From the Editor

Social Media Terrorists

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:00:00 EDT

"Mass psychology" scientists study this kind of phenomena and the "mass psychology of fascism" is of course the most famous lab case. The extraordinary experience SYS-CON Media lived through became part of a Forbes Magazine investigative cover story called "Attack of the Blogs" that found that "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo." The lies, libel and invective we are living through today is another such episode. Our partners, readers and the industry in general know the facts and what's going on but in a rare example like the email below, we can't be sure if everyone is on the same page as the rest of us.

Really Stupid Tech Conference Ideas: Web 3.0 Conference

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Web 2.0 was a big scam to start with. The name "Web 2.o" was stolen by Mr. Tim O'Reilly (the prophet) from Imagine Media's brilliant new launch of "Business 2.0 Magazine" during the heyday of the dot-com explosion. The promise of Web 2.0 was that everybody in the software industry would be billionaires just like the folks who introduced MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Of course this never happened.

I Would Have Loved to Join President Obama On His Trip to Turkey

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Obama's stop in Turkey, announced last week in Ankara by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, partly fulfills Obama's pledge to engage the Muslim world in a substantive way within his first 100 days in office. But the president is not expected to use the Turkey visit to deliver his anticipated address on Islam, a speech he promised during his campaign to give in a Muslim capital soon after taking office.

SYS-CON Survey: What Drives Successful Technology CEOs?

Mon, 19 May 2008 07:30:00 EDT

What drives a technology CEO or CTO to success in today's constantly changing technology ecosystem? We look at the question through the lens of the many interviews and articles we have published at SYS-CON.com which deal, sometimes only in passing, with exactly this issue. Executives quoted include Appcelerator CEO Jeff Haynie, Nexaweb Co-Founder & CTO Coach Wei, the founder of Internet.com Alan Meckler, and the Chairman & CEO of Parasoft Dr Adam Kolawa.

There's No Boundary Between "Web 1.0" and "Web 2.0" - Just a Blurry Verge

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:45:00 EST

'Web 2.0' is an example of what the historian Daniel Boorstin would have called 'the Fertile Verge.' Web 2.0 is also a Boom Town, and - as Virginia Postrel points out - 'Boom towns break down barriers; they mix together talent from everywhere; they challenge complacency and overturn assumptions. They are sometimes ugly and almost always stressful, but they foster invention, progress, and learning. And they let people chase their dreams.'

Web 2.0 - Web 3.0 - The "Social Web"

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:15:00 EDT

Let's consider the pages of a traditional corporate Website. They include an 'about me' page, a contact page, a careers section, and probably a page with news and press releases. The words look good on paper, and, more than likely, a committee gave the final sign-off on the site's content. Visitors frequent these pages because they want to learn about the company's products and services, contact the company by phone to request more information, or find a job.

Pointless Places, Boring Faces, and Useless Cases

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:30:00 EDT

Often in software I find myself preaching restraint to those who wish to move platforms for no apparent reason than to keep up with the IT fashion industry; however, even harder than the silver-bullet chasers is dealing with organizations where change is required, not only in a company's software stack, but throughout their entire IT department.

Did Microsoft Over-pay For Facebook?

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 05:00:00 EDT

When Microsoft parted with $240M for a 1.6% stake in a company with $140M in revenues and $30M in profits, was it over-paying? Conspiracy theorists were quick to say that the move was deliberate, to inflate the overall value of Facebook to $15BN and thereby prevent anyone else from buying it outright. TIME commented: 'The dotcom bubble just got bigger than ever.'

Is This the Death-Knell for Peace and Quiet in the Skies?

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:00:00 EDT

The BBC carried a report yesterday that raises the alarming possibility of extending cellphone use on board airplanes from just either end of a journey to throughout the duration of the flight. The key to the whole thing, the technical trick that circumvents the problem found in 2003 by the CAA that mobile phone signals skew navigation bearing displays by up to five degrees, is that cellphones in the plane are not allowed to connect to any base stations on the ground.

Dave Winer: "It's Time for Web 2.0 to Stop Being Exclusive"

Wed, 23 May 2007 20:15:00 EDT

A war of words has broken out in the world of Web 2.0 - between the software developer who created or was a lead contributor to several of the most popular XML dialects and APIs related to web publishing (RSS 2.0, XML-RPC, OPML, and the MetaWeblog API), Dave Winer, and the founder of O'Reilly Media - the self-proclaimed 'technology transfer company.'

Google's Innovative Yet Limited AJAX Environment: GWT

Thu, 25 May 2006 08:30:00 EDT

Google's recent foray into delivering an Ajaxified Web application stack, the Google Web Toolkit, says much about Google's pragmatic method of delivering innovation to the market. I for one, would heartily recommend it for certain applications, while actively advising against it for others. One major issue is that Google makes a lot of assumptions in GWT that are non-starters for certain uses.

Sixteen Ways of Thinking in Web 2.0

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 14:45:00 EST

With apologies to Bruce Eckel, I sat down this afternoon and put together a draft list of the first-order elements of Web 2.0 thinking. It's not that I have the hubris to consider this list official in any way but it should be a serviceable starting point for debate, discourse, and reference. I'd also like to give credit to Jeremy Zawodny for his write-up pointing me to Tom Coat's excellent presentation notes from his Future of Web Apps talk which partially inspired this effort. I think both of them have really solid source material. But they still don't quite capture a complete high-level picture of the ingredients, forces, and decisions that have to go into thinking about, using, and building complete Web 2.0 software experiences.

Welcome to the Web 2.0 World of Flickr, del.icio.us, Writely, Basecamp, Digg, and Many Others

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 12:00:00 EST

Though it's a complex and often subtle topic - and recognizing that Web 2.0 definitions vary across the community - we believe 'Web 2.0' captures the current spirit of innovation in online software. And while some may dislike the term itself, we believe it's useful, broadly recognizable shorthand for the exciting new things that are happening in the online software world today.