LIVEdigitally

I just found out about, downloaded and am writing to you from within Flock, a Firefox-based browser released today as a developer preview (i.e. potentially buggy but functional) version for Windows/Mac/Linux. I’ve only been playing for a few minutes, but thus far I’m impressed, especially with the built-in blogging tools. Flock has a built-in system for browsing through your Flickr account while blogging and something called “The Shelf,” a separate popup window where you can drag and drop images and/or highlighted text for use later in blog posts (a great idea for those of us who keep multiple browser tabs open while surfing and/or blogging). The browser also eschews traditional bookmarks (based locally) in favor of online, shareable bookmarks made possible by del.icio.us.

Flock also has a built-in RSS reader, which at the moment appears to work perfectly well with LIVEdigitally and NYTimes.com but is stumbling a bit with Engadget. Like Firefox, Flock supports extensions like Greasemonkey and AdBlock.

Take a look at this news.com article for more info. Vive le open source movement!

I’m in the process of listening to a live broadcast of the first hour of On Point, an excellent program produced by WBUR, the National Public Radio affiliate here in Boston (runs 10 am – 12 pm M-F). The first hour of today’s show is devoted to a discussion of the modern media revolution, and the role Apple products are playing is said change.

Host Tom Ashbrook is talking with Lander Kahney, Wired staffer and Apple journalist, along with other guests including Lev Grossman from Time Magazine (this week’s issue has Steve Jobs on the cover).

While I don’t intend for this post to piggyback on my earlier one about the same subject, I find it interesting to listen to those with more experience and more complex and insightful commentary on the same subject. While Apple’s at the center of the stage of the discussion, it’s sharing the space with larger, more revolutionary ideas about how we’re changing the ways we consume and create our own media. Some of the more interesting points:

• Madison Avenue (the big media companies) are obviously growing concerned about the potential for serious change in revenue streams (Think $1.99 TV shows without any commercials).
• Our society is tailored to the needs of baby boomers and is now only starting to shift to reflect the desires of younger consumers. Are we moving to a culture of shared music and video (iTunes) despite the fact that people are increasingly empowered to create their own “microcultures” of music? Individual consumption will obviously differ but it may be done via a similar channel.
• Actual content ownership – do ownership preferences differ along generational lines? A caller asked if perhaps younger people have less of a compulsion to want to own their content.
• The power to create media is increasingly migrating to the hands of individuals, should they be interested in creating their own content and making their work available on their own terms.

Before I listen to the entire show and give you the full recap here, go check it out! If you can’t get it on your local station, just listen to the archived show – good stuff.