Tech-Blog: Category web

Super Pat on OpenSSO Extensions

Mike — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:10:00 -0400

Pat Patterson announced yesterday that OpenSSO's Lightbulb project is now OpenSSO Extensions. Paul Bryan's OpenID Identity Provider for OpenSSO is one of three initial extensions.

On tools suitable for a job search

Mike — Wed, 03 May 2006 02:58:00 -0400

I am not the first one (see MyJobTips among others) to assert that the online tools available to job seekers are lacking. Herewith some thoughts on what a mashup service for seekers might look like.

A common job seeker workflow might go something like:

wake-up, make coffee
check e-mail, possibly reading automated messages from job boards
cruise job boards, bookmarking jobs of interest
pick one or two or more gems from that day's crop of new job postings and research job and company
compose and send one or two resumes
later, follow up on sent resumes, possibly scheduling interviews, and eventually accepting an offer

It won't be long before one of the major job boards (or Google) implements something that services such a workflow. But for now, a simple mashup might do the trick

Much of what a job seeker needs is already there. Social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us provide an easy way to post, organize, and share bookmarks. Blogs provide an easy way to author, store, and publish research and notes. Online calenders are extremely common, useful for scheduling interviews. Web-based to-do lists, useful for recording follow-ups, are also freely available, most providing electronic reminders.

A mapping service like Google Maps might also play a role. And then there are the online word processors like Writely that could be used to author resumes. Does Google Base play a role?

A first version of "the app" might just be a static javascript page that sends HTTP requests to each of the secondary services. Eventually the app should be smart enough to extract info from a job posting such as job location, posting date, relevant keywords, suggested follow-up tasks, blog post templates.

I suspect that this app would not cross the line between feature and service, i.e. the job seeker's needs are more likely to be satisfied by existing providers than by the app. Would seekers pay to use the mash up? Maybe, but as soon as they did, someone is going to give it away for free.

My tools

Mike — Mon, 01 May 2006 15:51:00 -0400

I'm trying to get back into the habit of writing by documenting my favourite online tools. Goes without saying that they are all best viewed with Firefox.

Gmail

A decent, free, web mail product without a practical usage limit. Gmail's search facility (delete nothing, no folders) has changed the way I use email -- no more archiving or offline storage.

The Inbox/All_Mail split is natural after a while. I try to keep the number of messages in my Inbox to a minimum; say one to two weeks of content in the first page. Star'd messages and tags are thus far not much use.

del.icio.us

Social bookmarking provides value (see oishii below), but del.icio.us provides a bookmarklet and Firefox plugin that makes bookmarking a snap. The daily blog posting service that sends my bookmarks to this blog is spiffy.

Netvibes.com

Dynamic home page supporting RSS/Atom feeds, to-do lists, weather, bookmarks, and other aggregated content. I use is almost exclusively to track syndicated content that changes frequently.

The UI is well thought out. Content can be categorized on any number of tabs, and arranged within each tab via drag and drop. Content is presented within an embedded reader.

Rojo

My industrial strength blog/feed reader. Not much GUI candy here, Rojo is suitable for blitzing through a large number of posts because a paragraph or two of each article is presented in the Rojo interfrace. Feeds are categorized by tag.

remember the milk

A recent addition to my tool box, remember the milk is a web 2.0 to-do list manager. Each list entry is categorized as personal, work, or study, can be tagged with arbitrary keywords, has a due date and associated effort. Lists can be syndicated via Atom, or iCal; reminders are sent via SMS, IM, or email. Tasks can also be added via email (no API yet).

The on-the-fly smart lists (say, all tasks tagged 'house') achieve high coolness marks.

Yahoo Calendar

Through no fault of Yahoo, their calendar service caused me a bit of trouble a while back, but it is still a decent product. Recurring events are easy to add, and the display is easy on the eyes. Yahoo has not updated this service in a long while, and I'm tempted to switch to google calendar if/when I can transfer my Yahoo events.

Digg, reddit, Oishii

Mental candy that I check a few times a day to keep tabs on what is percolating on the net. Once in a while I find a gem.

Evolving user interaction

Mike — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 16:43:00 -0500

It occurred to me last night that this might make a nice slide some day...

I think it might even be part of a 10-20-30 presentation. ;-) .

iPod video

Mike — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 11:04:00 -0400

The worst kept secret is now public.

Will the video iPod move mainstream video off of cable? Maybe not. But it may be the trigger for mainstream video blogs and pod casts, downloadable TV shows, live video. Something big is going to happen. It will also be interesting to see if/how Sony reacts with their PSP.

There may be an opportunity for a bloglines-like app for notification of new video content -- an RSS based TV guide. Or maybe a Flickr for home video?

Web 2.0

Mike — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 15:24:00 -0400

As Tim O'Reilly and Tim Bray say: 'there's still a huge amount of disagreement about just what Web 2.0 means'. Herewith, my summary of O'Reilly's piece What Is Web 2.0.

