David Davies, last year, for example, blogged from the crowd at a football match, and from inside a plane.

The fact that so many things are new so many times is a good thing, even though to those who came before it can be very irritating to see people claim credit for inventing what you thought you invented. Here's why it's good. Because ideas get improved, and made relevant in new contexts. It's why patents in software are so dangerous and so unlikely to be deserved.

I explained it once quite concisely. "Everything on the Internet is just like something else. Or if it's any good it's just like everything else."

And I have a motto to go with this, of course. "Only steal from the best."

OK let me catch my breath!  Apparently Samsung and Warner Pictures have worked out a cross-promotional deal - like no other.  Go to The Matrix Phone and sign up for 'future news.

Then go to and tell all your friends "The Matrix is coming."  The meme is spreading.

I knew this would happen.  The tie in and relationship between The Matrix and the Mesh is not coincidental.  Now all we need is Keanu Reeves as a spokesperson for open standards!

HHhhhhhmmmmmmm.

Here's a presentation on "The Economy of Distributed Metadata Authoring" by  Stefano Mazzocchi . A few passages ring especially true to me.

First Law of Metadata Quality:

• Artificial intelligence is just that: artificial!
• So: for a system that feels smart to humans, you need human-crafted metadata

Suggestions:

• Do all efforts to make instant return on the investment of metadata authoring
• Don't ask too much
• Be smart but not smarter

Some of the same wisdom went into the design of the Internet Topic Exchange.

[Seb's Open Research]

Right on to Seb - as he seems to grok intuitively the big picture issues.  My only comment would be that as much as we need humans to create the meta-data, there still is MUCH MORE that we need a Topic Registry to do.

As I've requested before - Matt Mower's LiveTopics (I'm a Radio user - so I'm addicted/or shall I say dependent upon LiveTopics to express my personal ontologies) - needs to do some of the slave labor for me.  Why should I have to go and find TopicExchange.com and manually paste in my post into my channel of choice?

That's bizarrely medieval in it's crudeness.  That's what computers were invented for - to automte those slave tasks.  Let alone where we'd go once a true topic registry was in place.

BTW Seb also has a great pointer to some more 'Semantic web' stuff:

The semantic web explained (without the agonizing pain). A very neat, painless introduction to the Semantic Web (pdf), from Toronto-based Semaview. [Co-construction des savoirs à IDITAE via Michel Dumais via Gilles Beauchamp] From the same source, check out these one-minute overview charts: The Semantic Web, RDF vs. XML. And while we're at it: there's a new Journal on Web Semantics.

At the Staggernation Google API Relation Browsing Outliner (GARBO).  [The Doc Searls Weblog]

This link was actually sent to me first from my Nephew Dane Knecht.  He's been getting into outlining recently - in a big way.  Dane did an internship at OpenLabs and is now back at Columbia - doing what nerdy kids do.  I wonder what HE thinks of ThreeDegrees?  His cousin (my eldest) Aryeh - IMes with four windows open at the same time.  They're both members of Generation ICQ.

If anybody doesn't know why Dave is going to Harvard - now they should.  I believe this will put Dave in touch with the current complexities and realities of using Radio today.  The utter simplicity of Blogger, Ryze and Fotolog have been affecting me allot recently.

This is how our tools should work.  No manuals or need to ask questions!

BTW This also puts into retrospective what Evan Williams was getting at - when he started talking about centralized news aggregation.  Now that Pyra has Google's infrastructure, they can add RSS channels to Blogger (as part of Blogger*Pro - of course.)

It's been almost three years since Polycom bought PictureTel and tried to gain a stranglehold on the videoconferencing world.  Yet they've failed to make the leap over into a reasonable solution, that works.  Meanwhile I don't have to tell you who's been raking in the bucks - based upon what pop-under ads you've probably been bombarded with.

So now we see if Polycom can make that leap into the real world - where people don't pay $50k for a teleconferencing system.  In fact real developers won't pay even $5k for a conferencing system and that's what's wrong with Macromedia's Flashcom server product.  Technically it's right on.

Semantic blogging tool?. Danny Ayers is working on a 'semantic weblog server'. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. The semantic web needs working apps, so the rest of us can get a clue re what it's all about. [Second p0st]

This looks interesting.  [Curiouser and curiouser!]

 I was hoping Matt picked up on this and he did!  I left Danny a comment on this post, encouraging him to think about other micro-content types besides blogging and he left a nice comment on the post below - saying he grokked it!  Isn't the blogosphere wonderful?

