Mereja

Author: Richard MacManus

  • Announcing The ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit

    Today ReadWriteWeb is announcing our second event, the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit 2010. It will take place May 7, 2010, in Mountain View, California.

    The ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit will be an exploration of the latest Mobile development trends, both the technology and the emerging business applications. Registration is now open,

    at an early bird rate of just $295.00. Click here to get your ticket at this special price.

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    As with our first event, the Real-Time Web Summit last October, the Mobile Summit will be in the ‘unconference’ format. We discovered in October that the unconference is a perfect compliment to our brand, because it encourages a high quality two-way dialog. Not only that, but the knowledge and ideas that came out of our Real-Time Web Summit were practical and useful – we got a lot of great feedback about that.

    As with our previous event, the Mobile Summit will be facilitated by Kaliya Hamlin, who in my opinion is the best in the business at this style of event. We’re using the same venue too, the beautiful Computer History Museum.

    Mobile was one of our top 5 trends last year and continues to undergo explosive growth, so our aim with this event is to help you navigate the opportunities. Get ready to explore, think and create the future of Mobile! Because as in our last event, The Real-Time Web Summit, it will be you – the attendees – who ultimately set the agenda. You can begin adding your suggestions now.

    We will have two main tracks at this Summit, Development and Business. Here’s a sample of some of the topics we’ll explore in both of these tracks:

    If you’re a company in the Mobile Internet market, you may be interested in helping sponsor this event. Please contact our COO Sean Ammirati for more information on the sponsor options.

    The ReadWriteWeb team is excited about our second event and we can’t wait to discuss the opportunities in Mobile with you on May 7. You can find banners and logos to link to our event here, if you’re so inclined.

    We hope to see you on May 7!

    Discuss


  • Censorship in China: How ReadWriteWeb China Was Closed Down For a Month

    In the West, the concept of the ‘read/write Web’ is a relatively easy one to get behind. Everybody can contribute content to the Web (‘write’), as well as read it – it’s a very democratic notion.

    However in countries where democracy doesn’t prevail, the read/write Web is often subject to censorship rules.

    Indeed in December, ReadWriteWeb China was off the air due to the temporary closure of our syndication partners Yeeyan. In this post we look at how and why that happened.

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    The Global Times recently published a special report about censorship in China. It is an illuminating analysis of a number of publishers who have been censored or who self-censor themselves in order to survive.

    On March 15, ReadWriteWeb founder Richard MacManus will participate in a special event at the Paley Center in New York City: a conversation with Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey about digital activism in China.

    According to Wikipedia, Internet censorship in China is "conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations." In particular China looks to censor political or social content. In mid-2009 a number of prominent Western social networking sites were blocked in China, including Facebook and Twitter. Western media speculated that the bans were put in place to prevent activists from using social networks to organize themselves – which happened in Iran in June of 2009, when Iranian election protesters used Twitter to call attention to their cause.

    Self-censorship

    Inside China, self-censorship is practiced by many web publishers in order to prevent trouble. "Self-censorship is the rule of survival that prevents popular websites from being shut down," said veteran web developer Zoe Wang in The Global Times.

    However, self-censorship is difficult to do in practice – because it’s not regulated by a single authority and so there are a lack of clear rules on what to censor. Web publishers in China are never sure what could get their site shut down.

    On sites driven by user-generated content, publishers routinely censor political content. But while this may appease the government, it risks upsetting the core users. This has been the case on Douban, a popular social network in China with 33 million registered users. Censorship has recently tightened on Douban, leading to “veteran members” protesting about the censorship of certain photos, poetry and book reviews.

    Site Closures, Including RWW China

    The Golbal Times points to three recent examples of sites closed down by authorities: Fanfou, Yeeyan and Blogbus. The latter two were recovered in January.

    These site closures directly affected our own company, as Yeeyan is our syndication partner for ReadWriteWeb China.

    Yeeyan is a community translation website (our initial review 3 years ago), which publishes some well-known Western news sites such as The Guardian, Time Magazine, the New York Times and of course ReadWriteWeb. In early December, Yeeyan was forced to shut down its site – including ReadWriteWeb China.

    At the time of the closure, the following message was posted to the Yeeyan homepage by the Yeeyan team:

    "Due to our errors in handling some of the articles on the website, we went against the relevant regulations; therefore Yeeyan has to temporarily shut off its server, and adjust the relevant content."

    Ethan Zuckerman from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School concluded that "at least one of the authorities that control the Chinese internet – which include the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology – found the prospect of frequent, high-quality translation of US and European media [from Yeeyan] threatening."

    Yeeyan re-opened in January (using .org instead of .com) and we’re certainly very pleased to see that ReadWriteWeb China is back as a result.

    Free the read/write Web!

    There’s no shortage of rhetoric from the West about why China should cease censorship of the Web. Indeed Google made a brave move earlier this year by threatening to pull out of China if it continued to have to censor search results. While there has been no resolution in the Google-China case as yet, at least the issue is being highlighted and challenged by companies of Google’s stature in 2010.

    I hope that ReadWriteWeb’s participation in the March 15 event at the Paley Center in New York City, where I will be discussing these and other issues alongside prominent Chinese activist Ai Weiwei and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, does its bit to help encourage China to remove censorship on the Web.

    Bookmark our special Weiwei webpage to track the latest buzz about the March 15 event and view a video about Ai Weiwei’s art and digital activism.

    Discuss


  • Weekly Wrapup: Google vs. China, And More…

    weekly_wrapup-1.pngThe big news of the week was Google’s efforts to remove censorship from its search results in China – read on for our coverage and analysis of this news. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Internet of Things.

    Note: We’ve refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format.

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    Story of the Week: Google vs. China

    More China coverage and analysis

    Historic Conversation in NYC: Ai Weiwei, Jack Dorsey & Richard MacManus

    On March 15, at the prestigious Paley Center in New York City, a conversation will take place between Chinese digital activist and artist Ai Weiwei, Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey, and yours truly, Richard MacManus, ReadWriteWeb founder and editor in chief. The moderator will be Orville Schell, the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York.

    The topic of the event is the emergence of digital activism for fostering positive social change. The onsite event is invitation only, but it will be live streamed exclusively on ReadWriteWeb on Monday, March 15, at 6:30 PM EST (-5 GMT), from the Paley Center for Media, New York City.

