Think of it as a verbal time capsule of memories – ranging from testimonies of survivors of WWII POW camps to UK miners who recall the strikes of the 1980s, and hundreds of other equally momentous events. In design and layout, the site does indeed resemble Youtube and is thus very straightforward to use. Designed by etonDIGITAL, StoryVault has already been featured in online galleries such as CSS mania and continues to draw praise for its design.

As the database of videos grows, no doubt the site will start to resemble an extremely valuable resource for everyone from historians (both family and academic types) and those who are generally interested in the workings of memory and history. In this sense the site is doing a fantastic job of tying into current trends in fields of historiography and academia (as well as film-making) which are intensly debating concepts of individual memory and its relationships to history right now.

However, perhaps even more significant is that StoryVault offers users so much more than just this database of video content: like Youtube, it can be accessed without registering to be a member of the social network side of the site, but for those who do choose to quickly register (for free) then a whole new range of options opens up.

The most interesting of these is no doubt the family tree function which allows you to make detailed family trees online and share them with other users – and family members. In this way collaborative efforts to piece together expansive family trees can be initiated – with everyone adding details and info from wherever in the world they are.

So far i can see three very strong facilities that StoryVault provides, and consequently would be very surprised if it didn’t go onto to become quite a success once it emerges from the beta testing stage. Firstly, the general resource of good quality (and exclusive) content on a range of historical material should prove a draw for a wide variety of users.

Secondly the interactive family tree creation facility looks like it could enable people to do something many of us consider – but often struggle to get around to due to the time investment required – which is to piece together a comprehensive family tree. StoryVault not only makes this easy – but it also enables collaboration from multiple family members, potentially across different continents.

Finally, StoryVault looks like it offers a valuable repository for the filmed testimonies of family members that might otherwise get lost on outdated video formats, in house-moving chaos or lie in dusty shoeboxes for decades. I for one will be keen to utilise all three – well done so far to both the StoryVault and etonDIGITAL teams working hard on this great project!

Dejan Levi

While nobody could dispute the fantastic quality and innovation of Amazon’s services, some have pointed out that their branding and thus selling of them could be (even) better. The various services are mainly intended for use by business clients requiring flexible and reliable computing facilities, but preferring to go for the cost-effective option of using Amazon’s cloud to get them, rather than installing in-house infrastructure.

Ranging from simple storage facilities to massively powerful processing services, AWS is currently enjoying huge popularity, especially with fledgling web start-ups. However perhaps due to the technical functionality of the services themselves – or their dry and rather mechanical naming (EC2, SQS, SimpleDB etc), the branding of these quality products has so far been a bit of an unspectacular affair.

This is why the aforementioned NYT article comes as a nice surprise – an accessible yet informative introduction to AWS, and EC2 in particular, in a fairly mainstream publication. All in all it’s a positive sign that cloud computing is gradually permeating further into popular tech understandings rather than being the niche concept that it was a couple of years ago.

With Amazon’s EC2 service alone currently often peaking at 80,000 requests a second it seems that the writing is on the wall (cloud?) – cloud computing is absolutely indispensible to the modern web, and AWS is a huge player in defining and developing this area. The quicker we get such concepts explained and transmitted to a wider (i.e. not exclusively tech) audience, the better on the whole for our general web literacy as an online community.

Dejan Levi

That means that from next year onwards we’ll massively reduce electronic waste from such products and save customers a good deal of both money (replacing lost chargers isn’t that cheap) and space (drawers full of old chargers can now house something else…)

Personally i think most of us would agree that this move is long, long overdue – but nonethelss it’s as welcome now as it would’ve been a couple of years ago. In addition it’s another fairly positive bit of work (like the standardisation of roaming charges) from the EU on behalf of consumers and the environment. Though since we got the Blu-Ray vs HD DVD standardisation sorted in under a couple of years, we really should have got this done a bit sooner than the decade plus that it’s taken, but nevermind – better late than never…

Dejan Levi

Which is why I’m delighted to read some fascinating posts over at Techcrunch about a new way of modelling the true value of social networks. The new system is based on a key principle – that users in countries with higher average online advertising spend are worth more (financially speaking) to social netoworks. Therefore, in terms of monetising networks, a UK user (1st in average online ad spend) is worth more to a network than a US user (4th).

