Yesterday, I had a nightmare journey. It was the kind you think is made up by travel writers to pad out the pages between interesting sights and ‘how-to’s of ticket management. It didn’t help that my reason for going was to have a chat with the JobCentre Plus (Plus benefits, I assume) about allocation of a National Insurance number.

The first leg of the journey was fine: train to Shrewsbury. I sat down to enjoy a book and baguette (brilliant combination until you take a bite out of your novel) and noticed that the notice on the gantry sign kept changing: next train-on time–next train-cancelled. Well, which one is it? Turns out, I just had to wait 25 minutes for the next one. No worries, I’m reading and drinking caffeine-containing hot stuff (It’s not coffee. This is coffee.)

So, I’m late into Telford, but I was going to be an hour early anyway. I have a Google Map printout, but I don’t want to risk it, so I jump in a Taxi, explaining that I’ll need cash first, then on to the Jobcentre Plus (Plus and Minus?). The Royal Bank of Scotland was just across the retail park which is Telford centre, so I tried to get cash out there… no luck. I shrug embarrassedly at the driver, who shakes his head as if to say: "Oh, bloody hell… I’m taking him to t’JobCentre Plus (Plus Jobs for foreigners, no doubt!) and he’s got no bloody money."

So, across to Asda, which looks more hopeful–there being three cash machines from different banks. Brilliant…but no. "This service is temporarily unavailable," from Abbey National. "Your card cannot be used in a  cash machine," (What’s it for then!?) from NatWest, and a simple "Sorry, we cannot complete your request," from the RBS. So, I phone my bank (don’t get me started on the poor customer service at HSBC!) and wade my way through the ridiculous menus.

I eventually get through to someone who talks…very…slowly…and…keeps…repeating…what…I…ask…back…to…me. I tell the poor dear I’m waiting by a taxi whose meter is running and that I need to use my card to get cash out… "One moment, Mr Zach. Do you mind if I call you Mr. Zach?"

"I really couldn’t give a toss what you call me, love, I’m waiting to pay a disgruntled, bearded cab driver from Telford!"

"Ok, Mr Zach. I’m just going to speak to one of my colleagues. Can I put you on hold?"

"Oh, bloody hell…"

"…Mr Zach, it looks like there is sufficient funds for you to take cash out."

"Yes, I know there’s money in the account. That’s why I’m trying to take it out, to give to this increasingly red-faced cabbie!"

After another five minutes of this, it turns out there aren’t any security block on the account, so it’s probably the card. "I can send you out a new one, Mr. Zach. Would that be helpful?"

"No, not really…"

The Cabbie then drove me to a garage where I attempted to buy a pack of mentos to get cash back. They don’t do cash back… I’d have to go across to Asda… 

Eventually, the driver asked me to buy 20 Embassy Filter. I bought 40–the first time I’ve ever bought a pack of fags–and he laughingly agreed to take me to the JobCentre Plus (Plus acrid, blue smoke, presumably).

He drops me off, at the wrong place, and I had to ask a Telfordian where the Jobcentre was. Luckily, I chose someone who looked like he’d been on the Dole, and he gave me very detailed directions… via three pubs and a discount £-store. Fanbloodytastic.

So, I have the interview (wasn’t actually too bad). And I finally worked out what the ‘Plus’ is for. It’s for: "Plus unnecessary bureaucracy". The lovely woman who conducted my interview had to fill in literally ten pages-worth of forms. Most of the information was on her screen, but it’s not secure until it’s been hand-scrawled into hundreds of little boxes, apparently. We shared a laugh at the ridiculousness of the system, and she kept on writing the entire time. That certainly explains the name. I think, however, they’ve made a serious marketing mistake. Since this country loves it some Acronyms (LISA), they should call it Jobcentre Plus PUB. It’d certainly fit the intended clientele.

I won’t bore you with the return journey, except to say that it was cold, miserable, two delays and a cancellation. Oh, and it rained at Telford Central just as they announced that the Birmingham New Street train was cancelled. It was freezing, and so crowded I read my book using a shorter person like a lectern.

I am a firm believer in the idea that a little knowledge is dangerous. When you overhear a conversation in which one person says to another (imagine whatever derisory accent adds to the flavour-I always seem to hear Watford…):

"Yeah, ever since I watched that (insert celebrity TV show) the other day, I gave up (eating, drinking, buying) + (wheat, white wine, bleach…). Really makes you think, donnit?"

