Three Generations of Web 2.0

This very interesting Alexa graph show the three generations of Web 2.0 technology. Web 2.0 probably got its biggest launch with MySpace.com which a few years ago was insanely popular but now has dropped significantly. Flickr was probably the first page to show the true promise of Web 2.0, but restrictions on use and filtering ensured it remained a niche player after the Yahoo take over and despite the explosion of smartphones with cameras the site is flatlined. The most recent super start of Web 2.0 is Twitter which in my opinion reflects the true promise of the approach to technology.

Twitter has the ease of use and intuitive design of a Flickr but has learned lessons about Web 2.0 Flickr never had time to learn. Twitter's main lesson was to let the users decide entirely what the site is. Flickr and MySpace suffered from management early on making decisions about how the techology was going to be used and trying to put in restrictions they could not enforce.

Twitter from day one let the user population decide what to do with the tool.

Microsoft: It's 'Too Soon' To Talk About Windows Phone 7 Numbers

Microsoft: It's 'Too Soon' To Talk About Windows Phone 7 Numbers: "Belfiore would not say how many Windows Phone 7 handsets have sold since they were released this fall. 'It’s just too soon to talk about numbers,' Belfiore said when asked about Windows Phone 7 sales."

People I asked at the local three stores said that they were selling fairly well, but not at the same level as the iPhone or Android. Orange was pushing the Windows 7 mobile phone but it seems to have been eclipsed utterly by the Android Galaxy.

Using a Chrome notebook

So here it is from Google. I have been using a demonstration version from Google for evaluations for a while. In short it seems to be saying "you have a browser", the way it tries to make established web browsing as new or exciting is a bit funny.

What we lost with Sky Drive

Above is my Google Docs folder. This is where I keep my key personal files.


Last year when it looked like Google Docs would be a problem Microsft offered Office Live Workspace beta seen above. They have now replaced this with the turely pathetic Sky Drive.

This is a terrible example of Microsoft pulling features from the marketplace when it sees that it does not need to provide it. Its a sad case, but without Google pushing at Microsoft we would have only Office and Windows.

BBC News - Wikileaks defended by Anonymous hacktivists

BBC News - Wikileaks defended by Anonymous hacktivists: "Internet hacktivists have fired the latest salvo in the Wikileaks infowar

.

A group called Anonymous has hit sites that have refused to do business with the controversial whistle-blowing site with a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks.

It mirrors similar attacks aimed at the Wikileaks site.

Targets include the Swiss bank that froze founder Julian Assange's assets and PayPal which has stopped processing donations to Wikileaks.

Anonymous is a loose-knit group of hacktivists, with links to the notorious message board 4chan."

BBC News - Cloud computing 'could give EU 763bn-euro boost'

BBC has a good article about Cloud computing, but I think the part later in the quote is the most important. Certainly the Cloud has lot of promise, but my experience is that early adopters will be extremely disappointed. Users are losing a lot of experience in many Cloud projects. And There is a real danger Cloud will be rejected.

BBC News - Cloud computing 'could give EU 763bn-euro boost': "Widespread adoption of cloud computing could give the top five EU economies a 763bn-euro (£645bn; $1tn) boost over five years, a report has said.

The CEBR said it could also create 2.4m jobs. The technology gives software and computing power on demand over the net.

But experts warn that cloud computing can be very disruptive to business, and companies could end up 'disillusioned'.

'Nothing kills a new technology better than a poor user experience,' said Damian Saunders of Citrix."

Rober1236 Jua the Cyber Trekker of Second Life

Autonomy Takes the FAST Track as Microsoft Winds Down Linux, UNIX Support

Autonomy Takes the FAST Track as Microsoft Winds Down Linux, UNIX Support: "Last February Microsoft (news, site) announced that it was discontinuing mainstream and extended UNIX and Linux support for its FAST search technology. There was some speculation that in doing so it hoped that it could drag Linux and UNIX users into its Windows stable. However, Autonomy (news, site) has been quick to see and seize the opportunity this decision provided.

With the December 31st discontinuance date ‘fast’ approaching, it has launched the Put FAST in the Past marketing campaign.

IDOL and FAST
For enterprises and vendors currently using FAST, Microsoft’s decision has the potential to become a real headache. They either move across or switch to an entirely new infrastructure and operating system, or they find an enterprise search technology that works with existing deployments.