    Mobile Web

    More Mobile Web coverage

    Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App

    We recently launched the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app. As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we’ve made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes.

    Internet of Things

    More Internet of Things coverage

    Real-Time Web

    More Real-Time Web coverage. Don’t miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb’s report, The Real-Time Web and its Future.

    ReadWriteStart

    ReadWriteStartOur channel ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.

    ReadWriteEnterprise

    ReadWriteEnterpriseOur channel ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to ‘enterprise 2.0’ and using social software inside organizations.

    ReadWriteCloud

    ReadWriteCloudOur channel ReadWriteCloud, sponsored by VMware and Intel, IS dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing.

    That’s a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

    Discuss


  • Historic Conversation in NYC: Ai Weiwei, Jack Dorsey & Richard MacManus

    On March 15, at the prestigious Paley Center in New York City, a conversation will take place between Chinese digital activist and artist Ai Weiwei, Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey, and yours truly, Richard MacManus, ReadWriteWeb founder and editor in chief. The moderator will be Orville Schell, the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York.

    The topic of the event is the emergence of digital activism for fostering positive social change. The onsite event is invitation only, but it will be live streamed exclusively on ReadWriteWeb on Monday, March 15, at 6:30 PM EST (-5 GMT), from the Paley Center for Media, New York City.

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    The central question of the event is: What is the relevance of new social networking technologies in our culture and society; and how can we use these tools for digital activism in order to foster positive social change, particularly in China?

    You can start the discussion about it now on Twitter, using the hashtag #aiweiwei. We would also love to hear your thoughts on the topic via the comments here on ReadWriteWeb. To this end, shortly we will launch a special webpage that aggregates media and real-time conversation leading up to this event.

    Ai Weiwei and Digital Activism in China

    ReadWriteWeb has been actively covering events in China this year, in particular Google’s struggle to effect change regarding censorship in China. So I’m personally thrilled to join the conversation with these three smart and influential people: Ai Weiwei, Jack Dorsey and Orville Schell.

    Ai Weiwei is undoubtedly the star attraction. He is China’s leading digital activist and a pioneer in the use of blogging and Twitter in China. He’s also a renown international artist and architect. In the early 2000s, he collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron on the famous "Bird’s Nest" design of the National Stadium for the Beijing Olympics. Ai Weiwei later renounced that design as a “pretend smile” from the Chinese government.

    Here is a video that explains more about Ai Weiwei’s art and digital activism:


    Further Details About the Event

    This historic event will be streamed live from the prestigious Paley Center for Media in New York City, enabling an audience of thousands around the world to view and listen – as well as participate in the discussion. The live conversation on stage will be shaped in part by the digital commentary around it, which itself is part of the ongoing global conversation about social media and social change.

    ReadWriteWeb is driving much of the online component of this event. Stay tuned for more details on that next week.

    Date: Monday, March 15, 2010

    Time: 6:30 – 8 p.m. Eastern Time, (-5 GMT)

    Venue: Paley Center for Media
    25 E. 52nd Street
    New York, NY 10019-6129

    Details About the Participants

    This information comes from the Paley Center website:

    Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, curator, architect, social commentator, and activist. He was born in 1957 into the domestic political exile of his father, the noted modernist poet Ai Qing. Ai Weiwei’s birthright was simultaneously one of a cultural insider and a political outsider, and he quickly perceived the contradictions of his condition.

    Ai Weiwei’s art has been shown in museums and galleries internationally. As a curator, he is known for cutting-edge exhibitions. In the early 2000s, he collaborated with the acclaimed Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron on the winning design for the National Stadium project for the Beijing Olympics, popularly known as the “Birds Nest,” which he later renounced as a “pretend smile.”

    Ai Weiwei has never sought foreign citizenship and maintains his credibility among a devoted Chinese following as a highly active blogger, with his finger on the pulse of modern China. Unafraid to spotlight injustices, he has documented the arbitrary conviction and swift execution of alleged cop-killer Yang Jia in Shanghai, investigated shoddy school construction in Sichuan, and led a movement to oppose the nationwide installation of Internet filtering software in new computers. He is critical of one-party rule and government corruption, as well as the nationalist tendencies of China’s citizenry, which allow state power to go unchecked. As a result his blogs are shut down, his home studio is under surveillance, and he’s had to have cranial surgery for injuries sustained during a recent altercation with local police in Sichuan.

    Jack Dorsey is the creator, cofounder, and chairman of Twitter, Inc. Originally from St. Louis, Jack’s early fascination for mass-transit and how cities function led him to Manhattan and programming real-time messaging systems for couriers, taxis, and emergency vehicles. Throughout this work Jack witnessed thousands of workers in the field constantly updating where they were and what they were doing; Twitter is a constrained simplification designed for general usage and extended by the millions of people who make it their own every day. Jack is dedicated to creating public goods which foster approachability, immediacy, and transparency, and is starting a second company named Square focused on bringing these concepts to commerce.

    Richard MacManus is the founder and editor in chief of ReadWriteWeb, one of the most popular and influential technology blogs in the world. New Zealander MacManus founded ReadWriteWeb in 2003 and grew his blog about the evolving Internet into an international team of journalists. ReadWriteWeb is read by millions of thought leaders and consumers, and is syndicated daily by the New York Times.

    From the early days of blogging, social networks and YouTube to the future of machine learning, aggregate data analysis and other meta-trends, MacManus is widely recognized as a leader in articulating what’s next in technology and what it means for society at large.

    Orville Schell is the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. He has written fourteen books, including nine on China, and is at work on an interpretation of the last one-hundred years of Chinese history. He was a Fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and the recipient of many prizes and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Overseas Press Club Award, and the Harvard-Stanford Shorenstein Prize in Asian Journalism. Prior to assuming his position at Asia Society, he served as Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

    Discuss


  • Are Modern Web Apps Killjoys?

    Is ‘checking in’ at places using location-based mobile apps like Foursquare and Brightkite resulting in us enjoying life a little less? Is there such a thing as too much data for a fun activity such as running? We address these and other questions in the final installment of our interview with Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing.

