive so the costs might even out.  Who needs a colour printer?  I’d say if you’re producing reports and other materials like that, colour is something to consider.  Yeah, it’s more expensive.  Just look at how often you’re sending stuff out to Kinkos, etc for colour printing.  For a small design shop, being able to print colour comps would be a huge plus.  I know a lot of things that I have done recently would have been faster/smoother with a colour print out to scribble on.  There are nice features for making sure you don’t drain the colour when you don’t need to.  I’d take a good serious look at this printer.  It’s only been a month, but I’m generally pleased with it.

Aidan Henry pinged me yesterday afternoon to see if I was going to the Better Web Posse meetup that night.  Well I responded with an astute: "Huh?"  With a quick check of Upcoming.org, I knew couldn’t miss it!  Why?  Well Derek Featherstone and Dave Shea were going to be talking about UI and accessibility-Posse presents: Featherstone of WaSP + Shea of Zen Garden at Better Web Posse.

Dave lead off the night with his 5 points for better UI design through CSS.  When his slides are posted (the examples are great) I’ll update here, but regardless… Dave makes the case that a little work and some attention to detail can make a clean, elegant design just pop.  My lingering question is that in the era of template-driven websites (like WP), how many of us are doing that much tweaking by hand?  Rather, how many of us are building from scratch.  I think Dave’s insights are great and should be a guideline for all who are picking themes.  Use of subtle colours, interesting, but readable typography, things that draw the eye.  One part that Dave didn’t touch on was accessibility.  A lot of the example sites, well they might be hard for many to read.  We have to remember that the population is aging.  Baby boomers are looking at our sites with bi and tri focals (I know I’m not far from those days either), subtle gradients of colour look awesome, but well can be hard to see.

Regardless of these criticisms, Dave’s points and suggestions are great (again, slides coming).

Derek Featherstone took accessibility head on-with Google Maps.  His examples of how our love of Web 2.0 stuff has left people who use screen readers, voice navigation, and keyboard only navigation, have been left behind.  Google Maps, for example, it takes six steps to get to a point using voice control just to zoom in once.  Derek used the Google Maps API to make something more accessible.  Zoom and pan are clickable objects (that can be tabbed to and seen as links by voice command programs).  Dialog boxes, now those are tricky.  Amazing.  Just amazing word and so important.

I didn’t stay long after the talks, but I did get a chance to chat with Lloyd Budd.  We live <2 blocks from each other, but we connect in town.

You’ve heard the old saying, I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out (maybe it’s only for Canadians), well last week I was at Web Community Forum and while the conference was about Facebook, the real fun was the community.

One of my pragmatic (or curmudgeonly) thoughts about Facebook is that it isn’t the be all and end all of social networking/media.  Sure it’s hot right now, but that can change in the glimmer of an electron.  However, what Facebook represents is the enormous sea change that it is a part of, technology that helps us connect with each other in new ways.

So while we were all chatting about FB, the good, bad, ugly, and goofy, we formed a community.  The conference was small enough to meet and chat with about everyone.  There were no pretenses about "experts".  Who can be an "expert" in Facebook yet?  I met awesome people, had great discussions, and added a bunch of people as Twitter followers and Facebook friends.

Perhaps, then, what the true outcome of Facebook is … we’re learning more about each other.

Here at Web Community Forum things are wrapping up.  I’ve been trying to keep up and cover all the sessions, but frankly, I’m getting tired.  So, yes, I wish I could write more pithy things about the last several sessions–especially since they were quite good–I just can’t.

Here’s the thing about Facebook and marketing, community, branding, etc–we’re still learning.

What we think is a good idea on Facebook today, might not be in a few months.  We all, even Facebook curmudgeons like me, have to be open and flexible to adapt to a changing world.

Like it or not, Facebook is here, it is huge, and you must have it on your radar.

Is it okay to try to poach and recruit, etc people via Facebook?  Jobster is the exclusive careers provider for FB.  I know that one of the most powerful part of social networks is the network part.  Of course I’ve found gigs through my network of friends online.

Ah the whole don’t let potential employers look at my profile bit … yeah well once you have the job and add your co-workers as friends.  Now, does this mean that FB should have a professional profile version?  Or should pros, as I have recently heard, have a "fan" page as a virtual FB resume.

I’m not really sure about it.  I don’t know if I want to take the time to do that.  It just replicates what I already have online.  I know when I was first joining blognation, Sam Googled me.  Well, yeah.  What’s this guy about, what is his writing style like,  is he completely nuts … okay the last point could be debated, but I’m not going to go there.

Hmm, should you troll groups for potential employees?  Now your participation in groups … that can certainly be good for your rep.

Wha?  Christian Anderson hadn’t taken the bus before yesterday?  Huh?  Jeez.  Too funny.  I love taking the subway/train in various cities.  Still have to do the Tube in London and Metro in Paris…on the list. But I digress.

Adding Twitter and blogs to your profile, well yes.  I think that is a good thing even if you’re not looking for a new gig.  It’s just another great way to help people learn about the things you’re writing about.