Autonomy, in launching their Put FAST in the Past campaign, is offering IDOL as an alternative solution that will future-proof their existing infrastructure."

Microsoft Google and the Cloud War

Turning the world on its head. Normally people use Google Web Apps on a Windows OS. The above VM shows using Windows Web App in a Google Chrome OS. It illustrates the way both firms could evolve in their ongoing war with each other, and how the dance between these two enemies is defining both companies.

As I have blogged about a great how I see the entire future of Collaboration and the Cloud as being defined as a war between Google and Microsoft. Recently I blogged about how gaps between Microsft's R&D and release of a Web enabled OS have been determined by the successes and failures (mostly failures) of Google to challenge windows. See Share the Point: Google OS Chrome and Microsoft..

At the start of 2010 I blogged about how this "Cloud War" between Google and Microsoft would structure the war for the Slate/Tabled/Pad space which I saw coming Share the Point: The war for the Slate Space. Given the evens of 2010 and the rise of the iPad this blog post turned out to be rather prothetic and I have become more and more convinced that the entire IT landscape, both Enterprise and consumer, is being defined ultimately by the battle between these companies.

To say it simply Microsoft will innovate in to the Cloud only as far as Google forces it to and no further.

For a long time Microsoft had the sweetest deal in IT industry. They owned the OS space, they owned the productivity space. They were assured a steady flow of revenue from just Windows and Office and Windows and Office could drive other products like Exchange and SQL Server.

But two things developed. One was the Web 2.0 revolution starting with Google using social information in search. Social Networks was not part of Microsoft model of Office and Windows. People sat in Offices and looked through Windows. Google was making wealth by making the work of people inside of these Offices in to a product with their PageRank system.

Microsoft sat by helplessly as Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter created the Social Network and made the MSN obsolete. Microsoft made the biggest failure of its history allowing MSN to be overshadowed to such a degree by companies that did not exist 15 years ago.

Microsoft was stuck playing catch up with mixed success. SharePoint is the one true triumph of this space. Microsoft decided that if it could not innovate Web 2.0 at least it could score big by bringing established Web 2.0 into the Enterprise, inside the world of Offices and Windows.

But in the past 2 years something much more ground breaking has happened. Mobile. Mobile has stated a process where by IT will no longer live in Offices and Windows. Mobile has given users doors to walk out in to the real world. Web 3.0 is here and promising to make many more billionaires than Web 2.0. It also posses a serious threat to Microsoft.

The present Microsoft R&D strategy to develop innovation but market only that which fits is current tactial advantage could, in the current climate, be washed away very quickly. So far Microsoft has been lucky in Google's failure to really present a productivity tool that takes away the market for Windows and Office. This could end very shortly and suddenly.

Microsoft already finds itself in the unusual position of having to insert itself in a OS market as the distant "also ran". Windows 7 Mobile has to catch up to much more established Mac, Android, and RIM "smartphone" OS platforms. Microsoft has already taken Mac on and won, but at that time there was no third option waiting in the wings. Microsoft is in real danger of not having a niche in the mobile world.

If that happens and IT stops being out Offices and Windows but Doors and Parks, than SharePoint might be a pretty limited option.

Microsoft would certainly survive though, and actually for the ecosystem of Microsoft developers and consultants that might be the best thing. Microsoft would be forced to roll out R&D to the market almost as fast as it makes it. Today the Microsoft Labs is a mass toy store which might never be open. We have seen Kinetic, Office Live Apps and Photosynth but there is a great deal more thy are holding on to which would keep Microsoft relevant in a mobile world more dominated by Google.

But I think the biggest battle in the Cloud War is about to stat, and its a battle that will be waged only in Richmond. The battle to make Microsoft see that the future of IT is not dominated by the structures of Windows and Offices.

Google OS Chrome and Microsoft

Taking another test run with Google Chrome OS. From the very start you know you are in a Google OS which serves Google's long term strategic interests. But that is really the entire problem. I started using Linux to get out of the reach of one Microsoft's control, why would I use a Linux that just hands me over to Google. And not just over to Google for the OS, its a bit eye opening to see how little there is outside of Google once you take away the OS.



