The Leirdal Blog - Web2.0

The future, 2.0

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:00:31 +0100

As a follow up to my earlier fantasy of new possibilities regarding a documented generation I would like to blow out some steam regarding social software as well.

One of the problems we see today is that there are only a few people producing the information that is consumed by all the rest. Those reading are participating with tagging, bookmarking and rating of the content, but even this should be easier. The production of the content could also be easier.

So let us play with the idea of a documented world. On our way forward we have a few stops on the way. Some of them we are experiencing right now, among else by using Facebook, Linked-In, Plaxo or other social networking applications. By blogging and micro-blogging what we do and what interests us we are giving the world knowledge and information that can be used by other applications as what we often call value-added content.

Consider this, you are watching a video or listening to a podcast on the net regarding some information. The video or audio is tagged in such a way that as you play the content, different meta-information rolls by in tandem with the content, and the media player might then display related information based on automated searches as you watch. We are talking hypermedia that intelligently can give you information that you need or want. You will be able to decide where the information is gathered from.

In the next generation of social software I expect us to be able to increase the value for each other in even better and easier ways than today. And as always, the enabler of these features will always be technology.

So in the future, expect great things. Probably not some of the small ideas I present to you here. What we will see will probably be better.

And you will be a part of it. By easily producing content, and adding meta-information and grading what you see. The world will give you more of what you want and of what interests you.

Whether it is semantic technology or intelligent search engines, I bid welcome to interesting and feature rich social networks, in a documented world where you can have an even more enhanced life experience.

Soon, in a life near you!

Blogs from the famous

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:32:37 +0100

It's is amazing who you can find blogging around the net. Recently Marc Andreessen of previous Netscape fame started blogging. And now I have found Stephen Fry. I leave it up to you to find other famous, or not so famous, people in the blogosphere.

Social software - the roadmap forward?

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:43:53 +0100

Earlier this week there was a launch of a new open web API called OpenSocial. Marc Andreessen writes a bit about it on his blog. He says that OpenSocial is an API that can be supported by "Containers" or social networking systems like Orkut or LinkedIn, and "Apps" - applications that can be embedded within those containers. An open Facebook platform if you like.

Six Apart is one of several providers of what we call "Social Software". In their case they have focused on different blogging solutions. Some of the most known are "TypePad", "Movable Type" and "Live Journal". In a recent article or blog entry they told us what I would like to think of as their manifesto. Here they focus on a few main ideas around the new OpenSocial initiative (I admit that I am paraphrasing their bullet points):

You can use whatever applications and whatever networks you want, we think that is OK.
There isn't going to be One Big Winner, people will be using lots of networks and applications.
We need Open Standards for it to work.
The users have to have control, and the tools must honor privacy.
OpenSocial combines the best from a lot of sites and applications.
OpenSocial enables people, not the politics between big companies.

Impressive. If they stand by this they are quite altruistic, or ... are they?

Oh, I find the OpenSocial initiative quite interesting and it fits many of my views. Google is one of the participants so that makes it probable that it will be utilized and get some press coverage. I look forward to see what the effects of this are going to be.

If you want to see what Digg thinks about SixApart and OpenSocial check out this link.

Technorati

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:16:53 +0200

There are several ways to promote your blog on the Internet. One of them is to use Technorati. I recommend you to test this tool. You can find my Technorati Profile here.

Web 2.0 - Scary technology?

nospam@example.com (Jon Leirdal) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:02:48 +0200

Some of the inspiration behind this blog-post came from this post on www.technewsworld.com.

The reason why I write about this here is that it seems that he and I have experienced some of the same challenges. These issues are also present for all other network based solutions that people like me suggests would “solve” all the world’s problems. If perhaps not expressed as clearly as by the author of that article, some of the risks have to be addressed by all internet-consultants when we propose a new solution.

The problem we see here is based on several conflicting needs felt by the users. In order to explain these issues I need to step back and explain the basic ideas behind internet based solutions.
We have for several years talked about portals and web-servers. These are products we so far have been using to spread information and make it easier for all to find the information they need. With every new version of these products we have seen new features and more interaction between all the parties involved. This development has not stopped and these products will continue to evolve into new and hopefully better solutions. (If nothing else, these products will have even more features). Now the “Web 2.0” era has entered the marketplace. Sites like www.digg.com and www.wikipedia .org has showed us that user-generated content is possible and that it doesn’t have to be of poor quality. Other sites have, by creating social networks or applications, shown that whole internet communities can appear in a relatively short time. In Norway one of the more recent examples would be www.facebook.com, but there are other examples (www.linkedin.com, www.myspace.com, blink.dagbladet.no).

