Jeffry Houser's Blog - Web 2.0

Web 2.0 Service Mark by O'Reilly

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Fri, 26 May 2006 08:24:00 -0400

O'Reilly (the book publisher) has a service mark on the "Web 2.0" name. I really don't have a problem with this; as they were the ones that coined the name with the first web 2.0 conference. They recently sent a 'cease and desist' order to ITCork for holding a conference entitled "Web 2.0 half day conference." This makes perfect sense to me. Two conferences of the same name on the same topic are definitely going to cause confusion, potentially dilluting the 'brand' being created by the first conference. This has apparently caused a lot of uproar in the blogsphere. Read about it here and here. Most people claim that Web 2.0 is too generic to qualify for a trademark, and O'Rielly is completely off base. It reminds me that most people don't get intellectual property rights. I've written about such things before (on both sides of the fence, depending on the case in question).

Ryan Stewart to Blog on RIA for ZDNet

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Thu, 04 May 2006 00:26:00 -0400

Ryan Stewart is now a Blogger for ZDnet. He'll be talking about Rich Internet Applications, which will most likely touch base on Flex, AJAX, and other related technologies. I read Ryan's personal blog over at Digital Backcountry. Ryan is unique (to me) in that he is the first person I've ever 'met' through blogging. Almost every other Blog I read is from someone I knew previously (or knew about through community-related activities). Ryan writes with a refreshing optimism about the "next generation" of web apps. Congratulations Ryan! Check out his ZDNet blog

Edit Your Videos On-line

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 15:51:00 -0400

I did some more tests on AjaxWrite. My previous tests here. It's better than it was, but save still does not appear to be working completely. The Word header / footers appear to be stripped out. But, at least I was able to enter text, save it locally, and then open the doc locally and see my text. It still seems sporadic, though. Beyond that; there have been a few more Ajax style apps released.

AjaxXLS, a spreadsheet app was announced today. The announcement said it still needed work
Ajax Sketch, a Flow charting program
And the one that surprises me Eye Spot, a site for creating video on-line. I'm still not conviced the internet is a good place to piece together videos.

I haven't tried anything beyond Ajaxwrite, so can't speak on the good or bad of any of these other sites.

Software as a Service - AJAXwrite.com

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 11:31:00 -0400

Michael Robertson (mp3.com founder) is at it again. He just launched AjaxWrite.com.. It is a web based word processor in the "software as a service' vein. This web based word processor will read and write Microsoft word documents. I spent my fifteen minutes playing with it, but walked away with mixed feelings. first I opened an existing document (the letterhead for my company). It opened w/o problems. I typed "The Quick Brown Fox Jumped over the Lazy Dogs" then selected save as. I window popped up which allowed me to select the type of document, MS Word, RTF, Text, or PDF). I was only shown a cancel button, as the pop-up wasn't big enough to show me the ok button too. I didn't know the ok button was there until i expanded the window. I selected "MS Word" and clicked okay. The Firefox "Save As" dialog box popped up, where I could either open the document immediatley or download it. I decided to download and saved the file as "Test.doc". Once it downloaded I opened the doc and found an empty word doc, without my letter head graphics or any of the text I added. My second attempt at saving gave me an error. Nice try; but it needs work. Keep a watch at the AJAX Launch where Michael has promised to release a new product every Wednesday at 12:00 PST. He mentioned Adobe specifically in his announcement, but is unclear of he what program he wants to go after I can't imagine that Premiere or video tools would have a benefit to working remotely, and I suspect that neither would image tools. Perhaps that leaves programs like Dreamweaver or Flash? I'm not sold on the Software as a service idea.

I'm an Ether Beta Tester

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 21:42:00 -0400

Ether is a new Web 2.0-ish service that allows people to contact experts for a fee. They describe it as "Paypal for time". I added an Ether pod over on the right if someone wanted to try to hire a bit of mind for a call or two. I don't fully understand how the system works (yet). Basically, you call my ether number. Ether then dials me. I can either accept or deny. If I accept, we are immediately connected. If I deny then I have to call you back. Since Ether is in Beta, I'll be more than happy to refund 'my cut' for the first hour of the first call I get. ( I forget how much Ether takes off the top). I set up my ether profile for "ColdFusion" however, if any was adventurous I could also answer music-recording-related items.

Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character?

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:06:00 -0400

http://www.cerado.com/web20quiz.htm I got 32 correct.

Rich Internet Applications PATENTED!!!

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 17:20:00 -0400

This is another example of idiocy in the patent office The Internet Design Company, Balthaser, has patented the design and creation of Rich-Media Services over the Internet. Here is a direct link to the patent The article says this covers technologies such as Flash, AJAX, and Java. Based on my review of the patent, I'm confused. (I'll admit, I didn't read all 75 pages) In some places it sounds like a standard HTML form could be in violation if it allows users to create and edit content over the Internet. In other places, it sounds like "Rich Media Apps" must be created over the Internet, in which case Flash is exempt. We create it on our local machines and only deploy it over the Internet. The patent, specifically, references "Java Applets" and "Shockwave Flash Files", which makes it even more confusing. Patents aren't valid if there is "Prior Art", so referencing technologies that are "Prior Art" inside the patent itself boggles the mind. I expect to see a lot more news about this. Update: The Balthaser site is a good example of how not to use Flash.

World of Warcraft is a Web 2.0 app!

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 13:51:00 -0400

Ryan got me thinking (once again) about Web 2.0. Do MMPOGs count as Web 2.0 apps? I've been thinking about it, and why not. They definitely fall into the "connected app" strategy that many place onto web 2.0. They definitely fall under his definition "Applications that make the web fun in a whole new way" Can I deduct a subscription to one of them as business research? How about the time playing it?

Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 01:34:00 -0400

http://mpt.net.nz/archive/2005/12/27/web-2

Web 2.0 is the air for the next bubble

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:35:00 -0400

More on the Web 2.0 web hype bandwagon: Web 2.0 doesn't exist: http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/ Web 2.0 Paradigm (humor): http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/11/web_two_point_naught_answers/ My favorite from the humor article is the title of this post. I also discovered a Web 2.0 Explorer blog over on ZDNet: http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/

RSS on sys-con TV

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 12:29:00 -0400

http://tv.sys-con.com/read/162082.htm In this episode of sys-con TV, they talk about web 2.0 and AJAX. They claim that RSS is a web service. I'm not sure if I agree. RSS is just an XML format. Is delivering up an XML page really a service? Not anymore than delivering htm page. A standard way to synchronize data is good, but I don't consider that a service. A program that uses this data (RSS Reader) is more like a browser replacement in this situation. Maybe I'm wrong. They did have a great quote: Web 2.0 is "software above the level of a single device." I think that is the best definition I've heard. They spoke about some web 2.0 applications such as Bittorrent and iTunes. These make a lot more sense to me than "Flickr" and "del.icio.us" which don't appear to be anything other than web sites to me.

What exactly is Web 2.0?

info@theflexshow.com (Jeffry Houser and John Wilker) — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:10:00 -0400

I don't get it. I don't understand what Web 2.0 is. Joel Spolsky claims it is just another meaningless buzzword. Tim O'Rielly isn't so sure. , as he explains in the article. Web 2.0 is like a series of applications, according to him, that exhibit these sort of features:

Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
Trusting users as co-developers
Harnessing collective intelligence
Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
Software above the level of a single device
Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

The gist I get from this is that web 2.0 is intelligent applications. Jesee Warden illustrated my confusion quite nicely. Some people seem to think that Web 2.0 is synonmous with Rich Internet Applications, a term used commonly by Macromedia as a way to push their Flash player. AJAX / DHTML is another end route to the RIA world. Google has some great AJAX apps such as their personalized home page and maps.google.com I just read through this article from Business 2 talking about the new tech boon. The article predicts that another rise in IT dominance will come, and this time we'll have a business model. Does Web 2.0 fit in there somewhere? I suspect it could, if it wasn't just another buzzword.