From the Blogosphere

The Struggle for the Soul of the Web

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:30:00 EST

Just because the web has been open so far doesn't mean that it will stay that way. Flash and Silverlight, arguably the two market-leading technology toolkits for rich media applications are not open. Make no mistake - Microsoft and Adobe aim to have their proprietary plug-ins, aka pseudo-browsers, become the rendering engines for the next generation of the Web.

Did John McCain Add a New $3,000 Bogner Jacket to His Wardrope?

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:30:00 EST

Last couple of days as I watch the election coverage on CNN I could not help recognizing my five year-old Bogner jacket Senator McCain has been wearing. Well my jacket has been to India and a few long trips, got dry cleaned a dozen times, and a little beat up, but it is the same jacket looks like to me. Well if it's the same exact jacket which I own then I tell you RNC is hard at work dressing up the Senator as well, since from what I remember he is wearing a$3,000 Bogner jacket.

Microsoft's Cloud Strategy?

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:02:00 EDT

I was hoping Microsoft would hit the home run, but it seems not. Why wouldn't the Windows company just offer Windows in the cloud -- nothing more and nothing less? The marketing people seem to have figured it out, they call the new offering Windows Azure, but what does it have to do with Windows other than sharing a brand? I don't know.

Mashups for the People. You Betcha!

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:16:00 EDT

I laughed when I heard Sarah Palin say in last week's debate: “...and I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also” (this is straight from the CNN transcript). I laughed because it’s such overt “spin” to say you’re not going to answer what the moderator wants to hear. And, incidentally, it's exactly what the moderator wants to hear.

But that’s beside the point. The point is that new technology companies are often put in a similar position of defending their new technology as a challenger to existing, established technology. This is certainly true in the enterprise mashup space. Since mashup adopters have started to graduate from “what-is-it-for” to “ahhh, here-is-how-I-can-use-it", we regularly have to compare and contrast mashups against existing technologies.

I think the defining "AHA!" moment is when people realize that mashups aren’t meant to integrate systems together like EAI/ESB software systems do. But rather that mashups are meant to integrate people to the data in their systems. And as an added benefit mashups are designed for collaboration and sharing among people.

So, now when we hear; “Oh, so mashups aren’t like my ESB or EAI systems that integrate systems; mashups get data from these systems to my people”, we give silent thanks to Sarah Palin, smile, wink, and simply respond with “You Betcha!”.

McKinsey Recommends Mashups for Managing in a Downturn...Sorta

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:09:00 EDT

Like many other business managers, the current economic downturn has me wondering about how my strategy should change to meet new market realities. Because of this I have been reviewing different business periodicals and articles looking for advice. One of the best sources of managerial advice out there is The McKinsey Quarterly. For those who have not heard of McKinsey and co., Wikipedia describes them as “…widely recognized as a leader and one of the most prestigious firms in the management consulting industry. …”. The goal of their Quarterly is stated as “…to help business people run their organizations more productively, more competitively, and more creatively.”

The people at McKinsey have published a lot of great advice over the years, and understand that many managers are currently looking for reading material about best practices and use of technology during the downturn. They have created a section in their Quarterly titled “Managing in a Downturn” where their most recent article is a great piece that promotes the intelligent use of existing IT assets to create new revenue.

Is one of the most revered business consulting firms referring to the use of Mashups as a way for companies to get themselves in a better competitive position in this economic downturn?

The team who wrote the article mention that an easy to-do is to use and combine existing data assets to gain new insight and business opportunities:

Few companies have successfully capitalized on the explosion of data in recent years. Often this information, residing in separate IT systems or spread across different business units, have never been mined for insights that could add value. Small teams of business and IT staffers can find opportunities by combining a detailed understanding of business processes with straightforward analyses of consolidated data sets……”

Achieving what McKinsey proposes can be a very long and arduous process using old-style integration technologies or for those companies interested in getting results quickly, Mashups are the perfect solution to easily and quickly combine all sorts of data.

The article goes on to mention an example of how a Telecommunications company improved revenue by

“…building high-value but inexpensive links between multiple silos of information. Contracts DB, sales funnels, compensations systems, CRM data warehouses, and other siloed systems… it facilitated analyses that uncovered opportunities to improve revenues…”

Wow! We are also seeing this type of use-case but not only in Telcos. Healthcare and Government arenas are having great results in providing better data by cross-analyzing many distinct data sources.

I know some of you must be thinking “he sees Mashups everywhere” (I do after all work for the leading Enterprise Mashup vendor) but you may only be partially correct in that statement. McKinsey may not be using the term but they are certainly talking about the value proposition of enterprise mashups.