I always, always wince and imagine having the temerity (or bad manners) to break in with questions about the speaker’s level of intelligence, trust in an over-paid celebrity, or belief in a ridiculous cult of misinformation. Allergies seem to be a favourite topic in these conversations, I’ve noticed.

I find the proponents of these ideas far more galling, however. Dieticians, ‘scientists’ from dubious academic associations, ‘specialists’ and ‘independent consultants’: all these people ruin their very titles for the proper holders. Worse is when people go off half-cocked and make a mint selling their partially-formed philosophy.

I have just discovered a new breed in the person of Lee Siegel. I will, in the interests of transparency, state that I only heard about the man today, at about 16:30, and I know about him only what Wikipedia does, so not much, and therefore have only a limited platform from which to wince and whinge. I found out about his new book through Mashable (article here) which is a critique of the internet in what Siegel calls ‘popularity culture’, and I am responding to an interview on the Wall-Street Journal (video from Wall Street Journal here).

My problem with Siegel is that he is cashing in on a poorly-expounded idea and will doubtless make a lot of money in the process because he is critiquing (from an authoritative position) a very popular topic: internet socialising. Siegel seems to think, from his interview, that people on laptops in coffee shops are offensive and indicative of a cultural waste of real socialising. He also seems to have a massive problem with bloggers who:

"…under the mask of anonymity to write the most scurrilous, even libelous things about other people…"

Now, I’d like to add in some points of contention:

Siegel has chosen an easy target, of which the general public are only just becoming aware, and reinforcing a negative idea using generalisation.  I believe that anonymous bloggers have said libelous things, and I agree that this is wrong. Bloggers have also raised huge issues with international communication and have reported with insider information the most atrocious abuse of human rights, and many of them were anonymous for their own safety. Many bloggers are not anonymous, yet might become tarred with Seigel’s muckraking.

Siegel’s main points don’t make sense. He calls internet culture ‘popularity culture’ using an authoritative tone of voice to hide the forced juxtaposition, and expects people to follow his thought without comment. What does he mean? I would have though the internet is a brilliant place to find things which are less popular than what can be found in more traditional media.

As a major point of contention to Siegel’s ideas (and please remember, I am only basing this on a single interview, on what might not have been his best day!) he claims that newspapers are pressed to write only the most popular articles because the internet makes them do it.

I’m sorry, what?

I would have thought that newspapers, by moving online, are actually trying to capitalise on a market by trying to make their content more popular with internet buzzwords like ‘blogging’. This, to my mind is more of an opposite move. Also, when has a newspaper ever made profit from writing articles which more than the average number of readers will find uninteresting or unimportant? Siegel even states that they are losing merit by trying to keep in touch with the popularity culture of the web. Newspapers publish articles to sell newspapers, and always have. The internet has absolutely nothing to do with this ‘culture’.

Some of his ideas actually contradict themselves in a terribly obvious way. He thinks we shouldn’t hang out at Starbucks with laptops, because we are interacting with phantoms and no longer read newspapers.  I have to agree, to an extent, in that you should hang out at a local coffee shop in preference to a massive chain and my previous employer. Nevermind that the vast majority of people I use the internet to contact I actually know. And  nevermind that blogs actually offer the opportunity to actively contribute to a dialogue, whereas a newspaper is strictly one-way and therefore more passive! He then goes on to suggest we don’t have the space to be introspective.

I’m sorry, what?

So, we shouldn’t interact online, because they aren’t real people and the process is just bolstering our solitude, but we should go to coffee shops and read newspapers and be introspective. I respectfully suggest Siegel is talking out of his arse here, though he’d probably interpret that as being scurrilous.

Siegel thinks that the scurrilous, disgusting nature of bloggers is a ‘malicious convention of internet culture’. The interviewer then brings in Siegel’s own blog-related fiasco, in which he used a pseudonym to respond to commentators comments on his own newspaper’s blog. According to Wikipedia (ever the source of scurrilous, libelous content), Siegel responded to commentators on his blog and refused to admit it was himself responding until the New Republic, who hosted the blog, posted an apology and suspended his blog.

