However we are not there yet. If IOS wants to be a solution for more complex problems and more professional users, it has to rake its garden differently. Apps should be able to access other parts of the garden. Apps should be able to open and edit documents created in other apps. This might be asking for security problems, as one App does not know what security issues another App might introduce

And this is where Apple should come to the rescue. All apps are created the Apple’s Objective-C and uses Apple’s provided frameworks. This includes frameworks for file management and data-handling. Would it be possible to create more specific framework for MicroContent and Structure Content?

For example a bookmark framework would allow a developer to access a common bookmark store. It would be possible to retrieve bookmarks, add bookmarks and edit them. It is up to the developer to add functionalities as he sees fit. This bookmark store can be shared by any app that uses bookmarks. it is up to the developer to create bookmark management functionalities.

The preferred way to implement such bookmark management will be set by Apple in an app like Safari. Any app can implement functions to synchronize with its own service, such as delicious.

The advantage of letting Apple implement such a framework, is that only they can create safeguards in a framework. Any creation and addition has to go through their API’s. They can also implement export functions to create xbel-files, etc. And more importantly the import-functions.

A similar approach can be used for more complex documents. It should be possible to find a common document format. I guess this is most likely a Pages-format. It is then up to Apple to create conversion from doc or odt files.

Tags:

I am not so sure of the creation of an screen image. I would have preferred to have a PDF of the page for archiving purposes.

I am not sure how the Flipboard tweets work. Sometimes they appear as a retweet and sometimes as a tweet. The retweet happens only if I see a twitter image below an entry. Must investigate this further.

Tags:

So I am left with a very incomplete solution, where I must edit all the delicious items I create.

Tags:

Web-browser specific solutions do not work, as the store bookmarks only locally. With the advent of iCloud this changed for Safari. My bookmarks are now distributed and exchanged between my Apple-based devices. I am not sure whether I can access my bookmarks on icloud.com using any web-browser. It is clear however that this is only a Apple-specific solution. Furthermore Safari is a lousy solution to manage some 3000 bookmark items that I have at the moment.

The previous post on bookmark creation showed that I now have a storage solution in my bookmark twitter account and in my email bookmark mailbox. This is OK for storage, but not a management and access solution.

Already many years in the past I chose Delicious as my bookmarks solution. On my Mac I have an application (WebNoteHappy) that synchronises with Delicious. WebNoteHappy stores the bookmarks locally. I can either create a bookmark right in Delicious or in WebNoteHappy. On my Mac I create a bookmark in WebNoteHappy, which uploads it to Delicious (does this work also the other way around?).

Unfortunately with my iPad this workflow broke. There is no WebNoteHappy for IOS. And the browsers do not allow me to bookmark to Delicious. Fortunately Delicious has created a link with Twitter. Delicious can listen to a Twitter-account and create a bookmark when it sees an uri in a tweet. So that is what I did.

A few years ago it was unclear whether Delicious was going to survive and indeed not much innovation happened. I pulled all my bookmarks out Delicious and put it in an alternative service: Pinboard. A new bookmark provider would break my Mac workflow, but at least my bookmarks were saved. Delicious is still around, so I continue using it. There was mention of WebNoteHappy supporting the Pinboard API, but I do not know whether that happened.

Pinboard also follows my Twitter-bookmark account and allows for bookmark creation by email. So my bookmarks are now created in at least two places. This brings me to The problem of synchronisation and consistency. I know that not all my bookmarks are in Pinboard. They are however in Delicious. So I could restart Pinboard sometime. Or find a synchronisation solution. It seems best to keep one solution as leading storage. It used to be WebNoteHappy, but now I will move to Delicious.

I have not yet found a local IOS solution for bookmarks. And then I mean a solution, which has its own database of bookmarks. As the integration with other browsers seems impossible, there do exists bookmark solutions with their own embedded browser (which?). But that is not what I want. I do not want a browser for each of my MicroContent types. So I had to go for another solution.

There exist apps that access Delicious and Pinboard. Delicious has its own free iPhone app, which is to limited for me. I am trying now the app dbd, which can function as frontend to either Delicous or Pinboard. This fits my bill very well. I have now my bookmarks available on my iPad. The app allows me to edit bookmarks (including delete) and I can view the corresponding web-page with an embedded browser. The thing that is missing is the Pinboard-Delicious synchronisation, which would make the two services interchangeable.