    Modern web applications are packed with features that ostensibly connect us more to the real world and our activities in it. Foursquare uses location data to connect us with places and people. Nike+ shoes deliver data from your feet to your iPod. All of this new data from the real world is good progress, right? Yes, the more data the better! On the other hand, is our focus on data distracting us from actually enjoying life?

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    Adam Greenfield doesn’t like Foursquare, a location-based social networking mobile app that has become popular over the past year. He told me that he loved Foursquare at first and enjoyed ‘checking in’ at places. But then he found that he spent the first few minutes of going into a place updating Foursquare with his location, which he realized could be time better spent actually enjoying the place and socializing with the people around him.

    Technology has always had an anti-social element to it. For example, Twitter. When you’re in a social situation and you stop to tweet it, that disconnects you from the real world (at least for 30 seconds while you tap out 140 characters on your mobile phone).

    Step back further into the mists of technological progress and there is the issue of cellphone calls in social situations. When you’re talking with someone and that person’s cellphone rings, then they answer it and have a conversation with someone else on their cellphone – is there anything more annoying than that from a social point of view?

    So technology can be anti-social; nothing new in that. But is a mobile location-based app like Foursquare not only anti-social, but also distracting us from enjoying our surroundings because we’re so intent on documenting where we are?

    The counter argument is that products like Foursquare make it easier for you to meet up with your friends in real life, particularly if you’re young and socializing a lot. For example you might see that a few of your friends are at a local cafe or pub, so you go out to join them there. That definitely makes Foursquare a fun product. But it’s a use case that mostly applies to young, highly social people.

    It’s not just location-based apps that are potentially killjoys.

    Greenfield also spoke about his experience with Nike+ running shoes, which come with a sensor that tracks your run and sends the data to your iPod. As we explained earlier this month, Nike+ has its own social network. Nike+ can also send updates to Twitter and post a status report on Facebook.

    According to Adam Greenfield, Nike+ changed the way he ran. Because the shoes could quantify his running performance, he said that they made him faster and more competitive. However, he also began to feel guilty if he missed a run – because the data would suffer as a result. So despite making him a better runner, the Nike+ shoes resulted in him "not having as much fun."

    What do you think – are you finding that modern web apps, whether location-based mobile apps or products with sensors or something else data-driven, are making you enjoy life just a little less? Are you focusing too much on the data, rather than just living life? Let us know in the comments.

    See also Part 1 of our interview with Adam Greenfield, in which we discussed the impact of the iPhone and other smartphones on the Internet of Things. We also talked about the differences between the U.S. and Asia in adoption of these technologies. In Part 2, we focused on how the iPad may become the missing link between Internet-connected items in your home, for example the Internet fridge, and the Web.

    Photo credits: whatleydude; Ed Yourdon

    Discuss


  • ReadWriteWeb Co-Hosting SXSW Party With PBS, NPR & Others

    SXSW Interactive is just around the corner, so it’s time to make your party plans for Austin, Texas! ReadWriteWeb’s SXSW party – in partnership with PBS, NPR, and others – is happening on Sunday, March 14, from 9pm at KLRU’s legendary Austin City Limits Studio. There will be shuttles to and from the Austin Hilton.

    We invite you to enjoy some tex-mex, margaritas and live music with us! Also you’ll network with the smart, cool people attending SXSW from ReadWriteWeb, PBS, NPR, Frontline, ITVS and Futurestates. This event is free to attend for all SXSW Interactive or Film badge holders.

    You can register your interest at the event Facebook page.

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    Who’s Playing

    Nicole Atkins & The Black Sea

    Band of Skulls

    SXSW attendees, calendar this event and let everyone know you are coming on Facebook and on Plancast.

    When, Where and How to Get There

    When: Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 9:00pm until Monday, March 15, 2010 at 1:00am
    Where: SXSW, Austin City Limits @ KLRU Studios

    Shuttle buses will run throughout the night between the Austin Hilton (5th street entrance) and KLRU.

    Discuss


  • Despite Tough Talk, Google Still Censoring in China

    On January 12 Google claimed that hackers from China had attempted to break into its infrastructure, in order to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Because of those hacks, along with other malware attacks on Gmail accounts and ongoing concerns about the Chinese government limiting free speech on the Web, Google said in its blog that it was "no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn" and that it would discuss with the Chinese government operating "an unfiltered search engine." If unsuccessful, Google said that it might close down or cut back its operations in China.

    It’s now over 6 weeks since Google’s original blog post, but there are no signs that the company has stopped censoring its search results in China – let alone shut down Google.cn.

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    Chinese Government Blamed

    Immediately after Google’s post, reports circulated that the Chinese government was behind the attacks on Google and over 30 other companies. Security company Verisign iDefense claimed that the attacks came from either agents of the Chinese state, or those acting on their behalf.

    According to a podcast from veteran East Asia correspondent for The World, Mary Kay Magistad, Google appeared to unblock search terms and content after their announcement – at least for a short time. She said that search results seemed unfiltered for about 3 hours and then "came and went" in an intermittent way, which she thought was because "China’s censors scrambled to keep up with Google changing the game."

    Despite Magistad’s report, Google said on January 14 that Google.cn was still censoring its results to comply with China’s law and protect its employees there.

    A New York Times report came out on January 18, claiming that “at least two foreign journalists living in Beijing have had their Google e-mail accounts hacked”. The Times also noted that several human rights advocates in China had their Gmail accounts compromised. Among those was Ai Weiwei, an artist and prominent blogger in China.

    China Attacks "Irresponsible" Accusations

    Despite so much media attention in the West, on February 9 we wrote that Google had not made any moves to withdraw its Chinese search operations. What’s more, censored results were still appearing on Google’s Chinese portal, Google.cn.

    This week, Western media reported that U.S. authorities had tracked down the hacker who wrote the code behind the attacks on Google last month. However, he was not blamed for launching the attacks. The man was said to be a freelance security consultant with ties to the Chinese government and military.

    These latest reports appear to have angered the Chinese government. According to Chinese news site Xinhua, China has denied government links to cyber attacks against Google. Xinhua quotes China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang as saying that the various accusations against China were “irresponsible and calculating.” The interpretation was slightly different in China Daily, which translated Qin Gang as saying that the accusations against China were "irresponsible and have ulterior motives."

