A look at the new Last.fm homepage.

(Credit: Last.fm)

Social music site Last.fm has unveiled a new look: a slick new design, an iPhone app, a partnership with Logitech to stream music to compatible home stereo systems, and a host of new features.

With the new features, …

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Opposing Views is a new site for debate that’s launching this day. The content on it is great reading. And as CEO Russell Fine said, “I get a lot of people angry. Which is mission accomplished.”

I love that.

The site poses questions to people known for representing strong positions on them. The questions are precisely those you don’t generally ask at cocktail parties, such as “Is there a God?” and “Should the death penalty be banned?” Plenty of sites address issues like these, but Opposing Views, as a site, takes no position. Rather, it’s a platform for debate. Opposing Views’ value add is the structure it provides, and the team’s skill in recruiting spokespeople on opposite sides of the issues.

Opposing Views landed spokespeople from both presidential campgaigns to debate the candidates' economic plans.

Maintaining balance in the product will be difficult. In the pre-launch site I looked at, the quality of the debate was variable, from middling to excellent. Mostly, people taking opposing positions were fairly matched, meaning some debates were more engaging than others. On the question of which presidential candidate would be better for the American economy, Opposing Views landed a coup: official representation from officers in both the McCain and Obama campaigns. Contributors like that attract other quality writers. Meanwhile, the staff at Opposing Views vets the qualifications of all contributors, and bans comments that don’t follow basic rules of decorum and debate.

The main content on Opposing Views is highly structured. Debaters can address a question by making short headline statements to support their position, which they have the ability to then expand on at length, with HTML video embeds and hyperlinks if they wish. Opponents can create a rebuttal to a particular argument in addition to posting their own list of statements supporting their position. Multiple experts can support one position and the site segregates their answers.

The sites’s users can comment on arguments and vote them up or down.

Is this argument, the American Coal Council has a rebuttal to the Rainforst Action Network's position on building more coal power plants.

Currently, most of the debates on Opposing Views are “stance” issues, to use Fine’s terminology. They’re arguments around areas of interest. Eventually Fine hopes to have more “transactional” debates that veer towards advice. In particular, he’s looking at medical topics, and he states he has a way to keep the content general enough to be interesting to readers while also providing a level of personal service that, as it appears to me, veers a bit close to the Yahoo Answers model.

My advice: Try the site. It might open your eyes on issues you care about. It might make your blood boil to see how people in opposition to your views represent themselves. But we could all use more exposure to ideas that are counter to our own.

Where’s the money?
Opposing Views is not a nonprofit issues site like ProCon.org. Fine is in this game to make a buck, and believes that advertising and selling view research generated on his site will work as primary revenue models. Supporting those are the potentials to act as a speakers’ bureau (where superior to find a speaker on a topic than on a site about debate?), and as a white-label platform he has the ability to license to sites like local newspapers.

The key to the main revenue streams is search engine optimization, and in this regard, the more experts he gets on the site the more traffic he’ll get, since, as he states, “All these experts, they’ll bring their crowds with them.”

See also: Helium, BigThink, Fora.

Fore more visit Source: [webware]

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By Matthew Robinson and Rebekah Kebede  “NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some U.S. motorists sick of getting clobbered at the pump seem willing to do just about anything for free fuel, from giving up the right to name their children to stealing from day-care centers to donating blood.  In Orlando, Florida, David Partin pledged to name his son […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net

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The easiest way to describe Spire, a new community site that made its debut Monday, is as a more grown-up, cultured Yelp: the latter offers expert advice on the ideal dive bars in Brooklyn, whereas the former focuses on four-star restaurants and hotels across the river in Manhattan. Calling itself …

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The game development platform du jour might be the iPhone 2.0 software, but News Corp.’s MySpace hopes to make a splash with a new contest in its Asian market: TheGame08, which pits developers against one another in an attempt to create a hit social game that runs on …

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Opposing Views is a new site for debate that’s launching this day. The content on it is great reading. And as CEO Russell Fine stated, “I get a lot of people angry. Which is mission accomplished.”

I love that.

The site poses questions to people known for representing strong positions on them. The questions are precisely those you don’t generally ask at cocktail celebrations, such as “Is there a God?” and “Should the death penalty be banned?” Plenty of sites address issues like these, but Opposing Views, as a site, takes no position. Rather, it’s a platform for debate. Opposing Views’ value add is the structure it provides, and the team’s skill in recruiting spokespeople on opposite sides of the issues.

Opposing Views landed spokespeople from both presidential campgaigns to debate the candidates' economic plans.