Tags: Personal, Theory

The first step is the creation of a Bookmark MC item. Usually this is triggered by something that I read in a browser. Remember that a bookmark item consists of an uri, a title, tags and a note. The export function of a browser should allow me to create those elements.

I use either Safari, 1Password or Mercury as browsers. These apps allow me to export through Mail, Message or Twitter. Message is a messaging app from Apple with which I have experience yet. Message gives me the feeling of a closed system. In addition Mercury also allows me to export to Facebook or Evernote.

It also possible to Bookmark an item in Safari, but this puts a bookmark into the Apple Eco-system. I think these bookmarks are synchronized through iCloud and can also appear on Safari on other systems. 1Password does not have a bookmarking function. Mercury does allow the creation of bookmarks and can synchronize with Chrome and Firefox bookmarks. Thus also Chrome and Firefox have an ecosystem of sorts.

For me I can realistically only use Mail or Twitter. These two export options do not rely on a single application or ecosystem. Although the use of single provider Twitter is worrisome. These two export options allow me create a bookmark MC item of sorts.

Starting with the Twitter export option and going through each element of the Bookmark MC item:

 
• uri - all the apps automatically add the uri of the current page to the tweet.
 
• title/note - One can add some text that either is a title or a note (not sure how to distinguish these two).
 
• tags - and naturally one can add some hashtags as tags.
 
• location - It is also possible to add optionally a location to a tweet. I am not sure how to use this.

The email export facility is a bit more advanced:

 
• title - the title of the current webpage is added as email subject;
 
• uri - the uri is added as body text;
 
• tags - one can add tags in hastag-format;
 
• note - one can add some additional text to the email body. As this text is not preceded by either http or a #, one knows it is a note;

But one of the most important parts of creation has not been discussed: where should the tweet or mail message go to? My solution has been to create a specific Twitter-account for my bookmark tweets. I do not use the mail creation solution yet, but I should do something similar by creating a bookmark mail account.

Now that I have my bookmarks in a cloud storage solution, I can think about other functions that I need.

Tags:

I am somewhat in between past and future with my setup. I am still using an old PowerPC iBook from 10 years ago. It is still working to satisfaction although no new software updates are available. So I am missing out on the newest software and features. I do not have a portable, I still have no need for such a device. I do have an iPad for some 5 months now. I am very happy with the iPad and I love the Retina screen. The iPad can replace 80% of my computer work, so I use it much more than I hoped to.

I am not a great cloud user yet. I setup the iCloud, but in my current setup it does not have extra value. iCloud is not available on my old iBook. This means that when I want to move data from and to the iPad, I have to use one of the other clouds: Dropbox or Evernote. And I also use Google Docs for some data. And finally I do host some things myself, such as email and blogs (this one). I have on experience with any Android or Microsoft specific clouds.

So we have many types of devices and providers and there is a big chance that one gets locked in. I am already pretty locked into the Apple ecosystems, but I am trying to keep some independence. Especially my data should be independent from a provider and application. And if I am dependent, I demand an export function to get independence from providers and applications. This implies also that there must an import-function to get at old data.

These demands are nothing new, however my usage of the iPad shows that I need some additional measures to keep my independence. I view the iPad as a restrictive platform. I am unable to mix data from one app to another one. The approach of sandboxing an app hinders me. I see (and like) the advantage of being free of virus, trojan horses, etc. Integrity and safety of my device are more important than independence. So I have to add independence elsewhere.

I intend to look at various MicroContent types to see how I can keep my independence and what my demands should be on providers, apps, devices and applications in order to be part of my MicroContent Eco-system. Now that I have more experience with my iPad, I will try to move to the next level.

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In the case of platform control, Apple seems to be the best target of these discussions. It is however not a black/white discussion. I would argue that Apple is in effect one of the more open platforms. At the other end of the scale one can think of gaming platforms, such as the PS3, WII, Nintendo-3DS. And nobody complains of the lack of openness of the latter. The problem is that the iOS-platform reminds people of the PC (or Mac), which is (are) at the other end of the spectrum.

The Android-platform was poised to be an open platform. However Android reseted a development environment and many independent Android-platforms have been created. Each Android-platform has it’s own controlling corporation, which determines who can publish on their platform, how it works with platform upgrades etc. I did not follow all the details, but the Android-world seems to have become less open than iOS.

The degree of openness seems also related to the user experience offered and thus to the target user group. Consumer Electronics has always been a closed environment. For me, Apple succeeded in creating a fairly open consumer experience and thus offering high end computing to a much larger user group. Windows or MacOSX never succeeded at this. With all platforms allowing access to Internet-services and having a very large amount of apps, I am not much worried here.

I am much more worried about service control. There are multiple services which seem to control to much content and to many users. Facebook and Twitter come to mind here. Facebook (the mini-Internet) can be circumvented, which I did. I am not a Facebook user, so not a specialist. There are however Facebook-service which are reaching into the rest of the Internet. I think of the like-button, which give Facebook to much control of public appreciations. The same is true of the Google +1-button.

The control of Twitter is even more worrisome. A single provider that controls a worldwide notification network! Attempts by US congress to control users here clearly indicates that things need to open up here.

What I am missing is are attempts to standardise services in an IETF-way. We could use a set of standards on which we could base a like/+1 network. Or a client-server or server-server set of specifications on which we could base a Twitter-like network.

And a key ingredient of such a standardisation drive should be a common set of MicroContent-definitions, which would allow us the interchange, save, import, export, backup all kinds of MicroContent. Do not let a corporation control your MicroContent either.

Tags: MicroContent

I agree with him that linking is essential. The (perma-)link is the basis of MicroContent as well. Dave Winer says that you would otherwise get closed data silos. He prefers to stay in the web. And I agree there

I wonder however whether the two (apps and web) are incompatible. I am not up to date with MicroContent in the newest (mobile) apps. However on my Mac, MicroContent applications are for me the way to consume data. It is my preferred way to follow the new, either through NetNewsWire for rss of YoruForuku for twitter. And naturally these contain browser-links, which open in my browser. For me the web-browser is an unfortunate in-between, I would rather go directly to the corresponding rss-item.

So it all depends how app-developers view this and whether they allow links, or not.

Tags: MicroContent

At it’s heart Google Plus is a blog aggregator / reader, and a lousy one at that. I much prefer to read my blogs (i.e. RSS-feeds) in NetNewsWire. Google Plus uses the Combined View layout of NetNewsWire. It is a layout that I do not like, it is not efficient enough to my liking. I like to skim headlines and go from headline to headline quick.

But it is also the way people use Google Plus. Some write original posts and thus G+ becomes a blogging service. Others republish their posts from their blogs and it becomes just another venue. Others use it as a bookmarking service, where they post URL’s with (hopefully) a small comment. And yet others use it as a photo publishing service. And again other use it as a microblogging-service.

It is nice that G+ is so diverse, but your blogging service could have done the same. For me it becomes to much. I have to inefficiently wade through posts in order to find a gem. I prefer the short messages of Twitter, where I can quickly scan and decide whether I want to dive in. G+ forces me to see all.

The discussions of G+ are an interesting feature. Normally I do not engage quickly into a discussion, but on G+ I tend to react more often. I am not sure that I want to do that, time is short. When I read a blog in my newsreader, I hardly ever descend to the blog-webpage in order to react. In my Tweet-reader I react much more often with either replies and/or retweets. This makes a lower quality channel. And my blog(s) become a higher quality channel. And it is up to the reader to chose the quality level they want to follow.

I do the same when following people, I decide what part I want to see of them. Some I follow on twitter and other on their blogs. I also can decide on the nature and type of content I want to follow. A granularity that G+ does not give me.

What is left is the whole circle thing of G+. I do not see the value of it. I never really used it the last days. I do not use it to filter my stream. I either follow somebody or I don’t. The same goes for posting: I always post to public and I leave the decision up to the reader to decide whether he wants to see it.

And finally there are some fundamental things about G+ that I do not like. I want to own what I publish. Of everything that I write a copy stays on my machine and my backups. I publish myself on my own blogs. And I republish with some service providers. I want to get my data out of a service. And I want RSS-feeds so that I can decide how I consume the content.