Techcrunch first used this method over a year ago – but user numbers and distributions have changed drastically since then, so they’ve now delivered an updated version which is far different from that of one year ago. The new estimates value the total social networking market at $27.1 billion, with Facebook representing around $10bn of that figure. Obviously networks which have lots of users in countries with relatively low advertising spends – Orkut for example – rank far lower under this new method of valuation.

There is a danger in dismissing huge players in the social network game (like the aforementioned Orkut) with this new ranking system – simply because of their relative weakness in terms of immediate monetisation potential. However looking over how much the results have changed over the past year shows just how temporary these standings in fact are. Moreover results from China – a major market for social networks – are currently not included in this version of the league table.

Minor shortcomings aside though, this work from techcrunch represents a real breakthrough in terms of our ways of understanding the real market values of social networks, and provides a more complex system of generating data that directly represents the revenue-generating processes of the networks. It might also lead to a slight change of tactic for up and coming social networks – moving away from an ‘as many users as possible’ goal, and more to targeting already saturated markets (like the UK) knowing that even a handful of users here is worth more in a financial sense than a hundred elsewhere.

All in all though – fantastic work at Techcrunch, and good news for social networks all round in that the sector (and the ‘pie’ as it were) seems to be expanding each and every day.

Dejan Levi

No doubt the high-profile Pirate Bay trial has raised public awareness on the topic within Sweden and also worked to help mobilise young people to vote on an issue they cared about, where possibly they might simply have not bothered (the 18-25 demographic is hardly notorious for massive turnouts at elections).

Anyway there are basically two things that make the result an especially interesting one for me:

1. Firstly, I am impressed that an issue such as this can be discussed and debated to this extent in mainstream Swedish politics – it says a lot about the high level of web and computer literacy and awareness among the general population.

After all, the party took around 7% of the popular vote – quite amazing considering that in the UK (and elsewhere) you might struggle to find that many people who even care about the issue to any extent – though yes, there are more important things to discuss at election time – i’m not suggesting we should forget the economy to discuss torrents, just that it doesn’t hurt to also be clued up on web matters as well ;)

2. Secondly, I am relieved that there are at least some countries in the EU where a protest vote has not necessarily equated to a surge in support for extreme right-wing groups. Unlike the depressing success of the BNP here in the UK, Sweden’s shock result was the Pirate’s success in winning a seat. Nonetheless it is scant consolation for the fact that the BNP’s MEPS Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons are now receiving £80,000+ a year salaries and more than double that in office running costs from EU taxpayers…

Ah well, i’m getting sidetracked – let’s finish with a good luck wish to the Pirate Party in Sweden: whatever your stance, it’s hard to argue that rising levels of web awareness (a sure-fire consequence of the Swedish result) is a bad thing. Well done mateys!

Dejan Levi

The idea is that with content on demand currently revolutionising how we watch video content as entertainment on our computers – there is great potential to extend this too to the screens in our living rooms. Sounds like good sense to me…

Youtube XL features a far more de-cluttered interface than the version we are used to – with no user comments and no other recommended videos boxes for a start, which certainly helps to make it far more easily operable from one’s sofa with a tv remote.

However one key issue remains for me and that is pertaining to the quality of content available on Youtube XL. For now the selection of content is identical to that of Youtube standard – which leads me to wonder just how awful some of the shakiest mobile phone-recorded footage will look once it gets shown on the bigger screens Youtube XL caters for.

Having said that though, from inital tests I have been pleasantly surprised to find not as much of a drop-off in quality with displaying low-res stuff on a big screen as I generally expected. A lot of the mid-quality stuff out there actually holds up not too badly when stretched to fit bigger formats – though of course some of the previously dodgy (in terms of video quality) handheld clips are now quite unwatchable.

All in all though a fascinating development, and one that even at this early stage is seemingly leaving users very, very satisfied… good work Google :)

Dejan Levi

In addition what’s proving very interesting to observe, as the CrunchPad nears an actual finalised version and its subsequent market launch date, is just how effective the product’s relationship to the Techcrunch blog is proving.

