August 13, 2012 archive

11 Hours Left To Claim Your App.Net Username…

App netYesterday, App.Net hit its funding goal of $500,000 USD and at the time I write this it has cruised over $745,000 with 11-ish hours left to go!

As I mentioned in my report into FIR podcast episode 660 back in July, App.Net is an interesting experiment into seeing if a real-time social communication platform can be created without advertising and instead through soliciting paid members.

One note... App.Net is NOT just another "Twitter clone". Here are two good perspectives on why App.Net is different:

In my report into today's FIR 664 episode, I spoke about what this successful funding means... and about the ecosystem of applications that is already developing around the App.Net alpha.

This is excellent to see... and definite congratulations are due to Dalton Caldwell and the whole crew!

IMPORTANT NOTE: App.Net may or may not take off wildly (obviously those of us backing it hope it does!)... but if it does and you would like to use the same username you use on Twitter, you only have until midnight US Pacific TONIGHT to back the project and claim your username. As Dalton Caldwell writes:

Please note that once the backing period is over, users will no longer be able to “claim” their Twitter usernames. From that moment forward usernames will be awarded on a first-come first-served basis. We implemented “claiming” as a fringe benefit for our backers, not as a go-forward plan. I want to make sure that latecomers are not surprised and disappointed to see that they can no longer get their preferred username.

If you'd like to claim your username, you can go to https://join.app.net/ and sign up as a backer... yes, it will cost you $50 for a year... and yes, the project may or may not turn out to go anywhere... so you have to make your own decision as to whether or not it's worth the investment.

For me, I gladly backed the project because I see it as potentially offering more competition into the space... and I was a huge fan of the original idea of Twitter as an API-centric social communications platform. I've been disappointed with the change in Twitter's focus, and I'd like to see where App.Net goes.

What do you think? Will you back App.Net? (Have you already?)


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Speaking About DNSSEC in Bogotá, Colombia, on Tuesday, August 14…

Logo for DNSSEC event in ColombiaTomorrow, Tuesday, August 14, 2012, I (Dan York) will be in Bogotá, Colombia, speaking about DNSSEC and offering ideas for network operators and registrars about how they can accelerate the deployment of DNSSEC based on some of what we’ve seen. This is part of a full day titled “Taller DNSSEC”  (“DNSSEC Workshop”) sponsored by .CO INTERNET and the Cámara Colombiana de Informática y Telecomunicaciones (C.C.I.T.) along with NIC Chile, LACNIC, ICANN, COLNODO and we here at the Internet Society.

More information and the full agenda for the day can be found on LACNIC’s page for the event.

As .CO was signed with DNSSEC back in March 2011, the foundation is certainly there for moving adoption forward within that ccTLD… and hopefully within other usage throughout the region.

Having never been to Colombia before, I’m looking forward to visiting and participating in this event. It will be interesting on a personal level as outside of my presentation and the one from ICANN everything else will be in Spanish… and my Spanish capability is not a whole lot more than “uno, dos, tres…”.   :-)      So I’m looking forward to learning a bit while I’m there.  If you are going to be at tomorrow’s event, please do stop by and say hello!

FIR #664 – 08/13/12 – For Immediate Release

John Earnhardt interview is up; quick news clips: FIR co-host blog posts lead to PRSA press release, check out The Crisis Show, HuffPostLive has launched, Connectify takes to Kickstarter to fund a new product, Google buys Frommers; Ragan promo; News That Fits: online influence scoring is easy to game, Dan York's report, Media Monitoring Minute from CustomScoop, Australia ruling sees all Facebook brand pages as advertising, listener comments, TemboSocial promo, Michael Netzley's report; music from Plastic Sky; and more.