Steve's guests this week include, your's truly, Jason Calacanis, Sam Whitmore, Mike Arrington, Dan Farber, Mike Vizard, Robert Anderson and New York Times Bits columnist Saul Hansell.
I'm very glad to see that Steve is producing this independently. No more Pod.*. And Facebook will make a fascinating viral platform. It's good to experiment. Just open enough. He might even be able to measure the audience; might even be able to define the audience members, might even be able to invite the audience individually. Ah, the good old days of controlled circulation ... much better rates that way. And the list -- My God, he could sell the list! Elitism has its advantages.
What's newly powerful is that nearly any kind of content can be driven through these feeds -- from documents, spreadsheets, and data to video, blogs, podcasts and online HTML instruction manuals. Feed Bleeds allow for human knowledge in natural language to mingle and complement IT-based assets such as data, application services and automated event-driven processes. Think of it as broad integration on the cheap -- and fast.
A best example of the intersection between SOA and Web 2.0 here at the expo came in a discussion with JackBe, which is exploring more commonality between SOA activities and Web 2.0-type RIAs. What really grabbed me in my chat with JackBe CTO John Crupi was the recognition that governance needs to permeate beyond the server to the client -- to provide a two-way street for services use and access. And this malleable governance needs to be of a federated variety such that the top-down inputs and attention learning from the users can play a role within the larger guidelines set from the bottom up by IT.
BEA has been talking about the products for over a year under various code names, as the company prepared to dive into the turbulent waters of social computing. The new offerings, part of the AquaLogic suite, include AquaLogic Ensemble (formerly Project Runner), Aqua-Logic Pages (formerly Project Builder), and AquaLogic Pathways (formerly Project Graffiti).
So the Web 2.0 timing today makes it hard to make a buck -- with just a few notable exceptions. But again, as in the Web 1.0, the users are the winners. Web 2.0 is a subset of Enterprise 2.0, which is a subset of enterprise IT. It's great that you can choose to acquire these productivity benefits as SaaS or a stream or download. It's great that you can move your legacy toward SOA principles and benefits, while using the same methodologies to absorb Web 2.0/Enterprise services. Mashups make sense for all kinds of apps, not just Web 2.0 ones.
Chip Griffin has some interesting take-aways on the content creation process for Enterprise 2.0. I enjoyed his summation of John Furrier's points, and added some of my own comments. Take a look for more on how corporate content creation is entering a highly productive and efficient new era.
Yes, Intel has become the best new sugar daddy for Web 2.0, and the obvious new best greased skids for taking the concepts uptown to the enterprise. Cool.
The question is: What will be the alternatives for Web 2.0 business functions as either a service or a product suite? Microsoft? Or will there be an open source, non-Google set of alternatives? As much as I like Google and their business offerings, I'd like to see alternatives thrive in the marketplace. Look how well wikipedia does sans Google. Why not an open source Web 2.0 suite that remains, heavens ... commercial open source.
Perhaps I read too much Heinlein and Asimov as a teenager, but the kind of feeling I got reading science fiction then is the same type of feelings I get now while observing the unfolding of Knowledge 2.0.