Factual, a new open data project founded by Gilad Elbaz, just launched its public beta today. Elbaz's last company, Applied Semantics, wasacquiredby Google in 2003 and became one of the core component of the search giant's AdSense contextual advertising product. Factual, which is mostly geared towards developers, is somewhat similar to Freebase, though Factual allows for a more free-form approach to building a database than Freebase. Factual provides users and developers with tools to create, contribute and mash up open data on any subject. SponsorFactual also announced that Esther Dysonhas joined the company's board of advisors.For now, Factual obviously only offers a relatively small repository of databases, though the company's current focus is on getting more developers to to use its service and on bringing as much data as possible into the system. Getting Data into Factual.To enter data, users could obviously tediously enter the data field by field, or upload spreadsheets in most of the standard formats. The service also provides a number of easier ways to import data. You can, for example, give Factual a URL of any website or Wikipedia page that includes tables and the service will automatically create a new table based on this data. We tried this with tables from a number of sites and it generally worked well and only required a few edits. For advanced users, Factual also includes a number of more advanced advanced extraction tools. Once the data is available on Factual, developers can obviously use the API to read, write and mash this data up in any form they like. Users can also edit tables directly on the site or through an embedded table. In addition, users can mash up and combine existing tables.Currently, Factual only offers one relatively basic embeddable widget that can only display the table without any graphical embellishments. The company plans to rely on developers to create other ways to access and display the data available on the service.Not a WikiWhile Factual allows any user to make changes to the database, Factual's model is slightly different from the standard wiki approach where only the last edit is generally visible to the public. Changes made to a fact in a Factual database are more like votes for a certain entry. If three users or data sources say a restaurant doesn't offer vegetarian food, for example, and one users says it does, then the table will display the fact that the majority of users entered. Factual, however, will also display a question mark next to this disputed entry. Users can click on this question mark to see all the editors and data sources. Factual will obviously try to weed out spam here as well, though given how new the service is, it's hard to evaluate how effective Factual's spam filters are.LicenseUsers who enter data into a Factual database do not automatically give up their copyright - though given that Factual focuses on facts, which typically can't be copyrighted anyway, this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Users can, however, choose an open license for their work, which might be necessary of the table they used to seed their database was licensed under a Creative Commons license, for example. Factual's FAQ explainsthis issue in greater detail. Would You Use an Open Data Service?With regards to the question why businesses would open up their data, Gilad Elbaz told us yesterday that he believes open data could eventually go the way of open source, which also had a hard time to get acceptance among businesses. While open source software is a tool that a lot of companies now user, data is usually what is at the heart of a company's products and it remains to be seen how many companies would really want to put their data into an open database. For now, we mostly expect non-profits and government organizations to make use of this service.Discuss

  Vodafoneis launching a cloud-based service designed for business people and consumers who are looking for a way to back up the data on their desktops, laptops and netbooks. The move is significant as Vodafone is making another move move beyond the mobile market and is using cloud-based services to get there.Vodafone's service is built upon Decho's Mozy platform,the popular backup service, which consistently receives ringing endorsements. Mozy has been on a tear as of late, closing deals withChina Telecommand McAfee.SponsorVodafone will initially offer the service to its European customers. But considering that Vofafone does own 45 percent of Verizon, it would make sense that the service could roll out to the US market. The company has a presence in 70 countries.The service is designed primarily for small businesses though it is being used currently by large companies like General Electric, said Charles Fitzgerald, VP of Product Management for Decho."We have two offerings today, one aimed at consumers (MozyHome) and one aimed at small businesses (MozyPro)," Fitzegeral said. "The business customers for Mozy today range from mom and pop shops to multinationals like GE, but the sweet spot is definitely small business."Businesses will have administrative control capabilities in order to manage multiple users. With the service, Vodafone is finding its way into the lucrative market that is coming with the massive wave of media that people are producing and storing on their computers. Netbooks have grown tremendously in popularity but have limited storage capability. People are connected