Insight Into Google Development, The Future of OpenSocial and the Social Web

This is one of the richest interviews we have ever given. If you know the
right questions to ask someone like Kevin Marks, you can come pretty close
to predicting the next couple years of Google’s technology objectives.

Who is Kevin Marks?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Marks

Kevin Marks is a Developer Advocate for Open Social at Google, bringing
external developers and Google engineers together to make a better web.
Over the last 20 years he’s alternated between giant companies and founding
startups - BBC, The UK MultiMedia Corporation, Apple QuickTime, Technorati
and now Google. The common thread has been working out how people,
computers and media can complement each other, and solving the engineering
and social problems where they meet. He is one of the driving forces behind
microformats.org and advisor to the Open Rights group. He wants you to
remember that URLs are people too.

CNET Credits Kevin Marks for the genesis of podcasting as he was a primary
developer of the program that downloads RSS-enclosure audio files and
transfers them to Apples I-tunes music player so they could be synchronized
onto the I-Pod. Later this became know as podcasting. (This is why
Feedburner has two feed options, one for podcasting and one for direct
feeds).

Here are some of the major topics and controversial questions covered in
this interview:

- How many Open Social applications exist at Google?

- Why is the concept of “data portability” a misnomer?

- How does Social Graph work with the publicly declared connections, XHTML
friends networks, XFN markup and FOAF (friend of a friend)?

- Google did not create a unique crawler for XFN and FOAF. (This has been
heavily debated and Kevin puts this controversy to rest).

- What are Google’s plans for XFN and FOAF as it relates to Search Engine
Optimization? (This has been heavily debated and Kevin puts this
controversy to rest).

- What does it mean (exactly) that Googlebot follows XFN and FOAF? (This
has also been heavily debated and Kevin puts this controversy to rest).

- XFN markup and FOAF were originally designed to display the distributed
networks and social relationships to the general public. How should you
prepare for where this is all going?

- What are the security risks and concerns regarding all of these publicly
revealed social networks.

- What is an “activity stream” and how do you avoid mixing your friends
from Church with your friends at the night club?

- Because Googlebot follows publicly declared connections via FOAF and XFN
it should be easy to determine where the “influencers” are located over
massive global networks. Why has Google rethought their strategy on where
true influencers exist as nodes on networks?

- How will the recent “geek disputes” about this issue effect the
proprietary and Google patented “influence rank” concept? (This is also
called “friend rank” or “social value rank” by the Internet Marketing
pundits).

- It it really possible to use “knowledge of influencers” to predictably
place “interruption advertising” inside major networks?

- Can you expect good conversion using this sort of “influence rank” as a
predictor? (Kevin really exposes the issues that Google has been sorting
through in order to adequately answer this question).

- Why is it unwise to view social networks as a channel for Adsense based
on traditional “search” behaviors?

- What is the best way to use social networks from a branding and
advertising?

- What is a “self targeting” ad network when it comes to social networks?

- One of the biggest challenges Google developers have had is trying to
create a data model that maps the natural discernment processes taking
place in the human brain (Cognitive Neuroscience). What do you need to know
about the weaknesses of machine driven neural and social networks?

- When will Friend Connect be released and why is it taking so long?

- What are the Google Friend Connect developers currently focused on in
the lab?

- I-Google (Google personal desktop) now has Canvas mode. How will this
relate to Friend Connect.

Special Thanks to Kevin Marks, Sara Jew-Lim and the Google Open Social
development team.

Special Thanks to Erika Preuss of TechnologyGoddess.com who landed and
coordinated this interview.

I look forward to seeing all of you at the Theme Zoom Protege Event where
Sue, Jon, Erika and I can expand on exactly what all of Kevin’s information
means to your business over the next two years.

At the Theme Zoom Protege conference we might informally chat about the
following topics between other program events, so take the time to listen
to the interview:

- What does this new information about Open Standard means for your
Krakken Keyword Genetic Code?

- How does this information influence the Silo Feed Machine System as
Erika and I work out with Sue Bell how to handle the technology and final
development aspects of the system. It is ironic that one of the final steps
during our blueprinting of the Silo Feed Machine system was how we should
deal with “podcast enclosures” as separate feeds from your primary data
feeds- ironic in that Kevin invented these (sometimes) annoying-but-useful
things.

- Feeds are the Glue that can hold all of your primary and secondary
networks together if you know what you are doing. How can you use them
(combined with your Krakken Genetic Keyword Code) to improve website
conversion?

- How has this information has been simplified by our Silo Feed Machine
system so that you do not need to be a rocket scientist in order to
implement geeky technologies invented by aliens?

Streaming Audio Interview:

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Download the Complete Zip File of the Audio Interview:

http://budurl.com/ku4v

You may use this audio on your website or blog as long as you credit Technology Goddess and Theme
Zoom and provide links back to our websites.

Russell Wright, Erika Preuss, and the Theme Zoom Staff

Original Article from Theme-Zoom.com (blog)

More Google Insights from Technology Goddess
Podcast from Technology Goddess Radio

Interview With Google Developer Kevin Marks

Erika of Technology Goddess here, sharing with you my recent interview with Kevin Marks, a Google OpenSocial Developer Advocate. It is one of the richest and most informative interviews I have heard with a Google Developer online. Kevin is author of the weblog Epeus Epigone and became principal engineer for Technorati after doing work for both Apple and the BBC. He is one of the founders of Microformats and CNet credits Kevin as one of the primary contributors to the genesis of podcasting technology as we know it today.

Kevin shares insights with me into Google’s OpenSocial  philosophy and future as well as FOAF, the Google Social Graph API, how the Googlebot follows FOAF and XFN markup links and publicly declared connections, what Google Developers are currently focused on in the lab and the future of Google Friend Connect.

