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I’m about to step on a plane, so I’ll just point to Om Malik’s take on the announcement coming tomorrow from Google regarding its support (along with others) of OpenSocial:
“OpenSocial is a set of common APIs for building social applications on the web. These common APIs mean that developers only have to learn once in order to start building social applications for multiple websites, and any website will be able to implement OpenSocial and host social applications.
Later today, I’ll jump back onto the this thread. This is a significant — and long anticipated move. And one I’ve been looking forward to personally. I’ll explain why later.
Later: Okay. I’m back on the ground and in the office. I haven’t read everything that’s erupting on this topic, however, one of the key players in this news, Marc Andreessen, provides the inside information. (It’s a bit geeky, however. If you don’t know what an open web API or “container” or “app” is, you may get a little lost).
Quote:
“Open Social is very practical. Many standards die an early death because they are too complicated and hard to implement. Open Social is what you want in a standard — it’s expansive enough to do useful things, but limited enough to be very easy to implement, both for containers and for apps.
Rather than add to today’s noise from those blogging on this development, I’ll point back to a rather long post I wrote related to the subject in July in which I said, “I predict Marc Andreessen is the guy who can ‘bring everyone together’ on this topic. He’s got the track-record, insight, clout, incentive and, well, if you’ve read his blog, the ability to communicate why interoperability is in the best interest of all players — and users.”
(Another related rexblog flashback: How I assert my identity on this page.)
Later:
Dave Winer says, “Standards devised by one tech company whose main purpose is to undermine another tech company, usually don’t work….When Google makes their announcement on Thursday, the question they should be asked by everyone is — How much of my data are you letting me control today? That’s pretty much all that matters to anyone, imho.”
Marc Cantor says, “Lets get a whole BUNCH of these kind of APIs and then platforms like PeopleAggregator (Marc’s company) can support them ALL!…It’s great to see Ning, Xing, Plaxo, LinkedIn and hi5 on the list…The more the merrier! Now we just need MySpace and Bebo and along with Orkut - we’re really starting to rock!…So there you have it - the future has arrived and it rocks. Thank you Google (and I have to admit I never thought I’d be saying that.) Now what about Apple?
 I’m taking notes for a later round-up post, but I’m not “live blogging” the Future of Media conference I’m attending. However, Ashkan Karbasfrooshan of WatchMojo.com is live blogging. Obviously, the gang from PaidContent.org are also convering it.
I’ll be posting photos later, also.
Update: Robert Andrews (who I’m sitting next to at the moment) of PaidContent.org, has posted a tid-bit of news regarding IDG President Bob Carrigan’s response to my question about the relaunch of a website using the URL and brand of the now defunct magazine, The Industry Standard: “(In December, the website will be relaunched as a) “very innovative social media platform” that aggregates input from the community in a prediction market thing.”
A few minutes ago, I posted a couple of photo sets on Flickr. As I looked at them together, I felt a little amazed that I live in a place where I could take photos of otters, geese, turtles, herons, titans and raiders all in a two-hour period. The top photo was shot at Radnor Lake around 10:30 a.m., the bottom photo was shot at LP Field around 1:00 p.m. Pretty awesome.
I’ll update this post over the course of the weekend with non-technical observations of Leopard:
1. I had to immediately change the desktop wallpaper to a solid background (blue). The default background has to be the ugliest desktop wallpaper ever. What is it? A star exploding?
2. Somehow, my “keychain” didn’t make the transition. If you have personal data backed up to a .Mac account, you’re supposed to be able to restore it, but first you’ll have to update “Backup.” I’ve done all that and I still can’t seem to get my keychain re-keyed.
3. My fault and this is not actually related to Leopard, but in trying to free some space before upgrading, I trashed some photos from iPhoto after checking to make sure they were backed up. Unfortunately, I didn’t check closely enough, because I had a gap of about six months that weren’t backed up where I thought they were. Fortunately, the photos were recoverable (and also backed up on DVD) and all is well. However, there was a period of anxiety that I could have easily avoided.
4. If one uses QuickSilver, the whole stacks thing seems like a lame imitation (for that matter, so is Spotlight). However, I guess there are such a small percentage of Mac users who use Quicksilver most people will think stacks is a creative new idea.
