An idea for banks as social/financial networks. I have a checking account at a major bank. I use it to pay bills. It's not a great user interface, and they don't keep my records indefinitely (I wonder why not) but it's way better than the old way of paying bills by hand with paper checks. Some companies have a special deal with the bank, so when I pay their bill, no paper check is written and mailed and they get their money much faster. An example is my credit card company. When I pay their bill, they get the money the next day. I just added another bill-to account for a business that has an account at the same bank. Why can't they optimize that so the money arrives in their account faster? In this case, they are actually mailing a check, which then has to be deposited at the same bank. Ridiculous. It's 2019 not 1992. Optimize. And give more people an incentive to bank with you. #
A podcast is a series of digital media files made available over the open web through an RSS feed with enclosures. Podcasts usually are audio, but you can distribute any media object this way. I've used podcast feeds to distribute videos, even code. #- If an audio file is not available over the web, or is behind a paywall, or is otherwise exclusive it may be a very fine worthwhile thing, but it is not a podcast. Being accessible openly in a standardized format, RSS, is essential to something being a podcast.#
- It's kind of amazing that until 2019 this hasn't been an issue. Everything that claimed to be a podcast actually was a podcast, meeting all these conditions. But now podcasting is being siloized by companies trying to dominate. It's understandable and predictable. But let's not dilute the qualities that make podcasting so useful.#