The Chrom OS has some major problems as I can see it:

1. Little installed software compared to other Linux OS systems. (If you want Linux try Ubuntu)
2. Security model on the one I have is so locked down I can not even install new code, this means you are cut off from the Open Sourced world out there. For several years Linux fans saw Google as a natural ally. A few hours on Chrome and you see they certain are not.
3. Google and the Cloud as of yet does not offer a full suit of productivity tools fully online. You still have to do stuff on your desktop. Probably the worst part of my testing Google Chrome OS was my use of Google Docs as the writer tool and not Open Office.
4. Clearly this is targeted to the netbook and micro laptop market, the Eee PC crowd. And its clearly late. The micro laptop was killed by the iPad and now the Galaxy Tablet.

With such weak features I would stay on Windows 7 or Mac OS X for a higher end laptop or PC. If I was going to install Linux on a new PC I would use Ubuntu. I have Ubuntu installed on a few low spec machines and it works fine. And it gives more than Chrome would. As for the Mobile world, right now I am going to use Android or an iPad/iPhone.

The only place I could see Chrome maybe coming to play is a netbook that is so low spec it can't run Windows 7 sold to people who demand a name brand and will not use an Suse or Ubuntu. But that market is already settled: Windows XP snatched that group up in 2009. Chrome is simply too late.

Strangely enough the thing that made Google Chrome OS most tolerable was Microsoft Office Web App.

A very eye opening article tells us perhaps more about Microsoft than Chrome

BBC News - Delays for Google's Chrome questioned by experts: "'I think Microsoft is always worried about what Google could do,' said Neil MacDonald, research vice president and fellow with Gartner.

'Don't underestimate Microsoft. For example Microsoft had a web-enabled version of Office for years back in the lab ready in case Google apps ever matured to the point it felt threatened, and recently it released a web version of Office.

'In Microsoft's labs today there is absolutely an....OS supporting browser-based access. But they won't release it on their own because there is too much money at stake in the Office franchise and for the moment Chrome is nothing more than wishful thinking.'"

If i am reading this correctly, Microsoft has spend money and effort in R&D which it has then NOT releasing to the market. This just goes to prove the danger of a monopoly position to the market and make a joke of Microsoft's previous claims that its massive position gives it an innovation lead. Certainly Microsoft CAN fund as much R&D as anyone else in the world, and can produce some of the greatest break throughs in technology, BUT there must be some force pushing Microsoft to do it.

Lets be frank, if it has not been for Google we would be pretty much stuck with an updated version of XP and Office 2003 coming out of Microsoft. Google and the rise of the Web has forced Microsoft to embrace collaboration, the cloud and to look at a world after Windows and Offices.

In a mobile world there will not be Office or Windows, web 3.0 takes the web out of the Office and out of the Window and out of Microsoft comfort zone. But that does not mean Microsoft will lose the entire pie, and certainly Windows 7 does not have much to fear from Chrome

Everyone has their own TV channel with YouTube

I caughthe moment where my YouTube site reached 46,000 views. Just me ranting, but fun.

Ian Ruotsala Chrome with Win 7 issue solved

Ian

Above is me running a copy of your HTML on my local machine. I had to change the relative paths to absolute paths

Around the images that did now work I but a

I put the nobr tag around the offending images.


The images still extend beyond the length of the page, but it solves the problem.
Go to http://socialmediais.us/wc/test.html to see how the code works.

I hope this helps.

Windows Live updates are trash

Recently I received an email from Microsoft inviting me to "update" my Windows Live beta account. I have been a big fan of the Windows Live Beta, blogging about it and comparing it positively to Google Docs.

Well I take it all back. The update took a folder I had in Windows live, like the one above, which had almost all the features of a SharePoint document library and left me with the crap we see below, and pathetic Sky Drive.



I have to be frank, I really am having serious questions about Microsoft's execution on the cloud. Frankly I simply don't use it in the cloud anymore. This recent "downgrade" to something as useless as Sky Drive has made me very happy I kept my main files in Google Docs.

One really has to wonder from the failure of Kin, the failed effort to get Yahoo (should they even have tired) and Ray Ozzie leaving one has to wonder if the Cloud is even a place Microsoft has any future at all in.

I am writing this as a concerned SharePoint professional. SharePoint in its current firm is the best Enterprise collaboration tool, but is the very concept of the Enterprise valid in a world of network culture and clouds. This world of network culture is more the place for Google, and I am getting very concerned.