‘sprezzatura’ (Siegel’s pseudonym) wrote, "Siegel is brave, brilliant, and wittier than Stewart will ever be. Take that, you bunch of immature, abusive sheep." (Wikipedia.org)

I think I can see where Siegel’s diatribe originates now. He got burned by the blogosphere. His blog platform was attacked, and when people found out he was not being transparent (which is something the internet is very good at) they lost trust in him. He’s obviously a very intelligent character, and has a reputation for being caustic, but his defensive position betrays a lack of confidence in this matter. He is now making the system his scapegoat, and I daresay will probably make a tidy profit from it.

Now, for a bit of balance:

Siegel makes some salient points, which should make the internet community’s ears prick up and listen. Firstly, when anonymous content hides people from the consequences of their comments, you find despicable behaviour and bad taste. I have absolutely no doubt that Siegel was offended by some of the comments on his blog, and that he has every right to so feel.  Indeed, the content of comments can be cause for serious concern, and is often abusive and disgusting. Steve O’Hear wrote about his personal take on the issue, and that of some other bloggers over at ZDNet: http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=121.

His point about popularity is also important. The more the ‘net is pushed to make more space for the already popular, the more the only content we will get is pre-fabricated and tailor-made to be popular. This is bad news for independent thought, to a certain extent, but mostly it’s boring. Celebrity, What’s Hot, and the like are an insult to intelligence, and I think we should make an effort.

But I think Siegel, in this one interview, makes a bad point badly and with poor backing thoughts. I hope he has the good grace to write a balanced book, but I worry that it will capitalise on his ability to be caustic rather than raise salient points which need serious attention.

After my trial implementation of  AdaptiveBlue’s Smartlink technology on this very site, I was contacted by Director of Business Development, Fraser Kelton, who agreed to a Questions and Answers session about Adaptive Blue’s new technology. For a quick introduction, I have been trying out AdaptiveBlue’s Blue Organiser for a few weeks and found their semantic features helpful and intuitive for finding and retreiving changing information, and decided to try out the Smartlink code to offer this to readers of my blog:

• What makes a link Smart?
  
  Traditional links are not smart, they’re simple pointers to pages. When we write about a book and link to the book’s page on Amazon we mean to link to the thing but the link points to the page.
  
  A link is smart when it’s capable of automatically identifying and understanding what the thing is on the page. Once the link is identified to mean a thing a lot of valuable information can be automatically presented to the user that’s contextually correct for the thing.
  
  What I mean by this is that once a link is semantically understood to be about a specific book the user can be presented with options around that particular book – read the New York Times Book Review for the book, find similar books, save the book to social networks, etc. When the link is identified to be about a music album the actions and information presented are different and contextually correct.
• How about the ‘link’ in Smartlinks… where does it link to?
  
  With SmartLinks the user links like they normally would to a page on one of a dozen of sites – a book on Amazon, an artist on Last.fm, a stock on Google Finance, and a SmartLink is automatically inserted. The SmartLink is automatically inserted and when the icon is clicked a SmartLink pane launches that includes relevant content from across the web that’s populated using semantic understanding of the original link.
• How is this information kept up-to-date?
  
  Everything is automated so the information is always up-to-date. For example, when a user links to a stock page on Google Finance the SmartLink understands that the link is about a stock and will instantly pull up-to-date information about the specific stock into the SmartLink pane when it’s launched. When users link to new releases on Amazon, or one of our other supported sites, a SmartLink is automatically created for the book with relevant and correct information.
• Can I use Smartlinks on my own site or blog, and what would be the benefit from a content host’s perspective?
  
  Yes, SmartLinks install with 1-click for Blogger and Typepad, there’s a WordPress plug-in and a single line of java script for all other blog platforms and sites. SmartLinks will then instantly appear on all links to supported sites – both for new posts and all archived posts.
  
  There are a lot of benefits for enabling SmartLinks on your site. They automatically enable you to provide a tonne of additional and contextually correct information in your posts. Your readers will have the instant ability to discover and explore what you’ve blogged about without leaving your site and without having to search or filter for more information – SmartLinks do all of this automatically and present a nice package of pure results. Additionally, a blogger can connect their Amazon Affiliate ID to SmartLinks so that all Amazon links within the SmartLink are monetized – this occurs for new posts as well as all old posts, enabling bloggers to monetize their archives.
• Can smartlinks be used alongside RSS or in conjunction with subscription technology? (e.g. for keeping up to date with past current Smartlink, like following a stock or tracking the popularity of a favourite song)
  Right now SmartLinks do not work with RSS.
• Where would I find Smartlinks at the moment? (i.e. Who is using this technology?)
  
