But we are people. We have feelings.

And we like things that are free.

Or seem to be.

Like ThinkFree Online, which is free – unless you happen to be Australian. In which case you have to deal with the big telco, Telstra, via its BigPond online service. If you aren’t a BigPond subscriber, tough.

How I discovered this was that I noticed today that Ismael Ghalimi, the authority on Office 2.0, uses three of the ThinkFree tools on a daily basis. That reminded me that Tris Hussey had enthused about ThinkFree a few months ago and had organised for me an invitation to test the ThinkFree Premium product he was using. As it turned out, I was not able to use that invitation, because I had problems with signing on and after a couple of emails from ThinkFree support asking me details such as what OS I had, I heard no more.

Life moves on, but I did think today, after spending some time on Ismael’s site, that it would be good to have another look.

Here’s what I saw at first:

Not just one “Free” – five (count ’em) “Free” things. Great!

And just to reinforce that, over on the right hand side of the screen was another declaration that this was free stuff.

OK, time to sign up.

Then look what happened. A notice that I’m being shunted off to BigPond.

And the message was unambiguous: ThinkFree Online is available as BigPond Office Online for BigPond Members only in Australia and New Zealand.

Huh? Just noticed – they dropped the Kiwis in too. What did they do to deserve that?

More out of curiosity than any vain hope that there might be another story on the other side of the “Sign Up” page, I clicked the button.

Definitely no ambiguity there. “Only @BigPond.com and @BigPond.net.au email addresses will be accepted”. You’re not a paid-up BigPond subscriber, you don’t get to play with ThinkFree.

Well, I’m not about to switch my Internet access account over to BigPond just to try ThinkFree. So I guess I must wave goodbye to the opportunity to use this apparently quite excellent product.

Maybe ThinkFree could change the notices on their home page to say “Free…except for Australians and New Zealanders”.

‘cos if you have to have a BigPond account to access it, it ain’t free.

Or is this the model ThinkFree are using for the rest of the world – i.e those of us outside North America? A series of deals with local providers to lock up the service from anyone who isn’t one of their paid subscribers?

The post ThinkFree Not So Free for Aussies and Kiwis appeared first on Thinking Home Business.

It’s different this time around. Not a repeat of 1988, when 3,000 people were killed out of sight of the rest of the world, thanks to the military junta’s control of communications then.

What’s different now is that we have not just the Internet, but camera-equipped cell phones and YouTube.

And according to The Guardian’s Mark Tran’s story Burma Bloggers keep one step ahead of the junta, bloggers are playing a key role in getting the story out:

Despite attempts at erecting a digital wall around Burma, the bloggers, working around the clock, have managed to post pictures and videos of events almost as soon as they occur.

Many images have been picked up by mainstream news organisations, because bloggers have caught images that no one else can capture.

And now the junta is, according to a story by David Pallister in The Guardian, “desperately” trying to shut down internet and phone links to the outside world.

For hourly updates, as close to “on-the-spot” as most are likely to get, there is the Thailand-based Irrawaddy Journal, run by Burmese exiles.

Still not much sign of activity from the leading bloggers of the free world. A search on Technorati showed “burma” as a hot topic, but with no top listings from any blog with a Technorati authority over 30. Nor did Google Blogsearch give any more joy on that front.

So are we bloggers in free countries with the Burma bloggers, risking their freedom and maybe their lives, or not?

I’m generally not the guy to ask about signing petitions: so often the wording is too all-encompassing and I am by no means a poltical radical. But I’m making an exception for the AVAAZ.org “Stand With the Burmese Protestors” petition. Yesterday it had just over 45,000 signatures. Today there are over 85,000, which suggests that it won’t take a lot to reach the target of 100,000. Yes, if you sign you will probably get email about other campaigns, but if that’s a problem you can always unsubscribe.

The post This Time the Whole World is Watching Burma, Thanks to Web 2.0 appeared first on Thinking Home Business.

When I noticed on Twitter that Frank was at the Microsoft TechEd event at Broadbeach, about a 25 minute drive from me, I suggested a coffee. Frank went one better and got me onto the panel for the Bloggers Lunch tomorrow at TechEd.

Neato!

The subject for the panel Web 2.0 and Social Networking:

• What is Web 2.0?
• Does it deserve the hype that surrounds it?
• What does it mean for traditional media outlets?
• What does it mean for societal communications?
• Impacts on privacy, online safety etc?
• The impact for technology professionals?

Love it!
I’m assured it’s going to be highly interactive.

Coffee would have been nice. This will be even better.

I think I might get to really like Twitter.

The post Joining the Panel for Blogger Lunch at TechEd appeared first on Thinking Home Business.

It’s an extraordinary event, put on by Internet marketing wiz Ed Dale. What’s more, it is free. No strings, as far as I can see, and I make that observation in the light of the fact that I signed up last year: I did not complete the challenge because of other commitments, but there were no strings then and I can’t see any now.

The Challenge is described on the website as follows:

In a nutshell… The Thirty Day Challenge is about making your first $10 online. For a full 30 days we are going to be showing you exactly how to start your own Internet business and generate your first income online without spending a dime.

You probably have to get into the Challenge to have any idea of what it is really like. Suffice to say that Ed, highly successful in this field himself, shares a huge amount of information and experience.

There are daily blog posts and instructional videos.

And there is a tremendous amount of sharing and mutual support among participants – as well as some vigorous rivalry!

I don’t know of any other program like it. Especially the free part.

The Challenge starts on August 1. People are joining now and forming teams, some locally, some internationally.

This year the Challenge is evidently going to be very much about using Web 2.0 tools.

Did I say it is free?

Tom Dean and others are blogging the experience.

The post Ed Dale Is Launching Another Thirty Day Challenge appeared first on Thinking Home Business.