BlogaBarbara

Santa Barbara Politics, Media & Culture

Friday, December 12, 2008

New Technology BETA at BlogaBarbara

After over 1,000 posts and almost four years of blogging, I've decided that it is time for some modernization and change to go along with the theme in our nation's capitol.

Starting today I invite you to test some new technology with me that I'd like to make permanent on the blog should we find it useful. Drop.io is an easy to use, online file sharing service that provides users with a simple and private way to share images, video, audio, documents and other digital content through unique, user-created and controlled sharing points called 'drops.'

During this beta period, which I would imagine would be at least a couple of weeks, you can anonymously upload just about anything to http://drop.io/hidden/p6xh1v9rkb0omw/upload.

I also have a voicemail associated with this account which will convert your message to MP3. Only I can hear the message but if you are okay with me sharing the message online, say so. Again, it is anonymous so don't self-identify on a voice mail unless you are okay about me knowing who you are -- otherwise I would have no idea.

The voicemail phone number is 646-402-5686 x 85162

One of the reasons why I would like to do this on a trial basis is that there clearly is an opportunity for spam in that even just a person or two could misuse these tools and flood me with unnecessary messages. I also think it could be a useful tool for sharing files and news tips, etc. Let's see how it goes and if it doesn't work out, I won't use it!

Look for more changes as we approach the new year, I have a few ideas that I hope you agree will help continue the community building BlogaBarbara began in 2005 and take it to a new level.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

How does this work??

The drop.io seems to be a way to send a file (picture, audio, video) that will not reveal the source, as in an email address.

Is that correct?
I suppose that is a useful service for Deep Throats of the 21st Century. A lot of people may not trust that, though....

The phone message feature is good for Sara De la Guerra to maintain anonymity but not for the caller whose voice could be recognized.

12/13/2008 1:16 PM  
Blogger Sara De la Guerra said...

Agreed -- there are benefits and challenges with this system and it means a great deal of trust on your part. I'm all for several different channels of communication though as one may feel more comfortable than another.

12/14/2008 8:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder how much anonymity there is? A blog owner, like a Web site, owner can see the IP addresses of contributors.

I can see the advantage from the blog owner's point of view, of having a single source for pictures, but what advantage from the blog reader or participant's point of view over sending you a picture or news note with a reasonably anonymous gmail, for instance, address?

I like the idea of truly anonymous news tips, but wonder whether there are any presently in the know who would participate, while there may well be numbers of the rest of us not in the know who'd like to pretend to be. The citizen news of What's Up? in edhat are good examples of the trivia that we great unwashed out here think are important or interesting.

12/14/2008 9:57 AM  
Blogger Sara De la Guerra said...

city watcher -- IP addresses that I can see tend to be dynamic and ever-changing. If you have a Cox or Verizon home connection for instance, and I bothered to look, I would just see that Cox or Verizon is the internet service provider. I also don't have a paid service for Site Meter so I get maybe an hours worth of data at a time before I lose access to it. The truth is I'm not interested much pass the number of page views and visits the blog gets!

When one has a dedicated IP at a business for instance I'll know it came from there but not from who. For instance, I can see if the News-Press server visits but not which reporter, editor, owner or ad sales person...this is likely anonymous enough for most people.

A reasonably anonymous gmail account works fine for me...this just an alternative. Perhaps it isn't worth it...

12/14/2008 1:24 PM  

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