Effective use of social media tools

This news item shows how social media tools can be applied to reconstruct dramatic events. It’s an enlightening example of accidental collaboration using mobile phones and services such as Twitter.

Needless to say: we had a good laugh.

Open up for OpenID

One up for Michael Arrington:

It’s time for these companies to do what’s right for the users and fully adopt OpenID as relying parties. That doesn’t fit in with their strategy of owning the identity of as many Internet users as possible, but it certainly fits in with the Internet’s very serious need for an open, distributed and secure single log in system (OpenID is all three).

With “these companies” referring to AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!. I couldn’t agree more.

Via Twitter

Lijst.com announcement

Lijst is something I’ve had on my mind for years. The concept evolved. Today I think it is mature enough to be announced: lijst.com

Feedback is highly appreciated.

My affair with Zope3

When Martijn Faassen introduced me to Zope3 in December 2004, something happened. I fell for her logic, her view on the future. Her looks were promising. We quickly partnered in a small project I was working on.

Then things started to get messy. Evenings of joy turned into evenings of long, frustrating conversations. She just wouldn’t dance with me anymore. She complained about my lack of understanding.

Last week I received Philipp’s updated Zope counseling guide. A fresh impulse to give our relation a second chance. Hopefully Philipp will assist me in understanding her better.

On first sight things seem promising. Zope3 let go some of her complexness and grew a bit more mature. Let’s see if we can get to dancing again!

Twitter me Tweet

I’ve been infected: twitter.com/nederhoed (RSS)

Follow me

Blogged with Flock

XML Topic Maps explained

The semantic web has been above my radar for some time now. Still I find it hard to grasp the available standards. My focus has been primarily on XTM (XML Topic Maps). Sure, I’ve read the TAO and played around with online examples. I even presented the concepts of the semantic web to 20 non-tech colleagues.

But… crafting a nifty simple XTM document myself? Not yet. It’s verbose. It’s hard.

Tonight, I found an apprehensive introduction: The Topic Maps Handbook (pdf). Pages 12 to 15 will get you up to speed with your first XTM. I chose ATC definitions as a domain for my topic map (see below). It’s a start.

Next step is visualization. I’m considering XSLT => dot => PNG. More on that later, if I succeed.

Larry Lessigs brilliant case for new media

I was touched by this plea for common sense in legislation for distribution of digital products and user generated content.

Read more from Mr. Lessig on his weblog

Hack at home

Paul Graham in How to start a startup:

“Ever notice how much easier it is to hack at home than at work? So why not make work more like home?”

“I think hiring people is the worst thing a company can do. To start with, people are a recurring expense, which is the worst kind. [...] worst of all, they slow you down: instead of sticking your head in someone’s office and checking out an idea with them, eight people have to have a meeting about it.”

Pushing OOXML

Would you expect a technical specification to be human readable? Would you expect it to be even more human readable when it’s an “open” specification?

Now take a look at the picture below, would you consider this pile of paper — being the 6000 pages OOXML spec — human readable?

Source: NoOOXML.org

Someone is in a hurry trying to get a specification ISO certified, without having a correct, accessible specification.

Don’t worry about people stealing your idea

Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.

– Howard Aiken, found in The Myths of Innovation