This is getting down-right fun!

LiveJournal's process is a little more convaluted, but it's still powerful.  Regardless of the navigation metaphor - basing a system upon end-user's profiles is where it's at.  If we could imagine a) a way of encrypting and securing profiles so that one could be compatible with something like the Liberty Alliance standard, while at the same time control their own identity profile = that's what PingID is.

And b) if you could imagine all of these identity systems interlocking between each other - enabling Ryze, Fotolog or LiveJournal users - to access and add each other as friends of one another - that's what we're hoping to do with the open People server idea - I floated.  Hopefully this is what we'll get Ascio to put into open source.

BTW Let me give you another insight into how standardized idenity browsing can unfurl - and we don't have to look any further than Joi's digital lifestyle.  Joi (as most of you know) is a leader in the world of moblogging.  In that role - he has a moblog photo album, which (I guess) is where he flows all his email moblogging photos.  Joi exposes his latest moblog photo on his blog home page, and if you click on that photo - it takes you to his moblog album.

Now this is where it gets confusing and where an open standard for media management could help.  Joi ALSO has a photo album built-into his blog - which is no where as elegant or cool as his moblog album, but I guess it serves a different purpose. If for no other reason - the images inside the blog album were not generated via cell phone.

OK - so what's wrong with this picture?  Between his fotolog, his moblog album and his blog album - Joi has his imagery in three different locations.  Now it's not too hard to imagine that a standard for media could create a level playing field and connect up photos from Joi's three different albums, with artwork from the Internet Archives and the entire Creative Commons.  Now this is where it gets fun.

A open standard people server could unite disparate identity systems (like Ryze, Fotolog or LiveJournal) with standard media management.  That means that by clicking on Joi's face or any of his media, we could add Joi as a friend, wherever we ran into him - in the lobbby of the Hotel Okura, in Davos or in cyberspace - and cruise through his digital lfiestyle.

This sort of inter-connecting will be possible once a series of open standard servers gets promulgated.  Hopefully the SocialText folks will help make standard open conversations possible and hopefully Evan (and the folks at Pyra/Google) will implement Evan's idea of not only a Movie Review Blog (and associated micro-content type and server), but all sorts of other kinds of reviews as well - which we all can share.

And that's one way we can get to the semantic web.

It isn't exactly what I've been waiting for. I think they're doing too much, I don't want them posting to my weblog, I want them to send me a URL of the MP3 they create via email, and I'll link to it from my weblog. If someone with a weblog can't manage that, it ain't much of a weblog. [Scripting News]

This is a clear juncture and difference of opinion as to how things should be done.  Dave sees no problem in having humans grok the inner workings of software, and to intercept an audblog feed and route it to whatever blogging tool they use.

Evan and Noah and a bunch of other people see that sort of "grokking" as being an inhibiting factor in the spread of blogging and personal publishing.  I agree.  Though flexibility and 'scripting' capabilities are key, having a hosted system that works in a turn-key fashion is more important.

Now the trick is to get the power of flexibility into the hands of the hoi polloi.  The average everyman.  Humans, not scriptors.

"Yes - Marc-san I see what you're saying (only don't take all the asparagus - it's my favorite!)  Let's start with 'the Matrix: Reloaded' - since we just saw it, and it rocked my world - and I REALLY wanna tell everyone about it NOW - and not wait till I get home to blog it."  Marc then adds "Yes - Alice can post a photo or audio snippet, but that goes onto her private Aliceblog server - but the world has to know about AliceBlog or some blog related to AliceBlog - to find out about her feelings on 'theMatrix'.  Wouldn't it be cool if there was a public server - who's only job in life was to keep track of such 'topics'?"

"Oh, you mean the InternetTopicExchange" exclaimed Joi.  "Yes, but since we're entrepreneurs and inventors - let's imagine going beyond what Phil Pearson and Matt Mower have done so far."  "So what you're saying is that blogs are just ONE kind of micro-content - that a review can be another type..." says Joi.

Marc lunges for the grilled giant crab leg........"Yes" (he mumbles as he gobbles down the crab leg) "by establishing new forms of micro-content, and setting up registries to track those posts of these new micro-content types, we can create entirely NEW WAYS of connecting to each other.  So your review of the movie 'TheMatrix: Reloaded" or a review of this restaurant or of your new Hasselblad camera - can all reside in some place - that forms a central respository for reviews.  These reviews are placed into shared databases - forming a new kind of contributory community of interests." 