Certainly I can’t remember such a high level of interest and anticipation for a similar device while in development for quite some time. Maybe the iPhone or Amazon Kindle – but they were obviously far more complex and groundbreaking products (no offence to the CrunchPad – I’m sure even Michael Arrington would agree).

In short the product is looking very interesting – and the job of drumming up market awareness of it at such an early stage is being handled superbly by the cross-brand potential of the Techcrunch/CrunchPad connection. I personally am looking forward to further developments…

Dejan Levi

(N.B. For a full backstory on the game’s history – and Russian designer Alexey Pajitnov – see Guardian tech)

What for me is especially interesting though about Tetris’s continued significance and relevance is that it is probably the first (and arguably only) computer game to transcend so fully the specifics of its form. By that I mean it is not thought of solely as a computer gaming classic – but as a general classic game, much like far older games like chess or checkers.

Now, I know that to compare a game like chess which has survived 1400 years throughout human civilisation with Tetris’s paltry 25 might seem far-fetched – but not, I think, when one considers how quickly innovation happens these days with regard to entertainment/games, and the sheer degree of variation and choice currently out there.

So basically that’s why i’m proposing a virtual web toast to Tetris (not a sentence I get to use that often…) Just as we no longer classify chess as being solely a ‘board game’ but instead understand that it has somehow become something bigger and more significant to us than that – so too Tetris is slowly but surely on its way to similar status. Happy Birthday Tetris – wishing you many more to come!

Dejan Levi

Well, we’re doing the same right here, right now – and we’re not even apologising for it ;) – the reason being that a recent Twitter development is rapidly becoming quite an exciting prospect, even for the Twitter-sceptics among us.

The reason for all this is Twitdoc – quite simply a tool which turns Twitter into a massively useful and quick file-sharing platform. Not actually developed by Twitter but instead one of many independent third-party projects springing up to tap into the potential of web 2.0’s currently favourite darling, Twitdoc is a service which lets you share files using your twitter account. It is not the only one, but is at the moment probably the best – allowing for a number of different file formats (including pdfs, word docs) with plans to add more in the future.

The whole process takes about 10 seconds to share a file – and you don’t even need to sign up to Twitdoc to get started. Simply visit http://www.twitdoc.com, enter your twitter account details, locate the file you’d like to share, attach any accompanying text, and hey presto! job done.

So basically even if the prospect of reading hourly updates about this or that celebrity’s latest thoughts on Louis Vitton toilet paper or the pros and cons of selling wedding photo rights to either Heat or Hello magazine doesn’t turn you on, then twitter could still win you over with the prospect of an effortless, secure and efficient file-sharing service. No doubt Twitdoc and its rivals will improve in coming weeks with added file formats and new features, but even now there is enough there to convince even the most hardened anti-tweety…

Dejan Levi

After all it may be obvious that in terms of actual revenue most of Apple’s turnover comes from hardware, with relatively tiny sums being derived from softeware such as iPhone apps or Mac OS X. But this is to miss the intrinsic dependency that one has on the other. Quite obviously, if there were no iPhone app store then iPhone sales would be only a fraction of what they are now, meaning that separating profits into software vs hardware categories is slightly futile.

Yes, on paper Apple makes most of its money ‘at the checkout stage’ from hardware – but it can only do so because it is developing software to ensure the successful market position of products such as the iPhone or iPod. To look at a similar business concept think of your local supermarket – most of the profits come from products such as fruit and veg (which have a huge percentage mark-up), while items such as big brand alcoholic drinks are often deployed as loss-leaders (i.e. sometimes making no profit at all, or even a slight loss). It is the latter however that often work to bring customers through the doors, at which point they then also decide to spend some cash on the less value-for-money stuff like fruit and veg.

To suggest however that such companies would do even better in the future if they simply concentrated on fruit and veg (because that’s where the profit is) is clearly ludicrous. Most people understand that such a business model is dependent upon multiple products and services performing different jobs and the clever balancing of such (cheap beers get people in, carrots and apples make you some cash).

Likewise Apple’s huge success is derived from its continued commitment to producing very profitable hardware, as well as the essential software that demonstrates the potential and quality of the former – with the iPhone and the related app. store being a perfect case in point. Whatsmore the folks over at Apple are far too clever to mess with this balance just because they make 100 times more dough from a laptop than from a software app…

Dejan Levi