    In an editorial, Xinhua editor Mu Xuequan adds, "The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and some other newspapers have published articles indicating that cyber attacks targeting Google and several other U.S. companies were from China. Such allegations are arbitrary and biased."

    According to the Wall St. Journal, Google is about to "resume discussions" with the Chinese government.

    Conclusion: Google Isn’t Winning This Battle

    The upshot is that Google has actually done very little since its announcement on January 12. It may have modified the censor settings for a few days, but they’ve been complying with the Chinese government ever since. Talks are resuming, but despite Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s claims that it will "apply some pressure" to China, it doesn’t seem likely that the Chinese government will back down.

    Will Google need to eat some humble pie and continue the status quo of a censored search engine in China? Schmidt’s comments over the past month indicate that Google doesn’t want to leave China, so that’s the probable scenario – despite all of its big talk in January.

    Discuss


  • Why The iPad May Save The Internet Fridge

    In part 1 of our interview with Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, we discussed the impact of the iPhone and other smartphones on the Internet of Things.

    In Part 2, we explore how the Apple iPad may also become a key device. Adam Greenfield thinks it may become the missing link between Internet-connected items in your home, for example the Internet fridge, and the Web.

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    In yesterday’s post, we talked about how Asian cities are ahead of the curve in deployment of Internet of Things technologies. One reason is that quality of life can be more easily be delivered as a service in a country like Korea, because its citizens are more open to futuristic appliances like the Internet fridge.

    The counter-argument is that the Western market has never taken to the Internet fridge because of the poor utility of such appliances. The answer may be a device that acts as an effective intermediary between the fridge and the Internet. The iPad could be that device.

    Adam Greenfield explained to me that the iPad may become the kind of device that people carry around with them everywhere inside the house, from the lounge to the bedroom to the kitchen.

    That got me to thinking. Imagine this use case: you’re feeling peckish, so you wander into the kitchen for a snack. Your trusty iPad is tucked under your arm, as usual, and you place it on the kitchen bench while you open the fridge. You guiltily pick up a chocolate bar and you’re about to close the fridge door when your iPad beeps. You glance at the iPad, where a diet management iPad app has automagically opened and is flashing the message: "Hey buddy, you’ve already had too many calories today – put that back!" Blushing, you return the chocolate bar into the fridge and pick up a punnet of strawberries instead. You glance back at your iPad, which now displays a large green check mark on its screen!

    There are many other scenarios I could describe, but the point is the iPad may well become a linking device between Internet-connected appliances and objects in your house, and the Web.

    Adam Greenfield explained that the mistake we’ve made with Internet fridges in the past was to think of them like a dumb sensor. He remarked that it’s not the instrumentation that is important in an Internet fridge – it’s the network.

    The data will probably be collected by the fridge, in time via RFID-enabled food packaging. But the fridge itself is a clumsy interface to that data. Early examples of Internet fridges have tried to be an interface for the consumer. Although some have had tablet-like devices that could be disconnected from the fridge and used on the kitchen bench, users have not found even those very compelling. There are a variety of reasons, including limited utility of fridge-tablets, poor user experience, and the sheer awkwardness of attaching a tablet to and from a fridge.

    The iPad, however, will be used anywhere and everywhere by its users – inside and outside the house. So it’s a natural device to use to connect (virtually, not physically) to your fridge – along with other appliances and objects.

    This isn’t restricted to inside the house either. We’ve written before about cars as a service. This is where you, the consumer, can effectively subscribe to a car or a car provider. This is already happening with the American service Zipcars. Greenfield noted that cars will become a "network resource" – addressable, scriptable, queryable, and so on. And once again, the iPad may be the device which connects you to cars and all of the data that is pumped out by cars and connected web services.

    In the not too distant future, household appliances and other real-world objects such as cars will be connected to the Internet. The iPad may well become the connector to all of those things.

    Discuss


  • Everyware: Interview with Adam Greenfield, Part 1

    Last week I had the privilege of meeting Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. It’s one of my favorite books about the Internet of Things and is still ahead of the curve, even though it was written in 2005 and published in 2006. Greenfield was in my city Wellington for the week, so I sat down with him at a local cafe to get his views on the current state of Internet of Things and where it’s headed.

    If you’re unsure what the world will be like when everything is connected to the Internet (hence the term ‘everyware’), then read on for Greenfield’s acute observations and examples of what’s already happening. This will be a multi-part post, published over the course of this week.

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    What’s Changed? Mobile Phones!

    Since it’s been nearly 4 years since Everyware was published, I asked Greenfield how Internet of Things has evolved since that time. In particular I wanted to know if anything major had changed since the book was first released.

    He replied that the mobile phone has been the biggest change. According to Greenfield, the "single biggest failure of imagination in the book was that someone would decisively re-imagine what the phone is."

    I think he’s being overly harsh on himself, as the iPhone wasn’t announced until January 2007. So in 2005/06, nobody but Steve Jobs and some of his team at Apple could have possibly imagined what the phone would turn into. It should also be noted that Adam Greenfield was a very early adopter of mobile blogging (he coined the term "moblog") and he is currently Nokia’s head of design direction for user interface and services. So if the evolution of the mobile phone since 2005/06 surprised even him, that tells you something about how much of a sea change the iPhone has been.

    RFID

    One thing that hasn’t changed as much as first thought is RFID. Greenfield ruefully noted that "this stuff is taking so long." There are scenarios in Everyware that haven’t come to pass yet, such as RFID in credit cards and home theatres.

    However he thinks that RFID will eventually be usurped by superior item identification and tracking technologies. See this ReadWriteWeb post for more background on the state of RFID.

    The City

    Currently Adam Greenfield is working on his next book, called The City Is Here For You To Use. I asked him what cities he’s been most impressed with, in terms of their use of Internet of Things technologies.

    He mentioned Korea and Singapore, noting also that municipalities in East Asia have made a lot of progress.

    According to Adam Greenfield, a more interesting question may be: what kind of responses are those cities getting from companies? He said that technology companies like Cisco and Intel are responding with products and services for Internet of Things.

    I asked Greenfield what he thought the differences were between adoption in Asia and the U.S.? He replied that public motivation in Asia may be one differentiator. In many Asian countries, there is a belief in ‘progress’ and a future life that will be better because of the "heroic investments" of governments and big companies. He said that quality of life can be delivered as a service in a place like Korea, for example an Internet fridge. Whereas westerners tend to question the utility of things like that.

