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October 26, 2005
Spock vs Oasis
If you liked Star Trek and you also know something about how web services "specifications" are "standardized" then you will love this. Classic.
Posted by harris at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 19, 2005
Sematic Web Saves the World...
Dan Zambonini has a bit of a tirade on OReillyNet pitting the Semantic Web against Web 2.0. Essentially the message is that the Semantic Web (hereafter SW) provides what we need and tacitly, that Web 2.0 supplies only our wants. In it he makes the bold assertion that the SW can "save lives", and provides a litany of problems it could solve:
- cure for Aids
- terrorism prevention
- limit the destruction of natural disasters, etc.
Wow, where is the closet Semantic Web recruiter so I can sign up??
For the uninitiated, at a very high level, the SW is about organizing information in such a way that it can be analyzed by computers. This is a noble goal and would be helpful in distilling the enormous amount of available data into discernable bits. The question however, is whether the SW is the best solution. If it is indeed capable of lubricating information flow in a way that tackles these issues *and* does so in an efficient manner (think market efficiency and value), it will eventually blow past the Web 2.0 Weenie. I am still skeptical though that will ever become a reality because the costs of practical implementation seem very high.
It does merit further investigation (this may be the goal of the article!), but for now I am holding off on heading to the recruiter's office. If the SW does provide the underpinnings to help solve the aforementioned problems the world will certainly owe it a debt of gratitude. If not at least we still have some pretty applications!
Posted by harris at 08:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 18, 2005
Stairway to Heaven
I just got around to seeing Nicholas Carr's blog entry of a couple weeks ago, "The amorality of Web 2.0". It provides an interesting counter-point to the Web 2.0 love fest that has swept through the blog-world recently. I would offer a hearty Amen to the main point of his sermon, except that then I'd be adding to the echolalia (this is Nic's $5 word, don't feel bad if you click the link! :-).
There seemed to be two main points to his rant. 1) the web is not the path to "transcendence" and 2) trepidation at the likely triumph of Amateurs. I view these concepts as mutually exclusive. I agree with #1, but am not convinced that #2 is a potential problem. Let me explain.
It is clear that the balance of power is indeed shifting, yielding more influence to the individual, while wresting it from "the man" (read- MANagement, big media, etc). I am not as concerned about this phenomenon as Mr. Carr; Why?? ...because quite frequently even "professionals" are contributing to the collective body of knowledge through the megaphone that is their blog. I would conjecture that most serious journalists maintain a blog and with these outlets surfacing more and more there is a blur between professional and amateur; even "the man" is adjusting to remain relevant. In addition, the relatively new venue of blogging has yielded content from subject matter experts (SMEs) that the public previously never had access to: Business experts, Investment experts, Technology experts ^ 23rd power. Mr. Carr himself is a small piece of this puzzle contributing to the bit stream glimpses of an interesting perspective and more than a modicum of insight.
In fact not only am I not concerned about this, I am convinced that this path has accelerated not only the dissemination of information but general increase in accurate knowledge and understanding. Nevertheless, before we get worked up into a Web2.0 frenzy, it is important to realize that the web, with all its virtues and benefits, is not the Stairway to Heaven.
p.s. I also think his article was a bit harsh on Wikipedia. It is not perfect, but he was selective in the information that he quoted, and did not accurately reflect the effectiveness of Wikipedia as a resource.
Posted by harris at 11:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 13, 2005
Pride Goes Before a Fall
I watched the first season of The Apprentice religiously; since then however I have been only a sporadic viewer. Nonetheless I caught the last couple episodes of The Apprentice 4 and have been mildly entertained. One thing that The Apprentice always has is an antagonist; in Season 1 it was easily Oma Rosa (Sam was a little annoying, but nothing like OR). In the current apprentice a girl named Toral is a champ in this role. This is actually great casting on the part of Don and Mark Burnett. Having a person that people "Love to Hate" is good for ratings and leaves us all with a satisfied happy feeling when said person is fired.
So let's take a closer look at Toral. Despite excellent professional creds, Toral will never be a great leader. Why? She has incredibly narrow vision and seems wholly incapable of seeing the value of individuals in a diverse group. Sure, the other contestants are very different, and many would make poor investment bankers; but that just means they have different skill sets; it does not make them imbeciles as Toral seemed to insinuate. In addition her arrogance on the show was unparalleled, making her wildly ineffective in dealing with people outside her educational-professional demographic. Of course it was also evident that she could never laugh at herself or worst of all, get her hands dirty.
I am confident that Toral will have a successful career in financial terms and I wish her well (despite exorbitant glee when she was fired directly, without the typical "Choose Two People" protocol). For now though our faith in The Don has been restored, and we can get on with determining who the next Apprentice will be without worrying about those who never had a chance.
Posted by harris at 10:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 10, 2005
Flash + GoogleMaps
Both the Action Script (read Flash) XML.sendAndLoad and the JavaScript XmlHttpRequest functions/objects have allowed browser based clients to make direct socket connections to the server for quite some time now. The JavaScript way has a cool name (AJAX), but the Flash way is essentially the same and equally effective; both are capable of consuming the same XML API over the web. These kind of techniques have gained popularity, as most web developers know, from the endorsement of a big player like Google with their Maps and Gmail applications.
In particular it is interesting that a new ecosystem has evolved around the open XML API that Google Maps surfaces; notably there have been integrations with Craigslist and several other third-party sites. One recent integration that is interesting is the "NYC Subway Flash Overlay for Google Maps". It adds a Flash layer to Google Maps that unlocks a mechanism for enhancing the vanilla map images. This is very cool and yet another validation that open APIs on the web often lead to applications/systems that likely where not even originally intended by the publisher.
Posted by harris at 10:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 07, 2005
Mixed Signals
A friend pointed me to this recently... absolutely classic!
Posted by harris at 01:37 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 04, 2005
Will you read my blog?
Culture Shift has a great new T-Shirt for people who are sick of hearing about BLOGS...
Of course, I believe that weblogs provide an invaluable service, but with the burgeoning number of blogs available it is impossible to read them all. The solution is easy... make judicious use of the "Add Feed" feature of your RSS reader and don't be afraid to say "No I Don't Want To Read Your Blog"!!... even if you are talking about "Gotta Love It"! :-)
Posted by harris at 08:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack