News

Another Take On Web 2.0

As I was viewing my keyword results in FeedDemon, I happen to come across an article on TheTimes which offered their opinion as to what Web 2.0 actually is. The article is dated June 6, 2007 and goes on to describe Web 1.0 as being static web pages, with the promise of businesses revolutionizing the world using the Internet as a platform. This initial mindset helped to create what we now know as the Dot Com Bubble.

According to TheTimes, the dot com bubble exploded due to the lack of common sense that was applied to many businesses that launched onto the Web.

Startups were selling dog food on the Web without giving a moment’s thoughts to the costs involved in transporting heavy bags of dog food or selling nappies without considering the convenience of, well, convenience store. In short, Web 1.0 was big on promise and lacking when it came to the deliverables.

Fast forward to 2007 and we are now in the middle of what is commonly known as Web 2.0 This new version of the web has provided a new communal mentality with a new level of user friendliness. Using the Internet as a platform is only now, really starting to gain momentum. At this stage of the game, no idea is too stupid to try.

Near the end of the article, TheTimes sums up the general formalities of Web 2.0, all of which I truly agree with. In fact, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Web 2.0 (or the Social Web, as I prefer to think of it) is about three things: listening to the conversations people are having about you and topics you are interested in, participating meaningfully in those conversations and sharing your thoughts, ideas and knowledge with like-minded people. To put it another way, Web 2.0 is about connecting with people around you and on the other side of the globe in a very real, personal way.

What do you think Web 2.0 really is? Let me know by leaving a comment!

Gistr Aims To Help You Get The “Gist”

A new website has emerged that promises to help users get the “Gist” of interesting papers. Gistr allows users to share their own “GIST” to a particular paper. One paper can have as many “GISTS” as the reader thinks is appropriate while also allowing the “GIST” to be tagged.

The design of Gistr is quite frankly, non existent, however, Gistr will be adding features in the future that will enable users to save off gists and perhaps will enable bibliographies to be created based on those groups of gists. By using similar tags, researchers should have an easier time not only sharing gists, but locating each other across the network.

Sounds like a neat idea to me. I suggest the creators of Gistr use a number of those Web 2.0 generators which can be found at the bottom of this site and apply some of those effects onto Gistr or else no one is going to take them seriously!

Gistr Aims To Help You Get The “Gist”

A new website has emerged that promises to help users get the “Gist” of interesting papers. Gistr allows users to share their own “GIST” to a particular paper. One paper can have as many “GISTS” as the reader thinks is appropriate while also allowing the “GIST” to be tagged.

The design of Gistr is quite frankly, non existent, however, Gistr will be adding features in the future that will enable users to save off gists and perhaps will enable bibliographies to be created based on those groups of gists. By using similar tags, researchers should have an easier time not only sharing gists, but locating each other across the network.

Sounds like a neat idea to me. I suggest the creators of Gistr use a number of those Web 2.0 generators which can be found at the bottom of this site and apply some of those effects onto Gistr or else no one is going to take them seriously!

Malware Hijacking YouTube Users

http://www.youtube.comAs reported by Mashable and PCWorld YouTube is being used as a vehicle to infect users with Zlob malware. The malware is in a form of a fake video link which initiates the install of a trojan, which then bombards users with porn adware.

It’s times like these where you really hope that the YouTube security personnel are on the ball, as they are the only ones who can do anything regarding this matter. Because of the human intervention that is required to remove these types of attacks, it is being reported that the malware will have at least a few hours to spread before the infectious links are taken down.

There are no numbers as of yet that describe the amount of people that have been infected thus far, but considering the malicious code is a link and the infected video could perhaps be embedded on a number of websites, we are looking at a potentially dangerous situation. It will be interesting to find out later in the day today, the number of users who have reported being infected.

If I were you, I would stay away from YouTube until we are given the all clear.

WordPress Releases 2.2.1

WordPress 2.2.1 is now available. 2.2.1 is a bug fix release for the 2.2 series. Since 2.2 was released a month ago, the WordPress community has been improving fit-and-finish by identifying and fixing those little bugs that can be so annoying and by fine-tuning some small details. The result is a nicely polished 2.2.1 release. The full list of bugs fixed in 2.2.1 is available here. Here are some highlights.