to any number of devices. They face threats from malware and viruses. Vodafone is banking that combination of factors will give it an edge with the business customer who is looking for a one-stop shop to access, organize, protect and share their media.The announcement comes on the heels 1 million Sidekick customers losing their personal data. Fitzgerald says the Mozy service allows customers with one more backup.The Sidekick fiasco underscores how critical backup is and the importance of protecting your own data," Fittzgerald said "Vodafone PC backup (and any online backup) gives user another, redundant way to protect their data. Unlike the SideKick model, where there is only one copy of the data, there is redundancy across the primary PC and the online service and we encourage customers to also have a local backup."Discuss

  A new offshootof Social Media Club, the Social Media Club Education Connection (SMCEDU) is a Chris Heuer-led organization intended to promote social media in higher education curricula.At a kickoff eventtonight in Richmond, Virginia, I got to participate in a panel discussion and hear questions from an audience of college students and professors. One of the questions posed was how those in academia can best put the social web to work for themselves. Far beyond Facebook and LinkedIn, how can this community harness the Internet to be smarter, more efficient, and more productive? Read on for our top five ideas.Sponsor1) Use Twitter to find your network.In almost any field of study, from sociology to physics to arts to media, educators and students can find a group of experts on Twitter, engaging in debate, posting relevant links, sharing their most recent work, and answering questions. With its asymmetrical follower model, this network allows you to keep up with leaders and organizations in your industry of choice without their having to follow you in return. There are lots of tools for finding topic-specific experts on Twitter. WeFollowand Mr. Tweetare two popular applications, and Twitter app store onefortycan provide even more resources for discovering an existing network and staying up to date.2) Use feeds to stay informed about news, events, and conversations.Once you've found your network, you may notice that a lot of these individuals and groups maintain blogs. Do a Google search, and focus on finding blogs that speak specifically to your field of interest. For every niche, no matter how obscure, someone out there is curating content. There are wind turbine blogs, turtle breeding blogs, biomedical engineering blogs, economics blogs - you get the gist. Staying updated in your field is as simple as spending 20 minutes a day online once you know how to use feeds.For those users with a good grasp of RSS, feed readers such as Google Reader can bring clarity, organization, and efficiency to the formerly painful process of staying informed. But even if you don't know RSS from a hole in the ground, there are sites that will allow you to simply put together lists of websites to track, or even bring you news feeds just based on a particular topic. We recommend checking out Lazyfeedand Guzzle.itfor getting news by keyword or topic, and for the visually oriented, we also suggest these two dead-simple visual feed readers.3) Build your website.If there's one thing students in particular need to worry about, it's Google. Social accounts are fine and dandy to have, but prospective employers are searching for candidates by name when making interviewing and hiring decisions, as was made abundantly clear by a professional recruiter on tonight's panel. Right now, Facebook might have a search engine monopoly on your name; unless that account is the best representation of you, a FirstNameLastName.com website might be a good idea. Here's our listof four what-you-see-is-what-you-get website builders that don't require much or any coding knowledge. You can also use some of the blogging resources mentioned in the next section. Once your site is up, link back to it from all your social profiles to help boost your site's place in search results.4) Create content.Now that you know your network and its key players, you're staying informed in your field, and you've got a decent start in representing yourself online, it's time to start giving back. Whether you've got expertise to share or simply more questions to ask, you should be creating content. Tweeting is a great and engaging place to start; many professional and mentoring relationships have begun with a simple @reply. But you also need to blog, create videos, and/or post images or audio to your website.Not only is this good for SEO, which will help when the aforementioned recruiters start Googling you; it's also essential for deeper participation in the conversation happening all around you online. If visual arts are your thing, for example, a Flickr account is a must, and it's probably a good idea to post any images you create on a separate blog, as well. Ideally, your content should tie in with your FirstNameLastName.com website. Depending on the type of content you choose to create, you might want to look at WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, or Posterous. Post content regularly, and check out this Slate postwith tips from some of the most famous bloggers online.5) Be an early adopterand refine your digital toolkit.Finally, once you're comfortably participating in the conversation and you're part of a very real community