Friday, April 12, 2002

What kind of internet operating system do we want? " . . . 'unexpected results.' You get these by creating an environment where innovation can flourish, where users can 'scratch their own itch', and combine the tools in new ways. I like to think that it will have an open architecture similar to that of both Unix/Linux and the Internet. Rather than building a single monolithic system, the original Unix inventors, Ken Thomson and Dennis Ritchie, developed some simple system services, and a powerful concept for how programs could cooperate. As a result, simple programs could be connected in a pipeline, like legos or tinker toys, to accomplish more complex tasks. This same principle is evident in the development of the Internet. Open standards tell you what you need to write and what you need to read in order to be able to cooperate with another program. What you do internally is up to you."  ... [more] 2:59:20 PM  Google It!  comment  []

Inventing the Future "So often, signs of the future are all around us, but it isn't until much later that most of the world realizes their significance. Meanwhile, the innovators who are busy inventing that future live in a world of their own. They see and act on premises not yet apparent to others." "So, what am I seeing today that I think the world will be writing about (and the venture capitalists and entrepreneurs chasing) in the years to come? Wireless. Next generation search engines. Weblogs. These daily diaries of links and reflections on links are the new medium of communication for the technical elite. . . . they are creating a new set of synapses for the global brain. . . . they trade in the same currency as the best search engines--human intelligence, as reflected in who's already paying attention to what. . . . They are also a platform for experimentation with the way the Web works: collective bookmarking, virtual communities, tools for syndication, referral, and Web services. Instant messaging. . . . between programs. . . . They are making collaboration, 'presence management,' and instant communication into a business application . . ." File sharing. . . . When everyone is connected, all that needs to be centralized is the knowledge of who has what. . . . desktop Web sites exposing the local file-system via distributed-content management systems. This is fundamental infrastructure for a next generation global operating system." Grid computing. Web spidering. . . . as hackers realize they can build 'unauthorized interfaces' to the huge Web-facing databases behind large sites, [they] give themselves and their friends a new and useful set of tools." "All of these things come together into what I'm calling 'the emergent Internet operating system.'" "But the most interesting part of the story is still untold . . . will suddenly snap into focus. . . . There's a story here that is emerging with increasing clarity." " . . . network computing is a classic case of . . . a disruptive technology. It doesn't fit easily into existing business models or containers. It will belong to the upstarts, who don't have anything to lose, and the risk-takers . . . " "Spiders . . . are really a first-generation Web service, built from the outside in. . . . sites will offer XML-based APIs that allow remote programmers to request only the data they need, and to re-use it in creative new ways." "There are a number of ways for a company to get benefits out of providing data to remote programmers: Revenue. . . . Amazon-powered library catalogs anyone? Branding. . . . request branding as a condition of the service. Platform lock in. . . . a platform strategy beats an application strategy every time. Once you become part of the platform that other applications rely on, you are a key part of the computing infrastructure, and very difficult to dislodge. Goodwill. . . . the 'coolness' factor can make a huge difference both in attracting customers and in attracting the best staff." "One of the beauties of the Internet is that it has an architecture that promotes unintended consequences." "Bit by bit, we'll watch the transformation of the Web services wilderness. The first stage, the pioneer stage, is marked by screen scraping and "unauthorized" special purpose interfaces to database-backed Web sites. In the second stage, the Web sites themselves will offer more efficient, XML-based APIs. (This is starting to happen now.) In the third stage, the hodgepodge of individual services will be integrated into a true operating system layer, in which a single vendor (or a few competing vendors) will provide a comprehensive set of APIs that turns the Internet into a huge collection of program-callable components, and integrates those components into applications that are used every day by non-technical people." ... [more] 2:04:40 PM  Google It!  comment  []