So WiredReach looks like an interesting idea for sharing content without using shared servers:
The WiredReach Platform allows users to selectively share content with others in a completely decentralized and secure manner. That means your content does not have to be uploaded to any central servers but rather can be shared right from your desktop or device. We use the term “content” very loosely to include things like presence, blogs, bookmarks, documents, calendars, music, photos... virtually any type of social media.
From following the download link, there is a wiredreach.com which provides the development support for the opensource project.
It appears that it is all based on opensource using Java JXTA for some of the underlying network capabilities. There are a number of plugin projects going on to add blogging and various other content type sharing to the core project.
Downloading the Mac OSX version now. More when I have a chance to work with it a bit.
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Updated 14 September 2005: Granted I didn't dig too far, but there is really not much to see from what they have available at this point. It looks like many of the plugins and other functionality is not quite there yet. The ability to add a few links to a page and have some rudimentary 'forum' functionality is not terribly compelling beyond what you get 'out of the box' with a Wiki. The claim in their blurb above about supporting 'any type of social media' appears to be a forward-looking statement at this point.
Without setting it up on several machines and emailing notifications to myself, there didn't seem to be much meat. It would have been nice if there were one or two 'sample' sites available that one could connect to get a better feel for the software.
I'll check back on this in the future, but for now (for me) it doesn't seem very compelling (and I had high hopes of an awesome JXTA-based application).
Flock advertises itself as a “social browser,” meaning that the application plays nicely with popular web services like Flickr, Technorati and del.icio.us. Flock also features widely compliant WYSIWYG, drag-and-drop blogging tools. The browser even promises to detect and authenticate all those user accounts automatically. It's a clear attempt to be the browser of choice for the Web 2.0 user.
Interesting that they are attempting to aggregate all of that stuff in the browser — that was one of the reasons that I created this site was to have one place that I could link in all of my 'social software' (del.icio.us, flickr, last.fm, etc). Maybe Flock is a tool that we help me do what I am already doing better (or maybe I just don't have a clue).
In addition to linking in some other functionality on the web, I have also been toying around with adding some information to the site using FOAF and some of the microformats that I have been reading about.
So
It looks like Cingular has finally (and quietly) released the long awaited Nokia 6682 with a sticker price of $299. I still think that this a better all around phone than the hyped up 'iTunes Phone' (aka Motorola ROKR E1).
Considering that I have only had my 6620 since early July (and have been completely happy with it aside from the low resolution of the camera), I think I will wait a bit and see if Cingular drops the price (as they always do). No need in paying the first mover penalty as many people did with the Motorola RAZR when it first came out. Besides, getting my 6620 through Amazon and cashing in on the rebates at the time, I basically earned $25 dollars in buying the phone.
I just checked on Amazon, and they have the 6682 listed at $174.99 with a $150 rebate. Unfortunately, it is also listed as 'not currently available'. As the phone was just released today, that will likely change in the next few days.
The spokesman said the invasion and occupation of Iraq had been “good news” for the major arms companies.
“It has allowed them to label their arms as battle-tested and provided them with promotional material for their missiles, bombs, fighter aircraft, artillery, tanks and armoured vehicles.
“They will be marketing their weapons to countries with the full support of the UK Government and the perverse promotional assistance provided by Iraq.”
I suppose there is nothing to keep this sort of thing from happening, but it does have that sort of perverse quality to it as if Louisville Slugger said 'look at how well our baseball bats cracked skulls at the last riot'.
Not surprisingly, these same activities went on during previous hostilities in the Middle East.
So
Sadly, while in the top ten, the US should have a better showing when it comes to the success of its education system. A world-wide study places South Korea (#1), the Slovak Republic (#3), the Czech Republic (#5) ahead of the US (#9).
Remember this the next time you think about how your US tax dollars get spent.
The last book like this I read was supposed to have been on the startup of Netscape, called Competing on Internet Time. However, I found this book to be a real dissapointment as the dubious premise the author took was that everything that Netscape did was in reaction to Microsoft. I can't count the number of times the author kept using the tired phrase '...locked in a life and death struggle with Microsoft'. The fact is, at the time Microsoft had no clue about the Internet and where happily flogging away on the virtues of video on demand over cable (remember the blinding success that turned out to be).
Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure was a fascinating look at how real innovation (in this case in the early days of pen based computing) can be choked to death by 'partnering' with Microsoft.
I still think that my favorite book on technology companies was Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine. This is a book that I picked up an read many years ago and continue to re-read it now and again.
So
I was interested to learn that enhancements to Wiki are being formulated to allow for the inclusion of semantic annotation of articles.
Wiki has proven itself to be an effective means of collecting information (look no further than the wikipedia). Coupling something like wikipedia with a means of being able to make machine readable sense of the collected knowledge is a pretty potent combination.
Perhaps one of the most ridiculous parts of this situation is Microsoft's refusal to support the Open Document format. They already have over twenty different import and export filters in Word. The OD format is similar enough to their not-quite-XML format for it not to be a huge effort for them to create a filter to support OD.
It is pretty easy to see that MS is trying to use it's market dominance to encumber others intellectual property via their closed, proprietary (and not terribly efficient) document formats.
So This article which appeared in National Geographic in October of 2004 raises some interesting questions for the 'we couldn't have known this was going to happen' apologists that I pointed out in a previous posting. This quote from the article was particularly striking:
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City.”
I recall seeing a book in the past called The Geography of Thought which dealt with related differences in perception, as well as belief systems and work practices. While I have not read this book, it is definitely on 'the list' as I find this subject fascinating.