Category: data-and-semantic-web

Just a quick post to highlight this great talk from O'reilly's Emerging Tech conference which I attended last year. The talk is titled the coming age of magic by Mike Kuniavsky and here's a quick quote.

Yes, 'magic', meaning enchanted objects. “I do not advocate that we pretend that technology is a kind of magic, but that we use our existing cultural understanding of magic objects as an abstraction to describe the behavior of ubiquitous computing devices,

Mike's discussion about Animism is well worth listening to, later in the talk he points at objects such as the Wiimote, Nabaztags and security wand you see at airport security as examples of enchanted objects. I also found these 7 rules very interesting.

I’ve enumerated the properties of enchanted objects that I believe make them particularly good for
designing ubicomp devices:

1. They are everyday objects.
2. We’re familiar with how to use them, at least on a basic level
3. They are physical. You grab them, you swing them, you twist them, you push them.
4. They do not have a screen. There isn’t the assumption that somewhere there’s text output.
5. Behaviorally, magic objects are not humans, and we do not expect them to act human. This is contrast to, say, the implications of something like “ambient intelligence,” another metaphor for ubiquitous computing devices. How smart is that intelligence? Is It like me? It’s not clear.
6. They are not superhuman. They may be hard to control, but ultimately it is we who are in control, not they, by definition.
7. There is a healthy disbelief in magic, so it's likely to be treated as an analogy, rather than as the literal truth.

Technorati Tags: magic, enchanted, objects, etech, animism

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It started at BarCampBerlin2. Brian Suda asked me if I knew much about APML and could I explain why I thought it was of interest to myself and others. And ended up with Brian creating an excellent XSL to generate microformat complete tag clouds and lots more.

Along the way, Brian created some excellent little icons for APML and suggested a load of clever things he felt APML could be used for outside of the use cases the APML group have pulled together already. I did ask Brian at the time if it was ok to record his thoughts for a blog entry later and he agreed so he's some of things he mentioned.

• APML could be useful for recommendations inside of Bloglines and Google reader but even better for something like Google News.
• APML could be useful for checking for new groups when you newly sign up to Flickr, Facebook, etc. So it could be used as a means of discovery
• APML could be used as a personal page rank. So when you search google it would take into account your perferences of APML
• In ways to help gnerate the information for APML, Brian thought some global/desktop widget which you could click when you find something interesting. I was thinking it could be like a thing you drag web pages into. We also thought it could be a simple Firefox extension too. Brian also thought you could use ambient non-user time technology like etherpeek to grab data from unencrypted network traffic. This seemed perfect for the explicit section of APML.

Brian and me also talked about APML lite. Brian seem to think it would be possible to generate APML lite using just Microformats (hCard + hReview). I'm not so sure this would work but Brian promises to create a few examples soon. I'm still keen to do APML lite in RDF/A. Ether way, it APML is getting more accpeted everyday and its role in data protability will be a big one. Look out for more APML use cases soon.

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I love it when technology you've been backing finally start to mesh together to form a better experience. Well in that same vein, comes dataportability.org – the open standards stack for the ubiquitous sharing and remixing of data.

All the expected standards are there including OpenID and RSS. Theres a nod towards inclusion of ubiquitous microformats like hcard and xfn which is a good idea. I would have liked to have seen FoaF and ATOM but Opml is also included which is used wide enough for it to be included. Then we have the newer kids on the block. Oauth, APML and Yadis.

I learned quite a lot about Oauth while in Berlin so can certainly give it the thumbs up now. Its basiclly like Open ID for data exchange. The best example of how it works is like how Flickr allows 3rd party applications to talk to it by authenticating them via the user first. So for example you could allow a upload tool read and write to your flickr but only let Moo.com read from them. APML i'm a large backer of from day one, when I discovered it in Particls/Touchstone (at the time). Yadis is new to me but I see its made up of things like LID and OpenID. Its bascilly a way to tie together your identies online. So you can specify openID and lightweight ID in the same file. I'm sure you could even add things like Jabber ids and other type things in the future.

Anyway, all these specs are very open and worth palying

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So I did a sum up of the Future of Webapps on the Backstage Blog at the end of last week.

But some of the best presentations deserve more discussion. So here's the presentations which really stuck out and grabbed me.