of experts, educators, and students in your field of interest, realize that your journey toward technological proficiency has just begun. The Internet is in a constant state of flux, and learning how to leverage the social web for academic benefit is an ongoing exercise. There are many resources for finding new weapons to add to your digital arsenal; we're sure lots of helpful pointers will come from others in your community. But also, keep an eye on the techies, who are always testing and recommending new products and apps.Check sites such as ReadWriteStart, AppUseful, and onefortyevery now and then to see if there's a better mousetrap than the ones you might currently be using. Stay open-minded and flexible; be willing to try anything three times.The social web means so much more to academia than finding out which students were really sick on exam day and which just went to a kegger the night before. It also means a lot more than a static resume and a stagnant list of useless "connections." Social web apps, when used intelligently, can make us all as brilliant and resourceful as the brightest stars in our networks, fostering real-world value and reinforcing learning.Discuss

  Yahoo! Meme, a rich-media microblog that originally started as a Portuguese-only web app and has since expanded to Spanish and English language versions, is often mistakenly called a Twitter clone.However, in stark contrast to the 140-character wunder-app, Meme has proven in the months since its release to be a much better platform for multimedia sharing and cross-platform content curation. Now, the Tumblr/Twitter/Posterous hybrid is offering an APIbuilt on top of YQL, Yahoo!'s query language that we coveredback in May, when we were impressed with its power, versatility, and uniqueness. The Yahoo! team has already used the API to develop a version of Meme for smartphones.SponsorAccording to the Yahoo! Developer Network post announcing the release, "Developers can use this open API to create new applications based on Meme as well as easily create mashups with other products through YQL."As an example of what YQL allows developers to do, Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brooks told us in May, "YQL... allows you to build tables of data from other sources online, using Javascript as a programming language and run it on Yahoo!'s servers, so the infrastructure needs are very small." Also from our May coverage:According to Yahoo! Chief Technologist Sam Pullara, the idea behind YQL (launched in October 2008) was to create an agnostic query language similar to SQL, a language familiar to most developers, and let developers use that language to use the Internet as a huge database. "If you make it universally and simply accessible so every application developer doesn't have to learn every API, it's be easier for developers to create apps from the data users have taken so much time to make available on the Internet."Although YQL looks a lot like SQL, it treats the info on the web as a virtual table that developers can manipulate in a standardized way, regardless of the API that data came from. Developers only had to know how to use YQL to quickly create simple mashups.Interested developers can check out the Meme documentation. The API, the site says, "is intended for developers who are familiar with RESTful Web services." In addition to offering superior support for multimedia content and simple access through YQL, Meme also has an excellent built-in repost function, an asymmetrical friendship model, and OAuth compliance.Discuss

  Firefox users can now add and customize keyboard navigation to Facebookwith just a few clicks using a new plug-in added to Userscripts.org this afternoon. Want the ability to jump to your friends' photos, your groups, or any other page on Facebook with a single keystroke? This simple script is really handy and is already helping me access parts of Facebook that have always been a few too many mouse-clicks away for them to show up regularly in my visits to the site.Called simply Facebook Keyboard Navigation, the tool requires the Firefox plug-in Greasemonkey- a powerful browser customization tool you can learn to make even more advanced use of in 5 minutes.SponsorAfter you install Greasemonkey, installing Keyboard Navigationtakes two mouse clicks. Now you can jump around Facebook in Firefox by simply pressing some keys, like:B - Go to list of birthdaysC - Go to photosD - Find friendsE - Go to your list of events There are 15 keystroke shortcuts out of the box, but by going through your Firefox menus Toolkits, Greasemonkey, manage scripts then select that script and hit edit - then you can make some additional customization. It's a remarkably simple script, just look at the format in the file and either change or add to it in the same way. I assigned the letter "R" to jump to my Facebook list of "real friends" by grabbing the part of that list's URL that follows facebook.com, pasting it into the edited script and saving. I then had to reload Facebook but sure enough, it works great.Once you've done that, try the Facebook Fixerscript. These are all remarkably easy to use and they make life so much better!Discuss

