Month: June 2008

Virtual presence with Twitter

Twitter is many things to many people.  It’s a lot of things to me too (status updates, communication channel, notes application, self-reminders, etc). But for the last couple of days I am having a new experience with it – virtual presence.

Last year I attended Greek Blogger Camp.  It was a lot of fun.  This year however I didn’t manage to get in due to some work obligations.  However those guys who are there, they twit a lot (particularly Stefanos himself).  That sort of brings me there without any travelling.

Yes, I miss a lot, I know.  But getting SMS updates with pointers to what is going over there helps quite a bit.  And not only I get a part of the atmosphere, but also some helpful tips from the presentations that are going on.  Then, with Google in my hands, I can dive deeper into the subject, and even somewhat participate in the discussion there by twitting my questions and getting answers.

This digital world sure is amazing!

Eff.org needs more PR

I’ve recently made a donation to Eff.org and also bought some stickers from them.  Since I put the sticker on my laptop, I am getting this question all the time: “What is eff.org?“.  I even get this question from people who I thought were very familiar with EFF’s work. Well, here is an answer to that question from the eff.org web site:

EFF is the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world.

EFF stands for Electronic Frontier Foundation.  In a nutshell, they are the good guys.  They’ve done a lot of good over the last few years, and they are still at work.  Check their web site for what they have done, and see if you can help in any way.

And if you want a sticker, I have a few to pass around.

How much for WordPress?

The other day Bloggin Pro posted a question “Would You Pay for WordPress and How Much?“.  Of course, I’ve already mentioned that I have no problem paying for WordPress.  How much?  Well, I think that around $50 per installation is a fair price.  But that is not for me to decide.

I thing I keep thinking about though.  A big part of what WordPress is, is it’s freedom. Anyone can get it. Anyone can use it for whatever they want.  Anyone can modify it.  And a lot of people do.  If WordPress will ever become commercial software, it will greatly decrease the amount of people who use it, test it, and develop for it.  And with that, the value of WordPress will stop growing as it is now.  Once the value of it will stop growing as it is now, a lot of people will reconsider their answer to the question “Are you prepared to pay for WordPress?”.

Gladly, Matt and the rest of the Automattic gang seem to clearly understand that.