Richard MacManus's Blog

A couple of weeks ago I joined Blocktimes as head of content. Blocktimes is a cryptocurrency and blockchain news website. It’s primarily a curation service for the crypto internet at this stage, but we are introducing regular original content too.

My debut Blocktimes post

From now on I’ll be publishing all of my crypto articles onto Blocktimes, instead of my indie blog Blocksplain. The fact is, Blocksplain wasn’t bringing in any revenue. So I decided it was better to team up with the founder and CEO of Blocktimes, Andrey Zagoruiko. We’re a small team of three currently, including CTO Nick Korvatovskiy.

My role is Chief Content Officer, so I’ll be focusing on the content strategy for Blocktimes.

I encourage you to check out Blocktimes and add it to your daily bookmarks, especially if you’re tracking the fascinating crypto and Web 3.0 markets closely.

20 April was the 15th anniversary of ReadWriteWeb‘s launch, back in 2003. Usually I do an anniversary post, but this year I was a little busy with the arrival of my second child during April.

Having a child puts everything in context. Just as I’m a product of Generation X, RWW was a product of its era: Web 2.0. The current iteration of ReadWrite (as it’s now called) is nothing like the site I built up. But that’s fine, I’ve started up a new blog for this new era. It’s called Blocksplain and ostensibly it’s about blockchain and cryptocurrency. But actually I’ve discovered that “Web 3” is about more than crypto. This era is about exploring openness, decentralization, better privacy – to mention just a few key concepts. It’s also about fixing the problems of Web 2.0: dysfunctional social media, overly powerful “walled garden” tech companies, groupthink, death of online advertising, mob mentality, and more. I’m currently working on a Blocksplain post that thinks through what Web 3 really means. If you have any suggestions for me, please leave a comment.

Also in April, I re-joined Newsroom as a weekly tech columnist. Here are the columns I’ve written so far:

Why NZ needs a cyber security refresh
Spark must up its game for Rugby World Cup
The case for a paid version of Facebook
What’s missing in the IRD’s crypto guidance

It was a quiet month on Blocksplain while I focused on my family, but I was proud of this recent post: 3 problems the blockchain industry must fix. The three issues I identified were building products instead of writing whitepapers, getting real about how massively over-valued crypto companies are right now, and addressing the usability issues of blockchain.

As always, follow me on Twitter or Facebook to discuss Web 3 and other grand theories.

Image above is a screenshot of RWW’s glory days in 2008.

This week I started a cool new job at Newsroom, one of New Zealand’s premier independent media companies. I’ll be their Chief Product Officer for a few days a week, and also writing my weekly technology column for the site. As I noted in my LinkedIn profile, I’ll be responsible for building the Newsroom technology platform and further developing Newsroom Pro – the company’s subscription service.

It’s a key time for media companies, as they try and build a sustainable business model in this post-advertising, mobile-centric, social media-infused era. I’ve built and run a successful indie media company before (ReadWriteWeb), so I’m excited about bringing that skillset and experience to a local media business.

My main role will be to help Newsroom take that next step and build a thriving subscriber business. I’ve seen how some independent media sites in the US have adopted subscriptions – for example The Information and Digiday – so I know it’s not only do-able, but essential in this era if you’re producing thoughtful, analytical content (which Newsroom most certainly does).

On the other two days of the week, I’ll continue to work on my own indie creation: Blocksplain. At the end of last month I did an analysis of the site’s performance since I launched it in late January. I’ve done about 30 posts and a couple even went viral (on Twitter and Reddit). I’m continuing to tweak my goals for the site, which is very niche. I’m aiming to build up an audience of early adopters, business people curious about blockchain, and of course entrepreneurs. Similar to my target audience when I started ReadWriteWeb back in 2003. Except…it’s a whole new era!

Blocksplain is a fun part-time job for me, albeit one with no income right now. I do it because I love experimenting with the latest Web publishing tools and meeting new people; in this case, in the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem.

As always, you can keep tabs on me via Twitter or Facebook (the latter dependent on whether the algorithm lets me into your feed).

