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Behold, Widgify.com is Live!

2006-08-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

If you had not noticed already, I am a big fan of Widgets. Big ones, small ones - I love them all. Because I love them so much, I figured it was about time to write a blog focused on the topic entitled...

WIDGIFY

For those of you that are interested in discussing the emerging Widgetsphere, you should definitely check it out. I will still obviously keep posting on broader topics on the Web 2.0 on this blog.

Enjoy...

technorati tags: widget, widgetblog, hoomanradfar, web2.0

Leaked KickApps Demo

2006-08-07T12:45:00.000-07:00

For those of you interested in the emerging social networking platform "White Label Wars," check out this leaked demo of the Kick-Apps platform. This demo is interesting because it features not only their "canned" social functionality, but also the use of Widgets. Kickapps is just one of the contenders in this emerging space. Other players include:

technorati tags: socialnetworks, kickapps, peopleaggregator, widgets, web2.0

Part II - WTF is a Widget?

2006-08-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

In our last episode, I promised to start brain storming on the definition of Widget. Good to my sequel promise, in this post I will try to dive into the depths of Widget philosophy. Ironically, this question came up several times this week, so it is a good time to start thinking about a decent answer! With further adieu on with our show...

According to the kind folks contributing to Wikipedia:

A widget (or control) is an interface component that a computer user interacts with, such as a window or a text box. Widgets are sometimes qualified as virtual to distinguish them from their physical counterparts, e.g. virtual buttons that can be clicked with a mouse cursor, vs. physical buttons that can be pressed with a finger. Widgets are often packaged together in widget toolkits. Programmers use widgets to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

That is a pretty decent start, but is still a bit too high level for me. Given the fact that it is a bit tough to define generically, I am going to take a slightly different cut at this. Specifically, let's start by taking a stab at a more specific term - Web Widget. According to the all knowing Hoo-pedia the definition is as follows:

A Web Widget is a portable software application, or module, that can be installed and executed within one, or more separate browser-based application platforms by an End User without requiring additional compilation.

Whew. Does that make sense? That basically covers all the bling you can place on MySpace, as well as the more utilitarian services that you can use across MySpace and blogging platforms like Typepad, etc. That is my two-cents. I wonder what Pete Cashmore, Richard MacManus, Dion Hinchcliffe and other Web 2.0 thought leaders think. Maybe I will ask...

More on this to come. Tune in next time for more fantastic fun with your friendly neighborhood Hoo-man. Yee-haw!

Technorati Tags: web widget, widget, web2.0, myspace

Part I - WTF is a Widget ?

2006-07-31T23:57:00.000-07:00

Fellow Web-Slingers,

It is 2:51AM EST and the question that plagues me is, "WTF is a Widget?"

Many folks have been throwing the term around, but few and far between have cared to go the distance and create a definition. Is a Widget the same as a web page? Is it more like a rich media advertisement? When does code trancend into Widget-status? I feel like we are back in the same place we were last summer with the whole Web 2.0 definition slug-fest on Timmy O's Blog. Ok, so it is not that bad, but it is still annoying.

Anyway, I would love to know what YOU think. If you are so inclined, please post your definition. If you have nothing to say, or are generally useless, no problem - don't share. Either way, I promise to hit you kind folks back and take a stab at something that might make sense.

Stay tuned for our next episide: "Part II - WTF is a Widget?" Have a wonderful evening.

Yee-haw,
Hooman 2.0

technorati tags: widget, web2.0

Rise of VBlogs: The Show with Zefrank

2006-07-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

Zefrank makes Hooman happy. He is the host of the popular vblog "the show with zefrank." This video blog offers video summaries of the news wrapped up with a comic bow. Think of him as Jonathan Stewart for Long Tail geeks. His most recent discussion of YouTube was pretty much the best thing ever. Here is a snippet from the transcript:

YouTube, the popular video-sharing site recently updated its terms and conditions. It now reads "...you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube website and YouTube's (and its successor's) business... in any media formats and through any media channels."
That means they get to make money off of your ass however the fuck they want!
YouTube presents the ultimate DVD collection: World's Stupidest People, starring you!
But, who reads terms and conditions anyways?

I don't know what the folks at YouTube think of that little piece. Probably not to thrilled I imagine. Anyway, it is awesome that folks like zefrank are getting some buzz Vblogging. It will be interesting to see what feature changes, if any, blogging platforms make as this format takes off.

technorati tags: zefrank, youtube, vblog

MyBlogLog Communities Unites Bloggers!

2006-07-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

For those of you bloggers that have been living under a rock, check out MyBlogLog Communities - the social network for bloggers. Now before you get all huffy that there is yet another social network out there, hold your horses - this one is different. Why? MyBlogLog Communities has the potential to transform the blogosphere into a distributed social network.

Ever want to drop a comment to a fellow blogger about some random topic? Ever want to know the blogs your favorite bloggers get their dish from? Ever want your readers to know who else reads your blog? The answer is here - MyBlogLog.

MySpace requires you to host your profile, social network, and blog on their site. If you want to publish anything, you have to do it their way. Moreover, with all the hub-bub about security at MySpace, your ability to customize pages there has become exceedingly limited. On the flip-side, blogs enable tons of customization. Unfortunately, blogging platforms tend to lack good community features. Bloggers have been left to fend for themselves in the cold reaches of cyberspace...until now.

After signing up for a MyBlogLog account, you have access to JavaScript code snippets that enable you to track you blog's usage. Not only does the service enable you to track your blog, but it also enables you to connect with fellow blog-geeks. This is where it gets interesting. MyBlogLog gives each blogger a "space" that shows blogs he/she authors, other communities they are following, and a place for folks to leave general comments. They also offer cool widgets to enhance your blog with social functionality. In short, MyBlogLog communities gives blog-geeks the cool community features offered by MySpace, without forcing them to give up their right to publish the way they want.

Fred, Ed, Pete and many others have already started to actively use the service. I hope it continues to pick up - it is one of the few interesting social network plays out there. Best of luck Eric!

Technorati Tags: myspace, blog, mybloglog, socialnetwork

p.s. Todd Sampson stole my avatar! JK :)

MySpace Squelches Spead of Widgets

2006-07-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

MySpace, the self-appointed "Place for Friends" has officially decided not to be friends with a whole bunch of folks - Widget Consumers & Vendors. According to Marshall on TechCrunch:

MySpace has taken a step to increase security that disables a key method for third party vendors to spread their services inside the online social network. The company is using new code in a new version of flash that disables outgoing links from flash widgets and it is pushing users to install the blockable version of flash by requiring that they do so in order to view MySpace hosted video. Widgets will operate, but users who have upgraded to Flash 9 will be unable to click to the widget vendor’s site and get a copy of the widget for themselves.

This measure was taken in response to the whole Flash virus fiasco on their site. I understand that MySpace has a legitimate obligation to protect their site and users from the spread of viruses. On the other hand, the very same mechanism that they are using to protect their users is also hurting them (and potential 3rd party developers) as it blocks the user experience (spreading widgets) that they clearly demand.

As the interest in Widgets continues to explode, aggregators like MySpace will have to make some tough choices. These choices will not only shape the emerging "WidgetScape," but also determine who is in the winner's circle at the end of the race to own the next generation of aggregation platforms.

technorati tags: widget, myspace, flash, virus

Our Senate on Net Neutrality...

2006-07-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

Check out this video.
Jon Stewart is awesome.
I pray for us all.
Yee-haw!

technorati tags: Net Neutrality, internet, jonstewart

BLaugh Every Day

2006-07-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

http://blaugh.com/syndicate/

technorati tags: laugh, with, blaugh

Fold - What's Next?

2006-07-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know what is up with Fold? They surfaced as a competitor in the StartPage category and then vanished before you could say “Web 2.0.”

A number of notable bloggers mentioned the rise and fall of Fold, asserting that it was one of the first Web 2.0 companies to go kaput. I did a little digging recently, however, and found that there might be more to the “fold of Fold" than we all thought.

Google "fold.com" and you will find a rather cryptic result listing stating, "Everything you read about Fold is wrong." Also, their web site has some weird barcode stuff on display. There is probably nothing behind the whole thing, but I have to admit that I am absolutely intrigued. If anyone has any dish, let me know.

technorati tags: fold, startpage, web2.0

Interested in Avatars and Virtual Worlds?

2006-07-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

Then I highly recommend that you read some of the works of Edward Castronova.

He is currently a professor at Indiana University Bloomington. I used to read his economics papers when he was at Cal State Fullerton. It is amazing to read these papers again in light of the exploding interest in avatars (Meez, Oddcast) and virtual worlds (SecondLife, Habbo) - Ed definitely was on the ball.

Just to give you an idea of how ahead of the curve this guy has been, back then he had difficulty getting his ideas accepted by the academic community. Now he has a person that handles media inquiries.

If you are still hungry for more check out his book Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, or his blog Terra Nova.

technorati tags: castronova, avatar, virtualworlds

6 Reasons Why You Care About Flash

2006-07-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

There are more than 6 reasons, but this is all you get for now because I have work to do. Here comes the core dump...

Ready,
Set,
FLASH!

1. Only way to really feed MySpace Beast
2. Becoming dominant video format (YouTube)
3. Macromedia steering standards for JavaScript.
4. Actionscript & Javascript converging (see 3)
5. Laszlo & Dojo outputting to Flash format.
6. Replace Flash programming model w/Flex Model.

Flash is coming into it's own in a big way. Although I am not a fan of creating media using the traditional Flash methodology (animating frames), the Flash FORMAT should undoubtedly be on your mind as you think about the future of your web-based service.

P.S. Thanks to the rest of the Clearspring team for guidance on this topic.

technorati tags: flash, your, audience

Cell Phone Privacy Invaded

2006-07-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

School administrators in Framingham, MA have recently instated a policy that enables them to seize student cell phones and search their contents. According to this article the policy was designed to:

...improve security and stop the sale of drugs and stolen goods, but students said that the edict is an invasion of privacy.

I agree with the students - this policy is a clear violation of their rights. What if a student has sensitive personal information on their cell phone, such as information pertaining to a health condition or their sexual history? Are you telling me that a school administrator should have on-demand access to potentially damaging data on the CHANCE that they may find information pertaining to the sale of drugs, or stolen goods?

I am no expert, but doesn't the 5th Amendment of the constitution state that as American citizens we will not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law? Local law enforcement officials observe this constitutional edict when they await judicial approval prior to the attainment of a search warrant. Are we to believe that the school administrators at Framingham are so wise that they should not be subject to the same principles as the rest of America?

As digital communications technologies continue to proliferate, the debate surrounding the bounds of digital privacy will continue to escalate. At every turn, it is our duty as American citizens to defend our inalienable rights, or risk fundamentally destroying the foundations upon which this nation was built.

technorati tags: freedom, cellphone, privacy

Pete Cashmore Wins Thumbs-Up Award

2006-06-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

As I was enjoying my daily dose of blogs this afternoon, I had a stunning realization. Pete Cashmore is by far one of the best sources for new information on Web 2.0 - period.

For his hard work and contributions to the blogosphere, the folks at Convergence (me) have unanimously voted to give Pete the prestigious "Convergence Thumbs-Up Award." Pete is the first recipient of this award. This award is intended to thank those few exceptional folks in the blogosphere with a virtual "thumbs-up" for their contributions to our daily blog read.

Seriously though, all you noobs that are jumping on to the Web 2.0 craze, check out Mashable. Read it, love it, and memorize it. Mashable is definitely up there with Techcrunch, Om , and Read/Write Web as one of the best sources for product dish on the Web 2.0 today. Keep up the good work, Pete.

technorati tags: petecashmore, mashable, web2.0

Cyclical Transformation of the Web

2006-06-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

Unbeknownst to most folks living "out there," the web is undergoing a massive transformation as it shifts from a publication mechanism into a platform for distributed web services.

The transformation of the web is inherently cyclical in nature. Functionality that was once traditionally trapped within the walled gardens of online destinations is being rapidly disaggregated. Enterprising developers are creating a new breed of software to aggregate this open functionality and deliver new user experiences. As aggregation software increases in popularity, web service providers are rushing to make a "land grab" for core services before they get locked out of the race. This land grab is leading to even more functionality being exposed. As we march onward towards the vision of the Web as a Platform, this cycle will perpetuate.

The end game of this metamorphosis has stunning implications for the world at large. The dream promised by the progenitors of service-oriented architectures will be realized. End users will be able to mix and match best-of-breed functionality using "Smart Aggregators" to create and share their own "long tail experiences." To end users, this functionality will come in the form of Widgets that leverage one, or more web services. Competition will abound for content services, content distribution, content aggregation, and monetization mechanisms (see Fred's excellent post for more thoughts). And all the while your set of services, or Personal Information Cloud, will follow you in different contexts. Sounds pretty nifty, eh?

In short, ladies and gentlemen, we are moving towards the Structured Web - fast. Villains will be fought. Heroes will be made. But, boy oh boy is it going to be a grand adventure.

technorati tags: web1.0, web2.0, structuredweb, webcycle

3 Steps to Increase Traffic Using MySpace

2006-06-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

MySpace commands the attention of 74M+ users and is one of the most popular destinations on the planet. By definition, this achievement is out of reach for most players on the web today.

