Google assumes that if you make a link to a site, then that is a worthwhile link to remember. Your link is a “vote” in increasing the popularity of that page in the search results. When a page contains false or misleading information, you don’t want to make that page easier to find. That is where DoNotLink comes in. Continue reading
The concept is simple: you want to make a web reference (HTML link) to an other web resource, but you don’t want that link to go bad. This requires a web link, with just a little bit of smarts on the server, and so I call that a T-Link and it is a key capability for a collaboration system. Continue reading
Social Software is turning the idea of identity on it head. Actually this is a trend that has been happening for long time, but it is being thrust into the public consciousness by the desire now to bring social systems into the enterprise: ESS. It used to be that on the Internet nobody knows you are a dog), but that is changing. What they do know is your reputation, which becomes your identity. Continue reading
I was really looking forward to the keynote by Clay Shirky, and I was not disappointed. The title of his talk was “To Make Sense of Data, First Make Sense of People“. Continue reading
Want users to use your cloud-based web site? Follow these guidelines, so that users can sign up easily and use it. Sadly, there are soooo many ways that web sites can do this wrong. The result is a bewildering variety of inconsistent and sometimes incomprehensible mechanisms that unnecessarily annoy the very users you are trying to attract. Continue reading
This post is about secure internet protocols, and mainly about a bizarre phenomenon that prevents us from using SSL security in many situations where it would be useful. What is bizarre is that I don’t think anyone intends it, but there seems to be a natural reaction that leads to less secure systems. While some might attribute this cynically to element who want to make money, I don’t think that is the real driver in this case. Instead, it seems to be natural tendency toward the “security purist” who would rather be completely open and unprotected than to be partially safe. Continue reading
You know that book on how everything important is learned in Kindergarten? Along that same line, before I got into Kindergarten, my mother taught me to that if I put my toys away, I will be able to find them again later. I am sure there was a lot of crying and whining involved, but like most people I eventually got the point.
Fast forward to the adult world. How many times have you heard these questions:
This situation is caused by the worst scourge of our time: the addiction to email. Continue reading
I am currently working with a number of local community groups; my role is typically to get people using Web2.0 technologies to make us more efficient. This is surprisingly difficult.
One group I an involved in recently put on a en event. The event was proposed a couple months ago through an email message. There was a certain amount of discussion exchanged by email, Continue reading
See my previous post on Web 2.1: How OpenID will rescue Web 2.0 where I wax lyrical on how great it will be when I can have a single ID and use it everywhere. Well, I still think it is a good idea, and I still think it is the right approach, but I am considerably more disappointed about the level of support. Continue reading
I am a self acknowledged “Site Registration Hater” (SRH). I hate registering at web sites. The whole concept behind Web 2.0 is collaboration: the content comes from individual contributors and we build the web together. But every single place where you want to make a contribution, you have to register as a “user” of that site. Continue reading
Thinking Matters 