"Yes" exclaimed Joi, as he orders more Sake, "that respository doesn't have to house the actual content, but just the pointers to the reviews.  And we can have all sorts of these registries, shared databases, etc. - where tools, services and a myriad of systems can all ping, contribute to - and in general - implement the semantic web!"

"Bingo" Marc crys, as he also bellows along with the wait staff at Inakaya "He wants more kinki-fish!"

"So first we establish new micro-content types for reviews and conversations, then we create a topic registry to ricochet all querries and links to those topic names of these reviews, conversations and memes, and THEN we enable a level playing field with the notion of publicly available media and people profiles - all of which can be thought of as 'web services'."

"Boy is Idei-san gonna get off on this" Joi says.  "Yes and the powers that be, like Macromedia, Adobe, Ofoto, Microsoft, Pressplay, Yahoo, etc. are not really gonna like it." "But I bet Rob Glaser at Real - will.........."

"So a review could be posted from a cell phone, which is accessed via a public shared database of reviews and flowed through the blogosphere just like today's blog micro-content." "And someone's persistent digital ID can also be thought of as 'micro-content' as well, only with rules attached."  "As will 'legal content', such as music or movies, have 'rules' attached too."  "Or a conversation on spiratuality or an actual Passover Hadagah could become a shared public conversaion - bringing Palestinian and Israeli youth together."

"This is starting to get interesting....."  "We'll take some more Sake here, please......"

"So all sorts of new communities will form - neh?"

"Yes - this all doesn't have to be limited by the current blogosphere.  My buddy BigDave doesn't want to blog, but he has a digital lifestyle with every kind of device there is, a Home LAN, Broadband connections and plenty of people and memes he wants to help propogate.  He just doesn't want to blog."

"So he might be a member of a Grateful Dead community where they share taped performances of Dead concerts in a shared living room, and view art posters in shared gallery, and the same techniques we talked about for the blogoshere get utilized to enable this private Grateful Dead 'club'."

"And he might have a BMW M5 - which has another kind of community associated with it, where folks discuss new struts and engine blocks, and sell each other custom decals and videos."  "Or he might want to help his kid's school out - with fund raising efforts."  These new kinds of communities would all utilize public servers, private clouds, XML-RPC protocols, RSS feeds, new forms of micro-content, etc. - they're just not part of the blogosphere proper. They have their own "spheres".

"So let me get this straight - digital lifestyles will have private networks, community networks and public networks - all weaved together with a mesh of memes, micro-content and RSS feeds - connecting one's Home LAN and devices to the Web - via their always on broadband connections." recaps Joi. "That's certainly going beyond what Mr. Berners-Lee gave us!"

"Yes" says Marc. "Now you're starting to sound like a marketing guy......."

"OK - Marc-san" - now who's gonna pick up this $800 tab we just ran up for the two of us?

Poor CBS.  Imagine those mean rock stars spoiling their Grammy show!  How dare they try to save lives, speak their minds and do what rock stars are SUPPOSED to do!

I think this will actually get more people to watch.

As many of you know - I like to post items which feature human faces.  This is one of my underlying themes - that the ultimate 'visualization' tool is someone's face.  This becomes a major element of user experiences and user interfaces, but also for future interaction and communication.

So whenever Adam posts something with his face in it - I'm gonna post it.  Not because Adam and I go way back and I used to be on his board at Think New Ideas.  No - because Adam is a rock star - in his own right, let alone his wife Patricia and daughter Christina and what they're up to now!

MarcB rocks the house.  Wait till you see what Danny Goodman just produced!

InfoPath is ignoring what could be the most important related standard: W3C XForms. About the same time that Jean Paoli was starting his work on what is now known as InfoPath, a group of forms vendors started work to update the ancient html forms technology.

Web services will increase BI [business intelligence] vendors' ability to gather data and ease the integration burden, but they will not increase the business's ability to execute the business decisions that BI systems can identify without the methodical effort that is necessary to build a mature technical infrastructure. [InfoWorld.com, via Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog]

What a great blog! Smart marketing. My favorite part, though, is that the Lane staff are promoting the LibraryLookup bookmarklet they made through Jon Udell's generator. They have a whole page devoted to it. Excellent! [The Shifted Librarian]