2008 - Data, Semantics, Attention

As 2007 rolls to a close, bloggers have started predicting the hot trends of 2008. Data, Semantics and Attention seems like a consistent theme.

Here are some highlights:

Richard McManus (here):

Semantic Apps will become popular in 2008, due to their ability to get better content results and make better data connections. Think search engines like Hakia and Powerset, wikipedia-like efforts like Twine and Freebase, and apps that use semantic technologies under the hood.

We look forward to being involved with the Engagd platform and APML.

The big Internet companies will surprise us all by embracing open standards, and attempting to compete with each other with features instead of data lock-in (OK, this could just be wishful thinking!).

We have already seen Mozilla move in this direction with Weave. Google with OpenSocial. Hopefully 2008 will see true openness with use of existing standards such as those listed at DataPortability.org

Marshall Kirkpatrick says (here):

The value of recommendation engines will become all the more clear; the era of data will be celebrated.

People engaged in the new web will do some really awesome stuff that we'll all be in awe of.

He writes in a post about the future of RSS:

For anyone who reads feeds, though, prioritization and personalized recommendations are two things that hold a whole lot of promise.

In 2007 both Bloglines and Newsgator were among the companies who moved towards implementing a simple, open Attention Data standard called APML. A wide variety of other companies began experimenting with other methods of systematizing and automating prioritization and recommendation as well. Expect this to be even bigger in 2008.

Web 1.0 was about Pages, Web 2.0 is about People, Web 3.0 will be about data.

Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins dedicates a whole section to APML (here):

You're going to see bigger partnerships emerge, along that same token, between the APML movement, the OpenID movement, and the big dogs like Microsoft, Facebook and Google. Remember that whole privacy debacle called Beacon? At some point real soon Zuckerberg is going to realize that to keep that very vocal minority of people who like privacy quiet, he's going to need to give them better ownership of their profile and attention data - APML and OpenID will provide ways for this to happen.

Josh Catone writes:

OpenID will be adopted by more startups and larger web companies, but most people (mainstream users) still won't use it - that's a couple of years off.

Perhaps DataPortability will help drive the value proposition.

Alex Iskold writes (here):

Implicit applications, which monitor our habits and automatically infer our likes, will rise.

Looks like 2008 will be an exciting year!

Look forward to working with you all in the near year.

More Buzz around Town for Touchstone

Touchstone and APML have been mentioned in quite a few places in the last week or so. Here are some of the highlights....

From TechZoogle

"this is an invaluable tool that simplifies the process of research for academics and professionals alike. It is not meant to replace the RSS Reader in anyway, but it does improve workflow/ productivity by acting as an intelligent personalized “tipster” right on your desktop and one that gives you up to date persistent information. Being a heavy RSS reader/ user, I found it filtered a good amount of news based on my keywords and preferences. Touchstone is a powerful app that is going to be a permanent addition to my desktop tools and daily research setup."

From Daniela Barbosa

Last night i hit the jackpot via my personal filtered Touchstone tool that i am using during their BETA period (see below note). In the post titled "Web 2.0 applied in an Enterprise – a huge business opportunity" Peter Reiser lays out beautifully how a company like Sun Microsystems is looking to take advantage of the social dynamics of Web 2.0 and turn it into a business value and business advantage.

[...]

Note: Here is a perfect example of the way a tool like Touchstone has helped me be alerted to something that i might have missed- based on the feeds i have inputted via my OPML file (i have had the complete SUN Blogroll on my GoogleReader for ever but there is just so much on a daily basis i find it very hard to find what is personally important unless i subscribe to Sun individual blogs). With Touchstone and key terms i might be looking for- in this case client names and key words like 'enterprise 2.0' the information was delivered to me via a news ticker of things that are important to me. Without it, i wouldn't know that Peter Reiser was blogging on a subject that is dear to me. Touchstone is in Private Beta- i still have a couple of guest invitation and if you are interested please do drop me a line (danielavbarbosa[at]gmail.com).

From TwoPointTouch

Rose confirmed that digg is actively mining users’ attention data in order to implement these changes. He professed ignorance of APML, but “there are a couple of engineers deeply into this stuff” back at digg HQ.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to blog about Touchstone - you are instrumental in spreading the word about our baby! It is very much appreciated.