Google needs notification

This is a great list of improvements to make Google Apps better.

Each section seems to have 'notification' listed in one form or another. Lucky there is Particls.

Mix 07 Ray Ozzie Keynote - Winforms apps are dead

The Mix07 Keynote by Ray Ozzie was incredibility interesting for those of us in the software development community. Here are the highlights - some of which you may not have heard said in these explicit terms.

• Silverlight now enables the development of complete XAML based applications in a browser - they can be just as powerful as if they were installed on the target device - and they are lightweight enough to deliver over the network - on both Mac AND Windows.
  
  
• Those same applications can be packaged to run on the target device and outside the browser (both PC and Mobile Devices). In addition, the same tools and assets can be used to develop server-side business logic (web services etc).
  
  
• So this means you can use the same languages and tools to create technology that runs anywhere in the ecosystem.
  
  
• You can now make rich vector based (flash style) applications using dynamic languages AND object orientated programming - making Flash/Apollo and vanilla AJAX look like child's play.
  
  
• Just because they are child's play does not mean they are dead. People have used, and will continue to use, 'Good enough' solutions for many reasons.
  
  
• 95% of desktop apps (and scenarios that justify building winforms/desktop apps) will therefore die over time EXCEPT apps that require outside the browser notification or compact/persistent presentation. This excludes the browser itself of course.
  
  As shown by Apollo you can now build Photoshop as a web-based app - imagine what Microsoft is doing with Silverlight (Let me help you out - Office Online).
  
  
• Many of the demos shown are about creating customized players for streaming video. Do users want highly immersive media players that change from vendor to vendor? Or do they want a Joost that has a consistent user interface with plenty of cross-network functionality? The MLB.com demo for example, basically showed a Joost style user experience for a single site.
  
  Some scenarios might support it - but most users would prefer to be able to surf from provider to provider while keeping the same User Experience.
  

This increases the opportunity for 'Internet Operating System' infrastructure plays such as storage, contacts and, of course, a universal, personalized incoming events and notification pipeline.

Update:

Other coverage is on Techmeme

Robert Scoble writes:

"Jeff Prosise, co-founder of Wintellect. He told me that yesterday will be remembered as the day Microsoft rebooted the Web. Hyperbole? Maybe, but don't miss why he's excited: he's going to be able to take his .NET skills and make Web experiences that are going to be far beyond what you can do with HTML and AJAX."

He also writes

"Is it enough yet to say that Microsoft has an internet strategy? Not quite."

I think he's wrong there. They are just not spelling it out for us. The strategy is to reshape the Internet in their image. You know that emerging Internet operating system everyone is talking about? Well it will look like Minority Report. Just watch their intro graphics with people standing around touching holograms. And it will all be running on XAML and .NET.

These are the first pieces of the platform that will make Google Docs look like the shadow of an office suite that it is.

iPALS - Identity, Presence, Attention, Location, Status

Sam Sethi posts a fantastic post about Twitter, Attention and Information Overload.

He refers to Twitter as a great conversation tool to help reduce the friction and increase the pace of innovation by bringing participants closer together.

Some, however, have given Twitter credit for killing the aggregator and becoming the ultimate tool for incoming alerts and information.

Both Sam and I disagree.

He writes:

I think we are getting closer to the point in time where our social networks, search & discovery engines and the semantic web combine to provide us with said relevant timely information based on our current location, attention and status.

Sadly Twitter is not the answer, it is just another example of us trying to acquire better information faster from our trusted social network. In fact Twitter is just another disorganised stream of information for us to manage.

While Twitter helps to lower the barrier to getting a message out fast, it does not help you route incoming messages particularly effectively.

Think of Twitter as the outgoing pipeline. What's needed is an incoming pipleine. One into which we can put our Twitter stream, our friend's lifestreams, our favorite authors and the applications we track and through which we can route messages based on a number of criteria.

Sam describes these criteria as iPALS:

In the future to help us manage this vast array of data that has overloaded us with information, I envisage us trusting online services where we share our identity, presence, attention, location and status - i.e iPALS in exchange for timely relevant information

Well I’m Sam Sethi (identity) sat at my desk using my PC (Presence), whilst listening to Paul Weller, (Attention) writing this post, at home in sunny Cookham Dean (Location), but I’m busy so don’t disturb me (status). i.e iPALS

I love it. The pieces are emerging. It is now time to stitch them all together.

• Identity = OpenID + hCard
• Presence = Does anyone know a definitive Presence service?
• Attention = Jaiku (An aggregation of all your Attention data from Twitter and beyond)
• Location = Plazes
• Status = Anyone know a definitive status service?

So if we combine these services, we have what Sam calls an iPALS application. I call it Attention Management. Whatever it's called - it's the personalized incoming pipeline of your life.

We also like to call it Particls.

Announcement: Particls Private Beta released

Hi everyone,

We would like to announce that the first full private release of Particls Beta has been distributed. If you signed up to our mailing list your invite should be in your inbox.

All those months of locking Ashley in the programming box have paid off!

On behalf of all the team I would like to thank all the people who have made this milestone possible. You all know who you are but if I may highlight a few below (in no particular order!):

• Ashley Angell
• Nik Seirlis
• Stephen Kelly
• Cody Robb
• Paul Jones
• Michael McNeil
• Michael Starky
• Julie Angell
• Marty Wells
• Michael Liubinskas
  
• Marjolein Hoekstra
  
• Ben Metcalfe
• Daniela Barbosa
  
• Marianne Richmond
• The Alpha and Beta testers of Touchstone and Particls

Thanks everyone

We look forward to your feedback.

Missed out? Drop me a line and the next 50 requests get an instant invite.

Update: The 50 Slots have been filled. But keep paying attention.

Announcement: Touchstone renamed to Particls

In anticipation of a wider release of the Application, we are excited to announce a new name for Touchstone. Introducing... Particls.

And, of course, a new domain at www.particls.com. Please update your links!

Why the name change?
We feel that Particls better reflects our future plans for the product as it evolves into the definitive tool to manage and filter your incoming personal information.

Stay tuned... more updates soon!