Mashups are a good example of what some Internet insiders are calling "Web 2.0," a relatively undefined term that sort of means something like the Web serving as a platform with sites that take advantage of -- among other things -- user supplied content. The best place to find Mashups is at programmableweb.com which currently lists more than 450 mashups, 50 of which are classifies as "popular."

Mashups - Larry's World

Collaborative tagging describes the process by which many
users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared
content. Recently, collaborative tagging has grown in
popularity on the web, on sites that allow users to tag
bookmarks, photographs and other content. In this paper
we analyze the structure of collaborative tagging systems as
well as their dynamical aspects. Specifically, we discovered
regularities in user activity, tag frequencies, kinds of tags
used, bursts of popularity in bookmarking and a remarkable
stability in the relative proportions of tags within a given
url. We also present a dynamical model of collaborative
tagging that predicts these stable patterns and relates them
to imitation and shared knowledge.

The Structure of Collaborative Tagging Systems

I am a member of the Information Dynamics Lab at HP Labs. Broadly, my research interest is the formation and management of identity, reputation and social norms in electronic environments. In the past, I have explored archives of email and Usenet, and I enjoy designing novel environments for interaction, as well as studying them.

HP Labs : People Pages : Scott Golder

Netflix provides the capability to browse your entire ratings history. But unlike your rental history they don’t provide a way to easily get your whole ratings history. This script will do the work for you, browsing to each page of your ratings, extracting the raw data, and collecting the results. The results are in a format suitable for importing into a spreadsheet, where you can do whatever it is you want to do with them.

Download Your Entire Netflix Movies You’ve Rated List!

In the digital era, is film dead? As audiences gravitate to DVDs, Hollywood wonders if the movie theater can survive. The rebels are surging. Can the Empire strike back?

Can This Man Save The Movies? (Again?)

If you use the Netflix rating system even half as much as I do, your account has information documenting your entire movie watching life. At this point in time, I have rated 1348 films on Netflix and that number grows by about 15 per month- considering I am a movie geek and a statistics geek, that information is important- nay, vital- to me! If only there was a simple, friendly way to get at my information…

Fetch Your Netflix Ratings

Leave it to "Star Wars" creator George Lucas to pronounce the death of the Hollywood blockbuster.

"The market forces that exist today make it unrealistic to spend $200 million on a movie," said Lucas, a near-billionaire from his feverishly franchised outer-space epics. "Those movies can't make their money back anymore. Look at what happened with 'King Kong.'" The portly Lucas, whose "Star Wars" sequel was nominated for the Oscar in makeup, was clearly in Yoda mode at Saturday's Weinstein Co. party — Harvey Weinstein's first Oscar bash since he abandoned Miramax to Disney last year. "I think it's great that the major Oscar nominations have gone to independent films," Lucas told me, adding that it's no accident that the "small movies" outclassed the spectaculars in this year's Academy Awards. "Is that good for the business? No — it's bad for the business. But moviemaking isn't about business. It's about art!"

Was that a smirk? "In the future, almost everything that gets shown in theaters will be indie movies," Lucas declared. "I predict that by 2025 the average movie will cost only $15 million."

You heard it here first.

New York Daily News - Home - Lloyd Grove's Lowdown: Lucas: Big pics are doomed

Overall, it's currently difficult to place a more specific valuation on shares of Blockbuster. However, I believe there's still potential for the retail business (high-definition DVDs are just around the corner, and the buying/selling of new and used DVDs and video games is quite lucrative), the online rental business is currently in a development/growth life cycle phase, and it will take longer than expected before technology and a successful business model are developed to support the viewing and downloading of videos and video games from the information superhighway. Finally, there is some appeal to being able to occasionally head to the local video shop and pick out a movie. This is something Netflix cannot offer, while Blockbuster is offering in-store coupons to online subscribers. Shares of Blockbuster are not for the faint of heart, but if management successfully navigates current turbulence, shareholders could be duly rewarded with this value play.

Beauty or Beast?

Undoubtedly lost in the torrent of news about the big profits for movie rental outfit Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI - News) was a less positive press release filed immediately before the earnings news. It announced that the company would be restating results for 2003 and 2004, along with the first nine months of 2005. While the release says that the restatements don't alter revenues, earnings, assets, equity, or total cash flows, they do significantly ratchet down operating cash flows.

Blockbuster's Reel Cash Flow Woes

Economists are finding data to sort through every decision we make—like whether your investment in 'Daredevil' may have been a case of irrational exuberance.

Rent or Buy That DVD?