"Yet what the media has failed to grasp is what 4chan can tell us about where we're headed. The Chans aren't the freak sideshow of the Internet. They are the heart and soul of the Internet. And they are the ones furthest ahead of the pack, leading us."

Wired article that sumarises the movement towards decentralising Twitter-like microblogging services.

The difference between how commercial companies think and how the Internet works is something I've been observing for a while recently. It's most obvious with Twitter, Facebook and other centralised services that mimic the distributed architecture of the web but I think it's as much a state of mind as a technical solution. Here Anil Dash delves into the mire using Google Wave as an example. [<a href="http://dashes.com/anil/2009/08/the-web-on-the-web-way.html">Follow-up post</a>]

Matt Haughey on the 10th aniversary of Metafilter, the first community weblog (I think). Someone needs to write the book on Metafilter - if they have do let me know - since it's a wonderful case study on how online communities work.

Long article by Anil Dash on the emergence of a protocol for, in laymans terms, a decentralised Twitter / Facebook system, which is essential as the centralised model is not sustainable and runs counter to how the Internet works. I'm cautiously optimistic about this and if you think it's above your head would recommend you scroll down to the "What should we worry about?" section, specifically the shift in user understanding and competition from the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Michael Grimes touches on an issue I've been thinking about for a while now. There's much more to think about here but it's a good starting point.

New Zealand is about to take a huge step backwards by trying to police Internet usage in a fundamentally flawed and stupid manner. Doubly tragic as NZ has a lot of catching up to do compared to other countries in the region such as, ooh, Korea. <a href="http://creativefreedom.org.nz/">More info here</a>.

Matt Haughey, who created MetaFilter back in the day, has a moan about how things ain't like they were. I love this sort of stuff.

The notion of "fake following" of people on social networks, where you have a connection with them but don't read their updates, has generated a fair bit of buzz. I think this is a very good idea. After all, we all have people we love but don't want to hear about their stupid hobby all the bloody time. The sort of filtering should be mandatory on all networks with a following system.

Roundup of the history and current state of play in the URL shortening industry (tinyurl, et al) which introduces us to <a href="http://bit.ly/">bit.ly</a> which works in a more internet-native way using "distributed index and multiple servers" to deal with scalability issues.

This is interesting, I think. A lot of noise occurred when Stevens was one of the first web cartoonists to get a newspaper deal on his own terms. Now he's quitting papers and sticking to his online business. You can't necessarily translate his experience to others as he has his own thing going on, but...

"Give a man (or a woman) an anonymous account, and he'll eviscerate your self-esteem."

This topic has cropped up a bit recently as those of us who are subsumed in social media realise our memories aren't as good as they used to be. Or maybe we're just getting old?

"I pledge to get Firefox 3 during Download Day to set the Guinness World Record for Most Software Downloaded in 24 Hours." (Though I won't install it for a few weeks until all my plugins are updated)

Handy post from Caitlin Fitzsimmons rounding up the issues surrounding dealing with anonymous misogyny online.

"Employers were still getting to grips with sectors such as digital media, which are very different to the traditional manufacturing which once dominated the region, an inquiry heard."

A gem found on the BBC iPlayer from their Parliament channel. 40 mins of Fry on what public service broadcasting is worth in the digital age.

A very blunt keynote to journalists looking for a lifeline.

Bradshaw and Geary pushing the agenda forward.

Martin Belam reports on an event in London that, in places, would have had me tearing my hair out, if I had any.

Andrew Dubber introduces Liquid Crunch, his new online music shop where you can "return" the mp3 if you don't like it for a full refund.

John383 talks us through the new Broad Street website which has a lot of really cool features on it that you wouldn't normally expect for a Business Improvement District site.

Interesting looking service out of Coventry that aparently has 500,000 users

Jon Bounds has started at wiki for Birmingham with some rather neat mapping involved. Like Wikipedia only different. And about Brum. Get adding stuff.

New online store for Bunny Bissoux

Stef Lewandowski blows a few trumpets.

"So you’ve decided to ‘go online’. How do you manage such a process?" Dubber outlines the steps, which start with a piece of paper.

John 383 walks through what they did

Where Ana Milgram is on the internets

"One Black Bear is a web design and development agency based in Birmingham UK."

covering the whole spectrum of his work. Compliments his blog well.

Andy Substrakt on a site they've built for MADE aiming "to represent young people’s views and voices on architecture and the projects they have engaged in."

D'log digs up some websites that "might be useful for artists starting to think about the possible public art benefits in the city centre"

Marc Reeves gives a taste of the new Post website.

A new-ish team of software developers based in Birmingham. Look kinda funky.

for the First Light Movies website. "The Oscars of the Internet" so well done all!

James Hunt interviews little old me.

I'm posting this because I think it's cool but also because it could be dead useful for getting to obscure venues in darkest Digbeth. And I think it's cool.

A new website for the central Brum Business Improvement District, built by 383. BiNS has commentary.