  SmartLinks are enabled on a large number of blogs. You can see some great examples at:
  • http://madstocks.blogspot.com/ – wonderful stock blog that makes great use of SmartLinks for stocks
  • http://steffanantonas.com/ – a great blog that has SmartLinks enabled as well as a number of SmartLink Widgets
  • http://gothamgal.blogs.com/ – has a nice mix of book and music SmartLinks (check out the Typepad list in the right-hand sidebar – SmartLinks were automatically added providing additional benefit to something that previously existed)
• What are ‘Semantics’ on the web, and how do smartlinks feature in the ‘semantic web’?
  
  Semantics is defined as "the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc." To understand the meaning of a word is to semantically understand it. Semantic Web is an academic term about using standardized data formats and a language for recording the relationship between data so that computers can analyze and understand meaning and context of all data on the web.
  
  At AdaptiveBlue we’re taking a top-down approach to semantic understanding. Our products are focused on bringing additional value to consumers in just a few basic verticals – books, music, stocks, etc. It’s a noun-verb equation. We leverage vertical semantic knowledge and existing information on the web to recognize nouns and then apply appropriate verbs.
  
  Let’s say a user quickly blogs about a great meal they had at a restaurant and includes a link to the restaurant’s page on CitySearch with no additional information. Our technology is able to identify the link as a noun and understand that it’s about a specific restaurant. A SmartLink is then automatically inserted that includes relevant verbs: read reviews, make a reservation, find it on a map, find nearby bars to grab a drink at afterwards, etc. All of these are for the specific restaurant and all of this is completed automatically and instantly.
• Does this have anything to do with the much-vaunted ‘Web 3.0′?
  
  I don’t think anyone knows what’s next for the web. Regardless we don’t want to be known for a label or a buzz word. We want to be known for the value and utility that we bring to individuals. We’re leveraging our technology to enable users to browse smarter and think that the benefits today are already strong and they’re only going to strengthen in the future. You can attach yourself to any number of labels, but at the end of the day it all comes down to people and that’s our focus.
• Do you see Smartlink technology changing the way we use the web? How/not?
  
  Yes. Currently we provide the smarts to understand that a page on Amazon is about a thing and can provide instant information that’s contextually correct for that thing. That’s valuable and different from how we currently use the web today, it provides a more efficient method to discover and learn more about the object.
  
  Understanding that a page on Amazon is a particular thing, and that it’s the same thing that’s on a page on Barnes and Noble or in a particular blog post is very valuable. This starts to shift away from a web of pages towards an emerging web of things and individuals will find a lot of value in a web of things.

After my trial implementation of AdaptiveBlue’s Smartlink technology on this very site, I was contacted by Director of Business Development, Fraser Kelton, who agreed to a Questions and Answers session about Adaptive Blue’s new technology. For a quick introduction, I have been trying out AdaptiveBlue’s Blue Organiser for a few weeks and found their semantic features helpful and intuitive for finding and retreiving changing information, and decided to try out the Smartlink code to offer this to readers of my blog:

• What makes a link Smart?
  
  Traditional links are not smart, they’re simple pointers to pages. When we write about a book and link to the book’s page on Amazon we mean to link to the thing but the link points to the page.
  
  A link is smart when it’s capable of automatically identifying and understanding what the thing is on the page. Once the link is identified to mean a thing a lot of valuable information can be automatically presented to the user that’s contextually correct for the thing.
  
  What I mean by this is that once a link is semantically understood to be about a specific book the user can be presented with options around that particular book – read the New York Times Book Review for the book, find similar books, save the book to social networks, etc. When the link is identified to be about a music album the actions and information presented are different and contextually correct.
• How about the ‘link’ in Smartlinks… where does it link to?
  
  With SmartLinks the user links like they normally would to a page on one of a dozen of sites – a book on Amazon, an artist on Last.fm, a stock on Google Finance, and a SmartLink is automatically inserted. The SmartLink is automatically inserted and when the icon is clicked a SmartLink pane launches that includes relevant content from across the web that’s populated using semantic understanding of the original link.
• How is this information kept up-to-date?
  