O'Reilly describes priciples shared by successful 'Web 1.0' successes and interesting recent applications. See the meme map that came out of a brainstorming session of a FOO Camp conference.

The Web As Platform

Web as platform is an old idea but it's implementation has been refined. See Netscape vs. Google, DoubleClick vs. Ad Sense, Akamai vs. BitTorrent.
Harnessing Collective Intelligence

Open Source software, open content, collaborative categorization, viral marketing, all rely on a collective intelligence. Site attributes such as extensive (permanent) hyperlinks, low barriers to participation, organized content and meta data facilitate or enhance the affect of collective intelligence. Blogs are a special case of collective intelligence (and RSS a special attribute) in that the collective intelligence only emerges from a critical mass of blogs/articles.
Data is the Next Intel Inside

Based on the way they approached their databases, MapQuest is a Web 1.0 story and Amazon is a Web 2.0 story. MapQuest licensed map data from Tele Atlas, but did not enhance (e.g. user annotations) or control the data. Amazon licensed ISBN data from R.R. Bowker and enhanced the data with data from publishers and customers. MapQuest was soon joined in the marketplace by competing services (Yahoo, Google, MSN) and Amazon is the standard source for bibliographic data.
End of the Software Release Cycle

In Web 2.0 software is delivered as a service not a product.

O'Reilly suggests a number of fundamental changes to the business model of software companies.
- Operations must become a core competency. Google has become experts at managing the servers that deliver their web services. And the expertise is closely guarded.
- Users must be treated as co-developers. Release early and often (daily, hourly) and/or a perpetual beta. Real time monitoring of user behaviour.
Lightweight Programming Models

Simple, lightweight service interfaces appear to be successful with the masses (i.e. the intelligent collective). (One assumes that housingmaps.com enhances the value of Google maps?)

Three lessons identified:
- Support lightweight programming models that allow for loosely coupled systems
- Think syndication, not coordination
- Design for 'hackability' and remixability
Software Above the Level of a Single Device

ITunes, Tivo, blackberry...
Rich User Experiences

Google/Flickr/Basecamp are at the forefront, but Yahoo and others have made AJAX the basis for major product releases.

O'Reilly finishes with a summary of the core compentencies of a Web 2.0 company:

Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
Trusting users as co-developers
Harnessing collective intelligence
Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
Software above the level of a single device
Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

Web quickies

mop — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:09:00 -0500

Some tidbits from my Bloglines RSS subscriptions.

Phonetags

Via Smart Mobs, Phonetags allows cell phone users to create bookmarks for BBC6 radio content, complete with metadata. A clever way to create playlists for users ’on the go’, and a taste of what is to come as radio and TV merge with Internet enabled mobile devices.

Spell with Flickr

Flickr, one of the leading online photo organizers, opened their API some time ago, allowing third party applications to flourish. Spelling with images is a little cheezy, but it’s a start (note the smart URI for the In-Touch example). Amazon, one of the first to open their API, can do something similar with conver art. Via Smart Mobs.

Yahoo Mobile RSS

Yahoo has added RSS aggregation to it’s list of mobile offerings. The UI seems a little primitive, although it’s tough to comment much without seeing the aggregator in action. See also the Yahoo news article. I’d like to hear comments from anyone who uses Yahoo on their mobile. Via MMOM.

Wood on Blogs and Wikis

mop — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 19:50:00 -0500

An article on blogs and wikis by Lauren Wood via Sean McGrath.

Web quickies

mop — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 18:22:00 -0500

Some tidbits from my Bloglines RSS subscriptions.

Lint4J

"Lint4j ("Lint for Java") is a static Java source code analyzer that detects locking and threading issues, performance and scalability problems, and checks complex contracts such as Java serialization by performing type, data flow, and lock graph analysis."

RSS quickies

mop — Sat, 25 Sep 2004 03:55:00 -0400

Some tidbits from subscriptions recently added to my Bloglines account.

del.icio.us/tag/java RSS

A high volume Wiki of bookmarks related to Java.

back port of JSR166 to Java 1.4: JSR has/will result in a new base package for J2SE: java.util.concurrent
Blojsom: A Java port of the popular Bloxsom blog server
CoFE: Collaborative Filtering Engine provides an "environment in which a community of people come together to share the burden of filtering information".

Tech-Blog: Category web

Super Pat on OpenSSO Extensions

On tools suitable for a job search

My tools

Evolving user interaction

iPod video

Web 2.0

The Web As Platform

Harnessing Collective Intelligence

Data is the Next Intel Inside

End of the Software Release Cycle

Lightweight Programming Models

Software Above the Level of a Single Device

Rich User Experiences

Web quickies

Phonetags

Spell with Flickr

Yahoo Mobile RSS

Wood on Blogs and Wikis

Web quickies

Lint4J

JotSpot

Blogging Your Build

Debian on Dell Servers

RSS quickies

del.icio.us/tag/java RSS

Spread Firefox - Igniting the web - Igniting the web RSS

Dave Orchard’s Blog RSS

Cool Tools RSS