Realizing that the chances of growing their respective destinations to the cult-like status of MySpace are slim, many online service providers have opted to instead "Feed the MySpace Beast." This strategy enables the great unwashed masses that are NOT MySpace to capitalize on the massive success that the popular social networking site has achieved, without competing directly with them for eyeballs.

For those of you who live under a rock and do not follow the wise teachings of Pete Cashmore, I have summarized the "Feeding" strategy below.

How to Feed MySpace:

Step 1: Create Widget that uses your online service.

Step 2: Enable Widget to be placed on MySpace, Blogger, etc. by end users.

Step 3: Track Widget use and watch your traffic grow.

Photobucket has executed this strategy rather brilliantly. Their photo widgets have become pretty standard fare on many MySpace pages, despite the fact that Photobucket is an independently owned and operated concern. If I were a betting man, I would guess that their strong presence on MySpace has played no small part in the tremendous growth they have experienced in the last 12 months.

The growing number of folks that are interested in capitalizing upon the success of MySpace has interesting implications in the long run. For now, online service providers that "Feed the Beast" have simply solidified MySpace's status as one of the premier destinations on the web. But as we all know, if you eat too much you are bound to get sick. How long will it be until this feeding frenzy turns sour?

Check out this post by media blogstar Steve Rubel for more thoughts on the mounting gold rush.

technorati tags: myspacebeast, web2.0, webservices

For the Love of the Web...

2006-06-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

At Clearspring we love the web more than anything.

Apparently, we love it even more than sleeping at night.

Cyrus you are the man...

technorati tags: shhh, cyrus, is, sleeping

Om & Scoble Departures Part of New Trend?

2006-06-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

As many of you have probably already heard, Microsoft's former blogstar Robert Scoble has left the building. According to this article from CNET:

Scoble, 41, said in a phone interview that he will join PodTech.net, a Menlo Park, Calif., start-up that earlier this year began podcasting video interviews recorded with technology industry luminaries.

Apparently Scoble is not the only one joining the exodus from Corporate America. Om Malik, one of the most popular bloggers on the net, is calling it quits with Business 2.0 and has taken seed funding for a new venture.

He will still be involved with the publication as a contributing editor, but will now be focusing his time on building a business leveraging his massively popular GigaOm property. According to Technorati, Om's blog is the 85th most popular blog on the planet. Not bad, eh?

As independent publishers gain further notoriety it will be interesting to see how the webscape continues to shift as a result. Are Om and Scoble part of a new trend in media? God only knows that certain folks have already started capitalizing upon the success of their blog. Welcome to Web 2.0.

technorati tags: om, scoble, blogger, web 2.0

Slashdot Goes 2.0 - Is that enough?

2006-06-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

Slashdot, the website that has made its mark offering "news for nerds," has officially gone "2.0." The new version of the web site is chalked full of "Ajaxy" components that can be expanded and collapsed at will.

I love Slashdot and still use it regularly, but that upgrade was a bit weak and - frankly - did not add much to the user experience. It most definitely did not help differentiate them from their rapidly growing competitor - Digg.

As the market for news aggregators becomes more cluttered, I wonder what our heroes will do to stay alive. Hopefully, they have a plan because if they don't they may share the same fate as the boom from whence they came.

technorati tags: slashdot, digg, web 2.0

Where is the Web Going Next?

2006-06-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

Tagworld Down - WTF!

2006-06-07T05:56:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else noticed that Tagworld has been down a ton recently? I received a "Service Unavailable" message not once, not twice, but THREE times yesterday when I was trying to go to the site. Perhaps they have angered the Web 2.0 Gods. Or, maybe they just need more servers. Whatever the case may be, it needs to be fix-ed ASAP.

technorati tags: wtf

Stalkerati - Formalizing a Phenomenon

2006-06-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Somebody is finally admitting what everyone else is doing on social networks - STALKING! Stalking is by far one of the single most popular activities on social network systems today. MySpace, for instance, has managed to achieve a massive network effect not only because their platform enables actionable communication via social networks, but also because the very same tools that enable communication with friends also enable "MySpace Stalking." In other words, since there are a ton of folks on MySpace, there is a much richer base of people to stalk. And because there is such a rich population of potential targets to stalk on MySpace, folks stick around - classic Network Effect, right?

You all know what I am talking about. Chances are that you have searched for someone (friend, foe, goat...) on MySpace, or some other social network like LinkedIn. And, chances are that you have kept up with the multitude of changes in their profile over time. Now you may try to tell yourself that you are simply keeping up with the crowd. And, if that let's you sleep at night, so be it. But let's be serious, you are stalking people.

Anyway, the folks at Stalkerati are apparently more than willing to admit that folks actively stalk one another on social networks. Accordingly, they have made a search engine that enables you to search for your potential "targets" across multiple sites. For example, imagine that for some insane reason you want to stalk me. Wouldn't it be nice to go to one site to find all my information, instead of visiting multiple several social networks?

This is a neat little idea. The bad news is that the folks at many social networks have closed the gates. You need a login to see others. As such, Stalkerati requires you to login to multiple sites in order to really get down and dirty.

Stalkerati has some fantastic and scary implications for where the world is heading. Apprently, it even made the front page of Digg. In short fan-boys, watch yourself - because someone else is most definitely already watching you.

technorati tags: stalkerati, stalkers, myspace, socialnetworks

StumbleUpon Pioneering Discovery

2006-05-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

Canadian start-up StumbleUpon recently landed funding from luminary technology angels including Mitch Kapor and Ram Shriram. Geoff Smith, cofounder of StumbleUpon, and author of the Firefox Plug-in, describes the service as follows:

StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting web pages you wouldn't think to search for.

The service has been in the making for nearly four years, but has recently experienced a surge of interest. Last I heard, they have nearly 875,000 people using the tool. More importantly perhaps, is that their users seem to demonstrate a cult-like, passion for the service akin to drug-addiction. Fellow web-slinger, Pete Cashmore effectively captures the "StumbleUpon effect" as follows:

...it’s just so darned addictive - once you Stumble, you just can’t stop. What’s more, it’s incredibly accessible to the mainstream demographic - while mining the social bookmarking sites for gems takes a lot of work, Stumbling takes no effort whatsoever.

Pete is not the only one that has "stumbled" upon StumbleUpon. According to a reviewer from PCPro:

I'm hooked on the thing, and rate it as the second most useful web browsing tool after Google itself.

This type of comment should not be taken lightly and is consistent with the idea that discovery could be the new search. Recall that there was a time when search was considered secondary to the portal experience.

I strongly believe that this service is just the tip of the discovery iceberg. As people demand better mechanisms to effectively sate their penchant for the "kind of know what I am looking for" class of queries online, more effective discovery tools - like StumbleUpon - will undoubtedly continue to emerge. I suppose only time will tell, fan-boys. For more information pertaining to StumbleUpon, check-out this post by the ever-vigilant Om Malik.

technorati tags: discovery, stumbleupon, web2.0

Traditional Media Moving Online

2006-05-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

Unless you have been living in a hole for the past year, you have probably noticed that high-quality media content has been slowly, but surely, moving to a new home - the Web. Not only is more high-quality content being published online, but it is being received successfully. An example of a major media provider that has been championing online publication of content is Disney. According to a recent article from Reuters:

"Viewers have watched ABC television shows available online about 3 million times since the Walt Disney Co. network launched the free service just over two weeks ago, Disney's chief executive said on Thursday.

The figure provides an early sign of demand for television programs available on the Internet as broadcasters experiment with new ways of reaching viewers."

The moves being made by ABC and other large media companies are a big deal. Their resurgence of interest in the web not only indicates that will there be more high quality content available for consumption via networked devices (pc, cell phone, etc), but also that incumbent media companies are not about to let next generation media companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft take over without a fight. In the midst of this battle, there will be ample opportunities for new players to capitalize on the changing perspective surrounding content creation, distribution, and consumption. Investors open up your checkbooks - it is time to search (no pun intended) for the next Google.

technorati tags: google, microsoft, yahoo, abc, media

Marissa Mayer is a Fox

2006-05-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever noticed that Marissa Mayer is an absolute fox? Couple that with that fact that she has two degrees from Stanford and is responsible for driving product innovation at one of the most successful companies on the planet and you have got yourself quite a catch. This really has nothing to do with pervasive computing, Web 2.0, or anything even remotely future-thinking. In fact, it is just plain stupid - I just felt like sharing. Good night and good luck America. This web-slinger needs to hit the sack.

technorati tags: callme, anytime, googlegirl, period, winkwink

Coolest Display Ever - Touch Screen Interface that Floats in Mid-Air!

2006-05-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

To all my fellow geeks out there that have been aching for more Star Trek-esque innovations to be released into the market - behold!

This slick technology was crafted by the mad scientists at IO2 Technologies. It would be really interesting to give to the folks at the Multi-Touch Interaction Group at NYU (responsible for the bad-boy below) a chance to hack at this stuff.

Can you imagine plugging the expoding number of web services into remixed versions of the UI voodoo shown above? Yikes! I am getting chills just thinking about it. Check out this post by my man Dan G. for more dish on the NYU project.

Enjoy, fan-boys - it's back to work for this web-slinger.

technorati tags: userinterface, pervasivecomputing, touchscreen

AOL Strikes Back

2006-05-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

The name AOL was once synonymous with the Internet. Many of us grew up addicted to the familiar "You Got Mail!" and spending countless hours flirting on IM. Although AOL clearly set the standards for Web 1.0, following the AOL/Time Warner merger, AOL kinda went bust.

Kids no longer beg mom and dad to sign up for AOL. Subscription rates are declining. Key employees have jumped ship. The generation that grew up on America Online has long since abandoned the safety of the sandbox - preferring to test their luck with best of breed services on the wild, wild, web.

The bottom line is that AOL clearly dropped the ball. They have been so sluggish in fact, that many folks are convinced that they are down for the count. But it seems that the giant that once made the web tremble still has a bit of life left in them - AOL Instant Messenger.

This seemingly innocuous little program currently still has a commanding user base and is one of the largest active social networks on the planet. AOL has recently made massive strides to expand upon the AIM platform and tear down their walled garden with AIMPages. This MySpace competitor automatically creates a customizable publishing space for every single AIM user on the planet. Talk about leveraging an existing user base.

Although the product is clearly buggy, it is definitely a huge step in the right direction. Their move to capitalize on AIM, coupled with their aggressive thrust into the emerging Web 2.0 ecosystem - acquiring Weblogs, Truveo, and most recently introducing their slick new video service - are waking people up to the possibility that the folks in Dulles might still have a couple tricks up their sleeves. If AOL can manage to keep running (no pun intended) to open up their platform around AIM, they might still have a seat at the table.

technorati tags: aol, aim, social networks

They Call It "The Internet"

2006-05-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

I just saw a video that absolutely blew my mind on Throw away your TV Archive. This news clip from 1991 discusses a budding cultural phenomenon called "The Internet." Sound familiar? This definitely gives you some perspective on not only how far the Internet has come, but on how far we still have to go. I highly recommend taking a couple minutes to watch it. As an interesting aside, the majority of the discussion deals with the unique social experience enabled by the Internet. It is eerie to hear folks from 15 years ago discuss feelings of "democratic connectedness" in a world where Social Networks are all the rage. Check out more comments on Digg. Later fan-boys.

technorati tags: Internet, Video, Trends

53651

2006-05-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

Josh Kopelman, founder of Half.com turned Web 2.0 investor, had a great post on his blog pertaining to what Fred Wilson refers to as Second Derivative Companies. "

The long and short of it is that the Web 2.0 is all the rage and tons of folks trying to "ride the wave" by emulating the success of established Web 2.0 companies. I can't tell you how many business plans and ideas that I have reviewed claiming to be the "Flickr of X," the "Del.icio.us of Y," or the "mySpace of Z." With mashups becoming more prevalent, there is also a subset of new companies following the ever-popular, formula: Google Maps + Blogging + Social Networks + [INSERT BS SERVICE HERE].

I call the emerging class of Web 2.0 companies that subscribe to this approach Echo Companies 2.0. Echo Companies have become particularly fashionable on the East Coast, where there is a relative dearth of activity in the Web 2.0 space relative to Silicon Valley.

Bottom line, I am elated to see a resurgence of interest in the web. A ton of this stuff is amazingly fun to play with. But, I also couldn't agree more with Josh and Fred - some of this stuff is just plain fluff. Does that mean that all Web 2.0 companies are created equal? More importantly, perhaps, does that mean that investors are not itching to dive in? No and NO! That being said, however, entrepreneurs beware - if you want to get VC dollars, you need to create something valuable enough to capture an audience larger than 53,651.

technorati tags: 53651, joshkopelman, web2.0, fredwilson

Discovery is the New Search

2006-05-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

Google's tremendous IPO in 2004 made search all the rage. The aftershocks of the IPO are still being felt today and are apparent by Microsoft's $2B investment in the web. Search has become such a hot topic that Blogstar John Battelle of Wired fame wrote a book on the topic - aptly entitled "The Search." Perhaps even more amazing is that I have finally gotten around to reading the book. Although search is undoubtedly a large piece of the emerging web puzzle, however, it is still only a piece.

The market for search is absolutely enormous. Analysts at META Group (now Gartner) estimated that the current market for contextual advertising - the primary monetization mechanism for search - will be $5B in 2006. This number is expected to double to a whopping $10B in 2009.

