xWinLib Supports Google Chrome

The release of Google's latest software contribution to the world, the GOOGLE CHROME browser, is causing quite a stir in the software industry -- especially I would think over at Microsoft. All for one really good reason --- Chrome, at least on the surface -- is a shiny as its name would imply! Initial perception: VERY COOL!

Along with that, and you know I just could help myself, the xWinLib browser windowing library fully supports Google Chrome!!!

Viva la innovation!

Data Portability Steering Committee

Congratulations to all of the members of the Data Portability initiative throughout the world that have helped champion this important cause. The recent election of the following members (in alphabetic order) to the Data Portability steering committee promises the hope of worldwide acceptance and adoption:

• J. Trent Adams
  
• Daniela Barbosa
  
• Elias Bizannes
  
• Brady Brim-DeForest
  
• Steven Greenberg
  
• Brett McDowell
  
• Drummond Reed
  
• Steve Repetti
  
• Chris Saad
  
• Christian Scholz
  
• Steve Williams
  
• Phil Wolff
  

This effort can only bode well for Facebook, MySpace, Zude, and the countless other places where your personal data may reside. Again, congratulations to all!

Zude at Summerfest!

I love talking about Zude. It’s easy to get excited about it. Zude’s latest news is that it was selected as the official social network for Summerfest – the largest outdoor music festival in the world!! Go team Zude!

Catching up from Web 2.0

Wow, it’s been a hectic couple of weeks since Web 2.0! We had a terrific show --- got lots of traffic, multiple interviews, and generally had a blast. We showed off our latest stuff, including Zude’s new SocialMix (http://www.zude.com/socialmix), which was just written up in TechCrunch (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/17/facebooks-friends-data-has-already-left-the-barn/).

Web 2.0 had a great turn-out and was populated by all the big guys: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Citrix and more (a total of 178 companies exhibited). The best news for us was the selection by eWeek of Zude as the #2 coolest technology amongst all of the exhibitors --- second only to Microsoft’s new Mesh stuff! Now, that’s heady stuff!!!!

Here’s the whole article: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Coolest-Technologies-Demoed-at-Web-20/4/

Data Portability Ratchets up the BUZZ!!!!

Today, a WILD conversation is going on over at TechCrunch started by Mike Arrington (Data Portability: It’s The New Walled Garden) which has quickly evolved into a shouting match between him, Robert Scoble, and both sides of the Data Portability/Data Ownership issue. Interestingly, and despite the volume, they are on the same side of many of the issues -- though it's hard to tell from some of the posts! Make sure you check out the post and all of the comments (over 100 now and counting!).

All of this has important ramifications for you, your data, the sites you visit, and more. Want to get even more involved? This is not just an issue for MySpace, FaceBook, or Zude. Carry the conversation further on DataPortability.org.

Google, MySpace, and Facebook Open Up???

There is currently a "lands grab" going on in the social computing space that was started by the whole Data Portability initiative -- unfortunately the stakes being driven into the ground are centered around proprietary solutions (APIs) . Two conflicting schools of thought are emerging related to this subject. Google, MySpace, and Facebook believe that a SINGLE STORE will be used to house all of your social presence -- regardless of where you access it from. And, of course, each one of these guys believes that they can own the STORE --- which is exactly what puts each of their solutions at odds with each other (and other existing solutions and standards). The Data Portability initiative sees things a bit differently. Specifically, your data is housed GLOBALLY (without single ownership of a DATA STORE), and they seek to provide common ways to access and update the information in a distributed manner.

On the larger front, it is interesting to note that Google by itself does not really have a USER BASE to share, regardless of their CONNECT initiative. However, I believe this signals a MAJOR SHIFT for them from casual visitors (i.e. users of their search engine) to registered users with associated profile data. This is initially fed by iGOOGLE and ORKUT, but I think GOOGLE will now focus VERY HEAVILY on "profiling" the world's user base...

Stay tuned as I believe this is opportunistic for all users as well as Zude!

Web 2.0 Surprises

In less than two weeks, Zude will be in San Francisco at the Web 2.0 conference. And, we'll be showing a bunch more cool stuff in the area of data portability, social computing consolidation, advanced mashup platform and distribution mechanisms, and lots more! Hope you get a chance to stop by and check it out for yourself, or stay tuned here for specifics when we get back.

Data Sharing Workshop, April 18th and 19th, Bay area

Upcoming data portability event:

"...Data Sharing Workshop on April 18th and 19th and the Data Sharing Summit on May 15th.

Both events are part of an ongoing collaboration with DataPortability.org, which we hope to evolve into a larger-scale Data Portability conference in the near future.