Christian is going to talk about the Jobster FB app now, hmm should I yell "spam!"  Naw, let’s see what the model is and how it grew into an app.  What was the process?  How did they did with privacy?

Now … you add the Jobster app, hmm that might backfire on ya. All your friends (and potentially boss) see that you’re looking.  Hmm, not good.  But … is that the issue with Jobster or FB.  I think the later.

Now, if I’m looking for talent, maybe I should add the app.  Let’s face it, your online life is open for checking.  It makes sense that people on Facebook (again, go where your community is) would also like to find job or people to hire.

Ah, the folks who have been on FB since college who have that history in their FB profile…will the humanity of it (party pics, etc) hurt someone or help change societal mores? Mores are hard to change.  Yeah lots of us have had wild times in our youth, isn’t it hypocritical for an employer to say, no that person can’t be hired because they partied in college?

Using the ability to mark some things private (like those party pics you regret)…good idea.  There is also education needed on both sides.  Where to draw the line of what to post or not, but also that employers have to understand some of the ethos of the technology and the social media/social networking idea of sharing with friends.  Still, you gotta use your judgement.

Can Facebook be used to foster and/or grow community?  So there are groups and fan pages…

Groups, imho, are pretty darn useless.  I have a hard time keeping up with them, in terms of remembering to be involved.  It doesn’t come into my consciousness or attention stream.  Now, fan pages … I’ve joined a few of those, and as Baratunde said these are kinda like tattoos (or for me laptop stickers) showing some kind of allegiance or support (a "tattoo group" now coined, nice).

Connie Bensen (of Victoria-based ACDsee - they make photo software) makes the excellent point that Facebook isn’t the be all and end all of community marketing–it has to be a part of an overall strategy. She’s a member of 60 some odd groups, eek I just looked and I’m a member of 77.  Have they done anything for me?  That’s the key question.

Care and feeding of groups is key.  They don’t just get created and live on, they do have to be fed and maintained.  I have a blognation Canada group … haven’t done really anything with it. Heck I even have a fan page.  Okay as much as I’m a curmudgeon, I also know that I can learn new tricks.  Community, the secret has always been, go where your users are.  Forums, e-mail, websites, blogs, MySpace, Plaxo Pulse, now it’s Facebook.  Like it or not, with 50 some odd million members, Facebook is a place to be.

You can have a character blog, but not a FB character group.

Ah networks and groups … See Victoria, BC doesn’t have regional setting for us.  I’m in the "Vancouver" region — but I’m not.  There is a group for getting FB to add Vancouver Island (I’d like Victoria, myself, but I’m biased ).

What do we want–RSS into groups, alphabetizing groups, better apps in groups, better inviting to fan pages, better display of groups.  Hmm, will dead groups get culled?  Well I guess that might be a good transition to fan pages.

Good session.  Good thing I can catch a break.

Since I don’t think FB is worth $15 billion okay $100 billion?  Okay prove it.  I’ve been asked to take good notes…dern where are the coffee refill faeries when I need them?

Lee Lorenzen of Altura Ventures Genesis … well he gave props to my curmudgeon panel … nice.  We really were the warm up band for this weren’t we?

Lee saw the potential of Facebook and decided to start using the tools to build connections.  Used groups to build connections.  Stalking folks to build connections.

Now let’s get to the meat of it.  Why is it worth $100 billion?

Sure, willing buyers and sellers determine a value.  Uh huh. Still…doesn’t a value really come down to revenue or it will collapse?  Come on let’s not forget, if FB users bolt (next shiny thing)…what is the value then?

With Web 1.0 apps, people needed to work and assume as if you’re the only site on the web.  You have to have users fill in all their information. Now Facebook apps don’t have this problem.  A lot of data is already there.  Lee is talking about the Birthday Calendar app (you know I was just thinking about adding that one…like wishing people a happy b-day)–it’s a good idea.  Leverage the data that FB already has on you, and make something great.  A birthday calendar is a good tool.  Now, I’d also like to see a conference calendar, but that also has the white page problem.

Ugh, half way through his time and just getting to the meat of it.  Crud, can I type that fast?  Teresa posted the Word doc that Lee is speaking from on the WCF blog.

Using the analogy of a farmer owning land with oil beneath it.  As a farm, not worth so much (oil seeps and such), but to an oil company…but the farmer can’t extract the oil himself (or could he?)

Google has tried to crush others (YouTube, Skype…) and has failed (gee I like Gtalk).  Google is just search?  Well, email too, but okay I’ll go with that.

Are the fact that email, groups, pictures, etc suck on Facebook strengths just because there they are on the social graph?  Hmm, they might suck, but they have data and users.  Hmm.

Pointless apps…part of dating and flirting ritual (yes, that is true, doesn’t take an anthro major to figure that out–but good thing I am one).

LinkedIn vs Facebook (or Plaxo) … yeah I’m on LinkedIn, but no I don’t go there often, nor do I find it useful.  Plaxo is useful, though.  What about the parents being on Facebook with their kids.  Yeah you know I have Facebook friends who are the kids of friends.  Honestly I don’t make any kind of habit to checking out their profiles (well they don’t play Scrabulous with me ).