Well, I will follow G+ for a while more, engage from time to time, follow some people in my RSS-reader and see whether things change.

Tags: MicroContent, client, service, mashing, type, blog

I sure agree with him that a lot is lacking.

Tags: MicroContent, type, blog

But let’s first look at the MicroContent in this service. I would like to call the blog-MicroContent, a blog-post. This post consists of a piece of text with a permalink. Note that there is no title for a post. One can add a photo/image, a video and/or an URL to a post. An URl is in addition extended with a title, a desription and an image. See this post as an example of this.

And that is about it. There exists a photofeed-page with photo’s of the people you subscribe to, but the photo’s do not appear as separate items with a permalink. There is potentially other MIcroConten, such as the photo’s, the attched links, personal profiles, comments, ratings (+1’s), network, etc.

As a MicroContent application/service it also lacks all kind of features. I could try to apply my client checklist to this service, but I already see that it would rate very low, so why bother?

So what leaves me to comment on are the aggregation features. From left to right on my screen. The stream-circle filter is nice if you have feed overload or want to focus what you read. Sparks: another feed directory? Chat: OK. In the middle with have the stream of posts of my subscriptions.

I like the comments in the stream, the ratings and reposts. But then I talk about the user interface. Strange that we still do not have an Internet standard, which can work which support this kind of aggregation possibilities. And finally on the right I see my subscription list, suggestions (very unuseful), hangout (videochat).

I guess the innovative feature is the user directory and management of circles. I am underwhelmed. What is wrong with the creation of folders? Or is the drag&drop; an invention? Or is it the wording? Circles sounds easier than folders.

In conclusion: I am underwhelmed. I do not see where the progress.

Tags: MicroContent, type, blog

There have been already many good articles explaining the iCloud and describing the differences between the Apple, Google and Amazon approach to the cloud. Check out my Delicious icloud tag to get started.

What I get out of the iCloud is the idea of a data-centered approach. Apple talks about documents, but you might also think of MicroContent data. This data is centrally stored in the Apple iCloud and pushed to any of your iDevices. Any changes to the data locally on an iDevice is uploaded and distributed between your registered iDevices. So from a user point of view you no longer have to worry where your data is, you just have it.

So far so good. This basic idea however leaves various questions open and we will see how these are filled in.

The first is how conflict resolution is solved. This happens when the same data has been changed on different devices. Which version is then the good one? The suggestion is that Apple will decide which version is the best one, the truthful one. So no pop-up windows where the user has to decide. And if you do not agree you can revert back to another version.

The iCloud is really an Apple realm. It only concerns the data for your iDevices. it is unclear how this will include a windows PC. As no synching with iTunes is necessary anymore, no backup is necessary neither, iTunes on a PC is no longer needed. Or will this be limited to audio, video and images only?

In a larger context one wonders whether there are possibilities that non-iDevices can be included in the iCloud. I would guess the answer is no. Getting things out the iCloud and into the iCloud will still be called exporting and importing and left to an iApp.

There is still some discussion whether Apple will add a web-interface to the iCloud. However the discussion seems to be linked to a MobileMe replacement service, which is a publishing question. What if you want to access your iCloud data on a non-iDevice through a web-browser?

The data in the iCloud will be mainly personal, it is all about your data and having that available to you in the easiest possible way. Would we like to synch that data with other clouds, which ones? The Google cloud? Undoubtedly services will appear that do this for you.

Finally what about publishing data for others. Will the iCloud offer web-hosting, just like MobileMe? And how transparent will this be? Will there be links with other services, like YouTube, Flickr, etc? Or will this be handled through the iApps? This integration can be interesting and it is where MicroContent can surface.

At the moment we just have to wait.

Tags: MicroContent

Before moving to Internet services, let’s look at some regular services.

Public transportation, such as bus, train or plane transport can be seen as fundamental. Disallowing access to transport implies that one can not well function in a society. Not being able to go to work, hospital, etc. is surely a punishment.

For shopping services one can argue the same. Not being able to get your groceries will surely put you in trouble. And not being able to pay for your groceries as well, which brings us to payment services. If you deny a bank account to someone, the person can no longer receive his wages, pay for his bills or use a payment card in a shop. This surely denies the person a good participation in society. Therefore transaction and banking services should be seen as fundamental services.