 Talk about losing something in the shuffle. I totally missed any mention that a part of the Leopard upgrade would include the integration of RSS into Apple Mail. However, I just noticed the feature when Apple Mail auto-upgraded (is that a term?) the first time I used it with Leopard. There is now a default folder called “RSS” in the left column to which I can add RSS feeds. In other words, RSS feeds can be subscribed to and organized within the Apple Mail (Apple’s desktop e-mail client) environment. I know (see: Steve Rubel) there are many ways to accomplish e-mail/RSS integration via all sorts of clever hacks (and the feature is old-hat to NewsGator/Outlook users), however, by making RSS integration a default feature of its email client, Apple has done something that is akin to what they did when they integrated RSS into iTunes (i.e., they made subscribing to a podcast an easy-to-understand concept).
This may seem like a redundant waste of time for anyone who uses a newsreader, but for the 95% of the world who doesn’t (warning: I just made up that statistic - I have no idea what percentage of computer users regularly use an RSS newsreader), perhaps this no-brainer feature will finally help them understand what the whole RSS thing is about (i.e., it comes in just like the e-mail newsletters you subscribe to, but you can turn off the subscription whenever you want — and, wow, if you think someone is spamming you via their RSS feed, click, they’re gone forever).
At first glance, the RSS subscription process seems a little clunky when done via Apple Mail as it is a pull-down menu command requiring (apparently) that you know the exact URL of the feed. However, the feeds you subscribe to with Apple Mail can automatically sync with feeds you subscribe to via Safari (and vice versa) — and subscribing to a feed via Safari is a one-click easy thing to do. (Note: I’m a creature of habit, so I still think the NetNewsWire/NewsGator sync will be my go-to solution.)
Unlike the iTunes/RSS integration, this is a bit less revolutionary as the market share of computer users using Apple Mail is tiny compared to the market share of computer users using iTunes, however, it will be an interesting development to watch.
Note for the geeks who have made it this far: I don’t see a means to import an OPML file directly into Apple Mail (however, I’ve spent less than five minutes looking and it’s too beautiful a day outside to be messing with this stuff now), but I recall one can import an OPML file into Safari and there’s a one-click way to sync your Safari and Apple Mail feeds.
Here’s what Apple says about the feature:
“Subscribe to an RSS feed in Mail and you’ll know the moment an article or blog post hits the wire. Even better, you can choose to have new articles appear in your inbox alongside your latest email messages. Sorting your news is easy, too. Use Smart Mailboxes to organize incoming news articles according to search terms that pique your interest. Mail shares its unread RSS feed count with Safari, so your reading list always stays in sync.”
Update: I’ve changed the the title of this post by taking out a part of it that suggested the “syncing to Safari” feature is the same as syncing to an “online newsreader.” As I was thinking about this later, I realized that the feeds are being sync’d to desktop software, not to a web-based reader.)
Here’s what this post looks like via Apple Mail:
View Larger Map
I’ve blogged before (and here) how I believe that online “toys” like Twitter or Google Maps’ MyMaps feature can — after enough people play with them — become powerful platforms for telling stories and sharing information — and can even save lives in an emergency situation. That’s why I play with this stuff.
This morning, NPR ran a story about how the San Diego public radio station, KPBS, despite being temporarily knocked off the air because of the wildfires, used Twitter (remember, it can be subscribed to via text-message) and MyMaps (embedded above) to keep their listeners informed of the life-threatening events surrounding them.
If you are not “playing” with Twitter, Flickr or Google Maps or other forms of easy-to-create and use conversational media, read (or listen to) this story.
 As a follow-up to my post yesterday about our office OS X upgrade, I thought I’d share this photo of Hammock’s head hackololgist, Patrick Ragsdale, being attacked by roaming packs of Leopards this morning. You can read @MeaganG’s post about it on Hammorati, the company weblog. Also, when he regains consciousness, Patrick will be blogging on his weblog, ScriptAlias, about geekier aspects of installing Leopard and Leopard Server in a 25-employee business environment .
Next Tuesday I’ll be in New York for the Future of Business Media conference organized by PaidContent.org. (More info here, including the stellar lineup of panelists). At the conference, I’ll be joining PaidContent.org executive editor Staci Kramer in moderating a panel on “Technology Business Media.” The panelists are Neil Ashe, CEO, CNET Networks; Bob Carrigan, President, IDG Communications; Om Malik, founder, GigaOmniMedia; Greg Strakosch, CEO, TechTarget. Feel free to e-mail me any questions you’re dying to ask one of them.
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This is what happens when Dell starts letting employees blog. ; - ) Nice to note that Nashville is another top city.
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A Nashville filter on my RSS newsreader caught this post promoting a band from Sweden that plays Americana music. They don’t call it Music City for nothing.
 Typically, I encourage the director of technology (or, as I say in jest, the director of hackology) at Hammock to go slow with upgrading our 25+ Macs when a new version of the Mac operating system arrives. With tomorrow’s release of Leopard, however, we’re damning the torpedos, full speed ahead.