Leisa Reichelt (Flow Interactive) on Ambient Intimacy
Leisa's talk was one of the best of the conference, the room was packed and its very hard to put into words. Luckly Lesia has put the whole presentation on Slideshare and her blog. My notes were not great, but Suw's notes were bloody excellent. The talk centred around Continual partial friendship as coined by David “Jono” Weinberger. Leisa led the crowd through different examples of how we know people through 3rd party systems like twitter, blogs, social networks. She wrangled with the concepts of false connectiveness and information overload and even had time to explain dunbar. Then left some excellent hints how to design for this social new world, Lesia also used Twitterific as a example of how to do this right. But generally… (nicked from Suw)

1. Keep it lightweight – it' not supposed to be the centre of attention, small footbrint, keep in mind that copious functionality isn't necessarily a good things, keep it simple.
2. stay out of the way – invisibility, your app is about facilitating a social network, it's not aobut you or your company or your app, so more you reduce resistance this message being delivered and recieved, the better your app is. So if you send an email to say there's a message on your social network, so you have to log in to see it, then that's not a good way of staying out of the way. Desktop app that shows me your stuff, that's better.
3. open your API – not about controlling the way your communication happens. Twitter and Flickr do this, once they opened their API, the innovation that developed blossomed.
APIs support openness between platforms, your app is not an islenad, you are not going to hold people in your space. Need to recognise that people use different apps in a suite, so how can you integrate with that group rather than siilo ourselves off.
4. portable social networks – Think that people use different apps all the time, and i fyou usre more than two or three you know there is no joy in maintaining lots of lists of friends. This isn't about locking peole in, you are part of a greater environment, so look for ways to make use of other lists, or make your list more portable.
5. use the periphery – small movements, just be there hovering in the background, grab attention only when you need to.
6. allow for time-shifting – whilst its about being in the moment, we do need to be able to go back and catch up on stuff.

Amazing presentation and lots to think about.

The second presentation which hooked me was Matt Biddulph on Dopplr.

Matt Biddulph, opplr) Smart Web App Integration With Third Party Sites & Services
Matt gave away a load of free invites to Dopplr the new social trip site. He talked about his motivations including Small pieces loosly joined and the web as a platform done so well you don't need to visit the website at all. He claimed dopplr was so open you can interact with it via rss, openid, etc, etc. That there is no need to login. I did question how he was going to make enough money to stay up, but he said they are using advertising for most people and expecting to find other ways to make money off people who don't login. This is great because finally someone is creating a social network which is open enough that your not having to login everyday to see whats different – ala Facebook. Someone suggested I check out Matt's thoughts on social network portablity but I can't find it right now, so I found a Foaf based one and the Microformats guys version too.

Paul Graham (Y Combinator) The Future of Web Startups
Paul Graham is always a great writer/reader but never without some controversy. This time in a list of reasons why there will be more startups and how they could be more sucessful. He made the comment that you need to be in Silicon Valley.

It might seem that if startups get cheap to start, it will mean the end of startup hubs like Silicon Valley. If all you need to start a startup is rent money, you should be able to do it anywhere.

This is kind of true and kind of false. It's true that you can now start a startup anywhere. But you have to do more with a startup than just start it. You have to make it succeed. And that is more likely to happen in a startup hub.

I've thought a lot about this question, and it seems to me the increasing cheapness of web startups will if anything increase the importance of startup hubs. The value of startup hubs, like centers for any kind of business, lies in something very old-fashioned: face to face meetings. No technology in the immediate future will replace walking down University Ave and running into a friend who tells you how to fix a bug that's been bothering you all weekend, or visiting a friend's startup down the street and ending up in a conversation with one of their investors.

This caused quite a chill in the room, as Paul added Silicon Valley is where you want to be. Paul Graham's talk prompted Ryan Carson to stand on stage and disagreed with him about Silicon Valley afterwards. Paul Graham had gone by then, or I guess cared not respond.

The second was his point about college. College will change, if the degree system is all about impressing your next employer and your aim is to setup your own business. He claimed the meaning of college will change if you don't need to worry so much about the final result. Maybe students will bond together a lot more and setup more little businesses during their college time? Here's the actual texts.

8. College Will Change

If the best hackers start their own companies after college instead of getting jobs, that will change what happens in college. Most of these changes will be for the better. I think the experience of college is warped in a bad way by the expectation that afterward you'll be judged by potential employers.

One change will be in the meaning of “after college,” which will switch from when one graduates from college to when one leaves it. If you're starting your own company, why do you need a degree? We don't encourage people to start startups during college, but the best founders are certainly capable of it. Some of the most successful companies we've funded were started by undergrads.