This argument of fundamental services is well defended in the NY Times editorial. And surely not everyone agrees with this. However by now we see some financial services as essential and worthy of protection by governments. So clearly there is a discussion of fundamental services that must be protected.

However does there exist the concept of fundamental consumer services? Services where businesses can not deny access? In some countries Internet Access are seen as a fundamental right, which can not be denied to its citizens.

I wonder whether these fundamental services are a new concept? This might be due to the fact that parts of society are now dominated by businesses and they can determine who gets access. In the past we did not have those large businesses. I can think of the postal services, but usage of their services is (was) pretty anonymous. Nobody knew who put the stamp on the letter. With the electricity service things already become unclear. Can they deny service to persons that they do not like? I think not. They can only deny service to persons that do not pay and even that might be hard in some countries. The same is true for telecommunication services. Depending on the country the minimal service is that one can call 112 (911), so there is a view on a minimal fundamental service as well.

Internet has complicated these things even further. If you want to see Paypal as a fundamental service, you should see Internet Access as a fundamental service. In a few countries this has happened, although in others three strike laws seem to go in the other direction. It seems no services on top of Internet are seen as fundamental. As Internet progresses I guess such a discussion will be inevitable. These services will be the same as the classic ones (mail, payment). And even hosting might be seen as fundamental for press freedom.

There should be a discussion on fundamental right services. These are services that are defined and protected by law. If a business offers a service in this category, then businesses can not deny access to customers. Only judicial intervention can deny access.

Examples of such services are:

• transportation (bus, train);
• postal;
• banking (account holding);
• payment (usage of cards);
• telecommunication (access to emergency services);
• internet access;

And probably there are more.

Tags: MicroContent

Tags: MicroContent, client

Tags: MicroContent

Tags: MicroContent

Fortunately there are now many mapping solutions that can help here. I mainly use the Google Maps and Google Earth products. Google Maps is great for describing trips made by road. Google Maps allows you to fix a trip to a road. But to create trips by foot, I prefer to use Google Earth, as it usually offers more resolution.

Unfortunately the Google products are a bit limited. If I want to add waypoints, I have to add extra locations. I can not clamp these locations to the trip. And there are no options to add any metadata in a structured way. I assume that there is no format that does this.

Adding images to a trip is even more complicated. I would like to drag geocoded images into Google Earth and clamp them as special waypoints to a trip.

I am still looking around for other solutions to create Trips MicroContent, but it seems that Google Earth will be my main startpunt. I start with the creation of a folder, add the trip to this folder and points for photos, waypoints, etc. Then I export the folder as KMZ-file for usage elsewhere.

Tags: MicroContent

First: what are we talking about. I do not have a nice definition, but Trips MicroContent captures a sequential movement by a person, such that it can be repeated by another person. Sounds pretty abstract, but that makes it more interesting.

And this can be seen as MicroContent. It can be contained in a single file (KL for instance). And this file can be published on Internet, so it will get a permalink (an URI). It has a title, description, etc. In fact we could write up a XSD for it. Such a KML can be viewed in a local MicroContent client (Google Earth), uploaded to a MicroContent Service such as Google Maps. And there are many other services that accepts this file format.

Without being exhaustive a Trip MicroContent contains fields, such as a title, a description, transportation means used, participants to a trip, date executed, duration of trip and most important a sequential list of geographic locations. This list shows how the trip was executed. Some of these locations are special and are called waypoints. Such the begin- and endpoint is a waypoint. Also locations where the participants used directions to go another way are waypoints. If photos or videos are taken during a trip, then one could define these as waypoints. The possibilities seem limitless.

