Today I received an email in my Last.fm mail. I thought this was strange, since I’ve been a member for over three years and not received one. I had right to be intrigued, because when I checked, it was a nigerian scam.

From Sussy Kamara
Note:please reply to my private e-mail box below; ( sussy_dikko1983@yahoo.fr )
private email; sussy_dikko1983(at)y/a/h/o/o/ dot com
Urgent / Assistance

Hello Dear,

Permit me to inform you of my desire of going into business relationship with you. I know this mail may come to you as a surprise, since we have not known or written before.
Afer you receive this mail kindly contact me on my private e.mail contact below. introducing myself, I am Sussy Kamara, the Only Daughter of the late Mr and Mrs Dikko Kamara, my father was a gold and cocoa mercahnt based in accra, ghana and Abidjan (Ivory Coast), he was poisoned to death by his business associates on one of their business trips. before the death of my father on 29th june 2004 in a private hospital here in Abidjan.

He secretly called me on his bedside and told me that he has a sum of usd $6.5m (Six Million Five Hundred Thousand U.s), deposited in a suspence account in one of the prime bank here in abidjan ivory coast, that he used my name as his only daughter for the next of kin in depositing of the fund.

He also explained to me that it was because of this wealth that he was poisoned by his business associates, that I should seek for a foreign partner in a country of my choice where I will transfer this money and use it for investment purpose such as expansion of his existing cocoa business and real estate management overseas. Dear friend, I am humbly seeking your assistance in the following ways.

1) To assist me in retriving this money from the bank.
2) To serve as the guardian of this fund.
3) To make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education and to secure a residential permit in your country moreover, I am willing to offer you 15% of the total sum as compensation for your effort/input after the successful transfer of this fund to your nominated account overseas.

Furthermore, you can indicate your option towards assisting me as I believe that this transaction would be concluded within seven (7) working days you signify interest to assist me.

E-mail address above ( sussy_dikko1983@yahoo.fr ) . Anticipating to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,
Sussy Kamara.
Note:please reply to my private e-mail box below; ( sussy_dikko1983@yahoo.fr )

private email; sussy_dikko1983(at)y/a/h/o/o/ dot com

It just shows that Web 2.0 sites need to consider malicious uses of their service, but how on earth do you protect members from such a misuse.

In the mean time, if you haven’t used Last.fm, give it a try. It’s a great way to find new music, or at the very least, track your musical taste.

Basement.org has an article that sums up my thinking since ETech. Reality Check 2.0 suggests that were getting caught up in our own bubble.

The real point of all this is to shed some light on how we can get caught up in our own noise. Your grandma doesn’t know what tagging is. Your uncle is not using Rollyo. People on the street are not using Gmail. They’re using Hotmail.

That’s what amazes me about some, not all, Web 2.0 start-ups. The problem they are solving is so geeky, that they’re really just servicing a niche.

Many entrepreneurs need to take a step back and look at the majority, and ask themselves if their solution really solves a problem for the masses. Admittedly, some might actually only want to service geeks, and perhaps this is the major market for web services, but I think we all need to see some solutions as they are: a nice niche play.

I’ve been saying for at least a couple of years that television is changing. In fact it’s next in line to a major shift, like the music industry is experiencing.

I firmly believe that television shows will become subscription based. In fact, they already are, we just subscribe to a channel and time, rather than a particular “feed.”

Sport, and some news events, will require broadcast (or streaming), but it makes more sense to subscribe to a show over the air or on the Net, to capture most of your television needs.

I think this trend is best expressed with the iTunes Music Store, and the ability to purchase show. Looks like it’s doing well.

At his keynote speech Monday at the TelecomNext show in Las Vegas, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Disney content has surpassed 4 million downloads on iTunes since October 2005, when the media company first made television programming available on the new iPods.
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That data point is indicative of the biggest change in the TV business, he said. “Technology has transformed authority from the distributor and creator to the consumer. Today’s consumer is more tech-savvy and governs how and when and at what price content is sent to them,” he said. ITunes also introduced the concept of new distribution windows, he said. Disney has been a proponent of re-evaluating distribution windows for content in general.

While content is seemingly the beneficiary of the trend toward multiple and diverse platforms, Mr. Iger thinks the proliferation of platforms will actually separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to programming. “You will see a larger disparity in this new world order between what is good and what is inferior,” he said.

To succeed in this new world order, content providers and distributors must supply easy-to-use interfaces, he added.

Woah…….is it bad that I got 33 out of 43 in Cerado’s Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character pole?

