2005 September

Web 2.0: Is it a question or has it been answered?

September 28, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

UPDATE 9/30/05: In anticipation of the O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference, Tim O’Reilly presents his position (i.e., answer) to the Web 2.0 question.

Om Malik was at dinner last night where the “What *is* Web 2.0 anyway?” question came up and he wrote about it asking for comments. I just left the following as a comment and realized it needed to be a post:

With some of the debate about what Web 2.0 is or isnâ€™t, I also was thinking about the Web 2.0 conference (which I’m attending) next week. After reading this post, I went off to my own blog and looked at all my posts that I tagged with Web 2.0″.

Pretty eclectic bunch of posts. Is Web 2.0 a pipe? Yep. A set of enabling technologies? Yep. Applications? Check. How about interoperability and software as a service (i.e., web services). Oh yeah.

The analogies to a PC or even distributed enterprise I.T. (processing; messaging bus; I/O; applications; communications) is clear. That can only lead to one conclusion: this next phase of the internet is a platform upon which applications are built as well as services delivered (and the line between applications and services ” whether on the desktop or within the enterprise” is blurring).

The differentiator of Web 2.0 (vs. 1.0) is that humans en masse are infusing our collective consciousness in to the usage of this platform and its applications/services. In addition, critical mass of use of the always-on-internet has been achieved and the building blocks of a platform are in place.

Filed Under: Web 2.0

Karma Katchup

September 27, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, have other beliefs or none at all, there are certain universal truths that thematically run through *all* humankinds spirtual teachings: as you sow, so shall you reap. Good works beget goodness and evil begets evil. Searching for and focusing on upside (though aware of downside) while embracing a positive attitude and outlook means that you will sow positive energy and achieve positive outcomes as you journey — and people naturally gravitate toward the positive and shun the negative. Besides the obvious way to live ones life, it’s also good business.

These thoughts have come to me once again as I’ve been personally involved in far too many situations in the last twelve months — and have been observant of other ones and watched companies behave as they build, acquire and develop — that make this universal truth self-evident. A good technology company example is Google’s “Do no evil” mission statement. It is indicative of how they expect their Googler’s (or whatever they call themselves) to approach every situation, business model, technology choice, hiring decision and path choices they make as the Google journey progresses. They’ve made some missteps and done some things that have caused people to be taken aback…but their do no evil mantra seems to be making all of them drive toward the good and the positive and so far the marketplace has embraced them. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

Connecting the Dots podcast for the week of September 26, 2005

September 26, 2005 By Steve Borsch 1 Comment

Topics are: GoogleNet, Personalization, Recommendation, Predictive Analytics & Serendipity. I asked and you responded. Last show I requested that people email me and tell me if there was an interest in a multi-topic podcast…or a single one. Doing a single one won out.

So this week’s show covers a main theme about our pals at Google as well as some of the things that are possible (and being done) on the internet as companies watch, learn and act upon the data we’re handing them on a silver platter.

Listen to or download the podcast

Filed Under: CTD Podcast, Podcasting

iTunes 5 breaks my iPod….or does it?

September 24, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Having used the Macintosh since 1984 (and the Lisa before that) as well as more PC’s than I’d care to count, I pride myself on being a power user and someone friends and family turn to when they run in to a roadblock with their personal confuser (to use Leo Laporte’s term from the TV show “Call for Help”). It turns out *I* was a bonehead vs. having it be Apple’s problem.

I’ve been merrily using the iPod and having zero issues so was quite chagrined when I downloaded the new iTunes 5.0 and began having issues. Issues I couldn’t fix.

I’m on the message boards reading about other Mac users (there was an acknowledged Windows version of iTunes 5 problem) and many were having exactly the same problem as I was experiencing (when I’d plug in my iPod, I’d get an error that it couldn’t copy to that disk). Stopped at the Apple store and a “genius” was able to copy tons of music to my iPod (should’ve been my first clue) and I guessed it was my operating system, one or more of my music files or something. Upon getting home, I ran the iPod updater, trashed preferences files, rebuilt this-n-that, ran Onyx (GUI for unix commands that clean up stuff) to clean up my system, rebuilt my entire iTunes library for over an hour, and none of this works.

