We’re putting the finishing touches to a big release for the end of the week.
Apologies for everyone that registered but hasn’t received a login yet. We didn’t want your first expreience to be a let down and so we’ve delayed a bit.
We’ll roll out logins through July now that we have the tools to manage accounts, and we’re really excited about your feedback.
As a jaded software engineer, I struggle to get excited about most “innovations”, but I am excited about Operas new Unite product.
In case you have not read about it yet, Unite allows Opera users to turn their browser into a server through which they can directly share files and services rather than relying on third parties such as Google or Yahoo to mediate. There is an API developers can use to build and deploy new services on top of Unite.
I don’t know whether Unite will be successful – it will be hard work to build momentum from the small Opera install base, so the initial services will need to be pretty compelling.
But I do think that Unite or something like it is a marker for Web 3.0 because it represents a service level on top of the internet that is empowering: I can create interactive applications that I control.
At oneDrum, we’ve adopted a similar philosophy.
- We also embed a webserver (Jetty) in out client so that users can easily connect.
- We provide a sandboxing and deployment mechanism (OSGI) that we will eventually open to third party developers
But we do a set of other things that allow developers to create more sophisticated applications faster:
- We support first class languages like Java and C++
- We provide mechanisms to converge data and documents such as Operational Transforms (similar to Google Wave)
- We provide a workflow layer that allows developers to define valid user interactions.
I think that with oneDrum, Opera Unite and Google Wave we can see a significant shift in the emphasis of the internet from data to behavior – doing things together, not just viewing the same pages.
Read the “New wave of real-time collaboration arrives?” article from zdnet.co.uk.
I just got around to watching the Google Wave video. I hate watching demo videos (please tell me a story in 5 pictures or less), so it was an act of extreme dedication. I’m pleased I did because it really confirmed a set of arguments we’ve been making at oneDrum this year.
- Conversations need to be more contextual. Place them as close as possible to the thing you are discussing and narrow the scope of the conversation to the thing you are discussing.
- Conversations need more flexible structures where you can move from ad hoc conversations to greater formality without cost. I argued this here.
- User experience is critical – implicitly Google are arguing that the current generation of browsers and HTML4 aren’t good enough. It is unfortunate that the stand-out feature of the demo – dragging and dropping from iphoto into the browser – isn’t in any current or planned HTML version.
- Open API’s, extensible behavior and federated services provide critical mass of functionality and users and communities with ownership of documents and conversations.
But it also left me with a bunch of questions and concerns:
- Is it too different an approach to communication for a mainstream audience many of whom use email badly and still don’t use instant messaging?
- Is it too remote from the tools people use today? Most people don’t Twitter, Facebook, or Google Docs. They do use email and MS Office.
But there is some great technology on view:
- Operational Transforms are a powerful approach to collaboration that we employ in oneDrum, but do require a shift in emphasis from managing conflicts in documents to managing convergence.
- HTML5 will really improve the browser experience (but when will it be universally supported?).
- Google Web Toolkit is a fantastic tool for building websites and we utilize it significantly within oneDrum.
So we’re pretty excited at oneDrum about the capacity for Google Wave to convince users of the need for better ways of communicating, in the same way that Google Docs convinced users of the need for better collaboration tools.
Read the “Vote flexible working” article from WorkingMums.co.uk.