Tech analyst, AI & the web
I founded the tech blog ReadWriteWeb in April 2003 and ran it until October 2012. During my time running the business, it was well known for its cutting edge content (“What’s next on the Web”) and its influential global audience. At its peak, RWW was ranked among the top ten blogs in the world by Technorati.
This category contains all of the articles I personally wrote for RWW, now archived on ricmac.org for easier browsing and search. If you’d like to explore the original context, you can also view a year-by-year archive with links to the Wayback Machine
At the end of SXSW Interactive, I was interviewed by WebBeat.TV’s Pelpina Trip. We discussed what was, in my view, the main trend of the event: group messaging. The ReadWriteWeb team tested a couple of these products, Beluga and GroupMe. We ended up using Beluga for the duration of SXSW, to keep in touch with … Read more
For those of you lucky enough to be attending SXSW in Austin, Texas this week, we’d like to know which panels you regard as Must-See. The panel list for this event is overwhelming, even with the help of scheduling services like Sched.org. This is my second SXSW. Last year, my (belated) debut, I got a … Read more
Today I’m very excited to announce the next evolution of ReadWriteWeb events: The ReadWriteWeb 2WAY Summit, happening June 13-14 at Columbia University in New York City. We’re planning to reward our passionate audience with the best tech, people and ideas the Web has to offer in two unique and fun ways. Day one of the … Read more
Last Tuesday New Zealand time, the city of Christchurch suffered a destructive and deadly earthquake. Measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, the quake wreaked havoc because it was shallow and close to the city center. It was the second major earthquake to have hit Christchurch in 5 months, after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake on September … Read more
Today the New Zealand city of Christchurch was rocked by another large earthquake, a magnitude 6.3 that was shallow and hit close to the city center. It follows months of aftershocks from the first big earthquake to strike Christchurch, a magnitude 7.1 on 4 September last year. A personal note: I live in Wellington, New … Read more
There are no shortage of consumption apps on the Web, especially since the iPad (in many ways the ultimate Web consumption device) arrived on the scene. But what about content creation apps? In the Web 2.0 era, we saw the rise of blogging platforms, social networks, and media sharing services like Flickr and YouTube. Some … Read more
Tonight the band Radiohead once again set a new standard for album releases in the digital era, by unexpectedly making available its latest album The King of Limbs a day early. Not only that, everything about this release was done via the Web and independent of a record label. Along with the early launch of … Read more
Is it the constraint of 140 characters per message that makes Twitter what it is? Or is Twitter now a broader, real-time messaging service that needn’t be constrained by a character limitation? The most prominent third party Twitter client, TweetDeck, recently introduced a “long post” feature called Deck.ly, which brings those questions to the fore. … Read more
The latest set of online music research reports has just been released by We Are Hunted, an online music chart. We spoke to We Are Hunted co-founder and CTO Stephen Phillips to identify the overall trends. A big mover over the past 6 months has been Arcade Fire, which Phillips said is “a masterclass in … Read more
Last week Rupert Murdoch’s iPad-only newspaper The Daily was launched. The Daily is a newspaper app available to U.S. users on the iPad for 99c per week (the first 2 weeks are free; non-U.S. people can download it for trial via this method). The Daily has been touted as the “future of the newspaper” by … Read more
Every Thursday evening PT we shine a spotlight on the Internet of Things, which is when everyday objects are connected to the Internet. Today we look at one of many companies making ‘things’ happen in the evolving Internet of Things. Based out of Cambridge, MA, the aptly named ThingMagic makes a range of RFID (radio … Read more
Many of us go on diets from time to time, to lose weight or simply eat healthier. In this post we look at 5 smartphone apps that help you manage your diet. Common amongst these apps is the ability to track the nutritional value of foods. Some, such as DailyBurn, even allow you to scan … Read more
A new report from GlobalWebIndex has some thought-provoking data about “social entertainment,” a term for when entertainment is augmented by social media technologies. For example, the real-time discussion happening around TV shows on Twitter. In the GlobalWebindex report, entitled GlobalWebIndex Wave 1-3 2010, author Tom Smith notes three main trends. The first two are well … Read more
Kanye West is savvy and smart when it comes to promoting himself and his music, so it’s no surprise that he’s taken to Social Media in a big way. Kanye’s Facebook page has 5.6 million fans, he’s a regular tweeter with 2.2 million followers, and Twitter is a prominent part of his website. Since social … Read more
Every Thursday evening PT we review Internet of Things developments from the past week. Internet of Things is a term for when everyday objects are connected to the Internet. It’s becoming an increasingly relevant trend for the Web and media, so we want to keep you updated with the latest news. Tune in every Thursday … Read more