Participatory Media: June 2006 Archives
Mog is a web-based social app for sharing musical tastes. Think Last.FM, MySpace, community blog, blah blah blah. Honestly, I don't like it at all. Why? Stupid name, Bad user interface, lackluster and unintuitive profiling, and really, not a robust or substantial enough concept.
After registering, the first thing a new user sees is a god-aweful group of blocks. Like the old New York Times, but poorly designed, with no reason behind the placement I could see. A good many of the blocks seemed like filler, and the entire concept hedges on the downloaded player. The attempt at transparent interfaces (hollar at you AJAX) is crap, not at all what it could be.
Registering was as far as I got. Is as far as I will ever go. The greatest thing about Mog, for my intents and purposes, is that the whole mess provides a bad example... A positive negative. WRNYC will not be like this. I promise.
John Battelle's article that spits on ex cable-player Leo Hindrey's statement has been making much deserved rounds today. Hindrey's drivel is full of holes that Battelle had no choice but to attack.
But, in all seriousness, content is only useful if it is both interesting and accessible. This is where the internet companies [yahoo, google...] come into play. More, Battelle brings up the issues of participatory media, community, and search.
It's only natural that a man who made it in cable throws the cable-tv paradigm on the web. Sorry, buddy - square peg, octogonal hole.
Wish there was something close to this at the UMD HCIL Conference...