    To get a wider understanding of Internet of Things, I recommend you purchase Everyware now on Amazon. Neither myself or RWW is making any commission on this, I just think this book deserves a wider audience. Stay tuned for more from Adam Greenfield in Part 2 of this series.

    Discuss


  • How The Internet Can Impede Democracy

    Yesterday I asked the question: does China really feel threatened by U.S. social media services such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube? As usual, I got an education in the comments to the post. While it’s true that the Chinese government blocks Twitter, Facebook and all of the main American social media sites, several commenters pointed out they are blocked not because of their popularity (because they aren’t, in fact, very popular in China), but due to their degree of freedom. In other words, the more open a social media service is, the more likely it will be blocked in China.

    However, perhaps authoritarian governments shouldn’t block social media – it may actually be helpful to them!

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    Evgeny Morozov, a Belarus-born researcher and blogger, presented at TED last year on the topic of How the Net aids dictatorships. In his presentation (embedded below), Morozov makes the contrarian argument that the Internet is actually helping authoritarian governments – more so than being a challenge to them. Morozov asserted that governments like China’s have "mastered the use of cyberspace for propaganda purposes."

    Morozov noted that in the Iran Twitter protests of June of 2009, services such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs were actually operational and being used by activists. According to Morozov, this was great for the Iranian government – as it enabled them to "gather open source intelligence." The government could identify how Iranian activists connect to each other, by looking at their Facebook pages or Twitter connections.

    Kaiser Kuo commented in yesterday’s post about the same issue in China:

    "…it’s astonishing how cavalier some critics of the CCP [China Communist Party] are on Twitter, making no effort to disguise their identities, making their network of friends totally transparent (you can use any of a number of Twitter tools to see the extent of interconnectedness, friend overlap, number of @ messages back and forth, etc) and leaving a completely searchable history. Anyone with a serious anti-CCP agenda would be an idiot to use Twitter."

    Also worth noting: Morozov said in his TED talk that cyber-activism may be offset by what he termed "cyber-hedonism." He claimed that people are becoming passive due to the Internet. He said that we often assume that the Internet is going to be the catalyst of change, but it may actually be "the new opium for the masses."

    Morozov’s theories were challenged in the comments to that TED video. One commenter claimed that "we focus on the obvious totalitarian regimes while our so called democracies use propaganda on a daily basis."

    Regardless, Morozov raises some very valid points. While the Web promotes freedom of expression, at the same time it enables authoritarian regimes to monitor their citizens and identify troublemakers.

    Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments.

    Photo: harrystaab

    Discuss


  • Open Thread: Is China Threatened by U.S. Social Media, or Could it Care Less?

    There’s no doubting the impact of social media on our day-to-day lives in 2010. In the western world, most big brands have Facebook and Twitter accounts nowadays, many TV journalists "write a blog" about their beat every day, and services like YouTube are widely consumed. However it’s the rise of social media as a tool for social activitism that has really brought these technologies to the fore. Sometime over the past year, it reached the point where some governments became threatened by social media and started cracking down on it. China has been the most high profile example recently.

    But does the Chinese government really care about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as much as we in the west think they do?

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    One of the breakthrough moments for Twitter came in June 2009, when people in Iran used Twitter to protest the country’s election results. This gave Twitter a lot of exposure in western mainstream media. But more than that, other countries where democracy is tenuous sat up and took notice.

    The Chinese government started to view social media services as a way for "subversive" citizens to cause trouble. The New York Times recently reported that a January 24 editorial in People’s Daily, the Communist Party of China’s official newspaper, blamed "online warfare launched by America, via YouTube video and Twitter micro-blogging" for sowing discord amongst the Iranian people. China currently blocks prominent U.S. social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

    However, it’s arguable how important those services are to Chinese citizens. As digital consultant Wei Wang guest blogged on ReadWriteWeb in November, "every social media category has a Chinese equivalent that is tuned to the particular needs of the mainland Chinese market."

    Kaiser Kuo, a leading commentator about the Chinese Internet market, gave us further context in in a comment on an August 2009 article on ReadWriteWeb:

    "Yes, there are some Chinese who use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media services that have been blocked in China. But the overwhelming majority of people interested in SNS will use, say, QQZone, or Xiaonei (recently rebranded Renren), or the very popular SNS Kaixin001, or 51.com. Youtube is blocked, but long before that Youtube was a distant also-ran in the Internet video race, far behind sites like Youku.com and Tudou.com. Microblogging sites like Jiwai.de, Fanfou, and Zuosa — all of which, lamentably, are now out of service in the aftermath of Urumqi — all boast(ed) user numbers that dwarf the number of Twitter users in China."

    It’s clear that the Chinese government really is threatened by the rise of social media, because those services give citizens a voice in media – and that voice can potentially reach a global audience.

    But let’s be realistic: how much of a threat to freedom of speech is banning Twitter in a country where other types of social media are much more popular anyway.

    What do you think – are we in the West making too much of an issue of China banning Twitter, Facebook and similar social media sites? Just because they’re popular with us, doesn’t mean they’re as popular (and therefore dangerous) in a country like China. Are we over-reacting to the Chinese government’s moves against U.S. social media?

    Discuss


  • 2010 Winter Olympics iPhone Apps

    iPhone applications are no longer just toys for techies. There are now thousands of iPhone apps in the App Store designed for mainstream usage. Yesterday we looked at examples of health and fitness iPhone apps, today we check out what’s available for a current big sporting event: the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

    There were relatively slim pickings, but at least one Winter Olympics app that is a must-have for sports fans!

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    The Official Apps

    The official 2010 Olympics app goes by the unwieldy title of 2010Guide – Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games: The Official Mobile Spectator Guide. The app is free and is described as "a location-aware schedule" for more than 2,000 sport and cultural events between 12-28 February, 2010.

    It lets you create a personalized itinerary, with the help of maps to over 80 venues. It features real-time results for every sport, news headlines, photos and twitter streams.

    For users actually attending the Olympics, the apps tells you ‘what’s on now’ close to your current location – which is a nice geo-location touch.

    You may also want to check out the iPhone apps of Olympic broadcasters CTV and NBC. One nice feature of the NBC app is the ability to follow athletes on Twitter and Facebook.