In its current incarnation, search is pretty simple. In return for entering a couple keywords in a little box you get a shiny list of results related to your query. If you know exactly what you are looking for, search is pretty decent. But what about that fuzzy space between knowing exactly what you want and not knowing jack? What do I mean? Well, do you ever find yourself stuck while exploring for "cool new music", or all the "flicks your friends are watching?" That is where discovery comes in.

Discovery is the process by which a user effectively visualizes, contextualizes, and organizes massive sets of information and services to explore relevant knowledge. To date, discovery has been a bit ad-hoc. Most information discovery online has been restricted to leveraging Google in tandem with some serious web browsing, bookmarks, emails, etc. Effectively navigating the unstructured web via this approach is messy to say the least. Even more frustrating is the act of organizing relevant facts that you discover along the way.

Recently, however, a number of services have popped up in response to the pressing need for better discovery tools. Some examples of emerging players in the "discovery space" include LivePlasma, Pandora, Last.fm, and of course - the mother of all Web 2.0 sites - del.icio.us. Each of these sites enables users to traverse disconnected information and services via some combination of classification and visualization mechanisms. Pandora, for instance, let's users traverse a graphical taxonomy to discover new artists and songs. On the other hand, Last.fm leverages tagging and charting mechanisms in conjunction with bottom-up content provided by users to enable a dramatically new music discovery experience. I believe that a combination of the two approaches will ultimately prevail.

Better discovery mechanisms are important not only because they will enable a 10X improvement on user experience, but also because they will have a bottom-line impact on companies. Discovery mechanisms could eventually displace search engines as major gateways to information and - effectively - become intermediaries to purchases. Pandora has already connected discovery with purchases via Amazon's web service.

This area is extremely nascent and it will take a great deal of work before we see anything that captures mainstream attention. But it will happen - it has to. Information overload is already a severe problem and the data just keeps coming. So keep your eyes peeled boys and girls - discovery is the new search.

technorati tags: search, google, discovery

Want to Follow Yahoo's Tracks?

2006-05-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

Dave Beckett, one of Yahoo's resident Digerati, recently posted a del.icio.us tag to help the world follow his virtual "trail" as he reads about his company online:

http://del.icio.us/tag/ytech

Dave is a well-respected Semantic Web guru and is probably best known for his work on the Redland Framework. He even maintains a list of Semantic Web Logs to help us SemGeeks keep things in context. No pun intended. Just in case you are wondering, Convergence is listed under the category of "Weblogs with Occasional Semantic Web Items." Can't win 'em all, can we?

For those of you that are interested in following folks like Jeremy Zawodony to keep up with the latest and greatest from GYM, this feed might be a good resource for you to leverage. Be good, fan-boys.

technorati tags: delicious, yahoo, davebeckett

I'm back!

2006-04-26T07:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of communication fan-boys, but I have been away in Ireland for a wedding. Congrats to Barry and Rebecca and many thanks for arranging such a wonderful experience.

During my travels, I had a fantastic time meeting new friends and motoring across the country with my lovely girlfriend and our handy Let's Go guide. Although I must admit that I almost bit it pretty hard while attempting to drive on the left side of the road. I am the worst. As an aside, apparently the reason that many countries in Europe drive on the left side of the road is that:

In the past, almost everybody traveled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him. Moreover, it reduced the chance of the scabbard (worn on the left) hitting other people.

Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse, and it would be very difficult to do otherwise if wearing a sword (which would be worn on the left). It is safer to mount and dismount towards the side of the road, rather than in the middle of traffic, so if one mounts on the left, then the horse should be ridden on the left side of the road.

What a strange world we live in. I am sure that many historical vestiges like these have also made their way into many of the standards and applications that are popular online today. My guess is that most things on the Internet have nothing to do with swords, however. Seriously though, does anyone know of any good examples of weird/cool/interesting historical/policitical stuff that has influenced the web we know and love today? Weird trivia geeks this is your chance!

Anyway, I should be posting to Convergence regularly again for your reading enjoyment. Just bear with me as I come up for air. I actually had to hit the ground running when I got back as I am knee-deep in a massive undertaking with the rest of the Clearspring crew. More on that sneaky mission soon kids. Hope all is well. Back to work for this web-slinger.

technorati tags: ireland, convergence

7 Problems with Hive 7

2006-03-31T14:46:00.000-08:00

Behold the future of the web - Hive7. This is the latest core-dump from Silicon Valley. Hive7 is an AJAX-powered, 3D Virtual World. It is all live in the browser, requires no downloads, and - of course - is free. Oh and in case you were wondering, the development was outsourced so it was all done on the cheap. Sounds great right?

Has the whole world gone absolutely, stark-raving, mad?

Just because you can use AJAX to do some slick tricks in the browser it does NOT mean that it is a good idea to use it for everything. Would you want to live in a house built from Popsicle sticks? Apparently, the folks at Hive7 think so.

Not only is the implementation of the site a bit scary from a scalability perspective, but a visit to Hive7 feels like an old Tandy game gone terribly awry. The user interface is something out of one of those bad educational games they made us play back in the day.

Ok, so I could go on about this for some time. As I do not intend to spend the rest of my life on this, I will make my best attempt to boil down my 7 Problems with Hive7:

1. Physical World Constraints: Not always convenient to "travel."
2. Usability Issues: User interface physics unclear.
3. Lacks Aesthetic Appeal: Nuff said.
4. Scalability Issues: Super-Interactive w/Javascript?
5. Security and Privacy Lacking: No brainer.
6. Latency and Disconnects: Duh.
7. Random bears and flowers: WTF.

I am all for experimentation and trying fun new things (almost to a fault). But this is a company trying to create and deliver a value-added service. And trying to build a scalable, interactive, virtual social environment on a bunch of duct tape script and a less than slick UI is just too much - even for a mad tinkerer like me.

On the plus side, I will say that the "vision" behind Hive7 is admirable and future-thinking. And clearly, social networks and avatars are starting to really get some serious attention. In my humble opinion, if the folks at Hive7 want to be players in this emerging digital world they have some serious work ahead of them.

For more on this see Om's post. Later fan-boys.

technorati tags: hive7, web2.0, avatar, socialnetwork

Best Technorati Tag Ever!

2006-03-29T22:02:00.000-08:00

thistagissupercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Jammin' wit Marc Canter

2006-03-29T14:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had the unique pleasure of jamming out on a whiteboard with web-ninja Marc Canter. Thanks Miles and Phil.

It was a truly amazing experience to hash out ideas for the next net with one of the founding fathers of rich media software. As we have grown our company, I have had the opportunity to learn from a ton of really sharp folks. I have to say, however, it is always the most fun to chat with fellow web-slingers that not only are really passionate about making the web a better place, but are also actively working to make their dreams a reality.

In case you have been living in a hole for the last couple months, Marc is hard at work on a pretty nifty project - Structured Blogging. For those of you that missed it (shame on you), I blogged on this back in December. This project is yet another force driving the web away from the current unstructured mess that we have now (text + graphics = goo) and towards a more structured (machine understandable) representation of data (woo-hoo).

If you did not figure it out already, the more structured information that is available online, the easier it will be for developers to put together applications for users. The easier it is for developers to make applications, the more fun the web will become. Accordingly, one can logically conclude that Structured Blogging will undoubtedly contribute to an increased level of "fun-ness" on the web and - thus - must be supported. That is enough silliness for now. Back to serious issues…

Marc is also helping push some other stuff out that will contribute to the creation of a global SOA:

If you have not already, I encourage you to check these things out. In particular, to all you hackers out there, the last two links point to some fun web services that enable you to tie even more things together across the emerging "Structured Web."

Ok kids - family time is over. Hooman go work now. Viva la Structured Revolution.

technorati tags: web2.0, structuredblogging, marccanter

Web 2.0 and the Birth of the Semantic Web

2006-03-26T11:08:00.000-08:00

In 2005, critics of Web 2.0 were confident that it was a fad, claiming that it was another bubble waiting to burst. Some folks assert that we are witnessing the Web 2.0 "fizzling" out right now. I disagree.

The Web 2.0 movement is now full steam ahead. The net is buzzing as new products and services are released almost everyday. It is now standard that web-based service providers make functionality available to enterprising developers via APIs. A new breed of applications leveraging web services are being created at astonishing rates by these developers. Mashups are such a big deal that the original bad-boy of venture capital, Kleiner Perkins, recently funded Platial - a mashup built using Google Maps. The web is changing so fast that a set of bloggers, such as Mike Arrington, Emily Chang, Pete Cashmore, and Brian Benzinger, have made a name for themselves simply by keeping the rest of us informed (thanks) of developments in the space. More importantly, perhaps, is that large organizations [cough...MSFT] with billions of dollars are rushing to "embrace and extend" [cough, cough...CASH IN ON] the change. It goes without saying that the current environment is - to say the least - dynamic.

Amid the mounting chaos, however, structure is emerging. Web services, structured blogging, tagging, deep web search, microformats, edge readers, syndication, and even Microsoft Clipboard are all harbingers of something much bigger. Unstructured data is quickly becoming a thing of the past as the old web gives way to something new. For those of you that have been working in the Semantic Web space, your spidey-sense is probably tingling like mad. Why? Because you see what is happening.

The Web 2.0 movement is setting the stage for a paradigm shift that will undoubtedly alter the course of human history - the birth of the Semantic Web.

technorati tags: semantic web, web2.0, microformats

Network.com NOT for Most Web 2.0 Apps

2006-03-25T13:47:00.000-08:00

Sun Microsystems new grid computing offering, Network.com, was introduced this past week with much fanfare. Jonathan Schwartz boldly proclaimed the service as "the first, publicly accessible instantiation of the future of computing." Clearly, this is a good thing for network-centric computing and there has been a great deal of discussion online regarding the impact of the release. Although I applaud Sun for moving one step closer toward their vision of "The Network is the Computer", the solution really is not applicable to most companies that are developing web-based software applications.

Grid programming is not new. Frameworks like the Globus Toolkit have enabled the creation of massively parallel programs for some time now. The problem with grid computing is that it is not applicable to a large set of applications. Why? Well, first off, most existing applications are not written with a grid-infrastructure in mind. You cannot just dump these applications onto the grid and expect them to speed up. More importantly perhaps, is that for many applications computation is not the biggest bottleneck. Sure there are certain applications in bioinformatics and financials services that require some serious number-crunching, but I would argue that the majority of companies developing web-based software have a far greater demand for top-quality, managed hosting solutions, for their respective multi-threaded applications.

If I were Sun, I would create a "out of the box" hosting service using Niagara machines, their current open source stack, and offer utility computing as a premium add-on. That way, software companies can get the value-added service they need most - managed hosting - and as they scale will have unique the ability to easily add additional processing capability. I mean wouldn't it be great to go to Network.com, quickly configure an OS, database, and App Server in minutes and avoid nasty data center issues? Better yet, you wouldn't you love to have the ability to profile application performance and - as the demand increases for your applications - scale your processing with the touch of a button? I know that our company would love this kind of service.

I hope that the folks at Sun wake up and put together something like this. They already have all the parts and are really missing the boat on a pretty large market.

technorati tags: Sun, network.com, web2.0, gridcomputing

Classic Web 2.0 Business Model

2006-03-23T07:31:00.000-08:00

What are the business models? This is the million dollar question (literally) on everyone's mind - especially VCs - concerning many of the companies being generated as a result of the burgeoning Web 2.0 movement. Fred Wilson, a VC (in NYC) recently had a post on his site discussing his favorite web business model. He described this model as follows:

Give your service away for free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc, then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version of your service to your customer base.

Fred did not have a name for this classic web business model and asked if anyone had a name for it. I have not heard of a particular name associated with this model as yet, but I view this model as classic example of the "foot-in-the-door" technique employed by the door-to-door salesmen of old. Wikipedia has an entry with a bit more info:

Foot-in-the-door technique is a persuasion method. In it, the persuader does something small in order to catch the target's interest, before moving on to what he really wants. This may be a small, insignificant offer which the receiving party cannot logically refuse. After the receiving party has accepted the offer, the offeror proposes another, but more significant offer. Because the receiving party has already accepted the smaller offer from the offeror in the past, he will be more inclined to accept the second offer than from someone he had just met. A related trick is the Bait and switch.

On the web, things are not so different. I find out about Skype through some viral marketing mechanism such as an email signature. Then I go to Skype's website and use their free calling service. After being wildly impressed with the free service, I will now feel comfortable with the company and, accordingly, will be more inclined to purchase a value-added, premium service - or so the story goes.

Given that the business model Fred discussed is simply an extension of this classic "foot in the door" sales technique, maybe you could call it a "Digital Foot-in-the-Door" model. Anyone have any thoughts?

technorati tags: web2.0, fredwilson, digitalfootinthedoor

How to Make Your Blog Web 2.0 Compliant

2006-03-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

I have finally made it. The proof is the shiny new image on the right hand side of my blog. Convergence is now officially Web 2.0 compliant. Well, actually, I am only 44% compliant.

To get your official Web 2.0 certification, visit the folks at Certifyr. It is definitely a pretty nifty gimmick. You visit their site, provide some information about your website, and in return they give you back your compliance rating and a little HTML do-dad to put on your website.