Why? Well, as cool as they are, it’s not all those 300+ features Apple is touting on this page that moved us to make the decision a few months ago. Around here, it’s the Leopard Server that pushed up the upgrade calendar.
Specifically, it’s the iCal server and its support of CalDAV access and schedule standards. Okay, I’ll admit I have no idea what CalDAV is. However, I do know it is something that will allow us to quit using a server-based calendar software I’ve hated (yet spent thousands of dollars on) for over a decade and whose developer has steadfastly refused to allow the software to synch with iCal until they were forced to by last year’s announcement that the Leopard Server would include a networked iCal solution. Rather than spend $70 per license to upgrade to their new version when they came out with it (after years of promise), we decided months ago to use that budget to instead upgrade everyone to Leopard. Had that company jumped on support of CalDAV years ago, I may have upgraded then and, probably would have stuck with them through their upgrades. But they waited until Apple forced their hand and they, basically, encouraged companies like mine to respond to their earlier procrastination with our willingness to have the patience to wait on the Leopard Server option.
I’m glad to Now say goodbye to that software.
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Not only is Tom not my friend, he’s a liar. Oh what tangled webs we weave…
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When new competitors emerge and your core publications begin to lose money, only love will give you the strength to work harder and smarter and build something new you can be proud of.
I didn’t realize this blog was on Advertising Age’s “Power 150.” Ironically, I’m ranked 151 (or, at least I was when I noticed it). Also, ironically, there are 360 weblogs on the Power 150. This badge is supposed to show my current “rank.”
 From the New York Times article about Microsoft paying $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook, comes this quote from “a venture capitalist who is bullish on Facebook”:
“Facebook is based on who you really are and who your friends really are. That is who marketers really want to reach, not the fantasy you that lives on MySpace and uses a photo of a model.”
Obviously, the person who said this (who I don’t know, but with whom I share six “mutual” Facebook friends) is projecting his grown-up experience using Facebook. However, I feel certain if we polled a sample of the more-typical user of Facebook with the question, “Do you think the “you” people project on Facebook is really who they are?” they’d come a little closer to having the perception of Facebook that was recently articulated by Alice Mathias in a NY Times Op-ed piece written to debunk the notion among “its rapidly assembling adult population…that (Facebook) is a forum for genuine personal and professional connections.”
Explains Mathias:
“I’ve always thought of Facebook as online community theater. In costumes we customize in a backstage makeup room — the Edit Profile page, where we can add a few Favorite Books or touch up our About Me section — we deliver our lines on the very public stage of friends’ walls or photo albums. And because every time we join a network, post a link or make another friend it’s immediately made visible to others via the News Feed, every Facebook act is a soliloquy to our anonymous audience.
In other words, the stuff marketers really want to wrap around their brands.
 Advice to young caffine addicts. The Starbucks’ iTunes free ‘Song of the Day’ cards look like something you should collect and put in a shoebox so that one day about 30 years from now, when your mom is cleaning out the attic and throws the box away and you later discover people are selling them on eBay for some ridiculous price, you’ll be able to tell people how your mom threw out a rare rookie Sonya Kitchell Starbucks iTunes card worth $500.
Note: I picked up those cards on the left this morning — so, I guess it was a four free songs of the day at my neighborhood Starbucks.
 This announcement by Union Square Ventures explains why they’ve invested in Tumblr.com. It also contains a detailed explanation of what a tumblelog is. I use Tumblr.com to aggregate all my posts, tweets, photo-sharing into one “lifestream” that I call “River of Rex.” I describe the page as a confluence of all my various online posts (”streams”) right before they flow into the Gulf of Rexico. Recently, I redirected the previous URL, rex.tumblr.com to the URL RexHammock.com. Tumblr makes such redirects easy-to-do.
I love the tumblelog concept and I find Tumblr.com a brilliantly simple platform to use. However, I hate having to explain to non-conversational-media-geeks yet another one of these “things.” My friends in the real world still have problems understanding the whole “blogging thing,” so I’ve given up on trying to explain to them the nuanced similarities and differences among blogging, posting media to Flickr or YouTube, group messaging via Twitter, maintaining an identity on a social networking service and a tumblelog.
Here’s an earlier post related to simplicity of setting up and maintaining the River of Rex.
Speaking of tumblelogs and lifestreams, I just noticed that Plaxo has added something it calls a “lifestream widget” that does precisely what the RSS aggregation part of a tumblelog does. Here’s mine:
Technorati Tags: tumblelog, tumblr
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