Another year, another reason to talk about Facebook. And about Robert Scoble. Sigh.

Seems that Mr. Scoble, blogger and serial friend-collector, is on the wrong side of Facebook and has gotten his account suspended. His crime? He used a script to extract his Facebook contacts list from the service. That is a violation of the social network’s terms of service, according to an email Scoble reprinted.

Those in the blogosphere who have engaged in the ensuing debate are arguing over whether Scoble has the right to control his data: his social graph, versus Facebook’s right to prevent automated scripts from scraping its property.

But are Scoble’s contacts (he famously accepts every one of the thousands of friend requests he receives) really his to do with as he pleases? Or is the information, voluntarily shared with him by his friends, but understood to be within the structure of Facebook, actually the property of those who gave it to Scoble? The way I see it, the question is not whether Scoble or Facebook has the right to control friend data, but whether the people whose information actually forms the social graph should have a say.

Facebook members agree to (whether they read them or not) terms of service under which the information they provide can be used or disseminated. But if you friend Robert Scoble, he doesn’t offer you a TOS. You know that your information is indirectly available through his public friends list–again, within the confines of Facebook–but you haven’t authorized him to repurpose, blog with, sell, or generate social graphs with your data, now have you?

Leaving aside whether you specifically trust Robert Scoble or not, data scraping, which allows him to use or deliver that data in ways decided by him, potentially compromises the privacy of his friends without giving them options. His most recent post describes how he intended to use the data: to compare his Facebook database with that of Plaxo, whose tool he was alpha testing.

If Scoble succeeds in mining his Facebook profile, we’ll need to add one more to the long list of warnings to Internet users: if you value your privacy, and don’t wish to be socially graphed, much less sold to, or munched into a company’s database of potential customers, don’t friend people who know how to scrape data from social networks.

My Twitter feed this morning is full of links to a very inspiring story of how a woman faced with breast cancer is using her blogger gifts to raise awareness, and how her friends are using theirs to raise funds.

Blogger Susan Reynolds learned earlier this month that she has breast cancer. She is in surgery today. She blogs about the suddenness of her diagnosis, her understandable fear of what could happen to her, and about how she dealt with the physical pain of the biopsy that was required to determine whether the mass she found in her breast was malignant. Reynolds, who is a well-known presence on Twitter and in Second Life, tells the story of how frozen peas eased her pain.

Organized by Reynolds’ friends on Twitter, The Frozen Peas Fund raises money for Making Strides, the breast cancer campaign of the American Cancer Society. The group has declared the first Frozen Peas Friday on Twitter, as a catalyst for the fund-raising, and a weekly encouragement to contribute “the cost of two bags of frozen peas” to cancer research.

those of us who use Twitter daily have already seen how the service can be a source of information, comfort, and inspiration, because of the way in which it connects people in almost-real-time. I hadn’t heard about Susan’s struggle, or about Frozen Peas Friday until I checked in with Twitter this morning. But judging from the variety of people who are talking about it, and taking action, and sharing links, I think we’re seeing something really powerful that has its roots in a very organic means of communicating.

If you ever wanted to get your name on the silver screen now’s your chance. Blogger & Podcaster has partnered with actor/director/producer Bret Carr (also a B&P advertiser) to help market his fantastically inspirational movie RevoLOUtion (www.revoloutionmovie.com). Anybody who blogs or podcasts about will get a producers credit in the theatrical release. Even better, you can watch the movie online for free…and only pay what you think it’s worth after. Check out the story for complete details of the program.

- Larry
Publisher
Blogger & Podcaster

I have three news items for you today. Not bad for mid-December.

• Movable Type has gone open source. Six Apart announced its intention to take the blogging platform open in June, or at least to create an open source version. with the release of a fully open source MT, users now have complete ability to modify and redistribute the blogging platform. Here’s hoping that an open source MT will encourage the development of blog themes, add-ons, and other tools from developers.
• Zune Insider (the blog written by Zune Marketplace podcast honcho Rob Greenlee, reports that the service is back online after a planned update that was done yesterday. Doesn’t look as if the update added any podcast-specific features.
• The Scoble rumor is mostly true. He told a Le Web audience, (and later blogged) that he will leave PodTech on January 14. He says he’s weighing options for his future employment, and that the rumored move to Fast Company is one of these. Scoble’s explanation of his reasons for leaving PodTech was not written in corporate speak per se, but it might as well have been. There was a lot about “working with the new management”, “change in focus” etc., which you can read for yourself.