    However, according to Chad Skelton of The Vancouver Sun, the official guide app is "head and shoulders above the other two."

    The Unofficial Apps

    There aren’t a great deal of unofficial Olympics iPhone apps. However, one that might come in handy for TV watchers is Olympic Games and Sports Rules and Records by SportLogik. It lists the rules, a glossary of terms and the equipment used for over 70 sports. It also boasts "complete Olympic records for every Summer and Winter Olympic game ever held."

    It’s literally a font of all knowledge for the Winter Olympics, although it’s text-heavy and not very exciting.

    Of course there are some Olympics-themed gaming apps for iPhone. A good example is Ski Jump Lite (there’s also a premium version).

    Other Mobile Olympics Apps

    Although the iPhone is the leading mobile apps platform for Olympics coverage, you don’t necessarily need to have an iPhone to join in on the action. A good example is Foursquare’s partnership with the New York Times, to provide reviews of local venues and offer new badges for those in the area. You’ll be able to do all of the usual Foursquare things with your iPhone or any other smartphone, but in addition enjoy restaurant reviews and tips from the writers of the New York Times. That app can be found here.

    Let us know in the comments if you have a favorite Olympics iPhone (or other phone) app!

    Discuss


  • iPhone Apps For The Masses: Health & Fitness

    As the Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona this week, one major mobile phone manufacturer is conspicuously absent: Apple. As the New York Times reported today, Apple is now the world’s third-largest maker of smartphones (behind Nokia and RIM). But Apple is growing the fastest, thanks in large part to the thousands of mobile applications available on iPhone.

    More and more mainstream people are opting to buy the iPhone now (if, that is, they can afford it), because they’re hearing about all of the wonderful apps they can use on it. Given this trend, we’re starting a series here on ReadWriteWeb to highlight what you can do with iPhone apps. We’re starting with health and fitness apps.

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    Note: this series isn’t about listing ‘the best’ iPhone apps in a given category. That’s because what app is best for you really depends on your requirements. For example, if you’re a baseball fan then you wouldn’t be particularly interested in a cricket app – even if we recommended it. So what we’re doing in this series is showing examples of what kind of functionality is available on the iPhone. We suggest you then search the App Store for apps that suit your individual needs and wants.

    Managing Your Health

    A great example of the type of functionality health iPhone apps have these days, is an app that has held prime real estate on the home screen of my iPhone ever since I downloaded it. It’s called Diamedic and it’s where I manage my diabetes (I’ve had type 1 Diabetes since November 2007). I use Diamedic multiple times a day to record my blood sugar levels and insulin doses. I also use it to record my weight. It has a charting feature that I look at every now and then, so I can analyze my health. I can also send backups of my data to my email address.

    All of this functionality far surpasses what I could do with paper notebooks, which is how I recorded my diabetes data when I first got the condition. And I carry around my iPhone everywhere, so it’s always with me.

    I recently went to my G.P. for an annual diabetes check-up. I spent a good 10 minutes walking him through Diamedic. He told me he’s currently trying to decide on which smartphone to get, a Blackberry or an iPhone. He seemed surprised that I was able to manage my diabetes data on the iPhone – and he was certainly impressed by Diamedic. Indeed, I think I convinced him to buy an iPhone!

    There are many other apps for other ailments, so do a search in the App Store (one of the default options on your iPhone home screen) to find them.

    Tracking Your Fitness

    There are also many great iPhone apps available to monitor your fitness. A representative one that we found is iFitness. Described as "a personal trainer for your iPhone," the app lists over 260 exercises. It has text and photographic instructions for all of those exercises, with video for 100 of them.

    As with Diamedic, iFitness features exercise logging and graphing. In addition it has 12 routines for various goals; including weight loss, strength, golf program, and more. The app also allows you to create
    your own custom workout.

    This is just one of hundreds of fitness apps, so again we recommend you search for specific terms in the App Store (e.g. "fitness swimming" or "health asthma").

    Let us know in the comments if you have a favorite health or fitness iPhone app!

    Discuss


  • Weekly Wrap-up: The Week in Web Technology

    weekly_wrapup-1.pngThe big news of the week was Google launching its FriendFeed clone, Google Buzz – read on for our extensive coverage and analysis of this news. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web, Internet of Things and Augmented Reality.

    New! We’ve refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format.

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    Story of the Week: Google Buzz

    More Google Buzz coverage and analysis

    Mobile Web

    More Mobile Web coverage

    Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App

    We recently launched the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app. As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we’ve made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes.

    Facebook

    More Facebook coverage

    Real-Time Web

    More Real-Time Web coverage. Don’t miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb’s report, The Real-Time Web and its Future.

    ReadWriteStart

    ReadWriteStartOur channel ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.

    ReadWriteEnterprise

    ReadWriteEnterpriseOur channel ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to ‘enterprise 2.0’ and using social software inside organizations.

    ReadWriteCloud

    ReadWriteCloudOur channel ReadWriteCloud, sponsored by VMware and Intel, IS dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing.

    That’s a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

    Discuss


  • Kids on The Web: Are They Satisfied With Virtual Worlds and Games?

    For kids under 12 years of age, entertainment websites and virtual worlds are all the rage. My 8-year old daughter plays ToonTown a lot. Club Penguin and Moshi Monsters are also popular in this demographic. But are these types of sites fulfilling the potential and talent our kids have with technology?

    In order to help us answer that question, we’re asking those of you who are parents of a child aged 12 or under to do a short survey accompanied by your child. With this survey, co-hosted by Boston research firm Latitude, we’re hoping to discover what kind of web apps kids want but don’t necessarily have right now.

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    Are you the parent of a child 12 years or under? Click here to take a survey about how kids perceive the Web.

    We’ve previously looked at the most popular websites for kids and it was clear that entertainment sites had the greatest affinity with under 12s. There are strong social networking aspects to those sites and many of the popular ones come from television companies like Nick, Cartoon Network and Disney.

    Virtual worlds like ToonTown and Club Penguin are particularly popular with kids right now. In a recent New York Times article, University of California cultural anthropologist Mizuko Ito claimed that "children who play these games would see less of a distinction between their online friends and real friends." He also said that these types of online virtual worlds make kids "more likely to participate actively in their own entertainment" – in comparison to us oldies who grew up watching TV from the couch.

