Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you the first ever Free Line “most obvious observation of the day:” The online world is in constant flux. Now don’t get me wrong here. Just because something is obvious doesn’t mean that it’s easy to comprehend. Enter “The Conversation Prism.” Created by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas, The Conversation Prism is a graphical representation of the various interactions happening online. In fact, let’s take a look at the Prism right now, shall we?

As you can see, the Prism is made up of 24 different facets of the networking universe, which is called the “conversation.” Each category plays a different role in the Conversation, ranging from video providers such as YouTube and Dailymotion, to blogging platforms such as Wordpress and Movable Type. For an even more in-depth discussion on the Prism and what it means to the average user, check out Brian’s blog PR 2.0.

As you know, social news sites such as Digg and Slashdot are fantastic resources for anyone who wants to stay current. As great as these sites are, important news can still fall through the cracks. Polymeme is out to fix all of that. Polymeme uses a so-called “buzz tracking” approach to its content gathering, often delving into topics and issues that other sites don’t see. The result is more articles on scientific and international issues, and fewer articles on Angelina Jolie’s kids. Think of it as the “NPR” or “Wall Street Journal” of the social news scene. As always, Polymeme is a free service.

When you think of the word “pipes,” what do you think of? A kitchen sink? A toilet? Super Mario Brothers? If you’re a Yahoo user, “pipes” take on a totally different meaning. Yahoo Pipes is an interesting free service that lets users “mash” different RSS feeds together. The result is a new piece of information that can be used in various ways. Yahoo Pipes is very easy to use, and we have a free tutorial to prove it. Just click here. Before long, you’ll be combining and reordering feeds and sources with the best of them, no plumber needed.

For many, BitTorrent technology has made the pain and slowness of downloading multi-gigbyte files a thing of the past. Yes, there are some “bad eggs” that use the software for piracy. And yes, those “troublemakers” can ultimately make things difficult for the rest of us. That being said, more and more companies are being to use the technology legitimately. Our friends at Torrent Freak have a great tutorial on the subject, covering both the basics of torrents and the tweaking of the software. If you would like to see examples of BitTorrent being used to help support a business, we here at the Free Line suggest the following:

Fedora - The Fedora Project, like most purveyors of Linux, uses BitTorrent to easily distribute their operating system to the masses.

Harvey Danger - Best known for their song “Flagpole Sitta,” this Seattle-based band released their third album, Little By Little, for free using BitTorrent in 2005. Harvey Danger is widely considered the first major band to offer their music in this way.

Sony - The electronic giant uses BitTorrent to send some game updates to Playstation 3 users. The online update to Metal Gear Solid 4 was devlivered in this way.