Our primary goal is to provide a gathering space for everyone to worktogether to build consensus around and get adoption of emerging dataportability standards. We know the timing is tight, but we also know there is a lot of momentum, and we want to move it forward with these two highly-interactive events..."

For details: http://chrissaad.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/51/

Your Centralized Place on the Web

Ask someone if they’re “on the web” and their answer will probably be yes. Simple enough, however complications start when they try and explain “where” exactly they are on the web.

A not-so-unusual response might include some combination (if not all) of MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Classmates.com, your corporate web site, family website, photobucket, flickr, twitter, Jaiku, friendsfeed, google, yahoo, and who knows what else. If you are a musician or other artist, then you can add the record label, iLike, OurStage, and fifteen others. Needless to say, the answer to “where” gets very complicated very fast and really depends on who’s asking and in what context.

Since it’s not likely any of us will abandon our web ways or online community memberships, there has to be a solution simple enough to provide everyone easy access to our online persona. At the same time, any solution must be flexible enough to adapt to our diversely distributed ever-changing digital life.

Enter Zude. On the one hand it is a blank canvas surrounded by an unlimited palette of content and customization. On the other, it provides the ultimate place for expression and consolidation, publicly shared or otherwise.

Don’t give up your existing memberships in social networking sites, and don’t fear joining new ones either, but access this diverse world from a single place, Zude, and share that place easily.

So the next time you are asked “where” you are on the web, tell them everywhere – starting with Zude, the gateway to my world on the web.

Did Google Mistep in its OpenSocial Efforts?

[The following was a response I made to a conversation occurring in the Data Portability arena. It was in response to an issue raised regarding Google and its OpenSocial/standardization efforts. After writing it, it occurred to me that this post was too important to scroll off the screen of a Skype chat...]

Google's latest foray into trail blazing is unique in its history. For the longest time they were the company that so many developers admired. Their OpenSocial initiative was different. While having the best of intentions, somebody over there pushed the button a bit too early -- probably in response to Microsoft's ovations towards Facebook. Suddenly their efforts (in OpenSocial) felt rushed, unfinished, and conflicted (just look at what it took to get to v0.6 and then the deprecation that occurred moving to v0.7) -- and they're still not done.

Nevertheless, they are slowly recovering from some of the initial fallout and developers should not abandon the effort. But so too should Google learn from the experience. And I for one believe that it is imperatively important for them to learn from it. It is their very misstep, and effort of recovery, that is so opportunistic for the rest of us. We all can be heard and we can influence. We can make a difference. And there are plenty of folks at Google that embrace that concept.

The reality is that authentication WILL be resolved in the very near future. It must. Standardization will continue to improve and rogue players will forever stand on proprietary components -- not all bad, but certainly not all good. Open standards will always be open as long as there are smart people willing to stand up with a voice --- but that are also willing to listen. It can not be MY vision of the world, or even YOURS, that will succeed, rather the cumulative vision of the folks willing to listen and to be heard.

[My company, Zude, is very active in this area. I cannot emphasize the importance of some of the issues raised here]

Zude and Data Portability

Who owns your data on the web? The answer, apparently, depends on who you ask.

I mean, YOU invest the time and effort to create your electronic persona on the web, including your profile, pics, friends, events, and activities – and the question is: is it really yours? Some social networking sites think otherwise.

But of course it’s yours! After all, they’re YOUR friends, and profile, and pics, and everything else, but try telling that to Facebook. Tell them you want to move some of YOUR data elsewhere or share it with another site. Good luck (BTW, this isn’t about picking on Facebook – they just happen to be the lightning rod at the moment!).

There are initiatives out there attempting to deal with this: the two most visible are Google’s OpenSocial and the larger Data Portability initiative (www.dataportability.org). The latter is an open consortium advocating data portability for the user and standardization for the developer. I say larger (even “bigger” than Google) because of its opportunity to so radically affect every day interaction with the web. In general, both initiatives are designed to make user data more portable as well as to bring standards to an otherwise free-form arena.

A number of companies have recently announced support for one or the other of the initiatives, or both, and we hope we will soon start seeing the benefits from these efforts.

Recently, social computing provider Zude, the company I work for, released global support for both the OpenSocial protocol as well as a major component of Data Portability, with more than 60 variants of user-centric source/format data, including XML, JSON, delimited, name/value, hCard, and vCard.

This is a start – both for Zude and the rest of the players out there. But even this is not enough. This is important stuff and while it certainly needs continued technological leadership and innovation, it also needs participation and activism.

So, the next time you ask whose data it is, stand up and do something about.