Let The Good Times Knol Over Wikipedia?

What will become of Knol? Hearing about it certainly sparked curiosity and speculation. Google does no wrong, right? I recall just a bit ago seeing a story concerning Knol, along with an assertion or two that it will overtake wikipedia, seemingly overnight.

At the source, it seems that there may be a little bit more control built into the content, with credit being given to authors. The official Google blog intro seems to be where this all started, and the wikipedia page sheds a good deal of light on this. Interesting descriptions of the project include "private beta", i.e. invitation only, and there is the idea that it actually may not ever be released.

Then there's the idea of the conflict, concept of organizer of info vs. provider. Hey, you can be all things for all people, all of the time, especially when you're Google. More to come I am sure.

Web 3.0, Widgets, API's

Is what you're looking at on your computer local, or is it the web, or is it both? You may not know unless you look under the hood (oh yeah, and make sure you're connected--unless you've already done some work on REMEMBERTHEMILK.COM, as it, should you give it permission to do so, will keep your tasks offline, let you work on them, and then sync them up on the web once you log back in and decide to go ahead with sync).

On initial look at what Web 3.0 is referring to, the hallmark of the next gen is the blurring of these offline/online distinctions. It seems to me to be old news--but perhaps the fact that it may become the norm vs. the exception is what may make this a key characteristic.

In working as a developer a few years ago, discussing MS Interdev, the object explorer revealed browser embeds within a standard client server GUI. I don't remember what the class name was, or Method/Property combinations, but I did enough to realize that it could happen relatively quickly, via controls or quick instantiations.

It's become much more slick, however. The integration will be getting tighter, more sophisticated. Active content, Flash, widget embeds for great presentation. Real thorough incorporation of RSS feeds, mashups, conglomerated from who knows where. I'm looking at SpringWidgets, there appears to be a claim of desktop/site embeddibility. Google Gears, same thing. Springing up, like virtual flowers.

We'll see how it shakes out....

Map Your Mind -- No Charge

FreeMind is a terrific brainstorming tool. As its name implies, you can get it for no charge. The software falls into the category of mind-mapping, i.e., getting concepts, essays, songs, web site structures, marketing campaigns, anything you can think of into a graphical, flexible, easily modifiable form. OK, you might just be happy with a pencil or pen and paper--but this application allows you to drag branches/nodes of your mind map from one to another instantly, including all sub-branches/nodes. No eraser required!

Among other things, you can embed hyperlinks in these nodes and assign styles and graphics to them. You can link to files on your own computer as well. I recently used FreeMind in a cowriting session (my cowriter's willingness to try working this way is much appreciated), and we both found it to be quite useful in our quest to get to the bottom of a hook we liked. The icing here is that you can save your files in outline and/or picture form, right to a web page of your choice--so your map is structured with collapsible/expandable branches or categories.

You can download FreeMind here: http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Happy mind mapping!

NanoIndependents

I'm one of the nanoindependents. Trying nanomarketing. Let's bring it all to the subatomic particle level, okay?

The power of small. Coming to a pinhead near you.

del.icio.usly Digging BlinkList

I'm del.icio.usly Digging my blinklist feed.

As if enough time isn't already spent checking out the syndication sites, software, social bookmarking and more. It's a quest though--see which page, which tool works the best. It requires time to do this, but the effort seems worthwhile. Who will come out on top with the best centralization of all of this? How does one choose the champion? Seems like there's great opportunity here. The ultimate one stop shop, whether it's desktop/web.

I'm really not stoned. Just enthusiastic about this technology and all of the brilliant folks assembling it, debugging it, attempting to make it profitable. There's a win-win here.

RadioHead, MP3's, Music Is Dead

At the top left in my IGoogle is the SEOBook blog. Search Engine Optimization interests me. How we are in this electronic jungle, and the primates have to come up with the tool to end all tools, to gain some form of dominance.

It entertains, it frustrates, it challenges. What can we do technically to build the advantage and keep it?

So in my looking at this top blog, I discover these potent comments on our musical world: Aaron Wall spoke of RadioHead's offering of a free download--it looks like the entire album. I also saw a great take on it in the Lefsetz letter. Not sure why it has to be news, but it is. Members vying for attention, position. TIME writes, people react, servers get overloaded, and the name gets memed. Stickiness achieved.

Round here, it seems like music is dead, or dying, or just flat out being victimized. But what's new? I hope my own music will be listened to at some point without my having to pay people to listen to it. All this woogydeedoo is inspiring me.

Mashups - So Now, So Future, So Yesterday?

I've been blown away by web software mashups. Just getting my feet wet at this point with Yahoo Pipes, Microsoft PopFly, others. I'm curious what folks will be coming up with. It seems that FeedBurner's one mashup example. The possibilities seem to be endless, creating remixed content, all dynamic.

wikipidia's got a killer page on them.

A whole new dimension to our fair cyberworld is taking further hold. Can't wait to dig in more here. The quest continues...