Tags: MicroContent, definition

• Diary (in dutch) - which is basically for friends who want to know what we are up to;
• Hovering Above - more about personal interests, such as computing;
• MicroContent Musings - my interest in MicroContent related stuff;
• iMdb - with the movies I watched;
• LibraryThing - with the books about the house and read;
• CellarTracker with the wines we drank;
• Dopplr with the larger travels I did;
• Delicious with the articles I read and want to keep around;
• Twitter - with my tweets;
• Last.fm with the music I listen to;
• Flickr with the photos, etc. that I posted;
• Youtube with the videos that I published (very few) and saw on Youtube;
• Sundials - the sundials that I saw;;
• Capsules my experiments to create a database with collectables;

I have been playing with other types of MicroContent as well:

• Maps on Google - there does not seem to be an associated rss-feed;
• Recipes - not happy with this solution;
• Iusethis with the applications that I use;

And I probably missed some streams now. I will add them later;

And naturally all this information can be combined into a single Lifestream feed, by using Yahoo Pipes.

In order to get an overview of possible applications, I had a look in the Home&Learning; category of the downloads section at Apple. And I had a look at the wine tag at iUseThis. I found the following applications:

• Cadent wineCellar has a very weird user interface, very unmac like. I am not even interested in downloading it;
• MacGourmet has an option to record wines and tasting. It is however not a full featured wine app;
• mi-wine(m) - I aborted the installation of this application right away. The installation procedure was already un-mac like. No hope for the rest;
• OpenCellar is a Java-based application, so I will not have a look at it;
• Vinoteka looks like a very interesting application. I like the integration with CellarTracker. Unfortunately there is no export option to tab-delimited format. However I will keep an eye on this one;
• Weinkeller is to basic and has not been update for more than a year;
• Wine XT is my standard wine application for a very long time. I miss a method for publishing, integration with an Internet wine database and most of all an export function. However it is still my preferred wine cellar application on the mac.

There are several applications on the iPhoneOS that support wine tastings. Cor.kz looks interesting as it has integration with CellarTracker. I noticed wineSnob, OpenCellar, Drync. And there are many apps that help you to buy a wine.

In conclusion, there is no service/application/app combo that fits my bill. For the moment I continue with CellarTracker, Cor.kz and WineXT.

Tags: MicroContent, client, application, wine, cellar

My lifestream consists of blogs, tweets, bookmarks, pictures, wine tastings, book readings, movie/DVD viewings, music listenings, holiday trips, collections, recipes, social networks, applications (what did I forget?).

In order to log this, I use a combination of software and service solutions. I like to keep things to myself, i.e. on my computer, and there are things that I like to publish. I like to have access via internet, via multiple devices and via dedicated applications.

I like to be independent from services and applications. So any app or service should support import and export options. The same is true for publishing, so I self-publish as much as possible.

Tags: MicroContent

I think it all started with the Address Book application. This standard address book already existed during the NeXT-period. This application allows a user to manage contact information about persons. For each person (or business) the application creates a card. These cards are stored in a data silo (AddressBook.data). This data silo is a closed one, i.e. I am not able to look into it, but through the AddressBook application. As other applications also like to use address information, Apple created an API in order to get access (and change) this data. So what one sees here is a closed data structure, which is only accessible through Apple created and authorised API’s. Note that in NeXTstep this silo was more open, i.e. one could see the individual cards as separate files.

With the introduction of MacOSX a more structured approach towards file organisation was chosen. We saw the introduction of standard folders for Pictures, Movies, Music and Documents. This approach is also inherited from NeXTstep, but has been extended to more file types. Naturally the corresponding application such as iTunes and iPhoto stored their data in these folders.

However there is no guarantee that users did indeed store their corresponding data in these folders. When starting iTunes for the first time, it asked the user if it should consolidate all the music files of the users. This implied that all the files iTunes could find would be copied into the iTunes music folders. And there is still a preference for making a copy of music files when importing. And iPhoto has taken a similar approach to images. In addition iTunes and iPhoto force a detailed folder structure.

In the beginning we only had open silo’s. Users could still access the individual files through the Finder. A drawback of this is that users can corrupt the database. So for iPhoto Apple closed this hole (I am not sure at what version of the app this happened). They hid the photo file structure in a package, which is not easily accessible. In the file browser a user will see just a single file for the entire library.

With the closing of the images folder structure a real data silo has been created. As images are no longer easy to access through the browser, another access method is required. For their applications, such as Pages, Apple introduced the Media Browser. Through this Media Browser window users can access the data silos of iPhoto and iTunes and the Movies folder.