This site was created by Adbrite, the self-styled "Internet's Ad Marketplace." My guess is that they created Certifyr so that bloggers (like me) would talk about it - potentially driving traffic to their main site and increasing their brand value. Well guys, if that was your goal then kudos to you. I had my fun. Ironically, Adbrite is only 38% Web 2.0 Compliant.

technorati tags: web2.0compliant, web2.0, certifyr

Implicit Web Service Contracts

2006-03-13T13:11:00.000-08:00

Mashups are all the rage these days. People are going gaga over the veritable explosion of possibilities associated with leveraging multiple online services in tandem to deliver a unique class of derivative services. Programmable Web, the popular Web 2.0 developer destination, has over 500 mash-ups listed that leverage 178+ listed web services. From what I can tell, there are roughly 1-3 new mashups being created everyday. Maybe more importantly to some enterprising developers is that some very large VCs are paying very close attention.

Although this new breed of application is undoubtedly exciting, there are still a couple of issues that require some serious thought from the community - especially surrounding the use and monetization of constituent web services. A number of folks, such as Peter Rip, have started to address issues surrounding the complex ecosystem associated with mashup development, but there is a long way to go as the Global SOA begins to emerge.

One set of issues that has consistently come up - aside from business models – surrounds the obligations of service providers to their developer communities. In other words, "What if Google decides to pull the plug on the service you are using to create your mashup?" It is an interesting question and, frankly, a fair one. The short answer is, "I dunno." If Google, or some other provider, decides to cut the proverbial cord then mashup developers will be forced respective application. As an aside, this actually does not affect things too much with our platform. More on this to come. That being said, however, that scenario is pretty unlikely to happen - especially the longer the service is actively supported and available online. Why, you ask?

Implicit Web Service Contract - when a service provider posts an API online for use by the developer community, that action results in the formation of an implicit agreement with developers, or "contract," that promises a certain level of platform availability. In other words, I as the developer will create some value-added mashup application using your platform, but you as the service provider have to ensure some level of availability with respect to the service, or else.

Google Local (Maps - back in the day) has maintained an open API for some time now. As a result, a number of developers have created applications that leverage this API to deliver services with unique value propositions, such as HousingMaps. If Google was to decide that – one day – they were better off releasing their own set of "Mashups" to replace incumbent maps mashups and shut down their API, there would probably be hell to pay. Hundreds of angry developers that invested their valuable time and energy to create services would be screaming bloody murder as they marched through the Valley with signs saying "Do No Evil My @$$"

Ok, so maybe that is a bit extreme. But seriously, once a community develops around an API it is pretty hard to take down the service, or even change the API, without serious repercussions. The networking affect is huge and developers are an unruly lot. If a service provider, like Google, were to even change an API in a way that impacted developers negatively, some developers might consider walking away. It goes without saying that they would definitely think twice before using any other service(s) that the Goog made available. Not only would the move disenfranchise developers, but it would also damage the brand reputation of the service provider on the open web with early adopters. For anyone who knows the web, alienating those two communities represents a serious transaction cost with a very real bottom line impact.

So service providers beware - publishing an API is a great idea if you want to transform your service into a true platform, but walk carefully as making changes to your Implicit Web Service Contract can result in some rather expensive waves.

technorati tags:mashup, implicitwebservicecontract, web2.0

AOL Changing Dynamics of Social Networks

2006-03-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

AOL recently announced that they are officially opening up their immensely popular instant messaging platform to the developer community and enabling a new generation of AIM-powered IM clients/services. According to Kevin Conroy, executive vice president of AOL Media Networks:

The next wave of opportunities will come as a result of allowing developers to innovate. AIM is the original social network. We're looking for ways for consumers to be able to extend their social networks via an already popular platform.

This is an absolutely brilliant position and pretty damn significant. AOL Instant Messenger boasts a community of 63M users. That is more users than the wildly popular - and closed - social network, mySpace, which currently has 56M users. By integrating IM functionality with other online services (blogging, photo sharing, mapping, etc) developers can create a host of powerful, cross-functional, services that leverage and extend the power of their existing social networks. More significantly, perhaps, is that if AOL can manage to become the de facto instant messaging/social network on the emerging service-oriented web, they will have scored a big win.

There are a couple catches however, that will have to be addressed over time. Most notably, the AIM Developer FAQ states:

Developers are not permitted to build Custom Clients that are multi-headed (I think they meant threaded) or interoperable with any other IM network.

That requirement is no footnote and means that - for now - we still not at the point where we can easily exchange instant messages across the major networks. Suffice to say, that is a huge impediment to developing a truly pervasive and ubiquitous computing environment. Also, I wonder how this will affect folks like Meebo and their competition.

Although there is still a ways to go, this move will undoubtedly herald the beginning of a more open social software space. Incumbent social network services such as Friendster and LinkedIn will be forced to reconsider their current "closed" positions and maybe even gradually open up as a result of increased competitive pressures. Those services that desperately hang on to the Web 1.0 "do-it-yourself" mentality, however, will probably go the way of their dot-com predecessors - buhbyes.

Regardless, I am impressed that the folks at AOL are moving in this direction and am truly excited to watch the dynamics of the social software space change in response to the announcement.

technorati tags: aol, AIM, myspace, friendster, social networking

Where, oh where, did my Nivi go?

2006-03-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

Nivi is definitely one of the more interesting characters in the blogosphere. Once upon a time, you could find him on his blog, aptly titled Nivi, ranting about random topics ranging from technology to venture capital. Recently, however, our friend has vanished into the ether without a trace. The question that is on all of our minds is - where, oh where did our Nivi go? Here are 3 theories that I have come up with:

1. He has transformed into pure energy
2. He is on a covert mission to save the planet
3. Bessemer has got his hands full

If anyone has any theories/knowledge concerning his whereabouts, please let me know. In real life though, Nivi-jan, please come back - the blogosphere is not quite as fun without you. That is all fan-boys. Back to work for this web-slinger.

technorati tags: nivi, blogger

WTF - Technorati is Sorry?

2006-03-01T13:51:00.000-08:00

Technorati is out for the count (again). This is the second time that this has happened to me in the past couple weeks. When I tried to look up some tag goodness to place in my most recent blog post, this was the message I got:

They are sorry? What the heck is that about? Look, I am all for the rapid release, trial and error, Web 2.0, we are all friends, blah blah blah. But a mature service going down for a couple minutes two times in one month? Sheesh - fix it! I am one unhappy Hoo. That is all.

technorati tags: NONE!

New Google Adsense Competitor

2006-03-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

Miva is introducing an online service to compete with Google Adsense and the Yahoo Publisher Network, claiming that current solutions lead to the erosion of public brands. According to DMNews.com:

Miva said it gives publishers more control, letting them generate revenue while protecting their brands' integrity. Google and Yahoo erode publishers' brands with their pay-per-call programs, for example, by extracting information for their own purposes, while Miva can offer publishers "no strings attached."

Peter Corrao, Miva's Chief Operating Officer had this to say:

We believe our contextual solution will provide publishers with significantly improved flexibility and control, enabling them to attract and retain advertisers and to more substantially monetize their own brands on the Web

Should be interesting to see how the advertising game plays out. I wish them the best of luck, as they are definitely in for a fight.

technorati tags: miva, google, yahoo, advertising

Zoom in on Your Location with Streetside

2006-02-28T12:06:00.000-08:00

I just checked out the newest addition to the Microsoft Live Suite - Streetside. This is a really cool preview service that takes network-centric mapping technology to a whole new level. Essentially you can not only find a location using their Virtual Earth package, but you can also navigate through street-level photographs of the location.

The interface is a bit lacking (see screenshot), but the promise of the technology is clear. Take this a step further and you can easily envision being able to not only find the location/picture of a new restaurant, but also quickly checking out any associated reviews/blog posts, or even Stickies.

Hats off to Microsoft. It looks like the folks at Redmond have every intention of using their $50B treasure chest to give Google a run for its money. Oh yea, and I like the race car.

technorati tags: microsoftlive, web 2.0

Web 2.0 + Mobile = Pervasive Computing

2006-02-27T15:49:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered a neat project that promises to connect the world's most popular online information source, Wikipedia, with the physical world to deliver an awesome new user experience. The Semapedia project leverages Semacode technology to connect physical objects with information available in Wikipedia. For those of you that have not heard of Semacode technology before, here is a little snippet from their website:

Semacode's Software Development Kit is a system for ubiquitous computing. Using the Semacode SDK you can create visual tags for objects and contexts, and read them using a mobile camera phone. Our software running on your phone will then deliver you to the appropriate mobile content.

Semacode works by embedding a URL (web address) into a sort of two-dimensional barcode which looks like a dense crossword puzzle (pictured) — called the tag. The SDK software contains the capability to detect and decode the tag very rapidly with the camera on your phone. It extracts the URL and sends you to that address using the phone's built-in browser.

So here is the mile-high of how Semapedia works. A Wikipedia entry is associated with a Semapedia Tag. This tag, in turn, is then associated with a physical location. This enables mobile users to point their camera at a physical location - like the Hofburg in Vienna - and instantly view any Wiki information associated with the location on their mobile phone (as long as they have the software installed).

Wiki <--> Semacode <--> Physical Location <--> Mobile Camera

Pretty neat, right? This simple idea promises to help usher in the next generation of pervasive computing services that leverage existing networked services on the web. Hopefully this type of service will inspire more novel Web/Mobile mashups. For instance, it would be pretty cool to hook up Riya with a set of online information service in similar manner. I will have to run that by Peter Rip and crew at some point soon.

I love being a geek (sigh). I have to go now, my spidey-sense is tingling. Later Fanboys.

technorati tags: semantic web, semacode, web2.0, convergence

153 Web 2.0 Services

2006-02-20T11:53:00.000-08:00

I ran across a fairly comprehensive list of 153 services that fall under the Web 2.0 mast on Listible. There have been numerous attempts to list all the "Web 2.0 Services" on various blogs. This is extremely difficult given the fact that the definition of the term Web 2.0 is still rather amorphous (that is me being nice). If you are interested in keeping update on the newest information on products/services in the burgeoning Web 2.0 space, I recommend checking out Dion, Emily, Brian, Pete, or Mike's Blogs. For those of you that have not checked out the Listable service out as yet, here is some info I snagged from their "About" section:

Listible is a new way to get relevant resources quickly.

By using Web 2.0 features such as AJAX, folksonomy (tagging), social elements such as voting/commenting and the listible's listonomy (listing), resources can be sorted in a way that will be digestible. You can search what you need quick. You can contribute your resources easier.

I don't know how I feel about Listible as yet, but definitely will follow up to what kind of traction they end up getting as they mature.

technorati tags: listible, web2.0

Android - A Google Acquisition I missed

2006-02-20T07:28:00.000-08:00

I adjusted my Google Acquisition list to add Android, a former stealthy software startup that made software for mobile phones, and by making a slight correction for a double entry. For those of you that don't get the mobile strategy that Google has been attacking, you should check out this statement is made on their corporate philosophy page:

5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.

The world is increasingly mobile and unwilling to be constrained to a fixed location. Whether it's through their PDAs, their wireless phones or even their automobiles, people want information to come to them. Google's innovations in this area include Google Number Search, which reduces the number of keypad strokes required to find data from a web-enabled cellular phone and an on-the-fly translation system that converts pages written in HTML to a format that can be read by phone browsers. This system opens up billions of pages for viewing from devices that would otherwise not be able to display them, including Palm PDAs and Japanese i-mode, J-Sky, and EZWeb devices. Wherever search is likely to help users obtain the information they seek, Google is pioneering new technologies and offering new solutions.

Anything else!? I am going to write about something non-google related next. Although that is becoming increasingly difficult as these guys have their hands in everything and anything on that has to do with pervasive computing and Web 2.0 these days.

technorati tags: google, acquisition, web

A Complete List of Google's Acquisitions

2006-02-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

I have been spending this lazy Sunday afternoon organizing/planning/catching up at the office. Exciting things are happening at Clearspring as we continue to expand our team of renegade ninjas to build out our platform. We are pretty excited about what we are doing and, hopefully, you will enjoy the fruits of our labor come release. If you are interested in keeping posted on our progress, please sign up for our newsletter (coming soon) on our website. Also stay tuned to this blog, as I will have more to come on Clearspring soon.

In addition to doing fun work stuff, I have taken it upon myself to spend some serious time web surfing. I have not had the chance to do that in a long time and am WAY overdue. As I caught up with recent happenings, such as the Measuremap acquisition by Google, I noticed a couple other Google acquisitions that I had missed in my first sweep. I combined these findings with my previous research to create a fairly comprehensive list of their acquisitions over the last several years. In general, it seems that the boys at Google have tended to favor smaller players with the following competencies: search, advertising, web analytics, mapping, mobile services, and online publishing.

Outride - Information Retrieval/Search - 2001
Deja News - Groups - 2001
Applied Semantics - Contextual Advertising - 4/2003
Pyra Labs - Blogging - 9/2003
Kaltix - Personalized Search - 9/2003
Sprinks - Advertising - 10/2003
Ignite Logic - 5/2004
Picasa - Photo Organizer - 7/2004
Keyhole - Mapping - 10/2004
Where 2 - Mapping - 2004
Zipdash - Mobile Service - 2004
Urchin - Web Analytics - 3/2005
Dodgeball - Mobile Service - 5/2005
Akwan - Information Retrieval/Querying - 7/2005
Android - Mobile Services - 2005
dMarc- Radio Advertising - 1/2006
Measure Map - Web Analytics - 2/2006

Their acquisitions have been fairly consistent with their mission and corresponding monetization strategy. Specifically their acquisitions to date have increased their ability to organize/provide access to more information while bolstering their distribution channels, ability to place and sell advertisements, and ability to analyze the web traffic driving both processes. The only acquisition that I am a bit in the dark about is Ignite Logic. From what I can gather, the company never managed to raise any real money and had a web-template solution targeted towards law firms. Not exactly earth-shattering - right? Battelle had some interesting thoughts on this a while back, but I am still not sure about this one.