  Some of the most viral experiences on the internet are also self-referential. Users spend hours on sites like StumbleUponand Reduxsimply to build up their profiles and re-establish their status as coolhunters. While these sites exist as social tools for external exploration and discovery, Youtegooffers a quiet approach to self-discovery. SponsorIn the past ReadWriteWeb covered Lunch.com- a friend-matching community service powered by a similarity network engine. While Lunch prompts users to answer specific movie, book and food-related questions, Youtego encourages users to upload photos that best represent them from Flickr, Picasaand their hard drives. Users add information about their job and work history, knowledge base, capabilities and loves. A complete user profile encompasses a series of images and meta data and friend recommendations are determined by similar tags, images and common concepts. While the approaches are slightly different, Lunch and Youtego share a common goal in establishing better relationships by reconnecting with our wants and needs. And if you believe in self-actualization as the final stage in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, then perhaps Youtego's self-visualizations are a map to achieving our highest potential. The first 500 ReadWriteWeb readers to visit youtego.com/reg/readwritewebreceive early access to this closed-beta site. Check it out and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Discuss

  

  At this point, most programmers have already heard about StackOverflow. First started last year by celebrity coders Joel Spolskyand Jeff Atwood, coding Q&A site StackOverflowcrowdsources programming solutions for all to see. The site is popular for its Digg-like voting interface, clean design and, of course, its useful information. The duo has since begun licensing the software behind StackOverflow to provide companies with customizable Q&A forums on a number of topics. SponsorWhen ReadWriteWeb last covered StackOverflow in January, the company was planning to produce a spin-off site for IT professionals. The group has since launched StackExchange: a white-label service that allows users to create Q&A forums on topics of their choice. Some of the existing StackExchange sites include SharePoint Overflow, Math Overflowand Epic Advicefor World of Warcraft players. Because the company allows users to rebrand the tool, override style sheets and insert HTML, forum owners can insert advertisements and generate their own revenue. StackExchange then takes care of your site infrastructure and hosting. For small communities with 1 million monthly viewers or less, the service is available for $129 per month. For those with higher-traffic sites, the service costs between $1000 and $2500 per month. Last month Wikia CEO Gil Penchina spoke to ReadWriteWeb about the revenue potential of enthusiast sites. If you already have a dedicated niche community, StackExchange may be a good add-on solution for you. While there are only a few gaming, parenting and language-specific white-label communities, there's plenty of room for fan site expansions. Can someone say Vulcan trivia site? To check out StackExchange, visit stackexchange.com. Discuss

  We sure are hearing the chickens running around in a panic about the dangers of cloud computing following the massive data loss involving T-Mobile Sidekick customers. And as usual, the cacophonysounds more like a bunch of pundits ruminating about the great dangers that may be ahead instead of the reality at hand.The problem is, most of them are making zero distinction about what constitutes a cloud computing service. The Sidekick disaster was not the result of a cloud disaster. It was a centralized data center that had poor oversight.SponsorDevCentral clears things up with its distinction between cloud services and applications:A "cloud service" is used by IT, by developers, by the technical community at large. What consumers access is an application, and nothing more. They aren't the user of the cloud service, they are the consumer of an application deployed in a cloud environment. Google Docs is an application. Gmail is an application. Twitter is an application. None of these are "cloud" services, even when using APIs designed to integrate them with other applications; they are still, always and forever, applications. We do not question the severity of what happened to Sidekick customers. It looks like about 1 million people are affected. They lost it all. Pictures, calendars and a whole host of information.These customers had no choice about what happened. They relied on T-Mobile. And T-Mobile relied on Microsoft/Danger for storing the data. This was not a cloud catastrophe. Developments continue to unfold: Hitachi Datasystems is now being fingered as the source of the problem.But since we are on the topic, there are some basic lessons to learn in working with a cloud service provider. This is not a complete list. Feel free to add your own pieces of advice.Lesson #1If you are storing your data in the cloud for your customers to access, you'd better know if the company you have hired is actually the one managing your data. If your vendor is outsourcing your data to another provider, it could be a recipe for trouble.Lesson #2Know who you are working with and make sure there will be no surprises. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers that don't keep customers posted about changes or upgrades can be real trouble-makers. All kinds of mix-ups can occur. A SaaS vendor recently pulled this one on its users. Customers had no idea about the upgrade. They had no control.Lesson #3Make sure your provider has safety valves in place. How is the data backed up? Let's say, again, that the SaaS provider does an upgrade, but there's a nasty bug fouling things up. If the cloud configuration has a safety valve in place, then the customer can mitigate the issue pretty easily.Lesson #4Don't use just one cloud service provider. Security experts make the point that you don't put all your eggs in one basket. Look at multiple cloud service providers so that if there are issues, damage is limited.Perhaps, overall, the greatest lesson out of the Sidekick disaster has nothing to do with the cloud at all but more about the applications that people use in the enterprise. Facebook? Twitter? Those are applications that may be more troublesome than cloud computing services because of their vulnerability to attack and lack of control over the data.Discuss

