Krishwords

The tech blogger, Marc Orchant, has passed away today. He suffered a massive heart attack some time between 7:30 and 8:10 AM on Sunday Morning December 2nd, 2007. He is a friendly guy and I loved his writings.

It is sad that he died at an age that can only be classified as “middle aged”. My heartfelt condolences to his wife and kids. The irony of this is that his last public tweet is a good bye to facebook after he removed all the friends from it and closed the account. Little did we know that an end is coming to him with that tweet. Tech Blogosphere will miss you Marc.

I am not focusing on this blog the way I really wanted to in the beginning. Even though I have been writing on topics related to open source, social platforms, etc., I am not really focused on what I wanted to cover. So I am establishing a theme here and I will write focused posts at regular intervals. I plan to write about “open web”. Under this theme, I plan to write about open source, social media platforms, evolution of web, how open standards will ensure an open web that lives up to the original ideals of the web, as a decentralized network of information. My idea of open web is a web using open standards, open formats for data and neutral and open networks. As I continue with my writings, I would be able to crystallize this idea further. Feel free to share any suggestions you might have in this regard. In fact, I have also modified the about page to express the focus of this blog.

Some people have complained that they are getting several mails from my blog. I was using Intense Debate as a commenting system and I was switching it back to WP comment system. Probably, something in the transfer triggered the mails. I apologize and I am trying hard to identify the issue. If you can send me the header of the mail, it will help me troubleshoot the issue. Please send the header to contactme (at) krishworld (dot) com

Update: It appears that the mails were triggered when I used the export comments feature in Intense Debate Plugin. Once I did that either the WP commenting system or the plugin that allows you to subscribe to comment replies seems to have triggered the email. I have deactivated the plugin. If you are still getting the mails, please let me know. I will see what I can do to stop it. My apologies once again.

I was somewhat appreciative of Google’s Mobile moves. It was a good first step towards an open standards based world. The euphoria surrounding this announcement of Google shouldn’t blind us from the danger signs ahead. Even though this is a first step away from the proprietary mobile world, this may not lead to a completely open world as we expect. Even though Google is releasing its Android as an open source, we should also note that it is released under the Apache software License, which allows commercial companies to build proprietary systems out of it. We can still have a walled garden with Android into the headsets. It is quite possible that we may end up with a mobile world similar to what we have now. This move by Google could end up just helping only themselves and not the users, to push Google apps to the consumer handsets. We need to be aware of this warning sign ahead and work hard to push open standards in the mobile world. A good option will be to push the mobile Linux initiatives as a more open alternative to Google’s Android. Mobile Linux will offer a much more open platform with better handle to application developers. It will also ensure that the walled garden imposed by wireless carriers are kept away forever. Google’s Android platform cannot stop wireless providers from having their own walled garden. I am sure Google has taken Apache Software License over GPLv2 to convince the wireless players (and hence handset manufacturers) to join their alliance. In spite of the possible danger about the persistence of walled garden, Google’s action has started a momentum towards a more open mobile world. Now we can expect the forces of free market to push the other players towards more and more open standards. Thatz why I like this move by Google, in spite of the fact that there is a potential danger about the persistence of walled garden and the benefit of this move going only to Google.

Tags: Android, Google, Mobile Linux, Wireless

I plan to move this blog from dreamhost to mediatemple sometime this week. During the migration, the site might be unavailable for sometime. I haven’t decided when I will do it. It depends on when I get into the mood. Sorry for the interruption. I will do it on or before the weekend.

I have been following the controversy that arose based on what Dave Winer told about Jason Calacanis‘ presentation at Gnomedex. Apart from the merits in Dave Winer’s argument about lack of value for users from Mahalo, I found one thing a bit funny. I am following both Dave Winer and Jason Calacanis in the blogosphere. I notice their styles and their philosophy. I find it a bit strange that Jason, who doesn’t mind speaking his mind even if it is hurtful to the opposite party, is upset when someone else, who might have a higher position in the hierarchy of the blogosphere, speaks their mind against him. I find this a bit hypocritical, with nothing personal against Jason. It might help Mahalo, if he finds a way to incorporate Dave Winer’s valid suggestion. Why should people come to Mahalo from Google if it can’t offer a value to users like Google does. Getting search results is just a matter of getting your queries right and getting smarter to avoid spam. You cannot base your company just on the search engine spam. You need to offer more value than what Google offers to its user base. In fact, I am thinking of writing a post on what I see as Mahalo’s disadvantages. But it is for another day and it may even be irrelevant for Jason. But Dave Winer’s suggestion about making Mahalo a platform and allow users to benefit from it, is very important if Mahalo has to gain some traction.

Today morning I got back to my normal routine and wanted to change the status on facebook from sleeping to back to work. I was presented with this window when I tried to log in. I am wondering why facebook is doing their maintenance during the peak hour. Why can’t they do it in the night/weekends? Any security problems?

Thanks to JP for the link