Dark clouds approaching

Do we have a problem looming? With the popularisation of folksonomies as a means of categorisation will we see tag clouds being built into several applications and how will we (and will we want to) join these clouds?

I fear the worst. Is there a standard XML expression for a tag cloud? I haven't found one.

Eclipsed Amazon+Audible

I have blogged a couple of times about ebooks. This is a technology that recently caught my imagination - sparked by the release of the Kindle. On Thursday I spotted that Amazon has bought Audible - probably the best known and perhaps largest seller of audible books (I have no facts to back that up) - but the news of MS and Yahoo has eclipsed this news. I do know that Audible make heavy use of DRM to protect their content, although I think their purchase model makes things little better than the Amazon experience, where an audible book costs about the same as a paper copy but comes with a more restrictive licence.

I'm waiting for the confluence of the right device (I like the look of the iRiver one) and library, that sells books at the right price and with a fair licence. I don't mind DRM, but get the price down to reflect the restrictions, and don't impose it on authors/publishers that don't want their work restricted in this way.

Will this Amazon+Audible tie-up create this magical world. I'm not seeing the writing on the wall just yet.