litl_phil wrote: While it's nice that Google and Acer share the vision of cloud-based computing, it's also worth noting that we at litl already have a webbook on the market (available at litl.com) that runs our own cloud-based OS.
Unlike Chrome, litlOS is focused on creating a new and better web experience for the home, so we don't have the usual browser interface, we have our own innovative UI. In conjunction with easel mode (litl's inverted-V position) and our growing cohort of litl channels (special apps t...
Everyone wants to lower their capital expenditures and increase operational efficiency - it's a sign of the times. The economy of the past 12 - 18 months has forced all organizations to do more with less and become more efficient. While everyone can identify with the request to do more with less, th...
It was bound to happen, for sure. We all love the concept of a two-way Web, where most online content is created and edited in a open, cooperative fashion. Heck, many of us are actually pretty sure this is destined to be the future of the Internet. However, unbounded openness can also be an invitation to private consternation, public embarassment, or worse.
My recent post about ways to make good social software, which describes some fairly well proven best practices, notes that you have to have certain barriers to participation or things can spin out of control. Like they have apparently done at the Washington Post blog, where they publically shut all comments down on Friday, to some considerable uproar. It does make you wonder that if a big, relatively forward thinking public icon like the Post can't control the writeable Web, what chance will other folks have?
Alex Barnett, a fellow member of the Web 2.0 Workgroup, feels however that making content on the Web even more easily editable and changeable is a desirable goal. And I totally agree with him, this despite the fact that the more freedom and power to change things that you provide to the world at large, the more likely it will be misused. It's a paradoxically double-edged sword: The more control you hand over to your Web visitors, the more control you need to exert yourself.
Figure 1: Will techniques like Identity 2.0 help control the writeable web?
What we need is ways to encourage responsible use of the writeable Web, the abilities of which Web 2.0 software will only increasingly provide in the near future. Not that it will stop the big guys from ongoing attempts to control content centrally, though it's unlikely to succeed.
What are the options? Not many yet, but it certainly needs to be solved or legal resrictions like the recent full-blown federal prohibition on anonymous annoying messages might look like a cakewalk. We have the ability to police ourselves still and provide de facto protection against the very mischievious conduct that our social software enables. I encourage us to solve it before others come up with more hard-to-undo solutions using more traditional means (i.e. legislation and worse.)
While I don't have the answers, I do believe I have some starting points. One is in forcing writeable parties to identify themselves in an unforgeable fashion. If you want to comment on a blog or edit a wiki, all you need to do is identify yourself using a trusted digital ID. Unfortunately, central ID validation mechanisms and authorities are strongly disliked for a number of reasons including lack of scalability (you try to reliably validate 1 billion Internet users' identity 20-30 times a day) and usage privacy (most people love the idea of unforgeable Web-based ID, as long as they don't have to give up their privacy every time they use it.)
Enter solutions like Identity 2.0. I've written recently about Identity 2.0 and Dick Hardt and some of the great things he's been trying to do in this arena, but it may just be the answer.
Identity 2.0 represents a concept of identification that resembles an online driver's license or passport (see Dick's terrific, and visceral, presentation on Identity 2.0 here.) If I understand it fully, Identity 2.0-compliant credentials can be shown to anyone and validated on the spot, without consulting a validating authority.
So, controlling anarchy on the writetable Web might be as simple asking that folks flash their Identity 2.0 credential right before they change something on the Internet. This ensures their personal identity is attached to the change. And creating a verifiable chain of evidence might be all it takes for people to act more responsibily. Wiki vandalism, comment flaming, and other forms of anonymous mischief on the writeable Web may be eliminated forever when you know that your ID will be attached to it in perpetuity, affecting your hireability, possible suitability for public office, and more, forever.
Of course, there will be attendance problems including a rapidly vanishing anonymity on the Web. But that just might remain a nice artifact of being a read-only Web user.
What do you think? Will unforgeable, non-centrally verifiable ID be the future of the writeable Web?
About RIA News Desk Ever since Google popularized a smarter, more responsive and interactive Web experience by using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) for its Google Maps & Gmail applications, SYS-CON's RIA News Desk has been covering every aspect of Rich Internet Applications and those creating and deploying them. If you have breaking RIA news, please send it to RIA@sys-con.com to share your product and company news coverage with AJAXWorld readers.
This coming Tuesday, December 8, at 2:00PM EST, SYS-CON.TV will be broadcasting live from its 4th-floor studio overlooking Times Square in New York City a very special "Power Panel" in which Cloud Computing Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan and three top industry guests will be looki...
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This coming Tuesday, December 8, at 2:00PM EST, SYS-CON.TV will be broadcasting live from its 4th-floor studio overlooking Times Square in New York City a very special "Power Panel" in which Cloud Computing Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan and three top industry guests will be looki...
If you are like me, you are regularly receiving unsolicited email from various quarters, telling you about the latest and greatest SEO solutions on the planet. Just buy the book, or guide, or download the promotional whitepaper and this expert will offer you the latest "Secrets" to sea...
There's a lot of talk about how we need to focus on our buyers' issues and provide them educational insights to help them learn what they need to know to make buying decisions. Heck, I say it in my book...in several places, I think. I've said it on this blog, and I'll continue to say i...
This past weekend I set out explore some of the extension capabilities of Google Wave. One of the weaknesses that have been identified by many is the lack of integration with email. For me, in particular, because Wave is new, many Waves are being orphaned as those playing and testing o...
More good news for cloud computing! Google last week released its once mysterious Chrome Operating System to open source. Chrome OS, available in 2010 – is a web-based operating system that promises to boot up super-fast on a netbook – way faster than the time it takes to start your ba...
In CloudBerry Lab we are striving to make our customer service better. In this competitive market with the abundance of free offerings this is the only way to stay afloat. One of the ways to keep customers happy is to be very responsive when it comes to support request resolution. Shou...
