Posts

Posted on

Google SMS

Google SMS

yet another Google revenue stream on deck…

Colleague P.T. Withington brought an interesting new Google SMS service to my attention. It looks like a very interesting market test.

If Google finds positive user feedback and usage, I suspect they would have very good leverage in negotiations with cellular carriers to incorporate Google SMS into default menus of shipping cell phones. This would make money for the carriers, and I would guess Google could extract payment for co-marketing activity. Anything that increases SMS queries would look pretty good to the carrriers. Often times, SMS sends cost money while SMS receives are free.

If Google accepts payment for priority listing submission or priority order in the response SMS, then they have a revenue opportunity for local business information directory services to the mobile device market. That possible future is hinted at on the HowToUse page. This could bring the yellow-pages style revenue model to SMS — Google could incent carriers to provide Google SMS sends and receives for free by sharing listing services revenue with them, and increase two-way SMS usage all around.

Impressive.

Posted on

Permission Culture versus Free Culture

Permission Culture versus Free Culture

Lawrence Lessig’s remarks at Web 2.0 in San Francisco

Earlier this afternoon, Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig delivered an eloquent plea for the need to rethink our notions of content copyrights. He observes that digital technology has made the ‘remix’ a viable activity for the many. Using examples of network television audio and video creatively repurposed to form political satire, Lessig makes the case that remixing is a way of expressing important ideas and not simply theft as our current laws imply. He draws a parallel to the text media type, where writers must be free to quote others and create variations on phrases in order to convey and advance ideas. What some consider a battle against piracy in the name of property, Lessig redefines as a campaign for liberty in the name of human progress. In so doing, he extends into new realms the lessons of the Open Source movement and Richard Stahlman’s defense of “Free Software“.

Lessig’s ovation-worthy talk was part of a reinvigorating O’Reilly Conference called Web 2.0.

Posted on

Announcing OpenLaszlo at Web 2.0

Announcing OpenLaszlo at Web 2.0

Laszlo’s contribution to the Web 2.0 diaspora

At the O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference, we announced the open source release of the Laszlo platform, and launched the associated OpenLaszlo Project(which I set up, wrote and coded in substantial part with my own hands). This has created a stir in the developer community, and swampd Laszlo’s servers. Thank goodness we put our sites on the Akamai network on the day prior to the announcement.

Web 2.0 was a thoroughly stimulating event. For three days at the Nikko Hotel in San Francisco, luminaries of the Internet Boom pondered the future of information technology and society. It was nice to run into familiar faces, including a few former executives from ExciteAtHome whom I had not seen in a couple of years. I even had the good fortune to win one of twenty Apple iPod Minis Jerry Yang gave away in his conference-closing session on the past and future of Yahoo.

In a fitting conclusion to an eventful week, I’m going to ‘rip’ a few favorite music cd’s and relax with my nifty new iPod MP3 player.

Posted on

What good is a personal online forum?

What good is a personal online forum?

Questioning aloud what to do with phpBB on my personal website

Have I hit the limit with “because I can” thinking? I recently created my first “real” public website, lyndonwong.com. I shut down my old ATT Worldnet homepage in favor of registering my own domain and using a host with basic PHP and MySQL support. As a result, I can now indulge in experiments with a rich array of open source PHP-based data-driven server apps. I recently installed phpBB, an app I first heard of in the context of the 2003 Webby Awards. It powers my own personal online forums. Now, all of my friends can engage in public discourse with me on a wide range of topics, whenever the mood strikes, from anywhere in the world. The only catch is so far none of my friends have any interest in doing that. They’d rather catch up on the phone, perhaps exchange some emails, or best among all options, actually meet up for a meal or some outdoor fun.

This begs the question, can a mere mortal such as myself make any use of a Web bulletin board? If I were California’s current governor, my forum might be useful and popular on multiple fronts. But would any of my conversations in that context actually be with my friends? I could require a log-in to view a forum and provide some privacy to our discussion threads, but then we might be better off using gmail.

One thing forums do especially well is generate a searchable online knowledge base, as technical support operations have known for a number of years. Could my close family and friends have any use for such an arcane repository?

Or have I created the cyberspace equivalent of a personal one-lane bowling alley? Cute but ridiculous.

Posted on

Permanently Important Information Systems

Permanently Important Information Systems

During the heyday of the Internet Boom, I started to chat with colleagues about the nobility of ‘permanently important information systems’ — anything less seemed unworthy of the energies of the gifted engineers and designers I had met. Digital media content and games seemed to attract a disproportionate amount of attention in those ‘convergence’ years. But my highest admiration was reserved for the builders of large-scale information systems. As we’ve grown comfortable with the Web, we’ve seen how software can enhance our most important institutions, making government more transparent and effective, engaging more people in the political process, and generally strengthening our democracy. Growing numbers of us are beginning to recognize the need for ‘permanent’ systems, with open data formats and no vendor lock-in.

But there are far more qualified commentators than I on this subject. Ted Leung of the OSAF makes some interesting remarks on a recent essay by Dan Bricklin on software that lasts 200 years. The sentiment is out there, among the key influencers.

Posted on

Favorite Reads: Karl Popper, “The Open Society”

Favorite Reads: Karl Popper, “The Open Society”

Fifth in a series of favorite reads on human nature, society and information technology.

When Karl Popper made the case in 1943 for guiding human society in an open manner with modest ‘piecemeal’ social engineering replacing grand ‘oracular philosophy’, his arguments foreshadowed a battle waged over how to develop software systems. Popper reminded us of a much older question: Should aristocracies make decisions on behalf of the general populace, or could the populace be trusted to judge and decide on the best course of action? In the software realm, ‘oracular’ interests favored specification-driven methodologies while ‘piecemeal’ advocates argued for an iterative prototyping approach.

Centuries passed before democratic institutions could establish their efficacy in the eyes of the world. But only a few decades were required to confirm the viability and enhanced quality of software systems developed iteratively in an open manner. The parallels between Popper’s prescriptions for humanity and the ideas espoused by the open source software movement beg for a careful study of both.

 

Posted on

On images and blogging


9-11 Memorial Site
Originally uploaded by lyndon.

The combination of writing and photography makes both elements more interesting. Those fortunate enough to live and think today have incredible tools of expression at their disposal, and the rest of us are fortunate to be their beneficiaries via the Web.

In centuries prior, the ability to express ideas with a synthesis of writing and imagery took considerable effort to cultivate, and could be shared only with the privileged few. Now, the tools required to develop these talents, and to share the progress with everyone, are available to vast numbers of us.

What does any of this have to do with a photo of tourists surveying the site of 9-11-2001? It reminds me of how fortunate I feel to live in the present, despite the challenged state of the world.

Posted on

Flickr, blogs and photo sharing



NYC Sunset

Originally uploaded by lyndon.

Just surfaced from 1.5 hours riveted by the FlickrLive environment, where I may have witnessed the future of online photo sharing — nearly 6 months after Marc Canter said as much to the whole world. Flickr successfully melds a number of ideas about online communications, photo-sharing and community building. It’s simple to use, integrates well with multiple blogging services, and it works from essentially any Web browser on any OS. Ludicorp’s Flickr thus also proves the viability and joy-in-use of rich Internet applications delivered via the Flash player.