Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Twitter is, or will be, a Messaging Platform

  Charlie discusses the future of Twitter and touches on what I think are two key points: corporate twitter and content subscription. The key as Charlie discusses is the opt-in and one-way nature of Twitter. That is, I only get updates from someone if I explicitly choose to receive them, and the party I subscribe to doesn't necessarily need to listen to me. That sure sounds a lot like an RSS aggregator, doesn't it? To me, Twitter is exactly that: a messaging aggregator. The future of Twitter is a messaging platform . Twitter has a number of ways to deliver updates - you can get them on your phone (via SMS), from IM, or on the web. And of course, you can get them as RSS and bring them anywhere you want. You can also send the updates from any of those mediums. Ever better, Twitter has an API for putting data in and getting messages out, which means I can update Twitter and have this "status update" sent out to Facebook , my blog , and so on. Delivery based on context and priority The key feature... Posted Jun 18 2007, 03:05 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Web 2.0, Innovation, Business, Blogging

• There's no such thing as Web 2.0

  I've said before that I hate the term Web 2.0 but that it's more than a buzzword . Perhaps what I meant to say is what Marc Andreessen said: there's no such thing as Web 2.0 ( via Fred Wilson ) - thing being the key word there. The first Web 2.0 conference was held in the fall of 2004, and coincided with a large number of people in the tech industry (myself included) peeking our heads out from the fallout from the nuclear winter of 2001-2003 and realizing that the Web was not only not dead, it was thriving. From there, it was easy to conclude that "Web 2.0" was a thing , a noun, something to which you could refer to explain a new generation of Web services and Web companies. Many people have since pointed out that there is no clear definition of Web 2.0. Tim O'Reilly, whose organization created the conference (and the term), attempted to define Web 2.0 as follows: "Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the... Posted Jun 11 2007, 03:09 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Web 2.0, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Venture Capital

• Aloha, Mahalo.com

  I found this arrangement in my feed reader mildly amusing this morning: Fred Wilson's post on Mahalo.com directly above a post by Brad Feld entitled "The Computer Should Be Doing the Work for Us". (They are unrelated entries). Mahalo.com is, of course, a people-powered search engine that Jason Calacanis publicly unveiled yesterday (no longer "Project X"). I'll be honest: when I first saw that Jason announced a "people-powered search engine", I was underwhelmed. But the more I think about it, he may really be on to something. If you listen to CalacanisCast or read his blog, you'll know Jason has more than a slight obsession with Wikipedia. I'm certainly not the only one who noticed that Mahalo pages resemble Wikipedia entries more than they do Google results. And according to Dan Farber : Calacanis compared Mahalo to Wikipedia, which he said sucked in the first few years and then took off in year four or five. In the first few years, Mahalo will get to 25,000 search terms and then go into... Posted May 31 2007, 10:46 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Web 2.0, Innovation, Google, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Social Behavior, NextNY

• An Anthropologist's Take on Web 2.0

  The Machine is us. ( Link to the video ) Posted Feb 09 2007, 02:35 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Web 2.0, Innovation, YouTube, Video, Blogging, Entrepreneurship

• Web 2.0 is more than a buzzword

  I hate buzzwords , but I agree with Kathy when she says that Web 2.0 is more than just a buzzword . It is not a meaningless term (or as Letterman might say, it's "not nothing"). Kathy makes the ever-important distinction between buzzwords (bad) and jargon (good). Ultimately, she says, Web 2.0 gives us vocabulary to discuss an otherwise complex and abstract idea and allows us to have more intelligent conversations about what's really going on. While this vocabulary does facilitate discussions, it also allows us to be lazy and gloss over what is really important. Much like architecture , the Web 2.0 principles are important as long as they are consciously applied and we don't lose sight of why the feature matters in the first place. Posted Jan 08 2007, 04:37 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Software Development, AJAX, Web 2.0, Innovation

• Would you trust Zamzar with your data?

  Kevin writes about Zamzar , a free web-based service that converts audio, video and documents from one format to another (via Download Squad ). Sounds cool, but would you trust them with your sensitive data? I don't know about you, but I barely trust Google or Microsoft with this information. Should I trust what appears to be a UK-based startup whose company page provides little, if any, information about the company? In their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy , they make allusions to "respect[ing] the intellectual property rights of others" - though the language seems to be more related to a third party's protected work as opposed to any protected work you are personally uploading. The Privacy Policy also discusses, sort of, how the files are stored and accessible. Storage of User Files When users upload files to be converted Zamzar stores those files on its servers until such time as those files have been converted to the new file format. As soon as this has been done Zamzar removes... Posted Nov 03 2006, 08:37 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Security, Copyright, Web 2.0, Innovation, Privacy

• Buzzwords say all the wrong things

  As I've written in the past, I'm not a big fan of buzzwords because "they're vague, overbroad, ill-defined, and most of all trivialize what is really going on in the first place." Matt at 37Signals says there might be other reasons to avoid buzzwords . These buzzwords are often a mask. People who use them are covering up their ideas — or the lack thereof. They are overcompensating. They don’t have anything substantial to say so they try to use impressive sounding words instead. But people who abuse buzzwords don’t sound smart. They sound like they are trying to sound smart. Big difference. It's easy to use buzzwords and important-sounding words to gloss over your point when you don't really understand what you're talking about. It's a lot harder to be clear and concise. Aim for the latter. (Speaking of which, I'd recommend Plain Language for Lawyers , even if you're not a lawyer or law student). Posted Oct 10 2006, 12:23 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Personal, Web 2.0, Innovation, Marketing, Blogging, Recommendations

• Red Swoosh launches free version of P2P distribution service

  Red Swoosh is making its peer-to-peer distribution channel available for free , supported by advertising shown to every fifth downloader. Their technology has interested me since I first heard about it on a Web 2.0 Show interview from BarCamp LA back in May. I'm still very surprised that BitTorrent hasn't pushed more into this space. I mentioned non-infringing uses in January that are a prime example of what P2P distribution enables, and it is even easier with trackerless torrents . Red Swoosh seems be to rich content delivery what FeedBurner is to syndication. It's not that they necessarily do anything you couldn't do on your own otherwise, but they really simplify the process of delivering peer-to-peer downloads. When run a link through Red Swoosh, it detects that the client supports the Swoosh client and either sends the download link or promps the user to install the client. If there are no supported clients for the platform, it seamlessly forwards to the original URL. Widespread P2P... Posted Jul 05 2006, 10:33 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Web 2.0, Innovation

• Interesting Developments with Windows Live

  Microsoft is embedding Live services within the operating system . This isn't really too surprising, considering it was one of the stated principles behind the effort from the start. (As a developer, it is exciting though). Microsoft appears to recognize that web applications are a complement, and not a substitute, for desktop applications. The goal is to deliver the richest experience available on a particular piece of hardware, and no matter how many times Steve Gillmor says it , that will never be in a browser. In fact, the example I use most often to illustrate the point above comes from Microsoft's Exchange Server. If I'm on a machine that has Outlook, I'm invariably going to choose that over Outlook Web Access - but I appreciate being able to use the rich OWA interface when I am on a machine with just a web browser. And if all I have is my mobile device, Outlook Mobile Access offers a simplified interface. The important thing is that, in each case, I'm accessing the same data. I think... Posted Jun 21 2006, 12:34 PM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, AJAX, Web 2.0, Innovation