Marc's Voice
Home LANs + Broadband + Devices

Five proposed public servers

These proposed servers are at the core of this Open Strategy Architecture.  Detailed descriptions of each server's function, how it interacts with other public and private servers and a description of it's object model and associated 'micro-content' type can be viewed by clicking on the name of the server.

Multimedia Conversations

We define multimedia conversations as enhanced traditional discussion group threads (otherwise known as message or bulletin boards, Usenet or Slashdot kind of structures.) These conversations are a sort of 'shared on-line outline' in that they are re-entrant, enabling others to join in or add their own '2 cents' to a conversation - after it has initially occurred.

Participants can attach media, web links or IM/Chat sessions onto a conversation node or heading.  These archived conversations can then be stored on public servers, hosted by sponsors, educational institutions and/or research/community organizations or on anyone's private server.

Any individual or entity could utilize this data structure, APIs and object model and build compelling new kinds of hypermedia tools, applications, services and/or interactive content.  The idea is to maintain a level of compatibility across a WIDE range of hierarchically structured conversations.

Reviews

Whether they be reviews of books, restaurants, movies or music - reviews are a common way for people to express a very particular kind of opinion. Criticism has long been at the core of culture, as artists and musicians thrive on input from others.

We can define Reviews as a new kind of 'micro-content' and standardize a simple data structure and APIs so that blogging and journaling tools and other kinds of publishing systems can utilize and support it.

Cell phone users should be able to report in on the food at certain restaurants, vote on the quality of a movie (as they leave the theater) or recommend a club or bar - on the spot! 

Reviews should not be ghettoized into individual blogs and journals.  They are the epitome of the kind of specific content that should be shared. Special syndication channels, rating systems and Review Rings will grow out of Reviews being standardized.

It's time for people to share their opinions of people, places and things.  A simple place to start is Reviews.  We can share Reviews via public Reviews servers - which will drive new kinds of on-line communities.

Media Galleries

It's all about the media.  That's why broadband exists and the #1 reason why the new web will be diferent from the old web.

Media needs to be as persistent as an end-user's profile and private clouds.  Today's digital lifestyle demands that music and photos be as easy to create and manage, as email and IM have been. This is where our 'Free (open) Media Management' proposal comes in.

Pervasive media management system means that open photo albums, music and video playlists and other kinds of 'media collections' can be available to everyone - on the web.  By utilizing a open, standardized media management system - collections of media can be offered that act like a mesh, connecting together private collections with public archives, databases and libraries.  This is not only where the Creative Commons and the Internet Archives (among others) come in, but also where new kinds of tools can happen that come with BUILT-IN content.

We will make sure that servers are offered that build on an open media management standard, and connect to services like Ofoto, Apple's iLIfe and Adobe's new Album product (via some sort of proxying.)  Blogging tools and other on-line servcies which do not have intrinsic media management right now can also use this standard for their own internal media features and capabilities.

These media gallery servers can also be used for open contributory communities - like the Mirror Project or xxx.

People

Digtital identity servers are a core element of the infrastrcuture of tomorrow.  We do not intend on creating such a server, but supporting whatever open standard server that embraces all of the existing digital ID formats and efforts, and enables end-users to control their own profiles and personal info.

Regardless of the implementation and 'players', digital identity (and private clouds defined by the end-user) need to be an intrinsic part of this 'meshed', open standard architecture.

What we want to do is give identity a 'context' to be used.  Sure business networking (like Ryze) or social/creative collaboration communities (like Brainstorms) are fine usages for identity, but there are many other contexts where knowing who the creator/author is, who their friends are and who can contribute and/or interact.

If an end-user wants to share things or collaborate or interact - they need to define who they are interacting with.

If an end-user wants to be identified when they leave a comment or post onto a community environment, they shouldn't have to enter their personal info AGAIN!  Once an end-user's face has been associated with their profile info, that face should appear in their interfaces, dialogs and communication from that end-user. 

This is not only true for authentication and membership, but for creative reaons - like authorship branding or personalization.

Topics

At the heart of knowledge management, is the notion that information is 'about something' - that it has a title, category or 'topic'. 

A public, open Topic server can serve as a registry or master index and unite disparate blogging or publishing tools - which may support topics internally - but lack the ability to correlate or ricochet topic searches between end-users.  Just getting that to work would be amazing!

But Topics servers offer a much more rosy future, where knowledge management connects disparate 'islands' of technology together.

Communicatons, publishing and media systems all will have their own way of 'representing knowledge'  But don't expect these 'island' vendors to care about or connect their systems to other islands.

That's up to us!  By providing a way for blogs and on-line communites to anchor, ricochet or aggregate on-line flow centered around specific topics, we'll be able to move 'web linking' to a new level! 

This is basically what Phil Pearson's Internet Topic Exchange is.  It totally fits into the rest of this Open Architecture and grasps the intrinsic spirit of this open architecture design. 

Hopefully they'll be other new kinds of micro-content (and open servers associated with them) established that will also fit into this 'open architecture.

XML-RPC, RSS and OPML are great starting points.  Now where do we go from here?

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