I grew up in a time where college degrees seemed really important, so I'm alarmed to be saying things like this, but there's nothing magical about a degree. There's nothing that magically changes after you take that last exam. The importance of degrees is due solely to the administrative needs of large organizations. These can certainly affect your life—it's hard to get into grad school, or to get a work visa in the US, without an undergraduate degree—but tests like this will matter less and less.

As well as mattering less whether students get degrees, it will also start to matter less where they go to college. In a startup you're judged by users, and they don't care where you went to college. So in a world of startups, elite universities will play less of a role as gatekeepers. In the US it's a national scandal how easily children of rich parents game college admissions. But the way this problem ultimately gets solved may not be by reforming the universities but by going around them. We in the technology world are used to that sort of solution: you don't beat the incumbents; you redefine the problem to make them irrelevant.

The greatest value of universities is not the brand name or perhaps even the classes so much as the people you meet. If it becomes common to start a startup after college, students may start trying to maximize this. Instead of focusing on getting internships at companies they want to work for, they may start to focus on working with other students they want as cofounders.

What students do in their classes will change too. Instead of trying to get good grades to impress future employers, students will try to learn things. We're talking about some pretty dramatic changes here.

There was a bunch of thoughts from Paul on this topic and what was interesting was how it echoed back from university to college to schools. I asked the question what could a public service broadcaster be doing in this area to stimulate growth? He replied, saying that the BBC should create good polished documentaries about what its like to be in a startup and grow a idea into something special. Although a reasonable answer, I was hoping for something a little deeper like his thoughts in how schools would change.

Anyway there were other good presentations but these were the 3 which hooked me and caused me to take the most notes. I want to say thanks to the Carsons again for putting on a great international conference. Future of Webapps is huge and I wish them lots of success with there other future of's…

I know me and Ryan haven't always seen eye to eye on somethings but you got to respect a couple (Gillian is as much of this as Ryan) who could enjoy playing Wii while there running a major conference.

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Ok so here's some rough and ready examples of how LAPM could work. Do let me know which one you prefer and why. I'm sure I'll add some more soon too.

<div class="profile">
<div class="apml">
I like <a class="explicit" title="Playing and Watching Volleyball" rel="4.0" rev="concept" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Vollyball">Vollyball</a> and <a class="explicit" title="playing and watching Basketball" rel="3.0" rev="concept" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Basketball">Basketball</a>. I am a socialable <a class="explicit" rel="5.0" rev="concept" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/geek">geek</a> who mixes work and play together
</div>
</div>

//embedded RDF style 1

<div id="#me">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Vollyball" rev="4.0" type="concept:explicit">Volleyball</a>
</div>

//embedded RDF style 2

<div id="foaf:me">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Vollyball" rev="concept:explicit" class="4.0">Volleyball</a>
</div>

// Creative Commons style 1


<div id="openid:http://www.cubicgarden.com">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Vollyball" rev="explicit:4.0" title="concept">Volleyball</a>
</div>

// Creative Commons style 2


<div id="openid:http://www.cubicgarden.com">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Vollyball" rev="concept-explicit-4.0">Volleyball</a>
</div>

// Rev with a Rel


<div id="openid:http://www.cubicgarden.com">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Vollyball" rel="tag" rev="concept-explicit-4.0">Volleyball</a>
</div>

// Rel concept instead tag


<div id="openid:http://www.cubicgarden.com">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Vollyball" rel="concept" rev="explicit-4.0">Volleyball</a>
</div>

// Rel concept with a class for amount


<div id="openid:http://www.cubicgarden.com">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Vollyball" rel="concept" rev="explicit" class="4.0">Volleyball</a>
</div>

// Rel concept, this time I've swapped the class and rev


<div id="openid:http://www.cubicgarden.com">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/Vollyball" rel="concept" class="explicit" rev="4.0">Volleyball</a>
</div>

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Bloglines announced today that OpenID and APML is in the near pipeline. Cheers Chris for the heads up on this.

Today is our first release devoted to supporting OpenID for Bloglines Classic and Bloglines Beta. In the near future, Bloglines will also support consuming OpenIDs and OpenID 2.0 which was just released this week.

Now our more technical users will know right way what's going on and will be excited. In that case, you can go to id.bloglines.com and get started. Note – OpenID is just the beginning of us working with true open standards. Other formats getting our attention include oAuth (Open Authentication) and APML (Attention Profiling Mark-up Language).

I had never heard of oAuth before but it looks good and could be a killer solution for use with something like Keepass. I'll be checking it out more in the future. Hummm, imagine using the bloglines sync with oAuth too.

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