  On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her weekly video podcastto attack Googleand the Google Book Settlement. According to Merkel, the Google Book Settlementdisregards international copyright laws. Merkel, who mostly focuses on the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fairin her rather anemic video, also stressed that Germany will do its best to protect German authors against what the government considers to be blatant copyright infringement. Both Germany and France filed complaintsagainst the Google Book settlement last month.Sponsor"The Internet Should Not Be Exempt From Copyright Laws"According to Merkel, the German government wants to protect its authors. Google, according to Merkel, is "just scanning books without any regard to copyright law," and "the Internet should not be exempt from copyright laws," she also adds.In this context, it is important to note that Germany has always been extremely protective of books as a cultural product. Book retailers, for example, have to sell all new books at a set priceand can only discount older or damaged books under a limited set of circumstances. It's currently not clear if these price-fixing rules also apply to eBooks."eBooks Won't Replace Traditional Books"Merkel also stressed that she doesn't believe that eBooks will ever replace traditional books  - though she does mention that 'new' technologies like audio books have changed the book market over the last few years.Google Books and the Google Book Settlement have obviously been mired in controversy from the beginning. Just last week, Google's Sergey Brin defended the project in an op-ed piecein the New York Times. The Google Book Settlement is currently on hold, and Google has until November to present a revised version of its plan.Discuss

  We're in the final days leading up to the ReadWrite Real-Time Web Summit. People are coming from around the world to Mountain View, California this Thursday to talk about building and leveraging the diverse set of technologies referred-to as the real-time web.You should join us! If you can't, though, please plan on checking out selected sessions throughout the day live video broadcast here on ReadWriteWeb, thanks to Justin.tv. If you can make it though, you should. Check out this incredible list below of people registered so far; these are people working on the real-time web and this week is your chance to put your head together with theirs.You should register right now, because ticket prices are going to go up substantially on the day of the event.SponsorExtra Big Thanks Our Event Sponsors; Check Them Out!The Latest List of Participants Baratunde Thurston, The Onion // Science Channel // Myself @baratundeBeth Kanter, nonprofit consultantJason Shellen, CEO, Thing LabsBlog, @thinglabsMichael Lee, CEO, Thoora, #Srinivasan Venkatachary, Software Engineer, Google Inc #Mathew Honan, Contributing Editor, Wired magazine, Blog, @matDaniel Freeman, Director of Product Marketing, Atlassian[[http://danschmidt.soup.io|Daniel, Schmidt], Senior Product Manager, CNET News, CBS Interactive @danielfschmidtDaniela Barbosa, Dow Jones/Dataportability Project, @danielabarbosaNathaniel Cohen Director of Product and Strategy kgb_web@nathanielcohenTikva Morowati, Director of CommunityExperience, kgb_webDavid Levitt Senior Software Engineer Evectors@dlevityChristina Allen, Executive Director Platform Product Management, Linden Labs[[http://www.twitter.com/allenleechris|@allenleechris]Heidi Nobantu Saul, Documentation Expert @nobantuJohn Bergmans Principal Engineer Bergmans Mechatronics LLC, @jbergmansKristie Wells, President and Founder, Social Media Club, @kristiewellsDavid Price Co-Founder, CEO, Black Tonic, Blog, @blacktonicappPhilippe Blanc Co-Founder, CEO, Black Tonic, Blog, @blacktonicappSteve Woodward, CEO, Nozzl Media Inc.nozzlsteveChase Reeves Dir. Marketing, Iterasi, Blog, @chase_reevesTom Quiggle, Principal Architect, Yahoo! Inc.Stephen Garcia, Product Director, Yahoo!, @sgarciaDevBenjamin Diggles, Senior Manager Web Marketing, Webtrends, @mrdigglesKovas Boguta, CTO, Infoharmoni,  Blog, @infoharmoniPaulius Jurgutis, CTO, Infoharmoni,  Blog, @infoharmoniMark Jeffrey, CTO, Mahalo.com, Inc., @markjeffreyPatrick Chapman Director of Business Development Evri, @1trick4allWill Husinger Director of Business Development, Evri, @1trick4allDan Chiao, Director of Engineering, FliptopDan ChiaoJeff Oh, Manager, SK Telecom @dirby5Phil Wolff, Prime Suspect, Under Indictment, Skype Journal, @evanwolfAdina Levin, Developer  SocialtextAdrian Chan, Owner gravity7  blogAki Hashmi,  AllvoicesAlex Kohlhofer, Technical Director, Electronic ArtsAdina Levin, Developer  SocialtextAdrian Chan, Owner gravity7  blogAki Hashmi, AllvoicesAlex Kohlhofer, Technical Director, Electronic ArtsAllen Hurff, Entrepreneur, @allenhurffAmanda Krantz, President, notify.me  @amandakrantzAndrew BraunAndrew Weissman, COO betaworksAngela Kyle, co-founder, the realtime project@realtimeangelaAshish Kelkar Principal - Mergers & IntegrationGoogle Inc.  @askelkarBen Metcalfe, Founder, Lead Consultant Swordfish Corp, blog@dotbenBen Tesch Lab Manager, msnbc.com,  blog   @magnetboxBernard Moon, Vice President, Lunsford Group  @bernardmoonBill Arconati, Product Marketing Manager, Atlassianblog@barconatiBill Flitter, CEO, Dlvr.it  @dlvritBill Johnston, Chief Community Officer, Forum One CommunicationsOnline Community Report  @BillJohnstonBill York, WowdBipul Sinha, Vice President, Blumberg Capital@bipulsinhaBjorn Milton CTO TwinglyBlog@bjomiBorislav Agapiev, Founder & CTO Wowd Inc.BlogBrad Fitzpatrick, Software Engineer, Google @bradfitzBrett Slatkin, Software Engineer, Google Inc.Brian Hendrickson, Co-founder & Lead Developer, Nozzl Media, IncBlog, @BrianJesseBrian Oberkirch, Managing Director, Blinksale, #Brian Zisk, Co-Founder, Collecta, Blog, @ziskCarson Kelly,  Business Development & Sales, Visual World, Inc., @carsonkellyJake Stutzman, Creative Director, [[http://www.elevatevc.com|Elevate], @jstutzmanEd Lucero, TerraTacksLaura MerlingFounder, Stretta Group @magicmerlCharlie Cauthen, Vice Pres, CliqsetBlog, @ccauthenCharlie Davidson, Attensa, Blog @charliedavidsonChris Haase, Community and QA Manager, YourVersionBlog@testjjChris Saari, Technical Yahoo! Yahoo! @chrissaariChris Yeh, VP Marketing, PBworks, @chrisyehDamon Horowitz, Co-Founder and CTO, Aardvark, BlogDan Miller, Sr. Analyst, Opus ResearchBlog, @dnm54Dan Olsen, CEO and Founder, YourVersion, Blog, @danolsenDarian Shimy, VP of Technology, Biz360, @dshimyDarius Dunlap,  Managing Director, SupportUX, @dariusdunlapDarren Bounds, Pres, CliqsetBlog, @dboundsDave Badley, Web Developer, YourVersion, Blog@badaveDave Merriwether, Senior Director, YahooDavid Hardtke, Founder, Stinky Teddy, @stinkyteddyDavid Recordon, Senior Open Programs Manager, Facebook, Blog, @daveman692DavidShen, BetaworksBlogDeep Dhillon, CTO, Evri, Blog, @zang0Donovan Jones, CEO, VentureDeal, Blog, @venturedealDoug Camplejohn, CEO, Fliptop, @fliptopDustin Norlander, Chief Architect, TrendrrEduardo Arriagada, Professor, [[http://www.uc.cl/fcom|Catholic University of Chile], Journalism, Blog, @earriagadaEran Shir, CEO, Dapper, @eranshirEric Marcoullier, CEO, Gnip 2.0Blog, @bpm140Eric Woodward, President, The Nambu Network Inc., @ejwcErik Benson, Managing Director, Voyager CapitalEtesh Mangray, Founder, VinolistEthan Gahng, CEO, Lazyfeed, Blog, @lazyfeedEvan Prodromou, CEO, StatusNet, Inc., Blog@evan on identi.caFabien Degaugue, Founder CEO, PeerPong, Blog, @fabienGabeWachob, Developer, Socialtext, @gwachobGabriel Ortiz, CEO, Rarefied TechnologiesBlog, @signalnineGeorge Joy, Dev Lead, MicrosoftGerry Campbell, CEO, Collecta, Blog, @gfcampbellGinsu YoonGreg Biggers, Chief Instigator & CEO, Ewakening,  Blog, @bigsGregory Foster, Web Developer, Consumers Union, @gregoryfosterHideaki Tanioka, Senior Software Engineer, Fujitsu Labs of AmericaIein Valdez, Director Product Development, Google Platform, Blog:Appirio, @ieinIlya Grigorik CTO PostRank, Blog, [[http://www.twitter.com/igrigorik|@igrigorikJai Choi EIR Partech Int.Jason Hoyt, Director of Research, Mendeley, Blog, @jasonhoytJason Sattler Social Media Consultant, F-Secure, primarily, @jasonsattlerJay Simons VP Sales and Marketing, AtlassianJeff Eastman, President, Windward SolutionsBlogJeff EddingsJeff Hsu, Group Planning Manager, Microsoft, @jeffhsuJeff King, Sr. Director, Search, eBayJennifer Zeszut, CEO, Scout Labs, @jenniferlandJeremy Hylton, senior staff software engineer, Google profileJeremy HyltonJim Meyer, @purpJim Murphy, VP Dev, PostRank, Blog, @jimmurphyJohn Borthwick, President and CEO, betaworksTony Haile, General Manager, ChartbeatJohn Panzer, Google,  Blog, @jpanzerJohn Pozadzides, CEO, iFusion Labs http://woopra.com @johnpozJohn Yamasaki, Community Evangelist Seesmic, Blog, @jyamasakiJon Knight, Founder, Gimmee dot net, Blog, @gimmee_dotnetJulien Genestoux, Founder, Superfeedr, , Blog[@julien51Karan Gupta, Sr SW Engineer, Sony Computer Entertainment AmericaKarla Leibowitz, Tech LiminalKen Fromm Consultant Fromm Worldwide, @frommww[[http://www.kensheppardson.com|Ken Sheppardson], @kshepKim Gaskins, Director of Content Development, Latitude Research, Blog, @latddotcomKim-Mai Cutler, Reporter, VentureBeat, @kimmaicutlerLA Lassek, Principal, L.A. Lassek Marketing Communications, @notinlaLaura Forrest Marketing PeerPongLeah Culver, @leahculverLJ RoseLouis Moynihan, CEO, Dlvr.it, @divritLucas Thomas, Verdiggo, Inc., @VerdiggoMarcus Trevisani, CTO, Bintro, #, @trevisaniMark Cramer, CEO, Surf Canyon, Blog, @surfcanyonMark Drummond, CEO, Wowd, Inc, Blog, @wowdMark Williams, Senior community manager, LiveWorld, @markwilliamsMarshall KirkpatrickMartin Kallstrom, CEO, Twingly, Blog@martinkallstromMarty Betz, Vice President, Technology, FirstRain Inc.Mary Hodder, founder, wellness mobile, @maryhodderMary Trigiani, Spada Inc, @marytrigianiMatt Hodges, Product Marketing Specialist, AtlassianMegan Soto, LaunchSquad, @megansotoMonica Keller, Activity Streams Group Architect, MySpace, Blog, @ciberchNaveen SanjeevaNick Koudas, CEO, Sysomos, Blog, @sysomosPaul Pedersen, President, Co-Founder, Factery, IncPetter Palander, ambadoo, Blog@ambadooPradeep Elankumaran, Director of