This week I started a cool new job at Newsroom, one of New Zealand’s premier independent media companies. I’ll be their Chief Product Officer for a few days a week, and also writing my weekly technology column for the site. As I noted in my LinkedIn profile, I’ll be responsible for building the Newsroom technology platform and further developing Newsroom Pro – the company’s subscription service.

It’s a key time for media companies, as they try and build a sustainable business model in the post-advertising, mobile-centric, social media-infused era. I’ve built and run a successful indie media company before (ReadWriteWeb), so I’m excited about bringing that skillset and experience to a local media business.

My main role will be to help Newsroom take that next step and build a thriving subscriber business. I’ve seen how a few independent media sites in the US have adopted subscriptions – for example The Information and Digiday – so I know it’s not only do-able, but essential in this era if you’re producing thoughtful, analytical content (which Newsroom most certainly does).

On the other two days of the week, I’ll continue to work on my own indie creation: Blocksplain. At the end of last month I did an analysis of the site’s performance since I launched it in late January. I’ve done about 30 posts and a couple even went viral (on Twitter and Reddit). I’m continuing to tweak my goals for the site, which is very niche. I’m aiming to build up an audience of early adopters, business people curious about blockchain, and of course entrepreneurs. Similar to my target audience when I started ReadWriteWeb back in 2003. Except of course…it’s a whole new era!

Blocksplain is a fun part-time job for me, albeit one with no income right now. I do it because I love experimenting with the latest Web publishing tools and meeting new people; in this case, in the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem.

As always, you can keep tabs on me via Twitter or Facebook (the latter dependent on whether the algorithm lets me into your feed).

I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently. While I’m taking a break from the book world, I’ve been full-on with a new blog and my weekly newspaper column. Here are a few quick highlights…

My new blog about blockchain and cryptocurrencies, Blocksplain, has been making an impact in the emerging “Web 3” ecosystem. As I tweeted today:

Thanks Mike! Have to say, so far @blocksplain is doing exactly what @RWW did for me back in 2003/04: connecting me to the do’ers & thinkers of a new Web era. Slowly building up readers, but more importantly it’s a networking magnet. Indie blogs still matter. https://t.co/JAhaKeYuVg

— Richard MacManus (@ricmac) March 7, 2018

If you aren’t yet following Blocksplain, you can get notifications of new posts via RSS, email (see the website), or Twitter. There’s also a Facebook Page, although I don’t think Facebook is ideal since it may not show up in your feed.

If you’re looking to insert yourself into the crypto community, I recommend signing up to Twitter (and following @blocksplain).

Check out the Blocksplain index, to see what I’ve been writing about so far. You can read about new blockchain and crypto startups (like Filecoin and SingularityNET), cryptocurrencies (like NEO and Monero), and the latest blockchain trends.

As well as the new blog, I continue to write a weekly column at Stuff – New Zealand’s largest news website. Recently in my column I’ve discussed both the pros and cons of Artificial Intelligence, weighing up privacy costs when using apps, and how to build a decentralized Twitter. I also coined a new term: vagueware.

If you have any suggestions for upcoming Blocksplain posts or Stuff columns, hit me up on Twitter (@ricmac) or by reaching out via my Contact page.

It’s been over five years now since I left ReadWriteWeb. During that time I wrote and published two books – Trackers (2014) and Presence (2016). But it was time for a change in 2018, so I’ve started up a new tech blog. That’s because I’ve become obsessed, in a healthy way, about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole, as they say in crypto circles.

My new blog is called Blocksplain. Its goal is to track blockchain and cryptocurrency startups, and explain how they fit into the emerging blockchain ecosystem.

At first I’m aiming for a similar audience to ReadWriteWeb in the early days: tech-savvy people who are curious about this new phenomenon. But I think blockchain will gradually become of interest to non-geeks too, just as Web 2.0 did a decade ago. It’s still early days for blockchain, but I believe we’re seeing a new and significant Internet platform develop.

Check out my introductory post on Blocksplain for further details. If you want to join the ride (hodl on!), subscribe to my blog and/or follow it on Twitter and Facebook.

In addition to Blocksplain, I continue to write a weekly column for New Zealand’s largest news website, Stuff. You can see my recent posts by clicking the Column link in my menu.