I so enjoyed talking with such an innovative and brilliant mind on the forefront of internet social development. Go grab a latte and sit down for this full interview, because you will not want to miss a word of Kevin’s in-depth peek inside Google’s Development environment.

If you post this interview on your blogs please do link back to Technology Goddess.

More Information: Insight Into OpenSocial, the Future of Google Development and the Social Web.

Thank you Again, Kevin!
~Erika  Technology Goddess

Google Unveils Six Exciting New Analytics Features

Google has just released a whole set of yummy new enterprise additions to it’s analytics buffet and they are all worth tasting. They include: Advanced Segmentation, Custom Reports, a data export API (private beta), integrated reporting for AdSense publishers (private beta), multi-dimensional data visualizations called “Motion Charts,” and an updated user and administrative interface.

For more insight on the new analytics features you can visit the Google Blog which has a complete rundown of every feature with advanced instructions, and watch the videos I’m including here for you below. As a creative-type geometry geek I am really into the Motion Charts, which give us a multi-dimensional view of our data. That, to me, is like analytics candy!

More Great Google Articles here on Technology Goddess

Erika - Technology Goddess Social Media, Search Marketing and Market Research

My Google OpenSocial Interview Announcement

I am super-excited to announced that next Tuesday morning I will be posting a podcast interview with a Google OpenSocial and Friend Connect Developer. I know that many of you are anticipating the launch of Google’s Friend Connect and have a lot of questions about some of the other great OpenSocial projects Google has going like Social Graph API, and I’ll try to pose as many questions as we have time for in the interview. Here is my Video announcement and I hope to see all of you here on Tuesday!

Study Reveals Google Search Increases Brain Intelligence

Many of us in the Tech community tend to have a smug ego-centric assumption that we technically-savvy  web 2.0 geeks are smarter. According to a new study from UCLA, our smug assumption is correct.  Google search DOES make your smarter, actually it doubles your neural activity in the decision-making and complex reasoning part of the brain. The more experienced searcher you are, the higher your neural activity. The study used live MRI brain scans to monitor brain activity comparing online search engine pages with book pages. Read more

Reputation Management and PR: Your Social Life

We all know that user generated content ranks very fast and well in the search engines. it’s a rare thing to do a search for most terms without seeing at least several social media sites within the top 10 listings. This is key to remember in your business strategy, because your social networking lifestyle habits can translate very well into organic and graceful reputation management and PR, just by doing what you are already doing- frequenting your favorite social media sites. Read more

Metrics and Analytics Are The Key During Depression

How prepared is your young business for weathering an economic downturn? Metrics offer high value for startups to effectively measure their own progress and improve their profits. Market Research and Analysis can better position a young company in their market to weather any storm through implementing their unique Business DNA, their genetic theme cluster code. Read more

Social Media Marketing is an Ecology Lifecycle, Not a Sales Cycle

In my research of Social Media I have developed an ecology lifecycle plan that goes beyond the sales cycle and into the real essence of what we are really dealing with in social networking: a social media ecology or living ecological lifecycle. Your business success depends not on approaching social marketing as a sales cycle, but in seeing the full ecology of your environment, your business and the interactions of all communities within that.  Stay tuned for more information on this in the near future here on Technology Goddess. In the meantime, here are my latest thoughts on the Social Media Ecology Lifecycle I have developed and written as a guest author over at Corp. Social Networking.

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Pentagon Accepts OpenSource for Defense Department

For anyone out there who is still raising an eyebrow at the viability of OpenSource software, and whether many hands stirring the pot create a better API brew, can consider this: An interesting article popped up in my feeds on the Pentagon’s approval as OpenSource software for the Defense Department and Government Agencies. They are currently compiling a report that lays out specifically how open source may be procured and used within the services.

The article originally posted at  Government Computer News says  that the memo should answer many lingering questions still surrounding the open source, said Daniel Risacher, the data strategy leader for the Office of Secretary of Defense who is drafting the memo. The draft may point out some potential benefits as well.

“Those factors that are in favor of open source have not been appreciated to date,” said Risacher, speaking at the Red Hat Government Users and Developers conference, being held today. The DOD CIO office is aiming to release the memo by early November.

From Risacher’s description of the draft, the memo may reinforce the acceptability of using open source software within the Defense Department, as well as for other federal agencies. It may even broaden procedures for procuring commercial software.

“Those mandates [in which] we have to consider commercial off-the-shelf software, we have to apply that to open source software as well,” Risacher said. “And that is not well appreciated within government.”

Risacher said that he first started working on the memo last summer at the behest of the Defense Deputy CIO, David Wennergren. Although widely used in federal government, open source software, due to its unusual form of distribution, has raised questions among regulation-minded program managers.

In 2004, the Office of Management and Budget, issued a memorandum, M-04-16, that called on agencies to exercise the same procurement procedures for open source as they would for commercial software, as per guidelines set in OMB Circulars A-11 and A-130 and the Federal Acquisition Regulation policies. And in 2003, then-defense CIO John Stenbit issued memo reminding services that any open source software they use should be held to the same levels of security and licensing accountability as commercial software.

The new memo aims to address various questions that have arisen since these memos.

One of the primary issues to be addressed is if open source software is a form of commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS). The Defense Department has a number of mandates that compel the services to seek COTS software packages before commissioning custom code. If open source is COTS, then it needs to be included in the procurement process.

More OpenSource Articles On Technology Goddess

Erika- Technology Goddess

Google Unveils New Audio Players for YouTube and Google Knol

Google has added a new feature on Google Knol articles; audio playback is now available. Clicking on the “listen” link in the upper right corner of the page displays the audio player with decent sound. Read more

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