If anyone spots something that I missed, or stated incorrectly, please let me know. Enjoy, Fan-boys. Happy Sunday.

technorati tags: google, acquisition, web

Holy $#!t - Tranformers are Real!

2006-02-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

I saw this video a while back and thought the folks that occasionally stumble by my little corner of the blog-o-sphere might enjoy checking it out. For those geeks that have not seen this video yet, prepare to be excited. Transformers are officially real. I don't know about you guys, but I used to love Transfomers, Voltron, and all the other wondrous cartoons produced in the eighties. In large part, these shows inspired me to pursue a career in technology.

I wonder if this bad-boy is powered by Energon Cubes?

technorati tags: transformers,video

9 Things Yahoo Thinks about Web 2.0

2006-02-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

Tom Coates, one of the social software gurus over at Yahoo, recently posted these 9 points. I am glad to see that some pretty smart folks, at some pretty big firms, are starting to realize that the world is changing. The web is no longer a publication mechanism, it is a platform for services - whether you like it, or not.

Tom was kind enough to put up a presentation for folks to run through on his site. See the links below for the HTML and PDF versions of this presentation. It is actually pretty interesting, especially if you are new to the scene. I generally agree with the vision set forth in the presentation and some of the high-level technical assertions. However, I think that some ideas, such as the notion of the "hackable" URL, might need a bit more thought. More on that later though. Time for this web-slinger to get to bed. Take care fan-boys.

1. PDF Version

2. HTML Version

technorati tags: yahoo, web2.0

Technorati Slow as Hell Today?

2006-02-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

Earlier today most of my requests timed out when I was searching for tags on Technorati. Anyone else notice the massive slow down? I wonder what's up.

5 Tips for Creating a Popular Web 2.0 Service

2006-02-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with some friends at a Pittsburgh-based start-up, Talkshoe. They are doing some pretty slick stuff that has the potential to change the way we communicate online. More on them later, as they are currently in stealth-mode (shhh).

After meeting with them, they asked me for some feedback pertaining to the release of a web-based service. Some of the points that I addressed were based on observations of Web 2.0 services (del.icio.us, technorati, youtube, meebo) that have seen some traction. As these are points generally applicable to most web-based service providers, I figured like any good Web-head, I would share with my friends online.

Many of these are "no-brainers," but for some insane reason, some people have not taken the hint! Enjoy, fan-boys. Back to work for this web-slinger.

1. User Interface - Keep it simple. Keep it slick. Patience is short on the web.
2. Developers - Service can be mixed, remixed, and mixed some more. See the possibilities.
3. Tight Feedback Loop - Stay in tune with users and actively leverage feedback in order to...
4. Release fast, Release Well, Release Often - Users will unlock your true value.
5. Create HTML Do-Dads - Enable power users to cut-and-paste services to drive traffic.

technorati tags: web2.0, list,tips

Correction on Previous Post

2006-01-25T08:54:00.000-08:00

On one of my earlier posts, I mistakenly put up a screenshot of an excel table that had listed the Skype acquisition as occuring in 2003. Clearly that is not the case. I think I made a formatting error on the dates when I was writing up the list. Cursed Excel. Anyhoo...I will fix it ASAP and repost that data. Cheers!

Chuck Norris Rocks Web 2.0

2006-01-25T08:46:00.000-08:00

Ok, not really...but this is funny as hell and I cannot in good faith not share this with my fellow geeks online. Enjoy!

technorati tags: chucknorris, web2.0, coolvideo

20 Web 2.0 Company Acquisitions and 10 Acquisitions to Watch Out For in 2006

2006-01-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

Hola fanboys. I apologize for my somewhat extended hiatus from the blog-o-sphere. Our little stealth-mode project at Clearspring is growing fast and we have been navigating our way through a slew of investor requests in order to find the right partner. Thankfully, we are almost done because I am one tired Hoo. More on that later. But for now, on with the show!

I was recently asked if I had a list of Web 2.0-related acquisitions. As I did not, I took it upon myself to do a bit of exploring and come up with a list of 20 Web 2.0 Acquisitions that I decided might be fun to check out for some of you web-heads out there.

I also compiled a list of 10 Web 2.0 Companies that are rumored to be hot acquisition targets in 2006. Let me know your thoughts. That's all for this web-slinger. Back to work.

technorati tags: acquisition, web2.0, list, Trends

Why MySpace?

2006-01-04T08:42:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, the world was buzzing about social networks. Ironically, this was back in my graduate school days where I was conducting research at Carnegie Mellon in the area. Entrepreneurs and VCs rushed to introduce a flurry of "social network" services with promises to connect people around the world. Names like Friendster and Tribe were touted as holding the keys to the future of the web. Many services seemed to grow substantial user bases overnight. The online community was excited. Things looked good.

However, like most new things, the novelty soon wore off. People grew tired of trying to maintain 3-4 different networks. "Connecting for the sake of connecting" was no longer good enough and public interest seemed to fade as copy-cat services ran rampant on the web. Many services just could not cross the proverbial "chasm."

One service, however, has seemed to stand apart from the rest. This social network service not only has managed to capture the spotlight, but also has managed to accomplish the unthinkable-capture the consistent attention of users. What service is this do you ask? MySpace. Founded by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, this service has quickly become one of the hottest properties on the web. In case you were on another planet for the last couple months, MySpace was acquired to the tune of $580M by Rupert Murdoch's media monster, News Corp. Where did this service succeed where others did not?

Like other services in this category, MySpace allowed users to publish personal profiles and connect to friends. Unlike other services facilitating the creation of social networks, however, MySpace transformed the social network into an actionable mechanism to facilitate communication. Once you found new friends, you could instantly see if they were online and start to communicate using an instant messaging service right away. Thus, the network provided people with a mechanism not only to find people, but also a novel mechanism to enhance communication. This subtle differentiator, coupled with their ability to cater to up and coming musicians proved to be an absolutely magical formula. Teens and young adults alike soon found themselves spending hours "stalking" people on MySpace.

The lesson here is that the key to success in any social service is to make the network actionable. Leveraging a social network to enhance existing services such as communication, finding new music, and sharing files can be extremely powerful. However, creating a network for the sake of having a network will probably leave you with what some other folks are now stuck trying to figure out what to do with - a whole bunch of nothing.

The idea of social networking software has evolved significantly over the years. Although there has been tremendous progress in this space, we have only begun to scratch the surface of the power of social software. As I had mentioned on David Hornik's Ventureblog, social networks in their present incarnation are anything but "social." Contact information is fragmented and trapped within the bounds and context of a particular service. There is not consistent social network across services. Hopefully, you will see some progress on this front soon.

technorati tags: myspace, social networks

In the Year 2006

2005-12-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

Many members of the blogosphere have taken a stab at predicting the major happenings in 2006. Like any good conformist, I am going to also give it a shot. Below I have fired off a representative set of 30 techno-centric-ish predictions listed in no particular order. I could probably go for more, but I don’t feel like spending all of 2007 trying to take my foot out of my mouth. Read at your own risk!

1. Yahoo’s stock hits $65
2. Amazon’s stock hits $70
3. Google’s stock drops 20%
4. AOL files to go public and/or is acquired
5. Riya, YouTube, and Facebook are acquired
6. MSFT Vista/Office has less than stellar adoption rates and signals end of the desktop era
7. MSFT creates their own advertising network service to compete with Google
8. Google releases office productivity software/services
9. Google takes a huge step towards providing an "integrated" experience for users
10. Comcast and other tech-giants trial network-centric computing as a subscription service
11. A major social network will open their API and disrupt other “gated” communities
12. Skype downloads top 500M. My father will tell me about VOIP
13. Apple partners with XM and/or Sirius to:
13a. Let you listen to satellite radio from your IPod
13b. Buy music you hear on the radio on-demand
14. The satellite radio firmthat partners with Apple sees 10% increase in stock
15. Wave of heavily funded VC-backed Web 2.0 platform start-ups emerge
16. Advertising revenue associated with “traditional” publications continues to plunge
17. Traditional media giants and private equity investors rush to buy Web properties
18. Major network news anchors will publish blogs for “mom” and “dad”
19. A location-aware mobile service hits the mainstream
20. A multi-modal phone is released that makes it easy to use IP, cell, and other networks
21. Established web “stack” weakens as non-GYM aggregation services gain traction
22. A “Greasemonkey” for the masses emerges
23. Somebody hacks a popular console network to work with a game from another platform
24. Viable business models for remix applications and web services begin to emerge
25. A popular film is released via an on-demand TV, or IP service before a theater
26. Fortune 500 companies factor Web 2.0 into their IT strategies
27. Remix culture goes mainstream as media become increasingly atomized and open
28. Real Semantic Web technologies and services make their way onto the WWW
29. Market research firms popularize a global SOA using Web 2.0, SOA, and SemWeb memes
30. Web 2.0 makes cover of mainstream periodicals as Tim Berners-Lee re-enters the spotlight

technorati tags: 2006, web 2.0, predictions, technology

Dot-com Bust Fueled Google Growth?

2005-12-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

The other day I had an interesting conversation with a very astute partner at one of the nation's leading venture capital firms. One of the topics that we discussed was the rise of Google. People attribute the success of Google to many factors. They had the best technology, they had razor-sharp focus on the search market, or they have the brightest minds on Earth building their platform. All of that, of course, has clearly contributed to the phenomenal growth of this Stanford University spin-out. But one thing that has not been broadly addressed by the media is that maybe, just maybe, Google has achieved a great deal of their success because the bubble burst. What? This guy must be crazy. Hold your horses. Give me a chance to explain.

Google was founded during the height of the dot-com boom. At the time, there were a number of extremely large and well-capitalized players with tested and scalable search capabilities. Household names like Yahoo, Excite, and Yahoo dominated the web. There were probably 30+ major search engines. Competition was rampant. When the dot-com axe finally dropped, the web community recoiled and stopped innovating. More importantly, many established and would-be competitors sold out, or burned out, as venture dollars dried up. And, unfortunately for many companies, ad revenue was not sufficiently high to maintain a positive cash flow during the downturn.

After the crash, as the rest of the world withdrew to nurse their wounds, Google kept on trucking. They improved their search engine. The online population kept growing at accelerating rates. Click-through volume became high enough to justify advertising as a serious business model. And all the while Google kept silent, avoiding attention from incumbent players as they built one of the largest computing platforms on the planet. After the dust settled from the fallout, folks started to creep back to the web just in time to watch Google go public and say, "I thought they were just a search engine?"

Not as crazy as you thought, am I? I suppose timing is everything. Many thanks to that friendly VC for spurring thought-provoking discussion. Good stuff. My spidey-sense is tingling. Back to work for this web-slinger.

technorati tags: google, dotcom, bubble, web 2.0

Fun Mouse Gesture Plug-in for Firefox!

2005-12-21T07:45:00.000-08:00

My brother Cyrus "the Virus" is currently finishing up a stint at Georgia Tech in Hot-Lanta. At Tech, he is involved with a research project involving gesture recognition. He is actually busy hacking away right now creating a role-playing game that let's you cast spells in the game using hand gestures. Pretty awesome right?

For those of you that are not familiar with gesture recognition technology, it is pretty simple in principle. Essentially, instead of using standard input/output devices like a mouse, or keyboard, you can leverage hand gestures as a mechanism to control computer software. Remember how Tom Cruise could navigate through all those "mental pictures" from the psychics on that huge police monitor in the 2002 movie Minority Report just by using his hands? That's gesture recognition!

Anyway, during his wacky research he stumbled across a mouse gesture recognition plug-in for Firefox.This thing is a cool as hell. Essentially you can control your browser using "mouse gestures." Mouse gestures are analogous to hand gestures. For instance, if you hold down the "right-click" button on a standard two button mouse, drag to the left (think back), and then release you can navigate to your previous page. Similarly, to go forward you perform pretty much the same operation except you drag to the right (think forward). There are a bunch of other cool things you can do like open tabs, minimize the window, etc. For those of you that really like to use your mouse, this is a pretty neat add-on to an already cool browser environment. As we move forward towards a world of pervasive computing, alternative human-computer interfaces like gesture interfaces, voice interfaces, and even neuro-silicon interfaces (Matrix) will become increasingly important.

Technorati Tags: gesture recognition, pervasive computing, mouse, firefox

Bloscars 2005 - Best Web 2.0 Blog Nominees

2005-12-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

The year is quickly coming to a close. As the curtains go down on the show that was 2005, I think it is appropriate to recognize some folks that have made the Web 2.0 corner of the blogosphere a bit more interesting for the rest of us. In order to honor the achievements and contributions of these fine netizens, Convergence (me) is holding the 1st Annual Bloscars. I will post the "winners" after New Years. Without further ado, let me introduce this year's Bloscar nominees.

Best VC Blog:

Fred Wilson for A VC in NYC
Peter Rip for Early Stage VC
Ed Sim for BeyondVC
David Hornik for VentureBlog

Best Product & Company Coverage Blog:

Pete Cashmore for Mashable
Michael Arrington for TechCrunch
Emily Chang for EHub
Brian Benzinger for SolutionWatch.

Best Analysis & Trends Blog:

Dion Hinchcliffe for Web 2.0 Blog
Richard McManus for Read/Write Web
Jon Udell for Jon Udell's Weblog.

Best Design Blog:

37 Signals for Signal to Noise
Fred Olivera for We Break Stuff
Particle Tree for Particle Tree
Joshua Porter for Bokardo.

Weirdest Blog:

Nivi for Nivi

Disclaimer: The Bloscars are in no way affiliated with the Oscars. Any likeliness, or similarity to the Oscars is purely coincidental.

technocrati tags: blog, web 2.0, award,bloscar

Structured Blogging Goes Live!

2005-12-14T11:46:00.000-08:00

Structured Blogging has finally gone live and promises to herald a new generation of online application that will output structured information for machine consumption. The gist of it is that this new technology will enable people to create blogs in a manner consistent with the current user experience, but now the content in blogs is more explicitly structured for programmatic consumption. What is particularly exciting is their support for RDF. According to the folks at Structured Blogging:

Structured Blogging is a way to get more information on the web in a way that's more usable. You can enter information in this form and it'll get published on your blog like a normal entry, but it will also be published in a machine-readable format so that other services can read and understand it.
Think of structured blogging as RSS for your information. Now any kind of data - events, reviews, classified ads - can be represented in your blog.

As the web becomes increasingly service-oriented, the increasing "metadata-ization" of unstructured content will make it easier for clever developers to create a new breed of remix applications leveraging distributed services and data. The folks at Structured Blogging have some pretty good participants involved. I agree with Richard McManus

With any luck, Structured Blogging will quickly gain some momentum due to the plugins - and before you know it will go mainstream.

Regardless, very exciting stuff. Kudos to Marc Canter and Phil Pearson!

technorati tags: blog, semweb, semantic web, programming, web 2.0

Tagging Signals Larger Trend

2005-12-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

With the recent acquisition of del.icio.us by our friends at Yahoo it is safe to say that tagging is here to stay. As you all know tag-mania has swept the web. Services such as del.icio.us, technorati, flickr, and youtube have popularized this new form of "organization." Although the increase in metadata has proven to be effective in some cases, things are definitely starting to get messy. How many of you are getting a bit overwhelmed with multiple "tagspaces", each with hundreds of tags. The problem is that tags simply let you know that a concept "is related" to a document, photo, or video. However they do not tell you "how" this tag is related to a document. Peter Merholtz of Adaptive path seems to agree that tagging is not the ultimate answer stating:

tagging systems are not a panacea; they present many potential drawbacks. With no one controlling the vocabulary, users develop multiple terms for identical concepts. For example, if you want to find all references to New York City on Del.icio.us, you'll have to look through nyc, newyork, and newyorkcity.

Perhaps more importantly is the fact that, at present, tags have no relationship to one another. This leads to serious information overload and confusion as the global tagspace explodes. At Clearspring, we believe that tagging is just the beginning. Soon there will be a convergence between formal ontologies and the emerging tagspace. Folks like Clay Shirky have argued that the tagspace is a replacement for formal ontologies. I disagree. I think that both efforts fuel one another. As Martin Dugage so nicely pointed out:

They [ontologies] give a community of people the ability to develop a common meta-classification model that sits on top of existing ones and bridges them together. An ontology can define "nyc", "newyork" and "newyorkcity" as synonyms, define "Time Square" as included in "nyc" etc. In a sense, ontologies allow communities to build a common language from the ground up, which is essential in knowledge creating environment. Top-down norms can be introduced later when language can be "industrialized" for larger communities.

In order to meet the demands of an increasingly information hungry society, it will be necessary for Web2.0ers and SemWebbers join forces to tackle these types of problems. There are those of us that have already crossed over to join the ranks of this emerging community. I think you will see more soon.

technorati tags: delicious, yahoo, tagging, ontology, semweb

The Future of HTML, Text, and the Web Browser

2005-12-09T07:42:00.000-08:00

Standards bodies are now trying to make sure Web 2.0 has a direction. This article discusses the future of HTML and the standard setting efforts of WHATWG.

In this two-part series, Edd Dumbill examines the various ways forward for HTML that Web authors, browser developers, and standards bodies propose. This series covers the incremental approach embodied by the WHATWG specifications and the radical cleanup of XHTML proposed by the W3C. Additionally, the author gives an overview of the W3C's new Rich Client Activity. Here in Part 1, Edd focuses primarily on two specifications being developed by WHATWG: Web Applications 1.0 (HTML5) and Web Forms 2.0.

For those of you that are not familiar with their efforts:

It [WHATWG] is a loose unofficial collaboration of Web browser manufacturers and interested parties who wish to develop new technologies designed to allow authors to write and deploy Applications over the World Wide Web.

I commend the group for their realization that we need to address the creation of web applications. I also am happy to see an increased movement towards richer functionality. However, my fundamental problem with this and other efforts is that they assume that our current web browser environment is good enough. I assume that is because folks that have made investments in the current environemnt are shaping the standards.

I recently spoke with a friend of mine about this issue, Rafael Bracho. Rafael is the CEO of Abgenial (very cool company) and was the founder of Active Software. And I think we agree that the current browser environment is not the final answer. Does anyone else think that it is a bit weird that our current browsers force developers to transform server-side objects into XML, send XML over to the browser environment. just so someone can parse the XML and put it BACK into objects for manipulation?

I love Firefox. But, all good things most come to an end. Especially in software. I agree with the folks at Flock that think it is time for a change in the browser environment. The current browser was designed for a text-centric, publication experience. Instead of hacking Firefox to accomodate the new world of service-oriented, information sharing, why don't we start thinking about a new browser?

technorati tags: html, web2.0, browser

Sneaky Google "News" Mashup

2005-12-06T07:30:00.000-08:00

Google is undoubtedly the hottest company on the web. As mashups are all the rage, I have decided to do an ongoing mashup of "news" about Google and brainstorm about their direction. For this first installment, I am just going to try to jot down a couple facts and links to get the creative juices flowing and see what pieces of the puzzle we have to play with. I will follow up with a synthesis soon.

Changed the name of Google Desktop Search to Google Desktop
Created a unified login for Google Services
Has roughly $7B in cash
Has over 20 services from search to mapping
Acquires Picassa, Keyhole, et. al
Begins to implement rich client functionality and personalization online
Hired former BEA software guru Adam Bosworth and x-BEA J2EE guys
Hired Semantic Web guru and former Netscaper Guha
Reportedly 64 data centers with over 100K machines
Purchases large amounts of dark fiber
Creates WiFi service with "Secure Access" service
Rumored to be bidding on purchase of AOL division of AOL/Time Warner
Rumored to create "portable" data center: 5000 processors, 3.5 petabytes/box
Partnership with Sun Microsystems
Announced commitment to developing Open Office

On a high level, it is obvious that Google has embraced the vision of the web as a platform and is actively moving to become the Microsoft of this net-centric new world. In order to accomplish this goal they are quickly creating the services and infrastructure necessary to fuel a web-based computing platform. The next steps will almost certainly be to create a set of services with a productivity bent, as well as moves to create an integrated online experience. Also, do not be shocked to see Google make the leap from consumer-oriented services to enterprise services in the near future. As software infrastructure becomes increasingly commoditized with open source, I think we will see the lines blur between the enterprise and the rest of the world. I have more thoughts, but unfortunately, I also have to work! Tune in for more on this topic. If anyone feels like contributing facts, theories, and other information to this little thread--go for it!

technorati tags: google, web2.0, mashup, internet

Regulations & Computing - Laws are Weird

2005-12-02T07:07:00.000-08:00

The progression of computing is not in the hands of technologists alone. There are many forces shaping the technology landscape, such as the DOJ and FCC. In order to understand the direction that technology is moving towards, we must also understand the role that socio-political forces will inevitably play in the evolution of computing. In 1984, these regulatory bodies changed the course of history when they declared that the most powerful communications company in the world, AT&T, would have to break-up their operations. This breakup signaled the beginning of what would become a massive period of change in the telecommunications market. Local communications, once a heavily guarded jewel in the Bell Empire was, for the first time, open to attack. The next blow to Ma Bell came in 1996 with the Telecommunications Act. This act required telecommunications providers to interconnect with entrants at any feasible point within the network. This opened the flood gates for what would become a full-scale attack on the AT&T's last remaining stronghold, the long distance market.

As Ma Bell desperately tried to salvage the remains of her crumbling kingdom, cable providers slowly built up their strength. Unlike the telephone companies, cable companies have not suffered from the same level of regulatory constraints. Phone companies must lease their high-speed Internet lines to competing ISPs because they provide a "telecommunications service." Unlike the phone companies, cable companies have not been forced to open their networks to rival ISPs because the FCC has deemed cable an "information service." Leveraging their protected status, cable companies like Comcast has built up a veritable empire. Comcast now offers a vast array of integrated services such as digital cable, high-speed Internet access, and voice communications. Rumor has it the Comcast is even looking at buying a stake in former dot-com giant, AOL. Even more odd perhaps is that SBC, one of the "Baby Bells" is now buying back it's parent at a deal valued upwards of $16B in attempt to stay competitive.

Does anyone else find it to be odd how the FCC staunchly opposed one communications monopoly and has now effectively bolstered the rise of another through their creation and enforcement of policy? Laws are weird.

technorati tags: bell, att, comcast, telecommunications, Internet

YubNub-A Command Line for the Web?

2005-12-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

There have been a ton of web-based services popping up of late. Some of these services have been useful. Some of these services have been nothing but really fancy features. I have been tracking the proliferation of these services and, like any good geek, actively use many of them. One service that I have found to be incredibly useful is YubNub. YubNub is a command line interface to online web-services. If the web is a giant computer, think of YubNub as a type of terminal. The cool part is that the commands are generated by...you guessed it...people. YubNub is a great project and is most definitely endemic of the paradigm shift that is taking place as the web transforms into a computing platform. I will put up a list of all the "Web 2.0" services on the blog sometime soon. Back to work!

technorati tags: yubnub, commandline, web 2.0, platform

Web 2.0 Going Public

2005-11-30T07:03:00.000-08:00

In an earlier post I discussed that the Web 2.0 phenomenon was still nascent. Although I still believe that we will have to wait a wee bit longer before Joe Public starts to pick up on the wave, it is not that far off. Check out the recent coverage of Meebo, a web-based IM service, on CNBC. In this newscast they interview Seth Sternberg discuss the massive increase in venture funding for Internet companies. This video snippit also features commentary by David Hornik. David was one of the Top 5 VCs for Web 2.0 according to our friends at TechCrunch. Anyhoo, my spidey-sense is tingling-this web-slinger has to jet.

technorati tags: web2.0, meebo, cnbc, venture capital

Big Brother Looking to Expand Product Line

2005-11-28T13:07:00.000-08:00

Privacy has become increasingly important in our information-driven economy. Google's Eric Schmidt received quite a bit of press regarding the issue during the somewhat comedic CNET debacle. Privacy is not an issue that is limited to the private sector, however. In fact, some of the most serious threats to our privacy as Americans do not come from the private sector, but instead from are very own government. A recent article appearing in the Washington Post discusses moves by the government to create an "exception" to the privacy act stating, "The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence." Deemed by who? What does it mean to be "related to foreign intelligence"? Anyone else see some large loopholes that could be subject to potential abuse? Whatever happened to the "checks and balances" we learned about in 3rd grade. We need to ask ourselves these questions as our leaders make the decisions that will inevitably impact the future of this country. The government is in a tricky situation. On one hand they are charged with defending the safety of the American people. On the other hand, they are also charged with the duty of protecting our individual liberties. It is not an easy balancing act, but I suppose that is what they signed on for. I just hope for the sake of posterity that we move carefully as a nation and do not lose sight of both sides of the equation.

technorati tags: privacy, government, google, eric schmidt

The Future of Future Casting

2005-11-27T21:57:00.000-08:00

During the holiday I had the opportunity to revisit a couple interesting posts and articles discussing the future of computing. As an avid science fiction fan and technologist, it is always fun to see what other curious minds think is "next."

There are certain predictions that we can make with some degree of safety. Processing power, memory, and bandwidth will undoubtedly get cheaper. Information will become more ubiquitous. The distinction between man and machine will continue to become more blurred as the fields of genetics, computer science, and robotics advance. Although these predictions are exciting, they are high level and fairly obvious. Simple economics ensure that they will come to pass. Market demand will lead firms to create better technologies to improve our abilty to communicate, interact, and live longer.

When future-casting becomes really interesting is when we try to make more specific claims. China will be the next world super power and Mandarin, not English, will be the world's language. We will connect to computers via neural interfaces and live in cyberspace. Although this is an excellent exercise and has served to fuel the creativity of generations of young innovators, it is really hard and--often--wrong. Why? Because future-casting is fundamentally flawed in nature.

