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In news today, the MPAA (Match Producers Association of America) have requested that Congress give them equal intellectual and copyright protection as their brother organization the Motion Picture Association of America by passing the "One Match, One Candle" law.

MPAA spokesperson Sparky McClaine explains "We are tired of people buying a small box of matches, and then diluting our profits by using a single match to light two, three, or even more candles before lighting a new one. This illegal copying is costing our industry millions, and is ultimately hurting the artisans who design our different match compistions and designs." When asked about the industry's position of using one candle to light another, Sparky continued, "That's the kind of P2P copying that this law would also outlaw. The fire pirates out there argue that they're doing no harm since the original candle remains lit and burning, but obviously this also negatively impacts our sales."

Congressperson Scrooge McDuck was asked about the likelihood of the bill's passage, but was unable to comment as he was busy asking his nephews' legal firm (Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe) about the current campaign laws regarding contributions he might have received from the MPAA...

In further news, we have learned that another organization, the RIAA (Repair Industries Association of America) is working on similar legislation to require single use tools under the banner "One Screwdriver, One Screw".

I have a vision of what I think the next "version" of the web could look like. Below, I take you through a version of a website that shows many of the features I expect to see.

We enter the site portal, which gives us a view of which of our friends are on the site, and what they're doing. It also shows us scheduled events we've set up, and other events going on that we might be interested in - prioritized by how relevant they are to our interests and some of our friends interests. There are also similar views available for the site's editors if we want to do some more exploring. Part of the view also shows any conflicts there might be with our main calendar, and what options there are for recording those events.

We didn't have to login to the site because our Web 3.0 world has a web of trust mechanism setup that once we are authenticed allows us to go between various data views without having to reauthenticate. Similarly, the site portal can be meshed with other data views if we want to create a dashboard related to a particular interest. In fact, it isn't too unusual for folks to put together specialized niche views that can then be shared in return for reputation bonuses - which at many sites function the same as "credit care reward points" today.

Choosing one of the live venue feeds, the other views are pushed to the borders of the screen, or to virtual windows based on our preferences, and we see two media windows on one side of the screen with the venue discussion room on the other side. Our avatars join the discussion for a couple minutes before the show begins, with the primary media feed being displayed in the top media window. The second media window is available for sharing by the venue participants for doing live mashups with the show, or clips from related media that we might want to explore further. For example, one friend shows me that this scene from the show is an homage to another show I haven't seen before, and I click on the second window to mark this for viewing later.

When the show ends, the venue continues for people to discuss what they have just seen, to review it, or to discuss what they will be doing next. The venue remains active as long as there are folks active there, or until the next showing. Since the venue is virtual, it can be based around a particular show, or a particular schedule of shows. A mash-up of network TV functionality with a movie theater room. Of course the programming for that venue could be something the site setup, or that a group from the site setup. This also means that sometimes a crowd "appears" as multiple venues merge for a particular show. Because the venue knows who is there, its also possible to either sell advertising to support the shows based on the number of folks present and their common interests, or to charge folks a fee (per show, per month, whatever) based on their attendance. It also identifies members who may want to buy either the show itself for download, or the entire recorded venue experience.

These venues can also be setup to collaborate on something. We go to a different venue in response to a reminder to join a group of friends who are taking several scenes from different episodes of a particular series to put into a music video based on an appropriate song for those scenes. The group has access to feeds of all those episodes, and the top window is now the group project window while the lower screen is the workspace used to add or cut, or manipulate the music or video. For example, you could take Avril Levigne's "You need a new girlfriend" and several episodes of the anime "School Days" and put together one heck of an AMV :-)

Venues can also be used for work as virtual offices become more prevalent. The difference here is that you may need venues with more restrictive admitance policies, and where the screens have tools dedicated to other forms of media.

All of the work and discussions in a venue are tagged based on day and time, the media being watched or edited, and who was present and/or editing. In this way it's easy to determine the contribution of different members, or to find that song you heard yesterday, etc. Of course tags in different formats can be added directly by members as well - whether it be to add a recommendation or a pan of something, an easy to index text tag, or an audio commentary. Tags are viewable and sharable to allow you to take advantage of what other folks have come up with.

This will also allow for expert tagging of media by request. For example, I have a lot of photos that have various flowers or plants in them. I can then submit the photos to be tagged by someone who can tell me what they are. Payment can be in reputation, in monetary payment, or in barter (I'll tag your computer circuit shots or setup a data view).

Some tagging will also be automated based on similarity and the reputation of the site. If I took a picture of a common flower, it should be possible for me to let the Wikipedia tag service to find the closest match and auto-tag those. Similarly if I hum a tune, the Pandora tag service should be able to identify the song, give me the option to add it to my "station", and suggest other songs I might like.

Anyone who has a couple million, let me know, and I'd be happy to build this for you :-)

For the rest of y'all, would be interested in your comments!

Yes, you can now buy chocolate covered bacon from the internet. Actually I suspect it's more like chocolate with bacon bits, but still, quite an interesting combination. I've had to fight the urge all day to buy some, but suspect I will give in eventually.

Now all I need is to find someplace that sells pineapple slices in a habernero glaze. Then again, if I put one of those slices on one of these chocolate bars...

Have gotten a couple emails the last few days, and I'm sorry for the sudden drop off in posting. "Real Life" had gotten a little busy lately, and with Google dropping my PR to 2, the paid post opportunities have pretty much disappeared. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop working on the blog, just that I'm more inclined to do the longer series I've been doing lately, and those take more time to prepare.

Sometime this week I'm looking to put up a post about my vision for Web 3.0, and hopefully you'll agree it was worth the time. May get in some other stuff soon as well. You never know.

Thanks for visiting, and I appreciate the concern and support!