Microsoft Will End Up Buying Yahoo Anyway

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:15:00 EDT

Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo received stupid advice from their investment bank advisers and blew their chance to close the deal with Microsoft as of this Sunday morning. Neither Yang nor Filo are experts on how to sell a company in a multi-billion dollar deal. They have relied on their investment bankers and advisers since the negotiations started with Microsoft. The difference between the offered price of $33 and the asking price of $40 per share is roughly $1.4b per share, so it's not small potatoes.

Java Updater: Sun and Google Are as Bad as Apple

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Apple's taken some heat lately for their decision to push Safari to anybody who runs their Apple Software Update utility. I didn't want Safari, but unless I opt out of it I'll get it. Now Sun and Google are doing the same thing with the Google Toolbar. It isn't enough that they allow you to opt-out.

Early Notes on GoogleApps

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:15:00 EDT

Now, what Google announced is really exciting! I'm not kidding. It's even better than I hoped. Yes, it's only Python, but IBM's PC-DOS was only BASIC and Pascal when it first came out, and it didn't matter. Yeah, I preferred C, but I coded in Pascal because that's what you had to do to get an app running. What you're going to see here that you've never seen before is shrinkwrap net apps that scale that can be deployed by civillians. That's a mouthful, but that's what's coming. Why? Because here is a standardized platform that can be stamped out in the billions of units. Maybe Google can't do it, but the perception is that they can. Who is willing to stand up and say Google hasn't nailed scaling? What PCs did in the 80s, Google is doing now. PCs took the black magic out of owning a computer.

New York Times and Burnout in the Blogosphere

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:30:00 EDT

The NY Times had a story yesterday, much-written-about in the blogosphere, that said that bloggers were working themselves to death. This was one article about blogging I was glad to be left out of, even so, it could have been about me, a number of years ago, when my lifestyle almost did kill me.

Kaazing's "Brilliant" Take on Competitive Corporate Culture

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:45:00 EST

I met Jonas Jacobi and John Fallows just after Thanksgiving as they pitched their product for inclusion at DEMO. Having helped launch the first Web server at DEMO more than 10 years ago, I understood immediately the importance of what they are providing in this technology. On the spot, I invited them to come to the conference. Where, John asked, would DEMO 08 be held? Palm Desert, I answered. 'That's great. Our families will love it there.'

3rd International Virtualization Conference & Expo CFP Deadline April 11

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:15:00 EST

Key opinion-formers in the field of infrastructure and pioneers of virtualization technologies of all types have already begun submitting speaking proposals to Virtualization Conference & Expo 2008 East, being held in New York City, 23-24 June, 2008. Topics covered will range from Server Virtualization, Application Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Network Virtualization, I/O Virtualization and Storage Virtualization, to Virtual Machine Automation, Physical to Virtual (P2V) Migration, Management Applications, Tools and Utilities, and Virtualization Scripts and Procedures.

Three RIA Platforms Compared: Adobe Flex, Google Web Toolkit, and OpenLaszlo

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:30:00 EST

The defining characteristic of any RIA is that it has a stateful client that is (or should be) platform and browser independent. Thin-client web applications grew from the need to provide applications with more reach, easy access to server side data, and to alleviate the pain of having to install and configure thick client software. Thin-client web applications remain a great way to accomplish these goals. However, with the advent of these new RIA platforms, developers now have all the reach of a traditional thin-client web application with many of the useful characteristics of thick-client applications, such as the ability to maintain state on the client.

Microsoft Betas Answer to Google Apps

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:45:00 EST

Microsoft is opening up its ad-supported 'software-plus-services' Office Live Workspace answer to Google Apps to public beta for feedback, it says, starting with those who pre-registered for the thing. The way it works Office users can post Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDFD files to an online collaborative workspace on Microsoft's servers directly from their Office programs with a click of a mouse and share their work or simply access it from someplace other than their PC. It's supposed to be a saner approach than sending a document off to collaborators on a version-uncontrolled e-mail round robin. Five versions are preserved.

Open Web Developer Summit to Take Place April 21-22, 2008 in New York City

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:45:00 EST

In keeping with the longstanding SYS-CON tradition of being at the very forefront of software development with all its online and offline resources, SYS-CON Media & Events jointly today announced a double whammy, launching both 'Open Web Developer's Journal' (http://openweb.sys-con.com) and 'Open Web Developer Summit' (http://openweb.sys-con.com) - to be held for the first time in New York City April 21-22, 2008.

Will Combined Search and Business Intelligence Go Mainstream?

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:30:00 EST

My seven-year-old daughter thinks that there is a knowledge genie that her teacher 'Googles' for answers. While cute, the anecdote also exemplifies how much Google's obsession with simplicity has helped build brand awareness, making their name literally synonymous with search. I can foresee generations X and Y being followed by generation S - one that will rely on search to accomplish almost any task.

What Do You Do While Waiting for Fusion-Driven SOA?

