Here and There: PTT in Close Shot (5)

So say that the conflicts between search engines and the privacy of BBS users are all solved. How to make the search results more useful? Even in YouSee now--the search engine that only covers some forums and couple BBS sites, the search results can be plenty if the key term is commonly used. Therefore, it is important to develop an efficient ranking mechanism that works for both telnet PTT and web PTT. With the operation of the ranking mechanism, YouSee would be able to sort out the results that have most visits or have been recommended most. The comment function has long been used in a different manner (chitchat mostly), as I said earlier, so it is not reliable to count the number of comments of each post to decide its value. Then how should the ranking system work? Concluding from the blogs I have been reading, one good way to do that is to make sure there is a correct URL in the web PTT for each post--or at least those in the public boards--in PTT. These URLs can be used as referral to track where does the post link to, where is the post linked from, and how the flow is directed between PTT and the web. To make the ranking base on the referral data should be workable if in the first place the corresponding URL is operating correctly. And, perhaps in this way the posts in the web PTT can be promoted to the preceding results in the usual search engine like Google or Yahoo.

Another suggestion that has been brought up many times is that to develop APIs for PTT. It is similar to how the APIs work for Twitter, Plurk, and other social media. Users might be able to navigate PTT with their cellphone, to receive latest posts or comments in the forum that they have been subscribed to on their cellphone, to send out comments, posts, even mails in PTT via cellphone, to use Skype, gtalk, or MSN to send messages to their PTT peers and vice versa, just to name a few. There are so many possibilities to look forward to if the connections can be really built by the means of APIs. With the help of properly designed APIs, the connectivity of PTT would be maximized and tightly woven into people's daily life, and consequently, the values inside the flow, the content, the networks PTT bears will also be utilized in a more convenient and efficient ways.

But before cheering for the brightly looking future of PTT, it is helpful and important to be aware of couple things. First, like what I mentioned in the very beginning, there is no standard formula for the development of the Internet or the interaction between the cyber world and the offline world. There could be some broad ground rules, but it is hardly possible to copy and follow the exact pattern of the successful precedents. Also, the developing tendencies can vary regionally, because of the traditions, languages, values the local society are carrying. Same methods might cause dramatic variation in different regions. It is rather crucial to inspect how the local society has affected its interactions with the Internet, and how the Internet has responded to that. Knowing the people who are using--or even not using--the media is another key point. Mankind is always the agent that makes the differences. In order not to fall into the similar embarrassment of YouSee, one needs to take the logic, assumptions, ideologies embedded within people's daily use of the Internet into consideration.

Nevertheless, even if all the homework is done beforehand, how the Internet would keep growing and altering people's life is in fact hidden in the mist. After all, our generation is in fact right IN the middle, or the beginning, of the digital era. The Internet has been exploding in different speeds, into various directions. It is always possible and intriguing to expect, to deduct, or to predict, but we could never be certain.

-references:

Michael Netzley, CommunicateAsia (blog)

http://communicate.os3.sg/

Sam Flemming, China IWOM Blog (blog)

http://www.seeisee.com/sam/

MOBINODE (blog)

http://www.mobinode.com/

Mr./Ms. Days (MMDays) - 網路, 資訊, 觀察, 生活 (blog)

http://mmdays.wordpress.com/ (old site)

http://mmdays.com/

For Immediate ReleaseL The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #408

http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz/index.php?/weblog/comments/the_hobson_holtz_report_podcast_408_december_22_2008/