    We know that kids under 12 have been born into a world with myriad Internet-connected devices – PCs, mobile phones, video game systems and many more. Because they’re native to this device-laden world, kids understand technology more easily.

    I got a lesson in this over Christmas, when attempting to set up the Wii I’d just given to my daughter. I was grappling with a stubborn Wii console setting, getting a bit frustrated that it wasn’t doing what I wanted. Suddenly the remote was grabbed from my hands by my 8-year old. She promptly fixed the setting, in one click.

    Kids are also born multi-taskers and have a "desire for immediacy," as a recent USA Today article put it.

    Given all of these skills and an intuitive grasp of technology, I often wonder if kids are really getting the types of web sites and apps that they want. Is there something beyond entertainment from big corporations like Disney, for kids under 12? What’s more, because kids have a lot of technology-fueled creativity, can they help inform innovations for grown-ups?

    These questions are a big part of why we’re running the survey, which includes asking kids to draw a picture of "what would be really interesting or fun to do on your computer/the Internet that your computer can’t do right now?" So we encourage you to sit down with your child and do the survey. In return we’ll share the results with you on ReadWriteWeb and Life-Connected (Latitude’s blog). Click here to begin the survey.

    Photo credits: lindsayshaver; makelessnoise

    Discuss


  • Green Goose: Save Money Using Sensors

    Green Goose is a new financial management service that launched today, which connects sensor activity to your savings account. At first Green Goose sounded a little gimmicky. Using green Internet-connected eggs, it measures how much energy you expend on your bike or how much water you use in your shower – and transfers amounts from your checking account to your savings account based on the ‘savings’ you made doing those activities.

    What’s interesting though is that the savings are calculated based on the actions measured by small battery-powered, wireless sensors. You stick these sensors on your bike, thermostat, showerhead "and even your keychain."

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    Green Goose is a web-based service, along with "a very low-cost set of Savings sensors." – these are literally green eggs (see picture to the right). The web site tracks specific actions and behaviors from users – then computes that into dollars saved.

    Co-Founder Brian Krejcarek told ReadWriteWeb that’s "like a Twitter feed of personal green savings."

    Here’s how the sensor part works: the sensors communicate with a "Green Gateway" that then sends messages to the web site. The Green Gateway – which is also "egg-like" – has an Ethernet port that connects to your network hub via a router. The bike sensor measures miles ridden. Green Goose also plans to offer sensors for your automobile, shower (hot water), and thermostat (heating and cooling).

    In the future, Green Goose might also be able to pull savings data in "from open APIs like that proposed by Google Power Meter for savings earned by using less electricity." It also plans to eventually move beyond energy to capture savings earned from making "other lifestyle decisions."

    You can get started today with a "Green Goose Bike Sensor Kit," which retails for $49 plus $10 for postage. The Portland and San Francisco-based company is currently in talks with the BTA (Bicycle Transportation Alliance) in Portland and they’re already installed "in a number of coffee shops."

    As well as consumers, the service is targeting employers with a "a unique sustainable savings benefit" offering for their staff. One of the features for employers is managing and auditing details for the IRS bike commute tax credit.

    Green Goose is currently in pre-production and running beta trials. Right now it’s offering 100 Savings Kits for bicycle owners.

    Eventually this type of connection, between sensors and mainstream services like banking, will be commonplace and probably won’t need to rely on gimmicks such as green eggs. But for now, Green Goose seems like a cute, interesting Internet of Things service for green conscious early adopters to try out.

    Discuss


  • Survey: How Kids 12 & Under Use Web Technology

    Yesterday we posted a video from the Teens in Tech conference, looking at how teens perceive technology. Today we’re co-launching a survey which aims to find out how children 12 years and younger use web technology. We’ve partnered with Boston research firm Latitude, who developed the survey tool and will help us analyze the data. The survey will be open for 2 weeks, after which ReadWriteWeb and Latitude will list and analyze the results.

    If you’re the parent of a child 12 and under, then we invite you to participate in the survey by clicking here.

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    The study is open to all children aged 12 and under.
    It’s important to note that you DO NOT need to reveal the identity of your child. We’re super conscious of the privacy issues regarding children on the Web, so you may enter a nickname into the survey instead of your child’s real name.

    In a nutshell, here’s how the survey works. With you (the parent) always at the controls, the survey will ask your child to draw his or her response to a question. There is a special tool for you to upload the resulting drawing, in JPEG format. The survey will then gather some general information about the child’s computer use, which should only take 5-10 minutes.

    As explained in a background post by Latitude’s Kim Gaskins, the survey aims to discover how children use and understand Web technology, the environmental factors that contribute to these understandings, and the extent to which children can think ‘innovatively’ about web technology. The study also intends to deduce real-world applications from the drawings that the kids create.

    Click here to begin the survey process.

    Latitude is a research-driven consultancy for technology and media companies. It works with clients to discover and develop opportunities for next-generation content, software, and communications technologies through a combination of web-based applications and innovative research methods. Visit life-connected.com for other Latitude studies, or email [email protected] to learn more about working with Latitude.

    Discuss


  • Top 10 Web Widgets

    Widgets are mini web applications that you can insert into your website and/or social networks. They’re a popular way to add interesting third party content to your web presence. In this post we look at the top web widgets from Yola and Widgetbox. It’s clear from our analysis that widgets are well past the early adopter stage and are now very mainstream.

    Yola, the website building service formerly known as SynthaSite, sent us a list of the top 10 widgets for its 3 million plus community – many of whom are small business owners. We compare that list below with the most popular widgets from more consumer-focused Widgetbox.

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    Yola’s top 10 list tells us that Google widgets proliferate (4 of them are in the top 10), media widgets are popular (numbers 1, 4, 8) and communication widgets are well used (2, 5, 7).

    1. YouTube
    2. Blog Page Widget
    3. Google Ad Sense
    4. Flickr Lightbox
    5. Meebo Chat Room
    6. Google Maps
    7. Skype Me!
    8. Google Video
    9. Wufoo Form
    10. Collect Donation Widget

    It’s a little surprising that there’s no mention of Facebook or Twitter widgets, but perhaps in a few more months they will be in Yola’s top 10.