Unfortunately, 2.2.1 is not just a bug fix release. Some security issues came to light during 2.2.1 development, making 2.2.1 a required upgrade. 2.2.1 addresses the following vulnerabilities:

Jeffro2pt0.com has successfully been upgraded to version 2.2.1

Jaiku Launches Channels Feature

Jaiku LogoAs reported by Mashable Jaiku has finally added the ability for users to create their own channels. Users are limited to creating only three channels, with each channel being publicly viewable upon creation.

 

Channel administrators will be able to give their channel a unique avatar, short description, add feeds to the channel, and will also be able to slightly change the presentation of the channel. In the future, Jaiku users will be able to create private channels, allowing you to communicate with only those people you have invited into your group.

I’m still bummed out by the fact that Jaiku has failed to fix the problem of too many users being displayed on the right hand sidebar when your inside a channel. For instance, try going into the Twit channel and making a quick post, it becomes anything but quick. The sidebar should be handles in a way so that only a maximum of 20-30 people are displayed at one time with the option of seeing more friends. Hopefully this will be in Jaiku’s next update.

Jeffro2pt0 Channel Now On Jaiku

At any rate, I have created a channel on Jaiku called Jeffro2pt0 which will be the focus of discussions related to anything dealing with Web 2.0 If you are a Jaiku user and are interested in Web2.0 please be sure to stop by and join the channel http://jaiku.com/channel/Jeffro2pt0

Thoof: Another Digg Clone?

Appscout has put together a detailed preview of a new user-generated content service which promises to provide relevant, useful information but without the users. Thoof uses an algorithm that will discover a reader’s interests while tailoring the stories to an individual’s tastes. Commenting on Thoof will be non existent as well as the ability to rank stories. The only means of interacting amongst each other is the “SEND TO A FRIEND BUTTON” which will email a selected news story to a friends inbox of your choice.

The thing that makes Thoof stand out from the crowd is that it allows its members to submit news and headlines, and rather than rank those stories, the stories are immediately posted to users’ homepages. There’s no ranking, no commenting, and no burying of stories. Stories are automatically rated by the system to only be displayed on the homepages of Thoof users who have previously clicked on or indicated interest in other stories of the same type or topic. In fact, the only items that a user can click on when viewing a story are the “send to a friend” button to email the story to someone else, or the “improve” button that allows users to correct story blurbs for accuracy, or immediately report and flag duplicates. When I tried the “improve” button, it returned a 503 error, reinforcing the fact that Thoof is still very much a beta. Some features aren’t completely implemented, and others may yet come. – Source Appscout

Thoof is still invite-only, and there is no time table as to when Thoof will become publicly available. Click here to check out Appscout’s preview of Thoof

Web 2.0 And Open Source

Rosler has published the first in what will be a series of articles detailing what Web 2.0 and Open Source has done for small businesses. Rosler makes quite a few interesting points in his first article such as the cost savings involved with open source and the collaborative effort that comes naturally from Web 2.0 based applications. We are living in an era where the technology is at a point where a small group of people using open source software and web 2.0 based applications can rival that of a corporation who most likely spends thousands if not millions of dollars on proprietary software.

Open source and web 2.0 are quite honestly the best things that could ever happen for small businesses.

Check out Roslers article here

Amung.Us Crew Rolls Out Updates

Graphs.amung.us logo

The crew who brought you the free real-time concurrent user stats widget who’s.amung.us has unveiled a brand new service called graphs.amung.us.

For the graphs by year and by month we use averaged data from the hours and days to give you a better idea of how your site is doing. By day and by hour are the actual real time data points so you can see exactly what is happening. – graphs.amung.us team

This new graphing widget allows website owners to conveniently check how many concurrent people were on their site in the past, down to the hour. The graph features four different views: by year, by month, by day, and by hour This is an example of what the graph looks like while embedded into a web page.

Click to see full version by whos.amung.us

The graphs are also search able either via text or by clicking on the calendar icon and selecting a date. Here is an example of a graph containing data that you can search http://graphs.amung.us/graph/dzsg93pq/monthly/latest

Who's amung us widget colorwheelAside from the new graphing service, the amung.us team has published a brand new color wheel which finally allows web masters to change the color of the who’s.amung.us widget so that it can blend into your design. This was always a problem with the old widget as it was sometimes difficult to blend into a website design.

Last but not least, the amung.us website has been redesigned so that each widget’s individual webpage is linked to every other webpage. Excellent choice on their part as this allows browsers to seamlessly travel between one widget page to the other.