So tonight I’m sitting here trying to fix it. I think, “Hmmm….could it be the Firewire cable?”. I plug in my iPod with the Apple supplied extra USB cable. It works. I let out a moan like a wounded bear.

Makes me think about all the people posting on Apple’s and other sites I visit. How many others’ problems could be a simple fix? Or is this stuff way too complicated? Even smart guys like Russell Beattie get frustrated (he’s threatening to be a “reverse switcher” going from Mac to Windows) which is more about the level of complexity in information systems than it is the lack of knowledge or capability of the user.

Filed Under: Computing

Personalization, Recommendation, Predictive Analytics & Serendipity

September 22, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Continuing on from my last two posts — the theme of which was gathering internet and location data for behavorial and predictive analysis as well as the internet-as-collective-consciousness — I offer up an LATimes article that describes what has been going on for some time as we all have collectively been allowing organizations to “watch” what we’re doing online, gather our clickstream and transactional data, try to figure out who we are and what we want and to then monetize the knowledge they have gleaned from their observations.

Predictive analytics is the Holy Grail of the information technology category called business intelligence (BI). It’s purpose is to allow people to use patterns of data from thousands of people or transactions in order to make better and more accurate decisions. The point is to be more adept at building trend-right products and services while penetrating new markets. The goal is to drive top line revenue, decrease costs, gain competitive advantage, and all the other things that make a business grow and be profitable.

When at Vignette during the dotcom adventure, we OEM’ed NetPerceptions’ Recommendation Engine. It was, as this article points out, a “‘Preference engine’ (to) track consumers’ choices online and suggest other things to try.” It was a great technology and the Web site personalization (which Vignette offered) and recommendation (from NetP) was a powerful combination that delivered a highly customized and individualized experience for those companies who implemented our software and the users who visited their sites. Amazon was an early NetP customer and they’ve gone far beyond what was, at that time, fairly rudimentary categorization and simple business rules (more on that later).

But will automagic preference engines, personalization and predictive delivery work?

Extreme Specialization

September 21, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

With my kids back in school and having just gone to the parent’s “curriculum overview” last night (previewing the upcoming year’s teaching and the basics my kids will be learning), this first article in a CNet series really hit home. It did so since I’ve given A LOT of thought to the internet as our collective consciousness as well as been having profound observational experiences as of late surrounding the extreme specialization the internet enables.

The CNet series is dubbed, “Intelligence in the Internet Age” and starts out with:

A few thousand years ago, a Greek philosopher, as he snacked on dates on a bench in downtown Athens, may have wondered if the written language folks were starting to use was allowing them to avoid thinking for themselves.

Today, terabytes of easily accessed data, always-on Internet connectivity, and lightning-fast search engines are profoundly changing the way people gather information. But the age-old question remains: Is technology making us smarter? Or are we lazily reliant on computers, and, well, dumber than we used to be?

Lazily reliant on computers? Not a chance since the internet fosters extreme specialization.

A GoogleNet baby step?

September 20, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Starting with broadband guru Om Malik’s speculation that Google is building out a nationwide internet backbone network (with WiMax to deliver fast broadband over the notoriously difficult-to-deploy last mile) he’s added information today that makes it appear they’re pretty serious and have taken their first public baby step.

Malik referred to this FAQ (at wifi.google.com with an actual subdomain!) and a spot to download virtual private network (VPN) software (Windows only, BTW). At this time, Google wifi is only in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Good thing they’re offering VPN software since I’ve been very concerned for some time about being “naked” when surfing in a wifi hotspot like a coffee shop (email and FTP passwords go in the clear for example). But why would Google build a secure, VPN infrastructure only for San Francisco? The answer is they wouldn’t.

