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:
Download the Complete Zip File of the Audio Interview:
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)
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Pentagon Accepts OpenSource for Defense Department
October 10, 2008 by Erika · Leave a Comment
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.
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