Maintaining balance in the product will be difficult. In the pre-launch site I looked at, the quality of the debate was variable, from middling to excellent. Mostly, people taking opposing positions were fairly matched, meaning some debates were more engaging than others. On the question of which presidential candidate would be superior for the American economy, Opposing Views landed a coup: official representation from officers in both the McCain and Obama campaigns. Contributors like that attract other quality writers. Meanwhile, the staff at Opposing Views vets the qualifications of all contributors, and bans comments that don’t follow basic rules of decorum and debate.

The main content on Opposing Views is highly structured. Debaters can address a question by making short headline statements to support their position, which they have the ability to then expand on at length, with HTML video embeds and hyperlinks if they wish. Opponents can create a rebuttal to a particular argument in addition to posting their own list of statements supporting their position. Multiple experts can support one position and the site segregates their answers.

The sites’s users can comment on arguments and vote them up or down.

Is this argument, the American Coal Council has a rebuttal to the Rainforst Action Network's position on building more coal power plants.

Currently, most of the debates on Opposing Views are “stance” issues, to use Fine’s terminology. They’re arguments around areas of interest. Eventually Fine hopes to have more “transactional” debates that veer towards advice. In particular, he’s looking at medical topics, and he states he has a way to keep the content general enough to be interesting to readers while also providing a level of personal service that, as it appears to me, veers a bit close to the Yahoo Answers model.

My advice: Try the site. It might open your eyes on issues you care about. It might make your blood boil to see how people in opposition to your views represent themselves. But we could all use more exposure to ideas that are counter to our own.

Where’s the money?
Opposing Views isn’t a nonprofit issues site like ProCon.org. Fine is in this game to make a buck, and believes that advertising and selling opinion research generated on his site will work as primary revenue models. Supporting those are the potentials to act as a speakers’ bureau (where superior to find a speaker on a topic than on a site about debate?), and as a white-label platform he has the ability to license to sites like local newspapers.

The key to the main revenue streams is search engine optimization, and in this regard, the more experts he gets on the site the more traffic he’ll get, since, as he says, “All these experts, they’ll bring their crowds with them.”

See also: Helium, BigThink, Fora.

Fore more visit Source: [webware]

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By Matthew Robinson and Rebekah Kebede  “NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some U.S. motorists sick of getting clobbered at the pump seem willing to do just about anything for free fuel, from giving up the right to name their kids to stealing from day-care centers to donating blood.  In Orlando, Florida, David Partin pledged to name his son […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net

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As part of its annual “Wikimania” conference in Alexandria, Egypt, the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation–parent company of Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and a number of others–announced two new members to its board of trustees. The announcement went out on Friday and is effective immediately.

Taking over from current chair Florence Devouard will be …

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If you’re looking for a fun drive, it’s hard not to advocate the MINI Cooper. They’re stylish, handle great, and as a bonus, get impressive fuel economy.

The standard Cooper, when equipped with a 6-speed manual transmission, is rated by the EPA at 28 mpg city and 37 mpg highway.

If that’s too small for you, you can step up to the lengthened Clubman model, which boasts identical numbers. I drove the latter earlier this year and averaged 31 miles per gallon over a week of mixed driving. Even the sportier, turbocharged “S” models have 34 mpg highway ratings. If the size works for you, the MINI offers a great mix of dynamics and efficiency.

Thirty-seven miles per gallon’s nothing compared to the next trick MINI has up ts sleeve, though. Starting next year, the automaker will offer all-electric Coopers in the United Says. Green Fuels Forecast reports that MINI’s U.S. VP, Jim McDowell, was taken by surprise when parent company BMW made the announcement, but he went on to confirm that the vehicles will indeed arrive sometime next summer. Since BMW plans to use lithium ion batteries in its upcoming hybrids, it’s probable that they’ll also supply the juice for the factory MINI EV. Published reports put the number of vehicles planned at 500, with California naturally receiving the lion’s share, but apparently that could change. McDowell also told Green Fuels Forecast that the electric MINI could wind up being rolled out nationwide.

Whether the automobiles will be sold or leased hasn’t yet been decided, but either way, the MINI EV should make a massive splash when it lands in the marketplace. We’re looking forward to hearing additional details as they become confirmed, but mostly, we just want to try the thing out when it arrives. Until the EV arrives, MINI’s hands will remain full — in the U.S. they’re selling every automobile they get, and they’re trying to get an increased allotment to keep up with growing demand.

Alex Nunez’s blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.

For more visit Source:[green.yahoo]

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