There’s been a lot of buzz about what Google is up to, especially since they’ve been rumored to be on a buying binge snagging dark fiber. Lending credence to this point was yesterday’s IP Media Monitor article, “Google Reviewing Bids for National Optical Switching Network: Google is reviewing bids it solicited from tech vendors to build a national optical DWDM network capable of pushing massive amounts of voice, video and data very close to end users. Even more interesting is that the purported cost of this dynamic national fiber fabric is under $100 million (not including dark fiber) and can be launched within a matter of months. But the last-mile is, as always, the problem.” WiMax could take care of that problem. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Innovation, Technology, Web 2.0

Nikon fills rebate….but how?

September 19, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

My post on August 29th called A Nikon example of why I *hate* rebates was a rant about Nikon *not* fulfilling my rebate on a lens I purchased from them. But curiously a check showed up in today’s mail.

Nikon’s original rebate denial letter to me stated they couldn’t fulfill the rebate since,“The Original Yellow Part-2 world-wide warranty form was not included. Copies are not acceptable.” They also stated, “Please be sure to resubmit all materials within 21 days of the date at the top of this letter to be eligible to receive your rebate.” Hmmm…not possible since the missing material was in the original envelope!

Even though the *only* action I took was to write the 8/29 post (and email Nikon customer support with the URL), imagine my surprise when today’s mail contained a check! While I’m pleased they fulfilled their promise of a rebate since I had provided 100% of the required information, how did they fill it if the original “Yellow Part-2 world-wide warranty form” was missing? Did someone in public relations email the rebate payment group to make sure I was sent a rebate?

You should see my logs of how people come to my blog. I’ve had numerous people search on “hate rebates” in Google and come directly to my blog and that Nikon rebate rant (on Google my post is the fifth ranked search result). People have also come here from the excellent Digital Photography Review site where I posted in one of the forums…a place where I’m certain Nikonians troll and may have visited my blog from there.

I still and always will hate rebates….plus my name was misspelled on the check which is a tiny error but is yet another irritant.

Filed Under: Commerce

Connecting the Dots podcast for September 18, 2005

September 18, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Photography Fest from the Brainerd Lakes area in Northern Minnesota. This Fest is *not* an officially sanctioned photo event of the National Geographic Society. Rather it’s three guys getting together at one of the guys lake home in northern Minnesota for three days of snapshotting and getting in to the Zen of photography.

Mentioned on this podcast is Jim Brandenburg and his Chased by the Light project and DVD.

Listen or download this week’s podcast

Filed Under: Podcasting

Supervolcanoes and Earthquakes

September 16, 2005 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

As all eyes have been on New Orleans and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, my thoughts have also gone to our preparedness for other disasters which could make New Orleans look trivial in comparison. Earthquakes and other seismic events are the biggest possibilities and several things have hit my radar screen recently I’d like to share with you.

Just so you know, I’m a “glass is half full” guy and not paranoid, but my day job requires that I wear a risk assessment hat — being always alert to upside and downside while performing scenario planning that includes worst-case — and the effects of the below are worst-case…or are they?

Supervolcanoes
Some months ago my son and I watched a Discovery program about Supervolcanoes and the fact that Yellowstone Nat’l Park officials were alerted to a “tipping” of Yellowstone Lake (water became shallower on one end and deeper on the other…like tipping a bowl of water). Seems that the magma chamber under a >50 square mile area of the Park was bulging. Though the risk of a supervolcano erupting in any foreseeable near term future is quite small (though truly unknown), I’ve been to Yellowstone as a kid and seen many of these seismic areas in person and know how close this activity is to the surface. It was a fascinating program while simultaneously disturbing.

The thrust of the program was that this 50+ square mile area could explode (as it had in the past) as a supervolcano, spewing ash and debris in to the air and plunging the world in to a something akin to a nuclear winter.

What about Cascadia and the mystery of the bulge?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Earth