The National Business Review (NBR) has decided to implement a "paywall" according to its publisher Barry Colman.

The story is developing on Computerworld (no I am not going to give NBR link love today):

The National Business Review is planning to lock down around 20% of its web content for the first time from tomorrow.

In a notice to newsletter subscribers, NBR publisher Barry Colman says selected top stories will be available to paid subscribers only.

Colman writes the "madness" of existing media models has seen aggregators profit from the supply of free news copy. 

"Worse still the model has spawned a huge band of amateur, untrained, unqualified bloggers who have swarmed over the internet pouring out columns of unsubstantiated 'facts' and hysterical opinion," he writes.

"Most of these 'citizen journalists' don’t have access to decision makers and are infamous for their biased and inaccurate reporting on almost any subject under the sun (while invariably criticising professional news coverage whose original material they depend on to base their diatribes)."

I agree that a certain number of bloggers will parrot stories out of mainstream media. Also that some will have unsubstantiated "facts" and "opinions".

But no one owns the only true point of view, isn't that true?

The other way around is also true. Many times I've been asked by Geekzone users who had posted in our forums and had been contacted by journalists interested in getting more details so they can write stories for their newspapers . Many times I got a scoop and posted here in the blog, just to see it in the technology-dedicated pages of the MSM a few days later.

For example I think it's a great coincidence to have someone talking about IQ Test scams on Geekzone, and seeing a story about IQ Test scams in one of our two main newspapers about 45 days later...

Or the whole New Zealand DIA Internet censorship story - posted here last weekend and in other blogs and now showing up on NBR where they say:

"Bloggers have been immediately dubious about the Department of Internal Affairs’ new filtering programme, officially announced today." and also "Bloggers have noted that the $150,000 for the software only accounts for part of the extra $611,000 extra allocated to the DIA for online enforcement in the budget."

Obviously the NBR thinks bloggers can be good sources too...

UPDATE: Very good analysis with brilliant suggestion by Bernard Hickey.

UPDATE: It will fail.

What happens when your company has the rights to sell a product using a third party's branding, but use this other company's branding innapropriately?

You may ended up not having the product to sell at all...

Barcamp Auckland 2009 is happening 11th July 2009 - time to register for the event folks! You can also follow @barcampauckland updates on Twitter.

Last year we moved around New Zealand (Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Napier), enjoying good times, pizza and beer with our readers - we even had some who actually attended all four events!

We are now getting ready to tour around the country again. Our first event is in Wellington. Again we will meet at the One Red Dog restaurante (Blair St, Courtenay Pl). More details are in this discussion on Geekzone.

Snapper is sponsoring the Wellington event. Yes, the pizza is free!

We still have space for drinks and prizes sponsorship, so contact me if you want to have your brand there.

Registrations open 18th June 3pm and registrations must be completed online. You must have Geekzone login to enter. Sign up on Geekzone now if you haven't got one.

The event is limited to 60 people so be quick. We are giving you warning now so you can book any travel you might need!

About the registration online: You have to enter your information, and click on a confirmation link sent to your email. IF YOU DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK YOU WON'T RECEIVE THE FINAL CONFIRMATION EMAIL AND YOUR NAME WON'T BE ON THE LIST. FOLLOW ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS.

Folks we have ten days to fill the plane and go in the draw to win 30 seats to fly WLG - AKL- WLG to attend an All Blacks game.

Join the Geekzone plane here.

UPDATE: This "plane" is now full and entered into the draw...

Just a quick note about a couple of updates in our Geekzone Jobs forum... Until now most of the posts in that forum came from other Geekzone users looking for or offering a position.

But because of the current conditions we thought it would be cool to provide a bit more to our readers. So we partnered with CVB to automatically load their job listings into the Jobs forum.

I have also created a special Geekzone Jobs RSS feed that you can subscribe and see all the latest jobs openings.

Of course our users can continue to post in the forums as usual.

Very soon we here at Geekzone will be participating with another 25 websites to give away an AT&T Pantech Matrix Pro smartphone - each, to our U.S.-based readers.

That's right, it will be 26 of those AT&T Pantech Matrix Pro, plus a US$100 gift card that you can use to top up your account.

To make it clear: we have 26 websites in this promotion, and each will give away one of these smartphones. Each site will run its own competition, so you can enter in as many of those sites you want, following their own rules.

What's so cool about this handset? Besides being a super fast 3G/HSDPA device, connected to the AT&T network in the U.S., it's a smartphone running Windows Mobile 6.1, with a bright screen, sliding keypad and keyboard:



You can see more about this smartphone here and here.

But even if you don't win in the competitions we are able to give you a special deal from AT&T exclusive to this promotion: buy an AT&T Pantech Matrix Pro and receive a free Jabra BT4051 Bluetooth headset.