I thought it was damn funny, until I realised I know far too much about both :)

I interviewed Derek Powazek on the latest Gadget Show. He’s a very nice guy, with an interesting history in design for the world wide web. He also has some interesting insights into online communities.

I hope to chat with him again soon about the process and repercussions of design.

It’s nice being home, and just as nice jumping on Skype to chat with a bunch of good aussie mates.

The 2web crew just recorded its second podcast, hosted at G’Day World, my other regular haunt (The Gadget Show being the other).

We talked about some relevant web 2.0 news that’s occurred in the last week, which I must admit to missing most of due to several days traveling. However, we also delved into the difficulties an aussie experiences while trying to raise funding, and the reasons why a start-up actually needs the injection.

Have a listen, and subscribe to the podcast feed for other regular sessions.

My latest book, How to Use Flickr: The Digital Photography Revolution, is now available on Amazon. The funny thing is, and a repercussion of being on the other side of the planet to my publisher, there’s a good chance a bunch of people will receive a copy before I do.

Looking for a unique and creative place to store, organize, search, and securely share your digital photographs? Welcome to Flickr?a revolution in digital photography! How to Use Flickr: The Digital Photography Revolution is your one-stop guide to the capabilities of Flickr. All the basic Flickr features are presented, including how to create and set up your account and profile and how to upload your photos. Later chapters detail more advanced Flickr features such as how to organize your collection, share your photos, utilize print services, and get involved in the Flickr community. Once you?re accustomed to Flickr, you?ll learn to take advantage of cool capabilities such as publishing your photos to a weblog, uploading photos with a camera phone, and using Flickr with other useful applications. More than just a how-to guide, this book features interesting anecdotes, interviews, tips, and real-life photos and examples from actual Flickr users. Get ready to embrace and share the Flickr revolution!

Swing over to Amazon and check it out, and if you’re so inclined you can always order a copy :).

Every Aussie blogger’s favourite journo, Mark Jones, has some interesting factoids from today’s Search Engine Room.

The story behind the story that 99% of Google’s revenues come from online marketing is that it’s spawned a whole new community of businesses that effectively play the middleman role in the marketing equation. Not sure how to get the best result in PageRank? Nervous about whether you should spend $1 or $2 on buying a certain keyword? According to Frost & Sullivan analyst Foad Faghadi, who spoke this morning, there are now around 40 search engine marketing companies in Australia. He also said there are 150 people working full time in the search industry (I think that figure’s a bit low), and pay per click advertising represents $124 million, or 20 per cent, of the $650 million spent in online marketing in Australia.

I met with Jim Grisanzio, the Community Manager for OpenSolaris yesterday. He’s an amazing guy, with many interesting stories.

He had some good ideas about attention, which he blogged. It’s all about focus, which I aim to improve when I get back to Australia.

I realize that there are many threads going at the moment in the online world. Many of which are just self promotion. I aim to filter it to a few specific areas that will help me get my new start-up rolling. It’ll be a fun 6 months.

By the way Jim, thanks for the plug of my Flickr book :).

Last week, while at O’Reilly’s ETech, I received an email from Nik Cubrilovic asking if I’d like to be a founding member of a group called 2web. The answer wasn’t difficult, because I’m passionate about everything 2 web is about.

2web is a group of Australian bloggers and entrepreneurs who are passionate about web 2.0. What we all have in common is that through our businesses and blogging we develop, implement and evangelise web 2.0 ideas around web services, open standards, new media, blogs and the web as a platform.

I believe that Australian is in a unique position when it comes to the latest boom on the Internet. I think we are incredibly innovative as a repercussion of our isolation. In some respects we have to be, being so far from the rest of the world we have to be self-reliant, and we’re damn lucky with respect to out quality of life and education. This breeds some amazingly smart people.

However, it’s always hard selling that to people 10,000 miles away. That’s why the Internet is so powerful. Often, it doesn’t matter where you are. You can build a business online from any location in the world. Most of them start in California, but that’s just historical. We’re used to seeing tech companies pop up in the valley.

So, 2web is a bunch of Aussies who plan to spread the word that entrepreneurship is alive and well down under. When I chatted with Doug Kaye, the Executive Director of IT Conversations, he wondered why podcasting was so prevalent in Australia. I want others saying the same thing about “web 2.0″ or business online.

If you get a chance, check in with the 2web site, there is a bunch of smart people who are a part of the group, and perhaps you can subscribe to their blogs.