Already with the first iterations of web-sites we experienced some of the side-effects of our new technology. Information we wanted to be available to only some people wasn’t always as secure as we thought. Products that seemed secure suddenly had weaknesses, and the greatest strengths of the internet also proved to be some of its greatest weaknesses – openness and availability.

By utilising web 2.0 principals our web solutions are now a lot more interactive and instead of having only readers we are having users and participants. We’ve got “sticky sites” that users return to every day or several times a day. Our solutions have evolved into communities and social networks. This is also visible inside corporations. By creating Wikis, blogs and discussion forums companies might utilise their employees’ social behaviour in order to increase the corporate knowledge and reduce educational costs. It is important to note that none of these applications are new. Some of them have existed for decades. It is the widespread utilisation of applications like this that is new.

So now we can address the problem expressed in the start of this post a bit further. Instead of being considered strengths openness and availability might be considered to be quite large risks. The complexity of these issues have grown even more than the complexity of the solutions we have created. Information is available everywhere, but should that information really be available. Many companies or organisations have experienced already that employees have been giving away more information than what is prudent. In Norway, media has discussed people’s behaviour on Facebook by reporting on politicians complaining about boring meetings and government personnel giving away government secrets by telling too much about what they do.

These concerns are quite real and companies are correct to be careful. The issue here is probably to correctly educate the users on what to do instead of prohibiting everything. My task as a consultant is to acknowledge these risks for what they are and address them in a serious and constructive manner. The “new” tools we have at our disposal can be a great benefit for most companies, both internally and externally so I recommend that you do not ignore all tools just because you might experience some drawbacks. Use them, but use them correctly. And even more important: Use you employees and your partners correctly.

To illustrate that, I would like to point to a post on www.socialcomputingmagazine.com by R. Todd Stephens. There he lists fifteen possible uses of a corporate Wiki and fifteen possible uses of a corporate blog.

Quote:

Fifteen Uses of a Corporate Wiki

1. Collecting Business and Technical Requirements
2. Corporate Dictionary
3. Meeting Agendas, Notes, Attendees, and Attachments
4. Organizational and Professional Biography
5. Status Reporting (Project, Personal, Program, Departmental)
6. Release Notes and Issue Tracking
7. Product and Service Documentation
8. User Manuals, Guides, and Best Bets (Tips)
9. Policies and Procedures
10. Brainstorming, Innovation and Patent Processing (Many Eyes)
11. Intranet Replacement
12. Metrics Reporting
13. Along with RSS, notification of upcoming Events or Announcements
14. Error Reporting, Tracking, and Resolution
15. Locating Like Minded or SME within the Enterprise

Fifteen Uses of a Corporate Blog

1. Executive Communications
2. Project Status Reporting
3. Sharing Knowledge and Professional Expertise
4. Gathering Collective Intelligence (Marketing Campaign)
5. Sharing Experiences; Vendor, Partner, or Product
6. Organizational Announcements and Upcoming Events
7. Sharing External Research or Information (i.e. Great Blogs)
8. Connecting the Enterprise Knowledge (RSS, Trackbacks, Bookmarking)
9. Newsletters (May should have included that in the Wiki as well)
10. Collecting Feedback from Townhalls, Meetings, or Off Site Sessions
11. Archiving Lessons Learned
12. Spreading Enthusiasm and Generating Buzz
13. Establishing Though Leadership and Professional Brand
14. Drive Traffic to an Internal Service like Collaboration Services
15. Demonstrating a Code of Ethic or Corporate Policy (Don’t Just Tell, Show)

Some of these uses have been solved with other tools and technologies before, and I am not sure if I agree with all the uses Stephens suggests. There may be other tools that are better suited for some of these tasks, but as a starting point I recommend that you try out some of these ideas.

As a final word, and something we have seen elsewhere: The fear of a threat can sometimes be more harmful than the threat itself.