I suggest you bookmark this page and come back here often to find which sites are running their promotion in which date. Better still, subscribe to each site's RSS feed so you can keep an eye for when the competition post comes live:

Tools for Thought (15-Apr 19-Apr)
ChipChick (16-Apr 20-Apr)
VivirLatino (17-Apr 21-Apr)
slashgear.com (18-Apr 22-Apr)
www.modaco.com (19-Apr 23-Apr)
Gadgetell (20-Apr 24-Apr)
GeeksRoom (21-Apr 25-Apr)
OSNN (22-Apr 26-Apr)
Techmamas (23-Apr 27-Apr)
Clintonfitch (24-Apr 28-Apr)
Justanothermobilemonday (25-Apr 29-Apr)
Geek.com (26-Apr 30-Apr)
MediaBlab (27-Apr 01-May)
Smartphonethoughts (28-Apr 02-May)
Mobilityminded (29-Apr 03-May)
The Gadgeteer (30-Apr 04-May)
Geekzone (01-May 05-May)
Techie Diva (02-May 06-May)
Bostonpocketpc (03-May 07-May)
GearDiary (04-May 08-May)
MobilitySite (05-May 09-May)
AbsoluteWindows (06-May 10-May)
Mobilejaw (07-May 11-May)
Experiencemobility (08-May 12-May)
HackCollege (09-May 13-May)
Gear Live (10-May 14-May)

PS: Make sure to check back frequently just in case the schedule changes...

Last week I received an email from Tracey Forward (her story is now also showing up on Computerworld). Here are her words:

I am writing to warn your readers about the latest internet scam.  There is a website called buymore.co.nz  that sells well known branded mobile phones for discount/sale prices. I ordered an Apple 8G 8GB IPhone for the reduced price of $599.40. 

When it arrived a few days later I was surprised to see the shipping note in Chinese when it was a NZ website although this thought was quickly replaced with the excitement of my new phone.  However there was a significant part missing which made it impossible to insert a SIM card. 

I sent the website dozens of emails without any response.  There is no physical address or phone numbers available on the website.

Because of the delay, I took the phone to an Authorised Apple repairer only to be told that the phone was a fake.  Because of this, they nor any other repairer would be legally allowed to attempt repair. I am trying to channel my anger (towards myself and the situation) into preventing this from happening to anyone else.  I have informed the Police, Commerce Commission, Dept of Consumer Affairs, Consumer Institute, Chinese Embassy, Target and Fair Go.
 
I would be very grateful if you could publish this letter in order to prevent anyone else being stung for this enormous amount of money and disappointment. Regards
 
Tracey Forward

Be warned folks...

During the visit to HP's Houston offices we had the chance to attend a couple of deep dive sessions into the new HP servers. Here are a few pictures from those meetings and some HP videos with background information on each model:



























You can check the HP ProLiant G6 announcement here and HP Pod pictures here.

You all know those websites promising fortune and glory. You could get $5,000 a week without leaving home! Learn how to earn Google money using a "system" someone is selling for $49 - a $250 off!

What a bargain, isn't it? If this could really provide you with $5,000 a week why is this guy selling his "secret"?

Yes, you get the idea. If it's too good to be true, then it probably is.

And we have Twitter, the microblogging service that is fun - until you start getting the damn spammers in your "followers" list.

For example I've created a new Twitter account to share my favourite RSS clips with friends - and the world. After only a couple of days it has a few followers. But let's look at their profiles:

"Internet Marketing & Attraction Marketing Instructor"

"I will help you learn how money works and how to make it work for you!"

"Husband, father, social media,tax guy, blogger, startups, entrepreneur, consultant. How can I help?"

"Internet Marketer/Author/Entrepreneur"

"Hustling my way through life, Marketing, SEO, Affiliates, Comedy, Youtube, Motivational; I rarely check DM's if you sent one please @ me letting me know thxs"

"Internet Marketing & Attraction Marketing Instructor"

"I help entrepreneurs grow their businesses while working less."

"Full time network marketer and loving being able to help others. In top 25 of company I work with."

"Clickbank ready packages - book, website etc. Please ask me for more info"

"Father / Husband, Internet Marketer, Traffic Specialist, Affiliate Marketer, and Coach"

Oh yes, they are all my "friends". And what do they post in their tweets? Just have a look at these:



Or this one:



Look at those numbers. This person is obviously spamming away, and he still has more than 40,000 people following his tweets!

I said it before about blogging: the people making most money with blogging are those teaching others how to make money with blogging.

And look at all those messages. What are those links you ask? Don't bother visiting, I will give you a glimpse of some of those:










One of these actually create a long video with precise instructions on how to get more than 30,000 Twitter Followers in a few days. With big loud words and all:



These days I had to turn off the Twitter e-mail notifications. If people noticed I don't follow back, it's simply because managing Twitter followers is too much of a time consuming task, when you receive a few notifications every day, check each profile and decide that 80% of those are spammers.

There are two types there: the ones that have a huge following (such as those examples here), or those who use automated tools to create an account, follow a couple of thousand people and post a single tweet saying something like "It really works, I got a free iPhone, visit my site".

Even if you decide to block these "gurus" you still have to visit their profiles at least once. And that's when you see their (very annoying) messages.

There's also the problem with people who are so eager to have followers and show how "engaged" they are that auto-follow tools are used to automatically follow new "friends". It means at least in a few cases those "gurus" get undiscriminate follow back. If you are not discerning who you follow back then your list is probably already filled with these contacts - shame on you for feeding these guys!

Twitter is not helping either - they should attach the new followers' profile to the notification e-mail - this would save users a lot of time managing the list. They should also include a "Block this user" link on each email too.

Seriously. When people start talking about "Twitter Conferences", "bringing Twitter to schools" or "companies should use Twitter" you have to stop and think there's something wrong there. The service should really exclude these type of spam/scam otherwise it will have so much noise soon that it will die. A well deserved death.