On The Mark

Simple Sharing Extensions

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 19:13:56 GMT

Ray Ozzie's announcement this morning of Simple Sharing Extensions intrigues me. I'd love to have something like the scenario he outlines - the ability to share my calendar with my wife in a way that we could subscribe to one anothers' calendars and add appointments to one anothers' calendars. I can think of a few other interesting uses of this technology:

Keeping project files in synch between developers - when I check changes into the code repository, you can be notified and optionally retrieve those changes.
Consolidating and communicating a project status - I've heard Jim McGhee talk about project teams that communicate individual status reports to their manager using RSS feeds. I think SSE could take this to a new level by allowing the project manager, and other team members, to augment or update an individual status item and feed it back to a member of the entire team.
Reading Lists - I guess that is what Dave has been talking about for a while now.
Dynamic OPML Updates - I often like to open an RSS feed in the OPML Editor, browsing through news items until one catches my eye, and then opening that item in my browser. I've always wished that I wouldn't have to close and re-open the file to get an updated feed. It seems like SSE could help solve that problem by updating the OPML representation in real-time.

Password Management

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 20:28:41 GMT

I think Jon Udell has an excellent approach to password management. Far better than my own. In fact, I'm one of those people guilty of using a single, albeit strong, password for both low-value and high-value accounts. I really like the idea of using different passwords for low-value and high-value accounts. Having watched Jon's screencast detailing how the Password Generator can be used to create and manage unique passwords, I'm determined to start categorizing my accounts by value and using the password generator for them.

I wonder, though, what the reason is for not using the password generator to create passwords for high-value accounts? I really don't want the hassle of creating a unique password for each of my high-value accounts - bank, credit card, employee benefits - or even my medium-value accounts - Amazon, Best Buy, and so on.

NBC5 is Podcasting

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 15:54:50 GMT

The Chicago NBC affiliate, WMAQ, is now offering daily podcasts of several news shows. I checked out a couple of them yesterday and was impressed with the sound quality (I guess they have the money and the equipment to pretty much guarantee that), but was less impressed with the content. I really don't care to listen, during the evening hours, to a recap of the morning news. Maybe this would be fun for somebody outside of the Chicago-area, but interested in local daily news.

What is Iron Python?

Fri, 20 May 2005 20:00:13 GMT

Iron Python is a .NET implementation of the Python scripting language. The "Iron" comes from Implementation Running On .NET. It's great to be able to explore the .NET Framework Class Library in an interactive environment.

Mon, 02 May 2005 20:32:59 GMT

Happy Birthday to Dave Winer at Scripting News. I've never met Dave, but I sure have learned a lot from him. His insights on outliners, writing for the web, and programming have altered the way I approach problems, the way I think, and the way I write code (on the rare occasion I get to do that). Thanks Dave!

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:24:54 GMT

Ontology is Overrated. Last week I listened to the podcast of this Clay Shirky presentation, from the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, and found it very thought-provoking. At the risk of offending the Content Architects I am most friendly with, I decided to link to it. I wonder if we are doing our users, and ourselves, a disservice by focusing too much on providing taxonomy services rather than improving our search services?

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 03:56:56 GMT

On The Mark in OPML, but not in the right margin (yet). I've been a big fan of writing in the outliner for several years now. I never really thought about posting the OPML itself; I guess I hadn't thought anybody would be interested. What will people do with this stuff?

Trusting Intelligence of the Writer

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:47:08 GMT

From a company blogger perspective, I'd also like to suggest that companies, or their representative lawyers, consider trusting internal bloggers as well. In today's Google-driven information accessibility world, what is more powerful, a single, centrally controlled marketing message crafted for public consumption, or a hundred viewpoints that begin to paint a picture of reality? I'd vote for the latter even though I, as a reader, will have to weed out some of the outlier points of view.

BusinessWeek on Blogs

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:37:24 GMT

“Companies over the past few centuries have gotten used to shaping their message. Now they're losing control of it.” - BusinessWeek Online

I am sure this scares many company lawyers, especially those who want to control the company message and the way the world sees the company. I'd like to turn that around and view it as an opportunity to empower individuals to both spread the message and to hold companies accountable. It is sad that this leaves room for abuse, but I think the potential for good far outweighs this consideration. As with the press, you must take the good with the bad and learn to trust the intelligence of the reader.