Human beings are boundedly rational (Herbert Simon--see the pic!). We overestimate the effects of popular trends and underestimate the effects of disruptive technologies. Any sci-fi fan worth his salt is familiar with the impetus placed on the role of space travel and atomic power in the work of Arthur C. Clark, or Issac Asimov. I currently do not travel to space for vacation. And, contrary to popular belief, I do not have an atomic belt that powers my wearable devices. We overestimate our ability to move in a short-run horizon and wildly sell ourselves short in a longer term horizon. During the dot-com boom many folks thought that pervasive computing would happen overnight, but within this same century machine-powered flight was widely accepted as impossible. My entire life is not automated by online software agents (yet), but I most certainly know that I can travel anywhere in the world in a matter of hours via cost-effective air transportation.

Because we are boundedly rational, we make predictions in the face of imperfect information. More importantly, perhaps, because of this state we ignore innovations in fields outside of our domain that will radically impact our lives. IBM most certainly did not fear the transistor when it was a huge clunky, kind of working, mess in Shockley's lab. DEC did not fear the PC when Altair released a hobby kit that essentially let you automate a bunch of flashing lights. The phone company did not fear that some small companies laying coaxial cable to deliver television signals more effectively than antennas would threaten their dominance of voice communications.

As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, however, this may change. Pervasive computing promises to extend our collective intelligence. We will no longer function as boundedly rational beings. Instead we will be a community with access to an ever-growing corpus of collective knowledge that allows us to overcome the mental limits nature has imposed upon us. This will lead not only to a better understanding of where we can go, but also accelerated progress towards a better future. Perhaps there may be a future for future-casting after all.

pervasivecomputing, future, computing, scifi, disruptive

Windows Days are Numbered

2005-11-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

As the costs associated with broadband and storage have decreased, applications that were traditionally bound to the desktop have moved to the web. People have grown tired of paying for constant upgrades, dealing with security threats, and patching their machines. They don't want software. They want services. And, by the way, they want them to just work. So what does that mean for the fate of the Windows operating system as it exists today?

The days of dominance are over. The Windows Desktop is no longer are a point of control for computing. The web is the new platform. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the web is distributed, loosely coupled, and decentralized. Competitors have already started to chip away at the Microsoft Empire. This free for all is only going to get more messy as entrants continue to be funded by opportunistic venture capitalists.

The traditional OS will soon go the way of the dinosaur. There will no longer be a separate desktop and web browser. There will be a single browser to an always-on, ubiquitous, personal information cloud. This browser will leverage resources both locally and on the web. The operating system will be more like an exokernel that exposes hardware level services to the browser such as native rendering. As a stepping stone towards this vision, perhaps a new architecture will be Linux/Browser combination. Computing will be seamless and pervasive. The distinction between the network and the computer will no longer be noticeable. Sound like a dream? I assure you it is very real and just around the corner.

What will Microsoft's role in the new world be? I don't know. They are definitely making the right moves of late. But I do know this--Windows days are numbered.

technorati tags: windows, microsoft, operating system, linux, web 2.0, desktop

RSS is not Magic (yes, there is more to do)

2005-11-22T12:23:00.001-08:00

Everyday I am hearing more about RSS. RSS is the cure that we have been waiting for. RSS will transform the web into a world of happy feeds that we can mix and rearrange at will. In fact, there are a number of VC-backed companies that have sold investors and the media on that story. I hate to break it to everyone, but that ain't gonna happen. RSS is not the answer. Don't believe me? Then why all the fuss over MSFT SSE?

Don't get me wrong, RSS is definitely a step in the right direction. Previously we were stuck trying to distill data from unstructured web pages using machine learning techniques. Yuck. With RSS, we now have a simple structured format to access published data. Many popular web-based services such as Flicker, Blogger, and Delicious publish data via RSS. Since everyone is using a simple and structured format, distributed data is much easier to leverage for programmers. By making it easier for programmers to manipulate data, we have now opened the door for a whole slew of services that add value to the user experience. For instance, RSS readers like let us avoid traveling to multiple news sites. So what is missing?

Where do I start? If you are like me, you have a hundred feeds that you follow over time. Like me, you also may feel a bit overwhelmed. How can we distill the relevant information in context at any given point in time? We can't. We are back to the same search game as we were before. Granted the number of things to search and organize may be less, but that does not change the complexity of the machine learning problem. How do we integrate feeds? Does the title of the feed tell us that information? Does the channel, or item name, serve as a primary key? How do we know how data and terms from one feed relate to another? Better yet, RSS feeds are essentially a one-way pipe. What if data changes relating to a story? How do we get around that?

The answer to all of these questions (and more) is simple--not RSS. Like HTML, RSS is a good stepping stone technology. It is helping people get used to the idea that they can control information on the web. It is helping us identify novel use cases for information sharing and reuse. It is solving some real problems right now. But RSS is not magic. Just as HTML alone has not proven to be the optimal solution for creating web-based applications, at the end of the day we will need a better framework than RSS for integrating data in the emerging Web 2.0 world. That is my two cents. Back to work for this web-slinger. Be good.

technorati tags: web2.0, rss, sse, venture capital

Web 2.0 Buzz Meter Part Deux

2005-11-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

As promised, I am starting to actually graph the increasing proliferation of the "Web2.0" tag on the ever popular del.icio.us social bookmarking site. I will probably start to be a bit more strict about when I take measurements, etc. I think in a couple months this graph may look really interesting. In particular, as the next round of VC backed Web 2.0 folks start to emerge I think we will see some neat patterns emerging in tag growth. There do seem to be a couple places where use grows a bit faster. Check out October 15th and November 9thish. It might be interesting to comb through the news and see if there were any events that may have triggered the change. Anyway, enjoy the funtastic graph. I will post something a bit more thought-provoking (depends who you ask) later! For now, this web-slinger needs to get back to work. Later fan-boys.

Slashdot v. Digg--Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0

2005-11-17T13:45:00.000-08:00

Paradigm shifts inevitably involve a changing of the guard. Sometimes the old guard bows out quietly. Sometimes they manage to make the leap. Other times, however, they fight to the last drop. We are in the midst of such a shift as we transition to the next generation of the web.

The war was officially declared when Google partnered with Sun. The battles are at hand as we speak. AOL is on sale. Microsoft is moving to the web with Live. One of the most heavily watched battles of course is GOOG v. MSFT. This fight will inevitably result in a flurry of innovation from not only these companies, but also from smart new-comers that manage to sneak in amidst the chaos that is about to ensue. Look out because the next Amazon, Ebay, and Google are probably hiding somewhere and waiting to pop up.

While these larger battles are stirring, another battle is brewing. It is not as high-profile. The public at large may never hear of it. But, this battle is particularly near and dear to those techies that have grown up with the web--Slashdot vs. Digg. If you refer to the chart above, supplied by Alexa courtesy of Wired, Digg (blue line) is catching up, fast. For those of you who are not familiar with Slashdot, shame on you. But, being the nice guy I am, I will tell you what is in a nutshell. Slashdot is "news for nerds." Nerds submit news sites to a moderator who, in turn, posts the best of the stories for folks to read and comment upon. This is undoubtedly on the list of news sites read by anyone who considers themselves to be a technologist.Well Slashdot is to Web 1.0 as Digg is to Web 2.0. Like all Web 2.0 services, Digg is driven by the masses. There is no moderator. In their own words, "Digg is a technology news website that employs non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allowing an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do."

Will loyal Slashdot users defect en masse to this new site? Will brand loyalty prevail? Only time will tell I suppose. Regardless, it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. The fate of all geekdom is at stake.

Microsoft's Impact on Web 2.0

2005-11-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

"Ten years ago Bill Gates told his company, 'The Internet is a tidal wave. It changes the future. That widely cited memo helped fuel the dot-com boom, Web 1.0. A Gates memo revealed last week confirms that Web 2.0 has arrived. “This is an except from the beginning of a highly read and hotly debated article appearing in Investor's Business Daily. The article was written in response to an internal memo that was "leaked" to the press. This memo has an accompanying note that was issued by Ray Ozzie.

What can we make of Microsoft's public epiphany? Simple--the world is changing. Web 2.0 is real. This is not to be taken lightly. This public declaration has effectively triggered a period of sustained innovation that will surely shock the world. The Redmond-based software giant has restructured their entire company to respond to the threat associated with the massive proliferation of web-based services that threaten to displace the crown jewels that Microsoft has historically controlled in the old world of the desktop. They have declared that they are moving their billion dollar empire towards the vision espoused by the Web 2.0 community and fueled by Google, Flickr, and Delicious. Appropriately, Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie, a recognized innovator in the groupware and collaborative software space has been hand-picked by Microsoft to lead the charge into Internet services.

Ih short folks, next year will be an amazing time for software. We have seen the first round of homegrown web-based services reignite innovation on the Internet. A larger round of investment is being issued as we speak. The next round of companies will unleash the true power of a service-oriented web. Couple this round of innovation with the incumbent battle brewing between technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, Sun, Yahoo, Comcast, and IBM and it is clear that this new wave will be, to say the least, disruptive. Unlike previous battles, this one is for all the bananas--the web as a global platform for all information. Stay tuned for more updates. Back to work for this web-slinger.

Convergence is Coming....Web 2.0 and SOA

2005-11-07T16:09:00.000-08:00

Some folks have finally stumbled upon the great convergence occuring in the software industry. No, it is not voice and data--although that is huge and part of a larger trend towards a pervasive computing environment. I am talking about Web 2.0 and SOA. I find the recent discussions surrounding this topic to be extremely humorous given the fact that our outfit has been preaching this for some time to a largely deaf audience.

The first person that I saw commenting on this topic was Dion Hinchcliffe. If you have not already checked out his blog, you should--he tends to cover quite a bit. In short, it's all about services baby. The web and the enterprise are moving towards the same thing. In the enterprise, they are talking about SalesForce. On the web, they talk about Google Maps. In the enterprise they talk about "On-Demand" computing. On the web, they are talking about the "Web as a Platform." In the enterprise, they talk about composite applications. On the web, they talk about remixes, or mash-ups. If you think about it, the web is swiftly becoming the single largest deployment of a service-oriented architecture on the planet. Freaky right?

There are still those that would argue that the Web 2.0 movement is driven by fundamentally different forces. Joe McKendrick states that, "to a large extent, Web 2.0 is external, highly social, and driven by consumerism and personal computing/communication needs. SOA is internal, and all about corporate enterprise development and productivity." Although on the surface this seems to be a valid point, I tend to disagree.

If you dive into it a bit deeper, the Web 2.0 and SOA movements are driven by the same force--users. It is not about consumerism vs. productivity. It is about letting users get things done. Users want to access information anywhere. Users want to be able to quickly leverage information from multiple sources. Users want to share information with peers. It does not matter where users are, all that matters is that the same fundamental set of technologies and paradigms are needed to address their need both inside and oustide the enterprise.

This convergence will disrupt the very foundations of our current computing infrastructure. It should be fun to see how incumbent players react. Don't be surprised if your view of the Big 3 (GOOG, MSFT, YHOO), as well as SUN, IBM, and Comcast change forever. That is all for this web-slinger. Nuff said.

Web 2.0 Del.icio.us "Buzz Meter"

2005-11-02T06:12:00.000-08:00

I started to run this little experiment a couple weeks ago. I set up an RSS subscription in my Thunderbird Client to grab the documents that Del.icio.us users tagged with the term "Web2.0." This was initially just for my daily research. However, I quickly became fascinated with the explosion in tagging activity and started to jot down the growth of tags, occasionally writing down the time, date, and tag count. I have listed my "findings" below. In summary the count has exploded from 406 on Oct 15 to nearly 5000 today (Nov 2). That is over a 10X increase in 2 weeks. This is by no means intended to be a proper experiment, as I have not instituted any formal controls. However, it is absolutely amazing to watch. I will occasionally post the results of my running experiment to this blog for you guys. If you are good I will even slap it into an Excel Graph for your visual pleasure. Have a good one fan-boys. Back to work for this Web-slinger. Be good.

Hoo-Experiment #846
Delicious Web 2.0 Tag Count

406 – Oct 15 @2:17PM

433 – Oct 15 @2:28PM

470 – Oct 15@4:36PM

485 – Oct 15@5:20PM

506 – Oct 15@6:30PM

540 – Oct 15@9:39PM

723 – Oct 16@10:41PM

800 – Oct 16@11:57PM

921 – Oct 17 @3:12PM

998 – Oct 17@7:01PM

1028 – Oct 18@2:29PM

1160 – Oct 18@11:21PM

1258 – Oct 18@9:47PM

1594 – Oct 21@2:45PM

2230 – Oct 23@2:52PM

2572 – Oct 24@12:07PM

2624 – Oct 24@4:33PM

2666 – Oct 24@9:51PM

2937 – Oct 26@11:32AM

3266 – Oct 27@10:29AM

3311 – Oct 27@11:07AM

4366 – Oct 31@10:25AM

4975 – Nov 2,@9:03AM

Is AJAX-Powered, Rich Client technology an example of a Disruptive Technology?

2005-10-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

I am always a bit suspect when people start using terms like "Disruptive Technology." It is one of those overloaded terms that seems to get abused far more than it should. As a personal aside to all those power-brokers out there who love buzz words, please read an author's book before you use his terms. It makes a difference.

