The wi-fi is pretty clogged, so I’ll cut to the chase…

All of this stuff is being recorded and will be made available, for free, after the event. My notes, therefore, and my battle with Wordpress’s rich text editor, seem like a bit of a waste of time…

Design and Web 2.0: it’s all about the rounded corners and gradients ;) Blogger may have started the trend Outline What is the web changing into? What can you / should you build on it? Architectural principles of Web 2.0 Web 2.0? Buzzword, conference, new way of thinking Web 2.0 means so many things to so many people though Let’s concentrate on a “web of connected stuff” Web at the moment - data silos Now and in the future: A web of data sources, services for exploring and manipulating data, ways that users can act together Web of pages -> web of mashups - > a web of data Mashups two disparate data sources, made more useful by being combined with eachother A network effect of services Build on top of what’s already there What you build enhances what’s already there Consequences Massive creative possibilities Accel. Read more...

[Editor’s note: the battery on laptop A had pretty much given up the ghost by this point, so I made a few choice notes on the wifi-less laptop B, which I offer below for your kind consideration…] Alchemy vs Chemistry. The difference is that in Chemistry you tell other people what you’re doing. The internet comes out of the scientific community. Scientific norms - embedded in the internet - encourages reuse of other people’s work. Read more...

[I’m writing this two days after the event, by the way…] In no particular order, here’s my d.Construct 2005 wrap-up. It’s nothing short of electronic name-dropping, I’m afraid ;) Cheers Rich for the ComPeelation CD. I hope you enjoy the bizarrely-titled compilation CD I made you. I partook of a Cornish pasty (lamb & mint, pasty fans) with Simon & Natalie Andy Budd took my photo! Cheers, Andy! I chatted with Cory Doctorow and he gave me his business card. Read more...

Web 2.0: definitely a buzzword, but it’s still a useful term Good for non-techies? Mmm. Not sure about that… Ajax - the coining of the term helped to speed its adoption “Web 2.0 isn’t a thing; it’s a state of mind” Features of Web 2.0* Open data formats (e.g. RSS) No data lock-in or walled gardens User-created data Architecture of Participation - buzzword alert! Provide a service, not a product Collective intelligence (PageRank, folksonomies, popularity) Re-use and re-mix Customer self-service Community & sense of ownership Rich user experience Easy, pleasurable to use More like desktop app Device independence & cross-platform (my add) Cool Web 2. Read more...

Flash vs HTML - both sides' prejudices are outdated Aral founded and runs OSFlash.org What is Flash? A platform A VM (Flash player), tools, servers, components, solutions etc etc A vibrant open source community People think it’s annoying intros, interstitial add etc But nowadays it is more likely to be Rich Internet Apps (RIAs) Ajax? Pah! Flash can do what Ajax can do, but it’s been doing so since 2000 ;) Flash still needs a plugin, of course Aral thinks the browser is a plugin too, and that the OS will be where it’s at in the future The state of the art K12 - the world’s first online school Opal SMS messaging platform Flash - not the app that you think of to make apps (in its timeline-based animation guise). Read more...

Ben’s presentation for download backstage.bbc.co.uk The BBC’s “Developer Network” What is backstage.bbc.co.uk? Content re-use, with robust licensing, so developers know where they stand Peer developer community platform to share bbc.co.uk content “Mutually beneficial relationship” Why? part of greater “open BBC” push support creativity & innovation a “public service for the 21st century” What’s on offer? RSS feeds travel XML (soon) weather data TV listings message board threads more to come. Read more...

I’m at Fabrica in Brighton for d.Construct 2005, the UK’s first grassroots Web 2.0 conference. I’ll try to sort the buzz from the hype, and the meat from the fluff (or something). Rich Rutter is doing the intro. Andy Budd’s up first, with “What is Web 2.0”.

Flickr: totally buzzword compliant (“Social software, Tags/Folksonomies, Web Services, Ajax”) The developers said: “we wouldn’t trust a service with no export option” Don’t want to build an export tool Built an API instead - let the users build an export tool No-one’s built one yet, though they have built loads of other cool things Related tags browser Flickr upload tools: iPhoto plugin; various Linux ones; FlickrFS - virtual filesystem for Linux! Read more...