What about the youth of the management team?  I think this is a valid critique.  Zuckerberg needs better mentoring (imho).  Even Lee had his FB account turned off for "accidental" spamming.  Now, what about being able to download your contacts?  Lee is in favour of it, so am I.  What about a connector to Outlook?  What about being able to sent FB e-mail via Outlook?  Okay maybe that’s a bad idea.  Or is it?

Okay … now, finally, the why:

Growing. Getting ad revenue.

Comparing Facebook to Windows … how/why Facebook can win (I suggest downloading the Word doc, btw).  There is some good thinking to this…

Is Facebook addictive–Facecrack/Crackbook?

"Facebook as addictive as porn"–Lee

Value is based on future, not current earnings…

Microsoft is valued at $310 (but they make real stuff) Google: $218 billion … well I might suggest that Google is over-valued, but I’m not an expert in finance.

The whole premise is based on continued user growth and advertising.  I’m still, still not convinced that Facebook can maintain its user base.  It’s still a house of card to me.  But, given the inertia that FB has right now, well some of those cards might be glued together…

Would adding web search do it?  Would that bring in a revenue stream.  Yeah I bet that Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are jockeying for that opportunity.  While MSFT is an investor, I think Google has better search … though wouldn’t it be interesting if MSFT won that battle and used that opportunity to really improve live search?

A FB Mall … online shopping.  Could be a great idea, tie into b-days and holidays.  That might be interesting.

Lee is being given the hook, well there is a lot that could be said, but it’s been an hour and my both my brain and fingers are tired.  Good thing I learned to touch type!

Watching the transition between your Facebook profile from your "college days" to your "professional" persona.

Facebook for political campaigns. While the presidential campaigns are getting attention, but what about local politics? Use your local connections to build a campaign.

Dos and don’ts …

Facebook as a central portal.  Hmm, I haven’t gone that far.  I have Twitter added, add my blog feeds…but centrality.  Pass.  I live in Outlook, FeedDemon, Firefox, and Twitter (Snitter).  Does this mean my attention is scattered?  Sure it is.  But it all means I can focus on one thing at a time.  I might ignore FB for most of the day.  Yeah I might fall behind on Scrabulous…

For me the disconnect between FB messages and "real" e-mail.  Yeah I get an email that I have a message, but I want to know what the message is!

Adjusting your news feed settings … heck I don’t really even follow them!  But I adjusted them now … let’s see if this makes a difference.  Probably not.

"Facebook is the largest news source" … yeah but it’s too closed.

Now the meat of the discussion–Where do you draw the line?  Frankly there is stuff that I don’t want you to know.  I don’t know if I’ll keep updating my relationship status anymore.  Do you really care?

Dave McClure makes a great point, people can (and I’d say should) pull things off your minifeed.  Living in the Facebook world, you’re living in opt-out.  Therefore all is in, unless you proactively say no.  I think, I have my stuff too open.  Shutting stuff down … yes, you do have to be concerned about identity theft.

The benefits of the limited profile…more people should use it.  How about you?  When do you use a limited profile?

People are more used to lifestyle transparency.  Dave McClure uses the example of the general acceptance of porn.  Okay, this is a very interesting sociological comment.  Another example, pot…smoked pot bad, smoked pot but not inhale okay, to smoked pot in college and that’s okay.  Is this more of a social commentary on the changing demographics and acceptance than technological changes.

I made the comment that you have to remember that Facebook is global and what is accepted in North America might not be elsewhere (and vice versa).

Perhaps, as Steve said, maybe you should err on the side of being more private.

Friending, I’m with Teresa, I don’t friend people, generally, who I don’t know.  Yeah we might be going to or went to the same conference, but if we haven’t communicated in some way.  I will friend people I haven’t met physically, because I have a lot of friends who I haven’t met in person, yet.

Don’t spam your FB friends with spam product offers.  Oh and this is good … Jeremiah had a FB friend dedicated a song to her group while he was on a business trip, and his wife was less than pleased.  Yeah, I bet.

Hmm, how to track bad stuff about you/your company on FB?  That’s a good question.  (Note to self, see if there is a FB group "Tris blogs too much").

Is this an easy thing to do?  Hmm.

It’s not in Facebook’s best interest for lots of people to opt out…yes so true.  They are, remember, in the business of pushing ads in your face.  Often and with stuff that they want you to buy.

For professionals have a personal profile and a professional page that you can suggest that people who you want to have a professional relationship with to become a fan.

What would it take for you to leave Facebook?  Hmm, for me, well Might not take much, but I have to say that I won’t leave until enough of my friends and colleagues go somewhere else.  That’s the $15 billion dollar question isn’t it?  Can Facebook be toppled?  I certainly think so.

This was a great talk.  Tad distracted listening, tweeting, etc. The interesting thing about apps is the viral growth.  Why do some apps succeed and others fail.  Rodney Rumford gave the example of a greeting card app that was wildly popular, then faded because they didn’t update for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Chanukah.

I’ll have to cogitate more on these points later …