Ok, so for those of you that are unfamiliar with the term, it was coined by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen in his book, Innovator's Dilemma. Unlike other authors that have attempted to venture into the innovation area, Christensen presents a cogent theory describing a particular type of innovation. In the article, "Will Disruptive Innovations Cure Health Care," appearing in Harvard Business Review, Christensen describes disruptive technologies as cheaper, more convenient products or services that start by meeting the needs of less demanding customers. These technologies do not initially perform as well as incumbent products with respect to current price/performance metrics. The catch is, however, that these technologies eventually match the price/performance of incumbent products and introduce a new metric for performance along the way. For example, the performance of 14 inch disk drives was initially measured by cost/megabyte. When 8 inch disk drives were introduced, they did not initially perform as well from a price/performance perspective. Eventually, however, they not only matched 14 inch disk drive performance, but introduced a new metric for performance--size.

That being said, is AJAX-Powered, Rich Client technology an example of a disruptive technology? It sure looks it might. Rich Client technology is being utilized to create a new breed of web-based application. The performance of applications built using this technology is definitely not up to par with current desktop applications with respect to the amount of relative functionality accessible via their programmatic frameworks. Over the past year, however, these technologies have transformed from a couple neat hacks into full development frameworks. Applications leveraging rich client technology have become increasingly sophisticated. Are these applications up to par with the best of the desktop apps? No--but, if they continue to improve at this rate they will. If and when they do get there, a new metric for performance will have been introduced--accessibility. Stay tuned for more fun. Later fanboys.

Sign of a Healthy Web 2.0 Startup

2005-10-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

VC's sometimes talk about the concept of "sweat equity." For those of you out there that are unfamiliar with that sometimes annoying term, it means that you put in your time eating mac and cheese and staying up all night to forge an idea into a company. Then after you suffer enough, some benevolent VC swoops down and rewards all your hard work. Well, how do you validate the fact that you have put in a lot of time? Results right ? Well, here at Clearspring Technologies we have achieved those results.

We have consumed so much RedBull over the course of the past year that our distributor has given us a giant RedBull refrigerator as a gift. Our company is so hooked on RedBull that the newspaper mentioned our penchant for the elixir of power in a recent news article. To all those out there who doubt our commitment to excellence--behold. Clearspring is coming for you. Thanks Patrick!

Web 2.0 and Semantic Web

2005-10-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

McManus wrote yet another great post today discussing Web 2.0 and Semantic Web. I cannot agree more with the sentiment he expresses in the article. Calm down people. Web 2.0 is not the devil. It is our friend. To all those Web 2.0 naysayers, if you do not like it do not use it. Do not talk about it. Do not invest in it. Please, however, leave those of us that are trying to build the next generation of the web in peace.

Now, let's move on to the topic at hand--Web 2.0 vs. Semantic Web. It is not a competition. These two memes are complementary. The vision of Web 2.0, the web as platform for services that is bound together by people, can be facilitated by using Semantic Web technologies. What? That can't be!!! Semantic Web people are a bunch of geeks at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Stanford that are trying to force us into using complicated ontologies and logic systems. Web 2.0 people are hippies that like tags, RSS, XML and free love.

Um...yea. For all those people that think that there is this vast difference between Web 2.0 and Semantic Web I have a message for you. The reason people are at battle over the two seemingly opposing philosophies is simple--semantics. Figure out what Web 2.0 really means. Figure out what Semantic Web technologies can accomplish. Forget the Scientific American article by TBL and think about the next steps that we need to take to accomplish the dream of Web 2.0. After that I think you will be excited that there are cool things on the way. Even the media darling Google has made moves towards this space, hiring one the premier pioneers in Semantic Web--Guha--this May. Guha spent the last several years of his life with Apple, Netscape, and Stanford working on RDF-related technologies. If you still don't believe me--just wait--it will all be coming around sooner than you think. Later fanboys.

Web 2.0 is still new--take it easy!

2005-10-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

There has been an increasing amount of controversy surrounding the hype associated with Web 2.0. To all those folks that are already gearing to attack--take it easy--Web 2.0 is still new. Nothing has happened yet.

Ask your mom and dad if they use any of the popular Web 2.0 services. Ask folks at Fortune 500 companies what their strategy is to react to the evolution of Web 2.0. Ask your friends if they have invested in any Web 2.0 companies stock, or are excited about the exciting new direction that the web has taken. They will look at you like you are crazy. And, the first question they will undoubtedly ask is--what is Web 2.0?

I agree with Richard McManus, Web 2.0 is at the stage of the early web. The ideas are there. The timing is right. The culture is ready. The seeds have been planted. But, we still have a ways to go. Just because we understand that this is going to be huge as techno-geeks, it does not mean heaven and earth are going to shift tomorrow. The main difference that people seem to forget between now and when the web started to emerge, is that now we HAVE the web. Geeks can quickly see other geeks adopting technology. This makes us feel warm and fuzzy. We think that because there are other folks out there that we can see using this stuff, it is about to explode tomorrow. It is not. It will definitely come to market faster, but we are still the minority and adoption takes time.

In my humble opinion, I think we need to do less talking and more coding. There will always be naysayers and luddites. The best part of every wave is how those folks ultimately are the beneficiaries of the technology. Just cover your ears and hack towards the next big thing.

It's 2005 (Not 1999)

2005-10-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting post today on Fred's blog regarding the current excitement in the valley. Many folks believe that we are in 1999. I disagree. When I last checked my calendar it was 2005.

In 2005 the web is not new. There are a billion people online. Kids do not explain what the differences between the desktop and browser to their parents. Parents "google" on their own. It no longer requires massive investment to create a web-based service, 3 guys and a dream can do it with a couple credit cards. There is no doubt that web-based companies can make money. Web-based service providers such as Google now have super-powers like Microsoft scrambling to keep pace.

In 2005, the web is no longer regarded as a mechanism for publication. The web is transforming into a platform for services. Traditional applications, once bound to the desktop, are being supplanted. People do not wonder if applications will move to the web, they wonder when. Services are no longer viewed in isolation, but as a single cohesive computing experience centered around people. Information sharing is no longer a feature--it is a
requirement. The bottom line is that, in 2005, we are experiencing a paradigm shift.

We also experienced a paradigm shift in 1999. Yes, the paradigm shift we experienced in 1999 also involved the Internet. And yes, many of the same business models that were supposed to change the world have resurfaced. Does that mean that the circumstances are the same? Most certainly not. Computing is cheap, broadband is ubiquitous and our culture has changed. Some ideas that did not make sense in 1999, make more sense now. Do people question the utility of laptops, despite the fact that Osbourne computer failed to release the first wave? Do people question the utility of hand-helds despite the fact that the Apple Newton tanked? No.

Although the dot-com boom undoubtedly was not meant to last, the results of this exciting time changed the world. Accordingly, the results of the Web 2.0 phenomenon will rock the very foundations of our notions of computing. To those in the investment community balking at this change just remember, "A big wave carries a lot of surfboards."

You can't avoid Web 2.0. It is coming. So have fun and try to make some money!

Flock Post!

2005-10-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

I am posting from Flock! I don't know why, but it keeps giving me some damn error. Oh well. Hope this works.

Web 2.0 Utopia Reality Check

2005-10-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

As you are all well-aware, different companies and projects falling under the banner Web 2.0 have been popping up like crazy. Everyone is in beta. Releases happen daily. It's all about getting users--fast. Although I am a proponent of agile software development, I also understand that this strategy is not effective for every company. In fact, I am a bit shocked at some of the posts that seem to imply that if you cannot release your product in atomistic chunks that you are violating one of the 10 commandments of Web 2.0 and clearly doomed to failure.

Although this approach may work for some companies and initiatives, it is not the path for everyone. Like the waves before this, we have to be careful not to get caught in the hype. Advocates of the whole build now, worry about the architecture later approach, seem to have forgotten some lessons from their freshman year programming courses. Hacking may get you through an assignment, but it definitely gets you in trouble on those big projects. You may get stuck in some local minima with respect to your platform because you did not consider the grander picture. Getting stuck at a local minima point requires you to throw away and start again. Unfortunately, the market may not be as forgiving as your professor.

From what I have gathered from blogs, it seems to me that the VCs have been favoring this rapid release, incremental model of late. Although I am glad to see the fun is back on the web, it has me a bit worried. Some folks are forgetting that sometimes it takes a bit more to get something significant going. Umair Haique seems to allude to this point in his most recently post stating, "What made the Valley cool was it's refusal to think small, and do truly disruptive things. But getting a small change acquisition to essentially extend a Yahoo/Google/etc product line sets incentives for incremental, not disruptive, innovations and models." Richard McManus backs him up and believes that “...the observation is a good one, because of all the current crop of start-ups I can't think of many that have the potential to become the next Google or Yahoo!”

The flood gates are open and Web 2.0 is out. A revolution is brewing and the web is truly becoming the de facto platform for computing. As we build our platform, however, let's not forget that, "Just as you can't build a house on sand, you can't build "a global operating system" based on a presentation layer and a few scripting kludges." To do things right sometimes just requires a bit more thought, capital, planning, and--that's right--risk.

Crazy idea, but something to think about. That is all.

Trying to Define Web 2.0

2005-10-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 has taken the Internet by storm. This year we set the record for the largest number of web sites generated in a single year--17.5M--and the year is not even out. This beats the previous record attained during the height of the "dot.com" boom of 16M sites. New companies and projects are springing up left and right with names like YubDub, Rollyo, and Zimbra. Yahoo acquired Flickr. Ebay acquired Skype. AOL acquired Weblogs. The Web 2.0 conference was sold out at $2800/head. Apparently there was not even standing room. In short ladies and gents--the web is back. Although these are undoubtedly exciting times the question still remains, what the heck is "Web 2.0?" Is it an adjective? Is it a noun? Can it even be described?

Some very smart people have dedicated entire blogs to this topic, publishing a litany of associated terms and accompanying philosophical treatises. Some folks define the term with respect to a certain set of technologies such as AJAX, XML, RSS, etc. Other parties attempt to define Web 2.0 with a more sociological bent. The web is characterized by a culture of participation that is evident from the "tag-mania." There are also those brave souls that try to describe the phenomenon at a higher level of abstraction, calling it the "read/write web," "web as a platform," and "social web." Finally, there is the ever popular "core-dump" approach where people simply try to say that Web 2.0 is all of these things and more. It is a holy force that is not subject to our primitive semantics. We should not try to capture the essence of Web 2.0, lest we incur the wrath of the Internet Gods.

I don't believe that to be the case. I think we can probably hack something out. Can't we? Let's give it a shot just for giggles.

Web 2.0: (1) A platform enabling the utilization of distributed services, (2) the phenomenon describing the transformation of the web from a publication medium to a platform for distributed services. (3) characterized as a technology, service, meme, or entity that leverages, contributes, or describes the transformation of the web into a platform for services.

Ex 1) Your program should to leverage the emerging Web 2.0.
Ex 2) Web 2.0 is generating a huge buzz!

Ex 3) Flickr is definitely Web 2.0.

A service can be an end-user facing service (Flickr), or a programmatic service (REST/SOAP/RSS).

Wait! You did not give us one definition. The dictionary doesn't always do it, why should I? I felt obligated to try both out. I am most definitely not the not the first to use the term "web as a platform." In fact, Tim O'Reily has this at the center of his ever-popular "meme-map." So, let's try to test my definitions with some popular terms. Let's try a couple fun test cases for (3). I think the first two are clear by inspection.

RSS - A technology that contributes to the transformation of the web into a platform. RSS is effectively an API for data.

AJAX - A technology that leverages existing services to create applications (user-facing services) inside of a web browser.

FLASH - See AJAX

LONG TAIL - A meme that effectively describes a breed of niche web-based applications that leverage existing services. Long tail applications can be remixes (mash-ups), social applications, or extensions of existing services (Andale).

REMIX (Mash-up) - See LONG TAIL

GOOGLE - An entity that is leveraging web sites to create a search services and is contributing to the transformation of the web into a platform by creating additional services that have open APIs.

YAHOO - See Google

AMAZON - See Google

READ/WRITE WEB - This meme is another way of saying that the web is a platform.

BLOGS - Web-based, end-user facing services, that contribute to transformation web as a platform for services by fueling the creation of syndicated content (RSS).

CULTURE OF PARTICIPATION - Meme that is fueling the creation of increased data services (RSS) and providing incentive for entities to create more services.

VOIP - A technology that provides an additional service on the web.

The web is clearly transforming from a publication mechanism into a platform for services. This is an eventuality that we could not avoid. We have supply chains in manufacturing. It only makes sense that as we transition to an information economy, we have supply chains for data as well. All of the major players ranging from Amazon to Google have made their APIs available to the public. Remixing has hit the web by storm and adventurous developers have given birth to a new breed of rich, internet application fueled by open web services. Even the Microsoft Empire is moving to unleash some of their treasure trove onto the web. It looks like it will be exciting year with lots to write about.

As always, I sincerely appreciate your comments and suggestions. Whew that was tough! I suppose this an exercise that I must undertake not only because I am building a Web 2.0 company, but also in order to maintain my own sanity.

That's all for me fan-boys. Back to weaving the web for your Friendly Neighborhood Hoo. Stay tuned for more exciting posts!

Hello World

2005-01-17T18:21:00.000-08:00

Hi,

This is the first installment on my blog--bear with me as I figure out the best way to dump my brain on the web!