Thanks to a more technology-savvy workforce, ubiquitous broadband, online collaboration, and social networking tools, it is individual workers, and not IT organizations, that are creating a new trend in business, a trend being called "technology populism." Despite the rewards of using web-based tools and the ease-of-use they provide, this new trend has inherent risks as well. And any IT managers who are ignoring the new, open internet and the power it provides are also ignoring the risks and security threats technology populism brings to the strategically planned IT infrastructures that they have helped build.
This week Facebook opened up its News Feed to third party services, allowing users to add content from outside sites to their Facebook feed. Third parties could already allow their users to do this by creating Facebook Apps. However now users will be able directly import these content streams by inputing their login credentials to Facebook. It's a good first step, but not enough.
As soon as the online press got hold of a sliver of information about Yahoo! Buzz, the predictable cries of "Digg clone!" were loud enough to drown out anyone who thought that Yahoo! Buzz might be something more than a lame attempt at socially driven news (without the social elements). While many people think that the flurry of recent launches from Yahoo! represent nothing more than a cry of desperation, I think Yahoo! Buzz, at least, sets itself apart from the rest.
In an hour long interview posted today about the Semantic Web, W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee says all the pieces are in place to move full steam ahead and realize the potential of a world of structured, machine readable data. Available as a part of the Talking with Talis semantic web podcast series, the interview (listen here) is summarized on interviewer Paul Miller's new ZDNet blog dedicated to the semantic web. A full transcript is available here.
It's an important conversation and a good introduction to what the semantic web is. Also notable is the way that Berners-Lee sees Semantics and Data Portability as very related. Some highlights are excerpted below.
Starting on the first of next month, the widely popular mobile browser Opera will switch from offering Yahoo! to using Google as its default search engine. While Yahoo! has its own relatively sophisticated mobile offerings, the company can't be happy to lose Opera to Google. Update: Yahoo! emailed to tell us that "Yahoo! has elected not to continue its mobile search partnership with Opera at this time." Interesting!
Presumably there's some money changing hands and we can't help but wonder how much. It's Google's payment to Mozilla for being the default search engine in Firefox that makes that browser financially viable.
Zoho Writer, part of the online Zoho office suite, was updated this morning to include some new features that users have been asking for. These new additions, which include support for the DocX file format, a thesaurus, a "sharing with groups" feature, and enhancements to headers/footers and endnotes/footnotes, bring Zoho Writer that much closer to being a viable alternative to desktop software.
A lot of people scratched their heads when Etsy raised $27 million. What on earth? Handmade goods, that's about as low tech as you can get!
Then Umair Haque, a well respected blogger and strategist - albeit one who is known for being a bit “out there” - asked Is Etsy the next Google? Maybe Umair was just saying that this is big. One of his commenters pointed out: “not Google, but maybe the next eBay”.
In our post Beware of Freeconomics, Alex Iskold explained why the 'free' economy proposed by Wired's Chris Anderson may not be a bed of roses. Commenter SJones had an interesting 'bee' metaphor that furthered the discussion. "It is not enough to build a killer app", said SJones, "they [startups] have to build a killer honey pot." Read on to find out what that means! We love a good metaphor here at RWW, so congratulations SJones, you've won a $30 Amazon voucher - courtesy of our competition sponsors AdaptiveBlue and their Amazon WishList Widget.
Just yesterday we wrote about how people are beginning to use social networks to organize protests, boycotts, and other consumer and social actions. Specifically, we noted how MySpace and YouTube were instrumental in coordinating the recent seller revolt at eBay, and that Facebook was recently used to launch a massive protest of Colombian rebel group FARC. Today comes the launch of the Ultimatums application on Facebook, which helps people organize social actions and spread them virally.
One of the big social news stories this evening was Facebook's announcement that it is actively working on a redesign to user profiles that would break the profile page down into three, main tabbed components. A "Wall" tab that would mash up the current mini-feed and message wall, an "About" tab that includes bio information, and a "Photos" tab, which is pretty self explanatory. Notably absent from the mix is a prominent place for applications.