  Everything is automated so the information is always up-to-date. For example, when a user links to a stock page on Google Finance the SmartLink understands that the link is about a stock and will instantly pull up-to-date information about the specific stock into the SmartLink pane when it’s launched. When users link to new releases on Amazon, or one of our other supported sites, a SmartLink is automatically created for the book with relevant and correct information.
• Can I use Smartlinks on my own site or blog, and what would be the benefit from a content host’s perspective?
  
  Yes, SmartLinks install with 1-click for Blogger and Typepad, there’s a WordPress plug-in and a single line of java script for all other blog platforms and sites. SmartLinks will then instantly appear on all links to supported sites – both for new posts and all archived posts.
  
  There are a lot of benefits for enabling SmartLinks on your site. They automatically enable you to provide a tonne of additional and contextually correct information in your posts. Your readers will have the instant ability to discover and explore what you’ve blogged about without leaving your site and without having to search or filter for more information – SmartLinks do all of this automatically and present a nice package of pure results. Additionally, a blogger can connect their Amazon Affiliate ID to SmartLinks so that all Amazon links within the SmartLink are monetized – this occurs for new posts as well as all old posts, enabling bloggers to monetize their archives.
• Can smartlinks be used alongside RSS or in conjunction with subscription technology? (e.g. for keeping up to date with past current Smartlink, like following a stock or tracking the popularity of a favourite song)
  Right now SmartLinks do not work with RSS.
• Where would I find Smartlinks at the moment? (i.e. Who is using this technology?)
  
  SmartLinks are enabled on a large number of blogs. You can see some great examples at:
  • http://madstocks.blogspot.com/ – wonderful stock blog that makes great use of SmartLinks for stocks
  • http://steffanantonas.com/ – a great blog that has SmartLinks enabled as well as a number of SmartLink Widgets
  • http://gothamgal.blogs.com/ – has a nice mix of book and music SmartLinks (check out the Typepad list in the right-hand sidebar – SmartLinks were automatically added providing additional benefit to something that previously existed)
• What are ‘Semantics’ on the web, and how do smartlinks feature in the ‘semantic web’?
  
  Semantics is defined as "the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc." To understand the meaning of a word is to semantically understand it. Semantic Web is an academic term about using standardized data formats and a language for recording the relationship between data so that computers can analyze and understand meaning and context of all data on the web.
  
  At AdaptiveBlue we’re taking a top-down approach to semantic understanding. Our products are focused on bringing additional value to consumers in just a few basic verticals – books, music, stocks, etc. It’s a noun-verb equation. We leverage vertical semantic knowledge and existing information on the web to recognize nouns and then apply appropriate verbs.
  
  Let’s say a user quickly blogs about a great meal they had at a restaurant and includes a link to the restaurant’s page on CitySearch with no additional information. Our technology is able to identify the link as a noun and understand that it’s about a specific restaurant. A SmartLink is then automatically inserted that includes relevant verbs: read reviews, make a reservation, find it on a map, find nearby bars to grab a drink at afterwards, etc. All of these are for the specific restaurant and all of this is completed automatically and instantly.
• Does this have anything to do with the much-vaunted ‘Web 3.0′?
  
  I don’t think anyone knows what’s next for the web. Regardless we don’t want to be known for a label or a buzz word. We want to be known for the value and utility that we bring to individuals. We’re leveraging our technology to enable users to browse smarter and think that the benefits today are already strong and they’re only going to strengthen in the future. You can attach yourself to any number of labels, but at the end of the day it all comes down to people and that’s our focus.
• Do you see Smartlink technology changing the way we use the web? How/not?
  
  Yes. Currently we provide the smarts to understand that a page on Amazon is about a thing and can provide instant information that’s contextually correct for that thing. That’s valuable and different from how we currently use the web today, it provides a more efficient method to discover and learn more about the object.
  
  Understanding that a page on Amazon is a particular thing, and that it’s the same thing that’s on a page on Barnes and Noble or in a particular blog post is very valuable. This starts to shift away from a web of pages towards an emerging web of things and individuals will find a lot of value in a web of things.