Next BrainJams Event: Making Web 2.0 Relevant

The inference in the title here is that Web 2.0 is still largely irrelevant to most folks out there beyond us Silicon Valley types, who tend to get buzzed off this stuff. For all the potential of "social apps" and web-as-a-platform, there's still a huge chasm between most web users' needs and what Web 2.0 offers. This was one takeaway for me from last weekend's tagcamp.

We want to address this head-on. We're planning the next BrainJams all-day get-together for December 3rd at SRI in Menlo Park, and focusing specifically on ways to translate human needs into web 2.0, rather than starting with cool technology and trying to chase - or worse create - a market. The wiki's getting fixed, but there will soon be more info.

One exciting element will be a jam focused on and made up of teens as users, creators, and developers. Richard MacManus recently wrote about this, citing the new Pew study on teens. Kids are doing amazing things with new technologies. Getting the next generation's perspective on what matters here is pretty crucial.

The first jam was at Web 2.1 in SF as an answer to the overhyped and overpriced Web 2.0 conference. We're on the Penninsula in December, and the unconfirmed plan is to host our next event in Berkeley in February or so. More to come...

Technorati Tags: brainjams, brainjams3dec2005, brainjamspatrons, web2.0, tagcamp

On Flocking - Still Pretty Fabulous

I've had a day to get used to Flock a bit more. There's quite a bit of anti-buzz around Flock today, some of it smart, some not. While the initial excitement has worn off some, Flock does basically what I'd hoped it - makes it easier for me to gather and organize my own views of the web while also making those views available for others.

Clonable elsewhere, either by Opera or Firefox? In its current incarnation and with some extension work, yes. But then again, the idea of a social browser has been around for a while, and few have moved. Now that Flock has a basic platform and have got the basic idea down, they could expand features and take the idea of a social browser further. What, beyond self-interested tagging behavior and renown, brings people together? How can a tool learn about the values and cares of a user an serve her better over time?

There are quite a few features that could be built in that could increase both the utility of the app and the barriers to copycats. But the best thing they can do right now is concentrate on the UI in a larger sense - making it dead simple for someone who's never heard of tagging before to get it immediately. They also might consider building some smarts into the interface to help guide the lazy/busy and make best use of the rich set of tools.

The flagship of Web 2.0? Nah - but it's still worth it to spend some time with it.

Technorati Tags: flock, flockbuzz, web2.0

Flock Out and Fabulous

If you haven't heard of Flock yet, do yourself a favor and download the Developer's Release at http://www.flock.com. Flock brings together many of the nascent Web 2.0 technologies into one fantastic user experience and makes them more accessible than ever. It's the next step in user interfaces towards that Semantic Web.

You may be new to interacting with the Web in this way, as Flock really encourages you to participate online in new ways. Tag what matters - and why it matters to you. Share your tags (or not, but that's no fun). Create information resources that are tailored to *your* interests, instead of sifting through dozens of separate sites. Keep updated automatically on the stuff you care about most. This is what the coming generation of web-based applications is all about: people taking ownership of online content and molding it (or remixing it) to their own liking. So take back your browser and start contributing to the conversation.

Technorati Tags: flock, web2.0, semanticweb, socialapps

Technorati Tags: flockbuzz

TagCamp

If you're interested in the next stuff coming in tagging, search, and related standards, you may want to come down to Palo Alto Oct 28-29 for TagCamp. Along the lines of Barcamp, FOOcamp, etc., the goal is to get some bright minds together thinking about the potential of social tags to change the way we interact with the web and one another.

Is it just more Web 2.0 hype? Maybe. Come find out for yourself.

Technorati Tags: TagCamp

Ross Mayfield's Entrepreneur Exchange @ Socialtext

Yesterday I got a first look at Ross's newly formed Entrepreneur Exchange hosted at SocialText. I added a few minor things there under the Entrepreneurship, VC, and Angel sections, but the most useful thing here so far is the StartUp Kit provided by Andy Stack.

The Kit provides templates in wiki form of the basic set of "framing" docs and other resources - in wiki form. You can also download the entire thing.

It would be great to have some first-person narrative here. Forbes columnists and other b-school types are palatable to a point, but I want to hear from others that have done it - whether they've failed or succeeded. If you're up for it, go to the bottom of the Entrepreneurship section and add your ditty under "Case Studies" (and it doesn't need to be a formal case study - just share your story, as long as you won't get sued).

Web 2.1 Event

I spent Friday afternoon at Web 2.1, created in about a week by Chris Heuer as an answer to the much-hyped Web 2.0 conference also happening last week, and inspired by Webzine2005 and BarCamp . I think no one really knew what to expect, and even the format - in true Silicon valley style - was thrown out the window and restructured on the fly. It was great.

The main idea, as I think about it, was to get some good-quality initial discussion going around :

• What are the most critical problems that need solving - from the perspective of Web users?
• What technology, design, and marketing approaches are best suited to help solve those problems, particularly in terms of serving online communities?
• What are the barriers to development?

My own big targets revolve around security, trust, identity, and how to translate meaningful human relationships into the digital realm. Throwing "social apps" at users without defining the need has so far been, and will continue to be, ineffective. Just don't tell the current crop of VCs over at Web 2.0 this week - it feels a lot like 1998 or so and the money seems to be getting irrationally exuberant.

For a last minute event, we had some really impressive people show up. I got a lot out of the conversations I had with folks, and hope they feel the same.

This ain't the last of this, though. Whether the Web 2.1 moniker sticks around, some of us are already thinking about taking the next steps with this "thing" - building on the momentum. More to come.

Nice demos from Jeff Jarvis of Recovery 2.0, Zazzle, Tagyu, Adaptive Path, and Chris Allen of Synchroedit.

Technorati Tags: Web2.1BrainJam

Ning's Got Zing

Finally got a Ning developer account this afternoon and began cloning. Wow. Talk about rapid prototyping. In three minutes - yes 3 minutes - I had a basic social app running dedicated to Greyhounds that could

• track attributes,
  
• store images,
  
• allow users to tag entries,
  
• sort dynamically on any given term entered by users in the database,
  
• create a social network for my dog (! take that, LinkedIn!),
  
• post to a dedicated blog,
• and record user comments on any entry

Start with one of the community's already-complete apps. Clone. Customize. Repeat.

So I'm looking back now and saying, Okay, now for my little greyhound community/interest group, how can I make Greyster a real service? What features does it need to solve community wants and desires? Luckily the even now nacent Ning developer community has some nice plug-ins that you literally can just flip on to extend functionality quickly. Of course, you also have full access to the source code any time.

So next, I'll create a googlemaps mash-up on the fly that allows greyhound owners to find specialty stores quickly, and rate them, and attach them to both individual dogs and owners' qualitative experiences.

And this is the point: serve small, niche communities quickly by providing basic tools that can be easily customized. Ning is the start of something important.