Monday, June 30, 2008

An All in One Application?

Jumping around from one network to another, reading one blog then going to another and jumping back and forth to your email client seems like a waste of time and technology. The push for "open" is surrounding us yet the silos of information and connectivity remain. Or do they?

This week we witnessed the work of The Floating APP Company, creators of GoYoDeo. The company first released a "floating application for video distribution with custom stations and each having up to 20 channels per station. Things have changed a lot since its original release.


We asked the question, "What Next?" Drew Bourke responded "Soon everything you do on the internet today can will be done without having to jump around from one site to another. You won't even have to open a browser. Our applications will launch directly from your desktop or your cell phone and soon "Your Station" will even be embedded within your cable box for TV viewing. Our mission is to empower people to do more in less time using every social tool imaginable, even those not yet in the market"

We'd say these objectives sound like the ultimate Socialution

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Can Your Web Float?


Ever since the web appeared people and businesses have found ways to use it for numerous purposes. Technical engineers have created hundreds of thousands lines of code aimed at creating functionality and features to enhance the web. Over time all this code has created an environment of silos of connectivity and functionality.

In the Web 2.0 world people are now experiencing enhanced functionality and have been enabled to "connect" with others and to "create and distribute" their own media. These new functions and features have drawn hundreds of millions of individuals to the web and the growth rate surpasses any milestone of participation in the history of the web. However the problem of "silo engineering of code" remains and users are screaming for the reverse engineering of the web.

Google pushes for "open social" which is the first step towards a long journey of reducing silos. Doc Searls is working on VRM, Vendor Relationship Management, with the aim of breaking down barriers and enabling businesses and individuals to better manage their relationships with business and other individuals. The movement to further enabling people to manage and control their activities centric to the web has begun and is building momentum daily.

How is the Web Being Reengineered?

Reverse engineering is defined as “the process of analyzing a subject system to identify the system’s components and their interrelationships and create representations of the system in another form or at a higher level of abstraction”. The main reason that reverse engineering is frequently adopted is because it enables engineers to recover inadequate or non-existent information about a system by conducting a “backward” analysis of the existing legacy system in order to gain an overall perspective of its functionality."

If the web was reengineered the focal points of value would be aimed at applications that enable the end users to collect, integrate and manage the following for their specific purposes without being tethered to anyone "silo".

  1. Data.
  2. Information.
  3. Knowledge.
  4. Relationships.
  5. Content.

Enter The Floating Apps Company

The Floating Apps Company has been working for years in examining how to reverse engineer code within the web which would enable user’s full freedom in managing their virtual world without being tethered to a world built by others. Their work has been focused on building a "floating application" that provides user controlled full integration of the five points above for individual and business purposes. The floating application concept was designed with the following objectives:

  1. Browser agnostic and not required
  2. User centric controls for integration of the five elements
  3. User managed with freedom to add on functions and features of their choice
  4. Facilitate media of all forms from and to all existing and future access and distribution channels

Imagine Your Place enables you to have your blog, your connections, your micro-blog, your video broadcast, your channels, your pictures, your search and anything else you want in Your Place. Imagine advertisers and brands bidding for space in Your Place and you decide whether any of Your Place has ads and if so with whom and at what price as well as where in Your Place.

Imagine Your Place enabling you to interface with your suppliers, both personal and professional. Social Commerce will explode and Your Place will be where value and goods are exchanged.

Imagine the web no longer restricting you to “silos” rather Your Place is your space to design and interact with anything and anyone. Imagine you having control over Your Place and being able to define whom and what gets to view or participate with you in Your Place.

You won’t have to imagine long, The Floating Apps Company is reengineering the web and the term virtual. Your Place leapfrogs ahead of the “clutter” of today’s web and creates a new passage to the future.

The Floating Apps Company first released GoYodeo as a floating application for video. Now the same applications will enable users to integrate, manage and control everything we've discussed in this post. Stay tuned for more information as The Floating Apps Company reverses the power of the web from the few to the many.

Friday, June 27, 2008

How Fast Will Things Change?

Economists think about reality in terms of markets. In practice, a market is just an abstraction, and drawing the limits of markets out of actual information is a difficult task.

Consider the social networking market today and one can easily conclude that the rate of change makes it difficult to actual put boundaries around the definitions of “the market”.

Systemically speaking, some well differentiated markets are transformed into new ones, because of changes in the technology and the demand that cause the products or services of the original markets to end up by serving identical needs to the same customers. In such a situation, firms are faced with big opportunities and big potential drawbacks

Those that is able to correctly foresee the future developments can gain an important head start and position themselves so as to obtain an important competitive advantage. On the other hand, making irreversible investments in the wrong technology can seriously threaten the competitive position of a firm. This is the dilemma all of us.

Social Technology is Converging

There are different technological segments currently operating independently but on the fringe of convergence. Consider what is happening in the telecommunications industry. Consider what is happening within the social media space. Consider what is happening in the cable broadcasting space

Now consider on line social networking technologies. Everything is rushing to “open”. Open means transparent distribution and ultimately technological barriers become transparent. When you consider new developments within the social space” common themes are becoming clear. These include:

  1. Aggregation of “social news” generated by users is an attraction, i.e. Socialmedian
  2. Aggregation of friends activity is an attraction i.e. Friendfeeds and twitter
  3. Aggregation of social contacts is an attraction i.e "friends connect”
  4. “Aggregation of blogs by topical category is an attraction, i.e. Alltop
  5. Social Broadcasting is an attraction i.e. YouTube, GoYoDeo etc.

Convergence usually comes from outside an existing system and led by those watching the fringes. Our conclusion is that the obvious is starring us all in the face but the chaos of the moment distracts us from seeing the obvious.

From our perspective convergence is not a question of will it happen but rather an issue of when. What is missing to usher convergence in?.

What say you?