    For a more consumer-focused look at the most popular widgets, we checked out Widgetbox’s all-time Most Popular List. Widgetbox provides widgets for social sites – including MySpace, Blogger, Facebook, WordPress, TypePad and iGoogle. Their top 10 shows that gaming, fun and pregnancy tickers (!) are most popular.

    1. Super Mario Game
    2. Baby Ticker – The Baby Countdown Pregnancy Ticker
    3. cyber-pet
    4. Mario Time Trial
    5. Maukie – the virtual cat
    6. Bubbles
    7. Baby & Pregnancy Countdown Ticker
    8. MP3 Player
    9. Swidget 1.0
    10. Super Mario Bros (with Luigi)

    Neither list is especially surprising, but it’s good to see that widgets are being well utilized by mainstream people.

    Let us know if you have a favorite web widget and if so, where do you host it?

    Discuss


  • Mobile App or Browser-Based Site? Report Says The Browser Will Win on Mobile

    Mobile search company Taptu has released a detailed report showing that the future of the Mobile Web is likely to be dominated by cross-platform browser-based mobile web sites – rather than apps built specifically for iPhone, Android, or any other platform. Taptu calls the former "the Mobile Touch Web," which it defines as "Web sites created for mobile touchscreen devices,
    with finger-friendly layouts and lightweight pages that are fast to load over
    cellular networks."

    Taptu estimates that there are 326,000 Mobile Touch Web sites worldwide, which they say compares to 148,000 iPhone apps in the App Store and 24,000 apps in the Android market. Taptu expects the browser-based mobile web market to grow much faster than the app market.

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    What kinds of sites are more likely to be browser-based for mobile phones? According to the report, 19% of the mobile sites measured were Shopping & Services sites; compared to 3.6% in the same category
    in the App Store. Content in the ‘Social’ category also has a higher chance of being a browser-based mobile site, rather than an app (12.9% to 1.7%).

    Conversely, just 0.8% of mobile sites were gaming, compared to 18% of apps in the App Store. There is a similar discrepency in the ‘Entertainment’ category.

    It seems then that commerce services are taking more advantage of mobile web browsers than gaming and entertainment providers. But why? Taptu says it’s because "many [Commerce] products and services do not really fit into Apple’s iTunes content-oriented billing system." Meanwhile, gaming and entertainment content is better delivered as an app, says Taptu, "since apps deliver a much richer, more interactive gaming experience than the casual games available on the Mobile Web."

    Taptu says that the increasing sophistication of mobile browsers is one reason why browser-based mobile sites will flourish. In particular, it points to increasing support for HTML 5. See our analysis of Web vs. Native Mobile Apps if you’d like to know more about this.

    According to Taptu, "it’s getting easier and easier to create rich touch screen user experiences with the browser without having to create platform-specific apps." Taptu also points to increasing usage of open standard APIs, enabling Mobile Web developers to access "deeper device functions such as geolocation."

    Taptu does concede that gaming content will probably continue to be delivered predominantly as download apps on iPhone and similar devices. However it claims that for "many other types of app, the economics of software development and publishing favours the Web development route."

    Taptu predicts that "the Mobile Touch Web will grow vigorously over the next five years, and will approach the quality of user
    experience of Mobile Touch Apps across all the app categories except for
    games."

    We should note that Taptu is mostly a browser-based service, although it does offer apps for iPhone and other platforms too. But it obviously has a big stake in the success of the "touchscreen mobile web."

    What do you think, do you agree that the future of Mobile Web development will lie in browser-based mobile sites? Or do you think the pull of advanced functionality as an app (on platforms such as iPhone and Android) will draw most types of content and services over time?

    Update: The report is now available for download (PDF – 5MB) and a presentation is embedded below.

    .

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  • Social Networks for Things

    At the recent DLD Conference (Digital – Life – Design) in Munich, Germany, Esther Dyson moderated a panel on the Internet of Things. The subject of the discussion was giving identity to things, just as people have an identity. In essence, creating social networks for things.

    On the panel were Ulla-Maaria Engeström (Thinglink), Doug Krugman (Personal Commerce), Michael Silverman (ThingD). Dyson began by noting that people have always had identities and there are countless services for that, but things don’t have that yet. So, she asked, will there be networks for things?

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    Ulla-Maaria Engeström explained that her company Thinglink is about defining the relationships people have with things – who made them, who designed them, who manufactured them, who sells them, who owns them, who likes them. She said it is the "social graph of things" and that "every thing has their own social network."

    Engeström said that Thinglink began in 2005 by giving things identities via their product codes, a.k.a. Unique Identifiers. "People and things, they’re not too different," said Engeström, "they all connect." Thinglink is in private beta, it currently has 4000 beta users and launches later this Spring.

    ThingD is creating a registry of things, according to Esther Dyson. Michael Silverman from ThingD explained that his company is building "a database around all of the things in the world." Things like consumer products, horticulture, even pets.

    ThingD also has a platform built on top of the database, which connects people to the things in their lives. What interests you, what you like, own, or want to sell. It’s about how people identify themselves with things. Silverman said that the database currently has about 50 million things, maybe "north of 60 million." There are a few thousand early adopter users right now.

    Dyson then introduced the company REZZ.IT as "what eBay did for selling, [REZZ.IT does] for renting." Doug Krugman from REZZ.IT explained that "things have a network and their own audience." His company is about managing stuff: scheduling, classifying, content management, pricing, and more. Seeing what other people have, sharing things.

    Business Models for Networks of Things

    Dyson asked how REZZ.IT makes money off this. He responded that vacation rentals is their biggest market right now. REZZ.IT wants to provide people with the tools to manage those vacation rental assets, plus add a "transactional engine" to them. Other ‘things’ coming soon to REZZ.IT include apartment rentals, boats, planes.

    ThingD’s business model is linking people to things. They have signed up product retailers to beta test this.

    Thinglink’s business models are twofold. Firstly affiliates, for example people purchasing objects in photos. Their second business model is lifestyle brand communities – connecting people who like a company’s products, already own them, etc.

    Conclusion

    Overall, a very interesting discussion about the evolving networks for things. If web 2.0 was largely about social networks for people (which you can certainly argue it was), then the new generation of the web will add things to those networks and create new networks.

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