There is a rumor on TechCrunch that Robert Scoble will be leaving the troubled PodTech to join Fast Company (where he currently writes a column) to form a TV channel. Scoble’s current PodTech show features interviews with entrepreneurs, CEOs and other people with new stuff to show off.

Scoble has not commented on his blog as yet. Like a bunch of other blogging and Web 2.0 (sorry, I hate it, too) heavyweights, Scoble is currently in Paris at the Le Web3 conference, so, what with the time zone difference and the conference and all, it’s unclear whether he’s being deliberately silent because the rumor is false, deliberately silent because it’s true and shouldn’t have leaked, or hasn’t had time to blog up a response.

This isn’t the first time rumors have swirled regarding Scoble and PodTech parting ways since his well-publicized move from Microsoft. In the past, he’s vehemently denied them, and stated that he would be sticking with the videocast startup until a planned career re-evaluation in the spring of next year.

Just noticed that the iTunes Store has posted a Best of 2007 podcast list. Actually, there are four lists: new audio, new video, classic audio, and classic video.

The winners are drawn heavily from “big media” outlets including NPR and various TV networks, but a few notable indies made it in, too. Oddly, the “new” and “classic” designations seem to be a bit backwards, but it’s great to see the list, and great to see some excellent shows on it.

Congratulations to past B&P featured podcasts including: Ask A Ninja, PotterCast, MuggleCast, TWIT, The MacCast, Grammar Girl, Mighty Mommy, and MommyCast. Big props to B&P columnist Rob Walch whose Podcast411 made the list. along with Coverville, PodRunner, The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab, IndieFeed Alternative, and Tiki Bar TV, too.

To see the list, open the iTunes Podcast page and click Best of 2007 Podcasts.

As you can see if you reached this blog from the magazine home page, we’ve posted the digital and podcast editions of the December issue. You can read the issue by clicking on the cover, or hear individual articles in the podcast player. You can also subscribe to the podcast feed.

Here are some December highlights:

• On the cover, we have an interview with Kent and Douglas of Ask A Ninja, whose various promotional efforts for their super-popular video podcast have been all over the place, from blogs, to mainstream media, to my personal Twitter and Facebook streams. You can read how they got started, how they’re keeping their show independent, and how they’re promoting the Ninja to new audiences.
• Lots of coverage of the first BlogWorld Expo, with product announcements, analysis,s and cool photos. I didn’t take most of the cool ones. Those come to us from Brian Solis.
• An interview-in-a-book-excerpt, featuring Engadget’s Peter Rojas. The interview is included in the new book, Blog Heroes, from Wiley.
• Advice from WordPress superstar Lorelle VanFessen, who shows bloggers how to be better writers.

Of course, you’ll find columns from Rob Walsh, Paul Colligan, Shel Israel and Tee Morris, along with other groovy features.

Let us know what you think.

After our 3 week technical issue “sabbatical” I’m happy to announce that we are live again and visible to the 10,400,000 daily readers on the front page of usatoday.com. (We’re in the “Marketplace” section at the bottom of the page)

To thank you all for your patience (and just in case there are any other technical glitches) I’m making this whole week free too. Your billing period won’t start until next Monday, December 17th. We’ll make sure you’re notified well in advance before each new billing cycle, just in case you want to suspend your account and avoid billing.

One challenge we still have is making sure the user experience is a good one. The key here is having enough critical mass of listings that people can find blogs/podcasts on the topics that interest them. If we accomplish this people will bookmark the site and return again and again. We’re off to a really good start, but I’d like to ask for your help. Please go to any blogger or podcaster you know and let them know that they we’ve arranged a free month in The USA TODAY Blogger & Podcaster Guide for them.

There’s no catch other than after the first month there will be a charge if they want to continue promoting to the USA TODAY’s audience. However, we’ve also arranged a 20% discount for them if they find value in the program and choose to continue on. Worst case, they’ve helped us all out and have taken advantage of the USA TODAY traffic for a month for free.

To get started, here’s all they need to do:
1. Go to http://www.bloggerandpodcaster.com/usatoday
2. Select “New User” and go through 6 Step registration process
3. Be sure to enter ‘BP’ in Coupon Code box under Option #4. Click Option #4 button.
We’ll notify them well in advance of the date they’ll be billed, so they don’t need to be worried about cancelling.

Thanks again for your patience & support. This program should be a big help in marketing our industry’s content to mainstream America. I’m excited to get this program rolling.

- Larry
Publisher
Blogger & Podcaster Magazine