I mentioned last week that Scouta would be participating in the Web 2.0 in Australia event in Sydney next week.

Ross Dawson, the man behind the event, also compiled a list of The Top 60 Web Applications In Australia, and he ranked Scouta as 6th, a number we’re very proud of here at Scouta HQ. Given we’re just over 3 months old we think it’s a pretty good achievement.

There are some pretty cool applications in the list, so it’s worth a look if you’re interested in the space.

Speaking of fostering innovation in Australia.

Myles Eftos, from BAM soon to be PerthNorg, has organized BarCamp Perth.

Scouta will be there.

I gave the title a slight twist, given it’s probably the furthest from the origin of the original BarCamp in Palo Alto.

Ross Dawson - a strategy consultant, keynote speaker, bestselling author, CEO of consulting firm Advanced Human Technologies, and too many other things to mention - sent me an email a few weeks ago to invite me to Sydney to present Scouta at “Web 2.0 in Australia.”

He’s posted a great run down of the event and showcase on his blog, The latest on Web 2.0 in Australia: Showcasing the best.

Given the people attending, I’m guessing this is going to be great for the local Aussie “web 2.0″ industry. I’m sure it will stir up plenty of discussion and interest, that is only going to benefit everyone.

We’ll have to make sure we continue the discussions, and ensure the ball continues to roll. Perhaps more for the 2web crew.

There’s been plenty of press recently about gaming social sites. InfoWorld talked about YouTube just the other day, Scammers gaming YouTube ratings for profit.

The Web has long been known as an effective medium for malicious attacks, but the problem of people gaming YouTube and other user content-driven, or Web 2.0, sites is only beginning to rear its head, and it’s an issue that the companies backing such portals must take seriously as they look into the future.

As more Internet users begin to turn to “user-generated content” for untarnished reviews and insights, YouTube and other Web 2.0 portals begin offering greater financial incentives for people to post popular content, said Joe Laszlo, an analyst at Jupiter Research in New York.

“This is a nascent issue, but one that YouTube and the rest of the user-generated content sites need to confront now, as so much of the Web 2.0 concept is built around the idea of trusting the community to help make judgments about content’s quality,” said Laszlo. “These types of scams call into question how reliable the community aspect of Web 2.0 really is, and if these types of sites becomes susceptible to a lot of tricks, and content that people don’t really want to see gets surfaced, people will question their value.”

Fortunately, the way Scouta is built it is more resistant to gaming that most social networks. We don’t have top tens, or lists based on what everyone “likes.” Gaming isn’t a major factor because Scouta is personalized for each individual, and there is no list to be the top of.

That doesn’t mean someone couldn’t try and game Scouta, and it sure doesn’t mean we’re not constantly concerned with avoiding the issue. In fact we’re implementing a new feature shortly, which we’ve been careful to design so it doesn’t introduce a simple way to game our recommendation system.

Regardless, it’s an exciting time on the Internet. The general public have the upper-hand, and that’s the way we like it.

We’ve been using an Apple TV for a few weeks with Scouta, and when we release the Scouta iTunes agent it’ll become even more useful.

One thing we discovered was a useful application called TubeTV.

TubeTV is a new freeware program for Mac OS X Tiger and above which enables you to search for and save Google Video and YouTube videos in a format suitable for playback on your Apple TV or video capable iPod.

The latest version also works with vimeo.com, ebaumsworld.com, myspace.com, and revver.com, and we guess more sites will be added.

This makes it a great companion application for people using Scouta and an Apple TV or iPod video. If you receive a few recommendations from any of the sites, you can always use TubeTV to convert for consumption while away from your computer.

I find it handy, because some video - especially long form - I prefer to watch on my television.

Duncan, at Techcrunch, points to Next New Network a “new kind of media company, creating micro-television networks over the internet for targeted communities, bringing together elements of tv programming and internet philosophy to allow viewers to contribute, share and distribute content.”

“[micro-networks are] a brand that lives on the internet and creates a relationship with its audience wherever it goes. In practical terms, every network of [Next New Media] will have one or more shows, 3-11 minutes of programming, on a weekly or daily basis, a website, and a feed that can be subscribed to in places like iTunes or My Yahoo. Many may also have a Channel or homepage on sites like YouTube. You can go to any of those places and get every episode of the networks’ shows when and how you want them.”

NNN have a philosophy like our own. We think there’s going to be a bunch of content on the net, and not everyone will want to consume it the same way. Why not allow them to access media in a bunch of different forms: iTunes, YouTube, etc.

A few people, unfairly, compare NNN to Joost, and suggest it’s a “poorly thought out version.” The reality is that NNN is like the production company. Joost happens to be a delivery platform, like today’s television networks. The two co-exist, and both are required.

More info at the nextnewsnetwork blog, and their post about getting Crunched. Check out their list of networks, and bookmark the ones you love in Scouta.

We released another version of Scouta today, nicknamed Hicks. This release makes a huge difference to the look of the site: video clips and album art.

When a member adds a favorite to Scouta, the site automatically tries to grab a little snap shot for the bookmark. This is either the album art from a podcast, or a video clip from items like those in YouTube. Not every favorite ends up with an image, but Scouta does its best to try and find it.

We think the images make it easier to spot an interesting bookmark.

Besides the work Graeme and Simon have done on the album art, it’s been a busy few weeks with Graeme busy working on collecting extra metadata for the site. Also, as Graeme mentioned yesterday, we also had a hiccup with one of our servers that meant Scouta was off-line for a short time. So all up it’s been an interesting release.

By the way, thanks for suggesting the name Scientaestubique - it puts a new spin on the phrase “Hicks has been released.”

We’ve just been hit with a network hardware failure on our main web servers, so scouta.com will be out of action for a while while we route around to alternate servers. We’ll be back on the air shortly.

[Update: 16:14 BST: we’re back! though there might be a few hiccups to come over the next few hours as we put a permanent fix in place]

[Update: 21:45 BST: normal service is restored now. Phew.]

Over the last few weeks we’ve been doing a lot of behind the scenes work to enhance the functionality of Scouta. One such chunk of coding checks to see whether a Favorite added by a member is still available, so that we can mark it as unavailable for everyones convenience.

Graeme ran a process last night to check all of the YouTube items that have been added to Scouta, and found that an amazing 14% of the videos are no longer available due to copyright violations.

Admittedly, that number might not be as high right across YouTube, because Scouta Favorites tend not to be user generated content.

Regardless, the number is significant, and must take a large amount of work on YouTube’s side.

Esther Dyson is a bit of an online legend. She wrote the newsletter Release 1.0, and has since helped start many ventures by investing and advising. You can also catch where she swims in a regularly updated Flickr photo stream.

In a recent keynote Q&A at the Search Insider Summit in Bonita Springs, Fl., Esther made some very cool statements.

As for the future of search, Dyson said, “I don’t see the quality of search improving very much. Search is like telling a dog, ‘Go Fetch,’ I want something to ‘Go Fetch and Reserve’ [as in the right hotel room.] “Search is a task half-done.”

What’s needed, she said, is switching from a “search and fetch” mentality to a “deliver, act and transact” perspective based on personalization.

I met Esther at ETech 2006. Interestingly she introduced me to Michael Goldhaber, who many consider the father of attention. Scouta’s genesis has a lot to do with attention, and we certainly believe that it’s “deliver, act and transact” perspective based on personalization.