We’re now a couple of weeks into the new year and it’s an exciting time for several key Internet technologies. Blockchain and cryptocurrency are enjoying an almost Dot Com level of hype right now, while Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality continue to impress. I covered all of this and more in my annual technology wrapup post for 2017.

Following on from that, Stuff published my predictions for 2018. In summary, here’s what I expect for this year:

There will be continued growth in Bitcoin and the leading “altcoins” like Ether, Bitcoin Cash and Ripple. However there may be significant regulatory hurdles to overcome, so it could be a bumpy ride.
Blockchain will continue to build out its infrastructure (while it’s Dot Com for cryptocurrencies, in reality it’s the mid-90s for the underlying technology).
Facebook’s PR will continue to flatline. Interestingly, after I made that prediction Mark Zuckerberg wrote about de-emphasizing news on the platform. Personally I don’t see Facebook relinquishing its stranglehold over how news is disseminated in society, but I’d like to be proven wrong on that.
We’ll finally get a killer app for AR in 2018. Maybe hope springs eternal, but I’d love to see an AR app with real utility – not just a game like Pokemon Go.
Virtual assistants will start to inhabit your TV and other household items this year. Based on early CES news, that’s already starting to happen.

So check out my 2017 summary and my 2018 predictions for technology. Stay tuned also for a new development from yours truly. I’m cooking up something new for 2018

Every December I write a blog post looking back at the leading technology trends of the year. I first started doing this in 2004, when Read/Write Web was my personal blog. That was also the year “Web 2.0” was named, denoting the trend of using the Web as a platform.

There’s a connection, at least in my mind. What Web 2.0 was to 2004, blockchain was to 2017. As with Web 2.0 in ’04, it’s early days for blockchain. But I believe we’re seeing a new and significant Internet platform develop. Hence my top two picks.

One note before I begin. This year I’ve been writing a weekly column about technology; first on Newsroom and now on Stuff. So for each of the following five trends, I’ve linked to my recent writings on the subject.

1. Bitcoin & cryptocurrencies

If 2016 was the year of Virtual Reality, then 2017 has been the year of virtual currencies. The spectacular rise of Bitcoin and “altcoins” like Ether has certainly been the dominating storyline to end the year. But we’ve also seen cryptocurrencies challenge the status quo in various other ways this year; for example, ICOs have opened up a brand new funding mechanism for startups.

Further reading:

Dec: Should you invest in cryptocurrency and ICOs?
Oct: Bitcoin bottleneck continues to frustrate kiwis
Jun: Bitcoin startups stalled by banks

2. Blockchain

Even more intriguing is the underlying technology that has fuelled Bitcoin’s growth. Blockchain is a new kind of Internet platform, one that emphasizes decentralization. In a year in which power on the Internet was further consolidated among the big 5 technology companies – Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft – blockchain represents a ray of hope for escaping the current digital oligarchy. We’re still in the infrastructure buildout era of blockchain, so we’re not there yet. But there’s a lot of future potential.

Further reading:

Dec: How CryptoKitties became a blockchain sensation
Jun: A boom time for blockchain

3. AI assistants

I had voice-activated virtual assistants as my #2 trend last year, and they’ve continued to evolve this year. Amazon’s Alexa is the clear market leader, but all the big Internet companies have them. Indeed one of the most interesting announcements this year was from Samsung. Powered by the developers of Viv (the same team that built Siri), Samsung’s Bixby 2.0 will enable AI assistants to be integrated into TVs and other household objects.

Nov: AI assistants are the next computing revolution
Oct: How New Zealand can thrive in the age of AI
Aug: What to do when AI takes your job
Jul: Holding algorithms accountable
Mar: Why Google puts AI first

4. Social media backlash

Last year I said that social media had “jumped the shark.” This year many of us got out of the water and put shark repellant on. While I still find Facebook good for keeping in touch with family and (real) friends, and I continue to use Twitter daily for topic tracking, in general I’ve reduced my social media usage. Judging by the conversations I had about this over the year, many others scaled back their social media usage too.

Nov: Curbing your social media addiction
Oct: Twitter is an essential barometer of our times
Oct: How Twitter went from banal to brutal
Sep: We’ve created an online dystopia
Mar: A dangerous new era in social engineering

5. Apple & Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality, or “mixed reality” if you prefer, has had a slower than expected delivery into the mainstream. Last year’s Pokemon Go craze was a big boon to the nascent industry, and this year Apple’s new AR-friendly iPhones were expected to be the next big thing. As it turned out, we’re still waiting for the breakthrough AR apps to arrive. Nevertheless, Apple’s entry into the AR world is noteworthy for the industry and augurs well for AR in 2018.

Jul: Get ready for the Apple AR revolution
Mar: Mixed reality set to soar while VR stays grounded

Those are my picks for the biggest tech trends of 2017. Let me know yours in the comments, or by @ replying me on Twitter.

Image credit: The Bitcoin Supper, an art work by Youl

Every week I write a technology column for Stuff, New Zealand’s largest news media website. In a recent column, I wrote about controlling your social media diet. It struck a chord with many people.

The problem is that social media is addictive and – to continue the diet metaphor – full of empty calories. Here’s a quick summary of my tips, but I encourage you to read the article:

Scale back on which social media services you use.
Use the unfollow button on Facebook and the mute button on Twitter to prune your feeds.
Funnel better content into your feeds; e.g. sign up to Facebook Groups for hobbies or topics you’re passionate about.
Impose time limits on yourself, just as you would on your iPad-hogging, YouTube-addicted child.
Turn off notifications; or even better, remove social media apps from your phone (which I’ve done).

Also check out this long comments thread on my Facebook page. The thing I loved about that thread is that it proved social media can be useful after all

I’ve written five articles over the past month on Stuff, New Zealand’s largest news website. By far the most contentious was my column on Twitter, about how the tone of conversation on Twitter has gone from banal to brutal over the past decade. The point I was trying to make was that it is almost impossible to have a constructive dialogue on Twitter in 2017, because of the amount of outrage and invective on the site – a lot of it coming from anonymous users. I also noted that mainstream media contributes to this dire situation, in its use of provocation to garner attention (pun intended, for kiwi readers).

The feedback I got on Twitter to my column proved my point, in that the general tone was objectionable. That said, some of the feedback changed my mind about Twitter’s value. In a follow-up column, I quoted a number of Twitter’s current wave of heavy users. They told me why outrage was necessary and why Twitter was the right place for it. In short, I discovered that Twitter has become the public platform of choice for people who aren’t as privileged as me. I concluded from all this that Twitter is a necessary, albeit sometimes not very pleasant, barometer of our current era.

I’ll add that I’ve never been a heavy Twitter user myself, despite having had an account since April 2007 (first using @RWW as my handle, and later @ricmac). I’m not one of those ‘think out loud’ type people, so Twitter has never suited my more contemplative style. But in 2017, my usage of Twitter has declined even further – mainly due to the problems I identified in the first column. Although I now recognize the value of Twitter as a social barometer, I still think the company must address the civility issues it has. IMHO, of course.

My other articles last month were about Bitcoin, blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. All highly relevant tech trends in 2017, and topics I regularly explore in my Stuff column.

Reading Recommendation: Kazuo Ishiguro

Last month one of my favourite writers, the British author Kazuo Ishiguro, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. One of the things I like best about Ishiguro is how he crosses genre boundaries. His 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go, veered into science fiction territory. His next book, 2015’s The Buried Giant, featured a dragon and was thus categorized as fantasy. But as he put it in a fabulous conversation with fellow author Neil Gaiman, “I’m against any kind of imagination police, whether they’re coming from marketing reasons or from class snobbery.”

Speaking of class systems, recently I read Ishiguro’s 1989 novel The Remains of the Day for the first time. The novel is narrated by an english butler, Stevens. Firstly, Ishiguro nails the first person point of view far, far better than I did in Presence! He also ingeniously wraps a deeply personal story (Stevens’ missed opportunities for love) within a story about class and political machinations. I watched the movie version a few days after I’d finished the book, but this is yet another case where the book is much better than the movie. Despite Anthony Hopkin’s sympathetic portrayal of Stevens, the novel gets right inside Stevens’ head and into his consciousness. I found the book very moving.

That’s it for another month. I’m happy to converse with you on Twitter, as long as you don’t yell at me.