I was in Europe for the past week and half, ending up in Leuven, Belgium to speak at the Twiist.be conference. The topic of my talk was “The Open, Social Web.” (PDF) http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayerd.swf?doc=thedisoproject-090515121321-phpapp02&rel=0&stripped_title=the-open-social-web At first I struggled to develop a compelling or sensible narrative for the talk — as there is so much to it … Continue reading "The open, social web"| Factory Joe
It dawned on me recently that, not only are we in a period of great change and transformation, but that those of us who have been working on the web to make it a more social and humane place have only barely begun the process of taking the “personality-ization” (not “personalization”) and connectedness that we … Continue reading "Comixology and the future of connected commerce"| Factory Joe
I’d originally intended to respond to Joshua Schacter’s post about URL shorteners and how they’re merely the tip of the data iceberg, but since I missed that debate, Google has fortuitously plied me with an even better example by releasing custom profile URLs today. My point is to reiterate one of Tim O’Reilly’s ever-prescient admonishments … Continue reading "Google Profiles, namespace lock-in & social search"| Factory Joe
Let me state the problem plainly: in order to provide better service, it helps to know more about your customer, so that you can more effectively anticipate and meet her needs. But, pray tell, how do you learn about or solicit such information over the course of your first interaction? Moreover, how do you go … Continue reading "Portable Profiles & Preferences on the Citizen-Centric Web"| Factory Joe
Prompted by posts by Randy Reddig and Tony Stubblebine and a conversation with Elliott Kember, I wanted to address, yet again, the big fat stinking elephant in the room: OpenID usability and the paradox of choice. Elliott proposed a pretty clear picture of what he thinks OpenID should look like on StackOverflow, given the relative … Continue reading "Does OpenID need to be hard?"| Factory Joe
I’ll be attending the upcoming Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) May 18-20, 2009 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The event started in 2005 and has become a staple …| Factory Joe