R&D, Intridea, Inc.Blog, @pradeep24Raj Vemulapalli, Senior Director of Engineering, Yahoo! Inc http://www.yahoo.comRavikant Cherukuri, Software Engineer, MicrosoftBlog@rkdeexitRebecca Povio, Marketing Manager, TextWise, Blog, @textwiseRichard Hockley, Vice President, Morgan StanleyRichard Lusk, CEO, MiioRob Cottingham, President, Social Signal, Blog, @RobCottinghamRobb Miller, Vice President of Business Developmentl, KickAppsRoland Osborne, Cofounder, OlarkBlog, @olarkRon Sandel, strategy & business development yahoo!Sam Cece, CEO, StrongMailSamir Mehta Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! @mehtamanSanjay Sood CTO, Allvoices, @sanjaysoodScott Hoffman Founder Cliqology, [@cliqologyScott RobertsSean Gaddis COO FactoryLabsShinichi Nagakura Managing Director Transcosmos Inc.Stephanie Bergman@StephanieBamBamTed Roden CreativeTechnologist New York Times,  Blog, @tedrodenTim Marvin, Grassroots Organizer, Consumers Union, Defend Your Dollars, Not in My Food, Blog@pastoralveloTobias Peggs General Manager, OneRiot, Blog@tobiaspeggsTom Hughes-Croucher, Yahoo! Inc., Blog, @sh1mmerTom Whitnah Software Engineer Facebook, BlogTrey Ratcliff, Monkey with Camera, Stuck In Customs, @treyratcliffTy Amell #Vasanthi Holtcamp, Principle Group Program Manager, MSN / MicrosoftWesly Michel, CEO, The Local IndexWeslyMichel Will Palmeri @wpalmeriWilliam Mougayar, Founder & CEO, Eqentia, Inc., Blog, @wmougayarWilson Lau, Software Architect, Orange LabsWolf Garbe, CEO, FAROO Limited, #, @faroo_p2pYY Lee, COO, FirstRain, @thisisyy In case you're counting, there's not quite 200 people on that list yet - but add on the almost the entire RWW staff flying in from around the world and registrants still coming in this morning and we'll be past that number. Want more info or to register? Click on over, right here. See you Thursday!Discuss

  After a flurry of activity around Google Maps over the last few weeks, it now lookslike Google is also ditching Tele Atlasas its data provider for Google Maps in the US in favor of a do-it-yourself approach. Google had been using data from Tele Atlas' maps since September 2008 after moving awayfrom Navteq's data after Navteq was acquired by Nokia. Now, Google will use its own data, which it will supplement with data from government sources and a crowdsourcing approach.SponsorThanks to its Street View cars, Google already has a pretty dataset for even some of the more obscurelocations in the United States, and the company has also recently expanded its efforts to launch more Street View data in other parts of the world. Last week's updateto Google Maps introduced new ways to report errors for Google Maps users, so Google is clearly thinking about using a crowdsourcing approach to mapping for Google Maps. Google also announcedthat it now includes data from a number of US government organizations like the Forest Service and the US Geological Survey in its maps. In the US, the Census Bureau creates a fairly accurate base map, and this data is available freely and represents the core data set for the OpenStreetMapproject. With Map Maker, Google also offers an easy-to-use mapping product that even non-geographers can use to create and edit maps and which Google has already employed to let its users create maps for countries where no accurate maps existed until now. While the new maps that were launched last week also include new errors, the overall detail of the maps has clearly increased and now even includes data for the boundaries of land parcels in some municipalities. Why?The question, of course, is why Google plans to make its own maps now. For one, chances are that Google is currently paying Tele Atlas a lot of money for using its maps. Mapping services are notoriously protective of how their data can be used, which is one of the reasons Apple can't offer turn-by-turn directions in the built-in mapping application on the iPhone, for example. Google probably wants to be free to do whatever it wants with its maps without having to worry about licensing issues. By providing its own maps and an API for others to use these maps, Google could potentially become a major competitor to Tele Atlas and Navteq now, and if Google continues to make these maps easily available to developers without cumbersome licensing restrictions, it could bring radical change to the mapping business.Discuss

  Social media scientist Dan Zarrella, creator of pop-psych Twitter appTweetPsych, has put togethera new tool for analyzing tweets about dreams.Dr. TweetDreamspulls together elements new and old, including symbolic meanings from a 100-year-old dream dictionary and any and all tweets containing the phrase "had a dream." "I finally got to use all my cool natural language code," Zarrella told us last night. "I'm using a part-of-speech tagger, a wordstemmer, and Princeton's WordNet to generate a list of related word stems which are then matched against a dream dictionary."Sponsor"This one was actually my girlfriend's idea," said Zarrella. "I'm not one for dream analysis, really. But it seemed like a fun thing to build, and I know there are lots of people on Twitter who'll like it... Also, eventually, I'll be able to match people who've had similar dreams."Some of the analyses we tried out were pretty clear-cut:Other tweets produced hilarious, convoluted or just plain strange results. One of the particularly interesting things about taking definitions from a 100-year-old dream dictionary is the charmingly antiquated social mores; woe to the married woman who dreams of hugging a man other than her husband! And check out the wonderful fortune in store for this lucky young lady:Ah, how we long for the golden days of yesteryear, when marriage was a woman's best occupation! There were also a few misfires in terms of vocabulary; for example, a hundred years ago, a plane was a carpenter's tool, not a mode of transportation. Nevertheless, we found these idiosyncrasies charming.Users can take a look at one of the most recent dream-related tweetsor check out various analyses on Twitter.Discuss

