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  • OpenSocial or OpenGadget?

    From “OpenSocial or OpenGadget? – ReadWriteWeb“:

    Steve O’Hear (who edits our digital lifestyle blog last100) has an interesting post on his ZDNet blog that questions whether Google’s OpenSocial initiative is at all about data portability, or if in fact it really just about widget standardization. O’Hear quotes heavily from a recent article by Marc Canter, who is a strong advocate for open standards and data portability, that ran on CNet.

    I see the same issue with Facebook’s JS Client Library.

    I love client-side technologies, but I’m increasingly thinking that the propagation of such libraries is calculated by the providers more in terms of securing data and activity custodianship, as an alternative to truly opening one’s data APIs, rather than with scalability and processing decentralization in mind, like some argue.

    It’s not a bad thing by any stretch, but I’m not sure associating them with true openness and data portability is entirely appropriate.

  • An Aboriginal Take on Social Networking

    From “Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari Archive :: An Indigenous Archive Tool“:

    The Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari Archive is a browser-based digital archive created by the Warumungu community in Tennant Creek, N.T. Australia in collaboration with researchers Kimberly Christen, Craig Dietrich, Chris Cooney, and Tim Dietrich.

    Doesn’t that sound like a perfect site to be accessed from an XO?

    But obvious references aside, what is so special about this effort beyond the niche community it revolves around?

    As the Beeb duly reports, it’s all about the social approach to accessing the knowledge made available through the archives.

    It asks every person who logs in for their name, age, sex and standing within their community.

    This information then restricts what they can search for in the archive, offering a new take on DRM.

    Or what I would have labeled as SRM: social rights management. Using socially defined standards and volunteered information to filter the data, rather than credentials provided by a central authority to restrict access to it.

    Puts a whole new twist on Praized Media‘s “Trust your tribes” motto!

    Via Slashdot.

  • TechnicaLee Speaking: Why SPARQL?

    From Lee Feigenbaum’s “TechnicaLee Speaking: Why SPARQL?“:

    I’m quite pleased to have played a part in helping SPARQL become a W3C Recommendation. As we were putting together the press release that accompanied the publication of the SPARQL recommendations, Ian Jacobs, Ivan Herman, Tim Berners-Lee, and myself put together some comments (in bullet point form) explaining some of the benefits of SPARQL.

    One step closer to semantic heaven.

  • Facebook Pulling an Open Social?

    From “JavaScript Client Library for Facebook API“:

    This JavaScript client library allows you to make Facebook API calls from any web site and makes it easy to create Ajax Facebook applications. Since the library does not require any server-side code on your server, you can now create a Facebook application that can be hosted on any web site that serves static HTML.

    Now let’s compare this to the Open Social API description:

    OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network’s friends and update feeds.

    Is it just me or are others also thinking this is a missed opportunity for FB to take part in Open Social?

    On the other hand, it could also lead to just that with what could be a simple wrapper to interconnect both ecosystems. That’s if FB decides not to go that way on their own and doesn’t expressly block such development through technical or legal means.

  • WP Plugin Challenge: Who Wants to be a Five-Thousander?

    From Jeff Chandler’s “Calais Offers WordPress Plugin Bounty“:

    Calais which is a metadata generation web service that is powered by Reuters is offering up a $5,000.00 bounty to anyone who can develop a plugin that meets the following criteria: tag auto suggestion, semantic cloud, GUID incorporation.

    I can’t go for this one, having other immediate priorities and commitments, but it sounds like a neat and challenging project to tackle.

  • Security Update: WordPress MU 1.3.2

    From “WordPress MU 1.3.2 | Holy Shmoly!“:

    WordPress MU 1.3.2 was tagged earlier today. This is a major security update that brings together the fixes in WordPress 2.3.2 and a number of critical WordPress MU specific security problems.

  • PDO 2: Request for Comments

    From “php.pdo: PDO 2: Request for Comments“:

    It became apparent over the past year or so that PDO has been a good and valuable addition to PHP. Like JDBC in the Java world, PDO offers similar advantages, such as consistent data access APIs and better consistency across the various drivers. It has also become clear that there is still room for improvement around the functionality, consistency and broader vendor support for PDO.

    I love PDO. My only real pet peeve with it is that it wasn’t right in PHP 1.0.

    I’m looking forward to see some of the proposed improvements come to life.

  • XMPP as the Future of Cloud Services?

    From Matt Tucker’s “XMPP (a.k.a. Jabber) is the future for cloud services“:

    There’s a new firestorm brewing in web services architectures. Cloud services are being talked up as a fundamental shift in web architecture that promises to move us from interconnected silos to a collaborative network of services whose sum is greater than its parts. The problem is that the protocols powering current cloud services; SOAP and a few other assorted HTTP-based protocols are all one way information exchanges. Therefore cloud services aren’t real-time, won’t scale, and often can’t clear the firewall. So, it’s time we blow up those barriers and come to Jesus about the protocol that will fuel the SaaS models of tomorrow–that solution is XMPP (also called Jabber) . Never heard of it? In just a couple of years Google, Apple, AOL, IBM, Livejournal and Jive have all jumped on board.

    An interesting read on an increasingly attractive architecture.

  • R.I.P. Carlos

    From “Carlos salué une dernière fois par ses amis du show-biz“:

    Les fleurs criardes des chemises hawaïennes qui lui étaient chères, le blanc des légendaires fêtes d’Eddie Barclay à Saint­-Tropez : pour une fois, ce n’est pas le noir qui a dominé lors d’obsèques ­à l’église Saint-­Germain-des-Prés, hier matin, pour le dernier adieu à Carlos, disparu jeudi dernier à l’âge de 64 ans.

    This one will surely mean nothing to anyone who hasn’t spent part of their life living in France, but will be a very sad news for anyone who has.

    Although information is scarce on the English Wikipedia, you can still find some information on his more than extensive career in the French entertainment scene.

    Rest in peace Carlos, and thank you so very much for the countless hours of joy you brought me as a child.

  • Advantages and Challenges of Telecommuting

    From “The “Work From Home” Generation – ReadWriteWeb“:

    What are the pros and cons of working from home? In this post we take a close look, as well as discuss what lies ahead for this new, rapidly growing generation.

    Always interesting to read an article that explores both sides of the telecommuting equation.