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST

Sure, Oracle has its award-winning Fusion Middleware SOA-driven tools to integrate these sources. And Oracle already has a roadmap that ultimately merges/migrates its acquired customers into the Oracle fold. But what does an organization do while its waiting for the Fusion-driven SOA effort to reach critical mass before users can get the answers they need? Just wait? And should we tell this same organization to wait for the ERP migration to be completed before it tries to launch new information-driven initiatives? Of course not. As the kissin' cousin of databases and applications and the next door neighbor of SOAs and portals, mashups are the nimble-and-quick complement to these larger efforts. Mash and publish, growth and innovation continues.

Katerina Muchachos, Kayikci and SOA World

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:00:00 EST

I asked what she did for a living. She said she was a software engineer working with SOA. I did not think about my plane ride much until I arrived in San Francisco to attend the SOA World Conference & Expo this past Monday and Tuesday. The first day of the conference as I walked into the hotel, guess who I saw? My friend who I met on the Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul. What a small world, isn't it? Her company was one of the sponsors of the event.

How OpenSocial Complements Silverlight

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:45:00 EST

To take advantage of the OpenSocial implementation in Orkut sandbox, you have to create a Google Gadget with the OpenSocial feature, post the gadget on the Internet, and then add the URL of the gadget as an application. As I looked into the Google gadget API to build this, I found something interesting, the Google Gadget framework exposes the function _IG_FetchContent() that can be used to asynchronously fetch the text at any URL.

Plaxo Is First Site To Publicly Implement OpenSocial

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:00:00 EST

Less than 24 hours after the launch of OpenSocial, not only was it running live in Plaxo, but there were already several first-class gadgets from top developers like RockYou and Slide. 'This is just the beginning - there's so much more to do to truly open up the social web,' wrote Plaxo's Joseph Smarr, in his personal blog on web development, tech, and life.

Google's OpenSocial: A Technical Overview and Critique

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 02:45:00 EST

One of the Google folks working on OpenSocial sent me a message via Facebook asking what I thought about the technical details of the recent announcements. Since my day job is working on social networking platforms for Web properties at Microsoft and I'm deeply interested in RESTful protocols, this is something I definitely have some thoughts about. Below is what started off as a private message but ended up being long enough to be its own article.

Fifty Million Facebook Users Don't Care About Google's OpenSocial APIs

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 02:30:00 EST

There are 50 million Facebook users who don't know what OpenSocial APIs are...and don't care. There are about 5,000 tech bloggers and developers who think it is a revolution that will 'Checkmate' Facebook and leave them with no moves. TechMeme has over 100 stories saying that OpenSocial is awesome and Facebook is dead. MySpace joins Google on OpenSocial initiative. OK, surely that settles it, Facebook is toast. Nope, not in my opinion.

How to Create a Gadget for Google Desktop

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:15:00 EDT

Have you played with Google's Desktop tool? This is basically a strip on the side of your screen that lets you house small applications, called Gadgets. The tool is available for Windows, Linux and Mac so no matter your vice there is a flavour for you. There is a wide variety of Gadgets available, ranging from the usual news tickers and clocks right through to games and even being able to vote if a girl is hot or not!

Contrary Opinion: MySpace and Google, Where's the Beef?

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EDT

Imho, Google has a long way to go to build the base of users and developers connected using the new protocol that is the subject of all this chest-thumping. Do they exist in any tangible form? How much of a moving target are they? It's like proclaiming the new owners of A-Rod's contract as the winners of the 2008 World Series. Only in tech, a persistently immature industry, could such an idea be aired seriously (assuming Mike is actually serious). I hope that the Facebook people, many of whom have never been in the middle of a tech PR war, don't overreact. Me, I've been around this block so many times and it's boring. Let's see some software then I'll let you know if this means anything. But Google is keeping people like me far away, which suggests that there may actually be no 'there' there.

Google Maps on the Good Old Palm OS

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:15:00 EST

You know, despite all the modern Smartphones, and my new Treo 750v, I still always have a hankering to go back to my Palm Treo 650. The ease of use is still just fantastic compared to just about anything I've ever used...the apps are great, really functional. Yes, it has its problems, its not WiFi, the camera is..well its dodgy as we know

i-Technology Blog: Is There Life Beyond Google?

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 07:30:00 EDT

What comes after Google? Where will the Web, the Internet, the whole nexus of telecommunications, i-Technology, and the quest for a better world, take us?

i-Technology Blog: Google Trends on Java, McNealy, AJAX, and SOA Give Pause For Thought

Fri, 12 May 2006 09:15:00 EDT

Like so many of the ideas that tumble out of the Googleplex into the public domain, Google Trends is irresistible. Jeremy Geelan puts the application, newly taken out of beta and now available to all cyberspace from the Google main page, through its paces by taking it out for a giddy spin around the i-Technology world. The results are surprising...