Unfortunately this is only a limited access to the images and music. It could be extended to the whole pictures and music folders. Also the usage of this media browser approach seems to be limited to applications created by Apple. As a solution to this Karelia introduced the iMedia Browser. With this iMedia browser one can access the entire pictures and music folder.

The number of microcontent types which have a corresponding data silo is slowly growing. The iMedia Browser added the microcontent type links. This window pane maps the bookmark folders of various web browsers. Also iTunes added a whole series of subcategories for ‘music’ (audiobooks, movies, iTunes U, applications), which diluted the idea of the music folder. However with time the iTunes app enlarged the coverage of this data silo to other MicroContent types. I am not sure whether this is a good thing though.

In addition to these Apple data silo’s, we have also application specific silo’s. Thus an application such as MacGourmet has it’s own database for recipes, which is not sharable with other recipe applications.

With the advent of the iPhoneOs we see another closing step. No longer a file browser is available to the users. There are only application specific data silo’s. No longer the user can mess with the files. If an application would like to use another data silo, it has to go through Apple defined API’s. This access method might entail a privacy risk, which need to be closed. This security risk also exists under MacOSX, but seems less relevant because less application are installed.

It seems that Apple has created some other data silo’s, but it is unclear which without access to the developer tools. Hardcore users are able to access the folders and files on the iPhone. The usage and access to this folders is deemed illegal by Apple.

The iPad seems to extend the idea of data silo’s to any document type. The idea seems to be that each application has it’s own silo. Naturally the iPad knows the standard MicroContent types as pictures and music. But we also see YouTube Video’s and iBooks. This is a fairly logical extension. However they also use the idea for more generic document types, such as presentations. The application suite iWork for the iPad also supports a media browser, so there is a method to mix MicroContent types.

For users I guess this is all a good development. Things will become much easier. I hope however that an extra method, such as tags, of organising files will introduced. I have doubts whether the current approach is sufficient when there are lots of files (or should I say MicroContent Items?).

Tags: MicroContent, mashing, type, audio, bookmark, video

I always wonder if it would be worthwhile to creat interface guidelines for MicroContent clients. Especially for the iPad these seems more and more relevant.

Tags: MicroContent

The iPad will extend this idea even further. Each file will be part of it’s own application. This is very similar to the idea of MicroContent. As you see I am reluctant to call this MicroContent as we are talking about large and complex content (presentations, spreadsheets or documents) if we talk about the iWork apps. One of the similarities are the visual aspect. Microcontent is visually easy to comprehend. Apple stresses always this visual aspect as well when they talk about presentations or spreadsheets.

I still have to ponder this a bit more…

Tags: MicroContent, definition

This beckons the question of what is unwanted or illegal information and whether you can or should do something against it. What is illegal in one country is not illegal in another country. The ‘Right to be Forgotten’ exists in one country, but not in another (cf). And does this imply that this information is removed from archives as well? Or only by online access? Aren’t we rewriting/forging history then?

historic information is often unwanted, as it has repercussions for the present. Your new employer finds your kinky pictures on Facebook. Your present employer finds your CV on the Internet and fires you for disloyalty. And probably you are unable to prevent want is published on the Internet. So cleaning is just not possible. One needs to find another tactic.

The tactic I prefer is to take one’s reputation in one’s own hands. Create a blog, show who you are, get involved. Your information will drown any defamation present on the Internet. Make sure that the top 100 answers in Google are really about you and under your control. And hopefully people do not search any deeper.

And if you want to publish filth, use an alias that can not be tracked to you. This might need some education and is maybe a business opportunity.

But most of all, employers, journalists, governments, etc, must be educated on the use of data they find on the Internet and learn to put things in perspective. Or we will just end up with grey, boring people in important positions.

Tags: MicroContent

The question is however the relation between MicroContent (the drops) and Google Wave. And I am inclined to concluded that there is no relation at all. The most important aspect of MicroContent, the permalink, seems to be missing in Google Wave. Google Waves is all about creating, sharing, editing and extending waves. These waves seems to be very large documents, which can be distributed to multiple readers and authors. It was not clear from me whether I could use parts of a wave in another one. This would imply referencibility and an important MicroContent aspect.

