Calais proxy - Feed it a URL

Found it. A service that takes URL and returns marked up content.

Next item: I bet there's a browser plug-in somewhere around here. Would it be to much to ask for an open-source, hello world, example?

in reference to:

"Give SemanticProxy.com the address of a web page Get rich semantic metadata about the people, companies, events and relationships on that page."
- SemanticProxy (view on Google Sidewiki)

OpenCalais Understands

I like these guys already.

in reference to:

"Developers want… Just the facts, please. I know what I want to do – just tell me how it works and how to get my hands on it."
- Developer | OpenCalais (view on Google Sidewiki)

Wow - didn't expect this from Facebook

Didn't expect Facebook to open the floodgates. Very clever to do it in the name of privacy and data ownership. Access control is always confusing. I guarantee that people won't realize that "everyone" means the whole world, forever.

in reference to:

"The Facebook privacy transition tool is clearly designed to push users to share much more of their Facebook info with everyone"

...

"Let’s make this clear. If you make your information available to ‘everyone,’ it actually means ‘everyone, forever.’ Because even if you change your mind, it’s too late — and although Facebook say they will remove it from your profile they will have no control about how it is used outside of Facebook."

- Facebook’s New Privacy Push Concerns Experts (view on Google Sidewiki)

A Sidewiki entry about this blog, auto-posted to this blog

Here I am commenting on my own blog entry. Warning: about to publish this Sidewiki entry to this blog.

Confused? If not, then focus. If you had been been paying attention, then, you would be confused.

This may cause an infinite loop; disturb the fabric of space-time; or, at the very least, cause a serious migraine.

in reference to: One More Place: Wikipedia - Just gets better and better (view on Google Sidewiki)

Wikipedia - Just gets better and better

The Wikipedia beta works great. Love the new features, the new look. Hover preview (Navigation Popups) is one of my favorites.

Is it safe? Is it yours?

I want a place for my stuff. According to George Carlin, finding that place is the purpose of life. Stuff includes:

• Content I've published: text, photos, videos, code (hey, geek author here)
• Personal communications
• My comments including the subject matter
• Other metadata: tagging, liking items (again, including the target content)
• Places I've been, things I've seen, what I've read 
• Business accounts, financial statements, records of transactions
• Scheduled and triggered events: auto bill pay, stock market triggers
• …

Stuff is not as meaningful without the context:

• Where and when was the content originally posted
• The author(s)
• The state of the community (size, activity)
• Who else liked, read, or commented on it
• Was the content obscure or "trending"
• Who brought it to my attention
• When did I encounter the item
• Where, geographically, was I at the time
• Snapshots of referenced items (state of the Web at the time)

A documented roadmap better exist before a FriendFeed  is acquired by a Facebook, before the transaction is even made public. Customers deserve to know what is going to happen. Will the site be shut down? When? What migration options are available? Uncertainty, even a rumor, can harm a community. A long silence from the buyer means that management didn't think things through, or, perhaps, they don't care about your stuff.

When a site goes away, a community is dispersed, dislocated. The soul of the community is gone. The content could be transferred, but the full meaning is lost forever. Software helped bring the data to life. Sorry, too sappy? Translated to geek-speak: the functioning application created relationships that won't be apparent in the data dump, i.e., implicit relationships.

Come to think of it, stuff gets lost all the time without a site being shut down. How much history does Twitter retain? Saving tweets somewhere else is a poor solution, especially for cryptic replies. In a year, old tweets, out of context, will read like one side of a telephone conversation.

Twitter, Facebook, and the rest continue to evolve. The functionality, feel, and community are always in flux. People will need to go back. They may not think so now. After all, it's just a bunch of of silly exchanges. But I guarantee that there will be a real need, both historical, emotional, and legal. The experience, the memories triggered, the emotions evoked, will be enhanced if the period's look and behavior can be replicated.

The same thing happens with the old box under the desk. Computer owners have control over when to upgrade and what to keep; however, they don't know how to migrate their data to a new system. It's a painful process even for old nerds. I don't lose data from personal systems, but migration takes forever and side-effects always include a migraine. For most, losing data was OK years ago, but now our lives are recorded on 7200 rpm platters. Grandma and Grandpa have been emailing for years and they are navigating complicated web sites to see their grandchildren.

The Web offers the greatest potential for solving these problems. Organizations should take our data seriously. Stuff may not be the purpose of life; however, it better be a top priority of corporations, government, and other organizations.

Keep our data safe and give us complete control. No fees allowed for moving. We shouldn't have to be genius engineers with a week to burn in order to migrate. Organizations have data stewardship whether they know it or not. Some will realize what that means only after it's too late to salvage public trust.

FriendFeed Community Overwhelms Streamy

Lot's of FriendFeed users hop over to Streamy for a look Aug 11, 2009. Streamy fails under load.

I'll add Streamy to my list of tools to explore.

Would everyone out there in Web2.0 dev-land please take a breather! Let me catch up. Not enough time in the day.

I'm sure Streamy has some cool features. But will it last for more than 2 years? Living without a C: drive requires a bit of care. Ecosystems are ephemeral… hmm… cloudlike. I'd recommend the "buddy system". Make sure your buddy knows the territory.

in reference to: Why Streamy Could be the Next FriendFeed (view on Google Sidewiki)

Site wide?

Is this sidewiki specific to my Evernote account? Or can everyone see it?

in reference to: Evernote Web (view on Google Sidewiki)

To Google's Pamela and Adam: thank you

The Boston Hackathon was fun, a day well spent. Pamela Fox and Adam Royal were perfect hosts. Do they ever get tired?

By my calculations there must be at least 3 Pamela bots. One person could not crank out the code, moderate help forums, and hop 'round the globe presenting and blogging all the way.

in reference to: Google Wave Developer Blog: What Does Clam Chowder & the Google Wave API Have in Common? Boston! (view on Google Sidewiki)

Thank you Wikipedia

"Main Page" has been my home page for 4 years. I see no reason to change.

in reference to:

"Main page"
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (view on Google Sidewiki)