  The iPhone hacker George Hotz, (aka geohoton Twitter) has done it again. Earlier this year, he made a name for himself in the hacking community as being the first to provide a usable iPhone 3GS jailbreak, which he then followed up by releasing a "better" unlock tool for the same device. Now he's again beaten the iPhone Dev Teamto the punch with his release of blackra1n, a jailbreak tool for the Apple's latest iPhone firmware, 3.1.2.SponsorUnlocking vs JailbreakingJailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone are two different hacks which allow you to take control of your mobile device in different ways. Jailbreaking is a type of hack that lets you install unapproved third-party applications on your iPhone or iPod Touch from searchable repositories provided by apps like Cydia and Icy. Unlocking, on the other hand, is a hack that lets you use your iPhone on another cellular network. Here in the U.S., that means you can use the iPhone on T-Mobile instead of AT&T. You have to first jailbreak your phone before you can unlock it, but you don't have to unlock a phone in order to jailbreak it.Unfortunately, what was once a relatively simple process has gotten more complex over time as new iPhone models were introduced and new hacking tools were being put out by multiple parties, often with confusing names like Pwnage Tool, Purplesn0w and redsn0w. With each release of iPhone firmware, it seems as if there's a whole new lexicon of terms to master and new procedures to follow. The 3.1.2 jailbreak is no exception. However, this jailbreak works on all versions of the iPhone and even on the latest iPod Touch. How to Jailbreak the 3.1.2 Firmware (Windows Instructions)Before beginning this jailbreak, keep in mind that this is for jailbreakers only - not unlockers. That means if you're currently using your phone on a non-standard carrier (for example, in the U.S. you're using T-Mobile instead of AT&T), then you do NOT want to use this tool because it will disable the unlock. But if you're just interested in jailbreaking, read on:Update to 3.1.2:If you haven't done so already, download the latest version of iTunes. Next, update your iPhone to the latest firmware when you're prompted to do so (click "Download and Install" on the pop-up message). Allow the new firmware to install as you would normally. This will un-jailbreak your phone for the time being. Get the jailbreak tool:To get started with the newest jailbreak, Windows users should head to http://blackra1n.com.and click on the window icon at the bottom of the page to download the executable. Run blackra1n:After the download is complete, connect your iPhone to your PC and run the executable. Click the "make it ra1n" button and the message will display "entering recovery..." (Note: Vista and Windows 7 users should run it in compatibility mode and as "Administrator." Right-click on the file, go to Properties, then click the "Compatibility" tab. Check the "run this program in compatibility mode for:" checkbox and choose Windows XP Service Pack 2 from the list provided. Click "OK" to close the window. Right-click to run as the Administrator.)Device reboots: Continue letting the program run, the message now reads "running..." and after you see the image of geohot's face (the same as seen here), the device will reboot. A pop-up message will display prompting you to donate if you can. Click "OK" to close this message. Launch blackra1n on the iPhone:On your iPhone, look for the blackra1n icon and tap it to launch the program. Pick your favorite installer program:On the screen that appears, you have a choice between installer programs (repositories of jailbreak apps). Tap the one you prefer - Cydia, Rock or Icy - any will do. Blackra1n will install your chosen program on your phone and will relaunch the iPhone springboard when complete. Your phone is now jailbroken, and you can use Cydia, Rock or Icy to browse, search for and install jailbreak apps. Tips: If the Upgrade is Stuck at "Running," Try the Following:Set airplane mode on.Move blackra1n to the C:\ drive and run it from there.Kill any iTunes-related services prior to running.While it's stuck on "running," do a hard reboot (push the home and power buttons simultaneously). The app will display a message that says it's done jailbreaking, but it's not. With the USB cable still plugged in, re-run the blackra1n app. This time it should work. However, be aware that the blackra1n jailbreak is still a little iffy for some users. Several people have reported that they're unable to jailbreak, despite following instructions. If you're not feeling adventurous, you may want to wait for the Dev Team's jailbreak instead.Mac Users Have to WaitSorry Mac users, there is no jailbreak yet available for 3.1.2 just yet. However, you can use the Pwnage Tool to jailbreak older 3.1 versions of the iPhone firmware. More details are here. Discuss