The other aspect is structure. Out of the box there does not seem to be any, although one can add it later on (example with forms in the video). However a piece of text can be split and be edited by multiple persons, so each piece of text could be seen as a piece of MicroContent. One can also add links, images and videos to the text to create rich text. The editing by multiple persons reminds of a Wiki, which did not have much to do with MicroContent either.

The examples of Twitter integration show that #googlewave can support MicroContent and add new levels to create mashups and threading. In order to be a good MicroContent environment also importing and exporting should be supported, which seems to be already partially done through the api’s. So for a final assessment we have to wait. It looks very interesting and can give a new idea to documents and wiki’s.

Tags: MicroContent, mashing

Since a long time I am a user of Twitterific. It is a simple client that seemed a nice fit to Twitter. You get a small icon in the menu bar, which changes colour once a new tweet arrives. Clicking on that icon unhides a special window, with a sequential list of the latest tweets. Each tweet shows an icon, the name of the author and the tweet itself. Authors and url’s have a different colour and link to the Twitter-site. Each tweet can be acted upon, such as a reply tweet, etc. Twitterific also interacts with Growl, so that each new tweet is presented on the screen for a short time.

Twitterific is really a downsized MicroContent Client. The new Twitter clients however show that a real full-sized client for Twitter has its rightful place on the Mac.

The first Client is Tweetie. The first thing that stands out is the sidebar with four options. With this the user can select his timeline, reply, direct messages and search. Very nice if you want to zoom in. I think I will like the search option. C licking on a tag will create a new tab with a corresponding search. Thus the tabs will show your history. The same happens if you click on a @username. This client also supports multiple Twitter accounts. It is also very easy to post images.

And then there is Nambu, which brings Twitter in the real MicroContent Client age. This Client has a real sidebar (list view pane) with categories (Twitter, Links, Nambu, Search). The Links category shows all tweets with url’s that I have recieved and sent. The Nambu category seems to be related to a Nambu url shortener and picture uploader.

The search category has a standard list with the most used words in tweets (current/today/this week). I do not know how long ‘current’ is. But Susan Boyle is on top in all three trend periods. The most important category is naturally the Twitter category with standard subcategories: home, mentions, direct, sent, favorites, people and groups.

Tweets are shown in standard inverse time order with the user icon, twittername/full name, tweet time and the tweet itself. One can easily reply, retweet or private tweet. (and can I recognize other Nambu user tweets?). Nambu indicates which tweets are unread. As all tweets seemed too be stored locally, it is possible to delete all tweets, read tweets, set all as read, etc. It also easy to follow/unfollow. Very nice is the possibility to translate tweets easily. It did work well for japanes and korean tweets.

A tweet is parsed such that hashtags, links and users are found. Clicking on a hashtag creates a search list for that hashtag (sweet). Clicking on a username opens a new window with the tweets for that user. It is then easy to follow or block that user. Interestingly shortened urls are expanded, so that you can see where they point to.

The people category can show information of your social network (followers and following) on an image grid. Hovering over an icon shows the information on that person. Groups allows you to define a group of people from the ones you are following, so that you are no longer overwhelmed. This again shows feed. (I guess people should be moved to a separate category).

Nambu is a very interesting Twitter client. I will continue using it.

Nambu should work on its menu bar. That is now totally beyond logic. There is also a secondary tool bar. This tool bar is different for each list. I get however the impression that it could be part of the main toolbar.

Tags: MicroContent, field, tag, type, blog

This is a great service if you want to get rid of disambiguation. each service offers a profile page. This is basically a page with links to your profiles elsewhere. Each service also offers badges with this info. I prefer the Retaggr badges here, nicer styled.

Find my profile on Profilactic here. Now I have to signup and checkout all these services.

Tags: MicroContent

This is a very interesting application. I do not understand why they use the weird interface, let me at least select another, standard one.

I have a feeling that the standard way of finding files, the Finder, is slowly morphing into something else with all these addon’s and applications. Time for Apple to step forward here.

Tags: MicroContent, client, application, field, tag

These services also call themselves identity aggregators, but I find them to fall short in this respect. By the way I am talking about Naymz and LookUpPage.

As a free service they do not offer much, one could better create a profile at LinkedIn or Xing.

Tags: