Kaizen Bits

As it is discussed in this article in Slashdot, quite a few of the current Web 2.0 companies are near to a “bubble stage”. Firstly, if in the old times of the irrational exuberance, the main complaint of VCs and everybody else was the lack of a proper business model and the firm belief that there was money out there to be made of the company business plan… aren´t we now facing the same situation?

I think (same as Guy Kawasaki, what a great post, btw) that the world is running amok with entrepreneurs pitching all kinds of Web 2.0 business idea, no matter if they really thought they can have some benefit or do some real stuff out of that Web site filled up with videos, photos and what not.  Now, is it really possible to have a sustainable business model on the Web from the economy of attention or based on something different that pure advertising? Let me doubt it…

I don´t reckon that is the way. Merely relying on publicity, viral marketing, being digged or stuff like that is too weak. However, looking for subscription or a more reliable source of funding can be the key.

Right now, these dates are the perfect alibit to put together a huge number of lists of the best of 2006, no matter what is actually being listed. This a great link to check all lists of all kinds of stuff in 2006. Also, top 100 tracks in 2006 are listed here and here.

Particularly, (via la Petite Claudine, same as the other links, thanks!!) a number of small pieces of literature (in Spanish only) about Xmas and how the whole thing rolls these dates.

Ina points out this article about Web 3.0 which is a Semantic Web wish-list for 2007 . I quote literally: “Web 3.0, expected to debut in 2007, will be more connected, open, and intelligent, with semantic Web technologies, distributed databases, natural language processing, machine learning, machine reasoning, and autonomous agents”.

Well, I could not say it better. Just get together the hot topics of research in the last twenty years and there you go, the perfect recipe for a fully-fledged Web 3.0. Hope we can make these wishes can true or contribute at least minimally

Apple is slowly but surely becoming a top-world PC seller brand (via Enrique Dans and via Ars Technica).  There are three major factors: iPod, new Intel processors and its compatiblity with the Windows World thanks to  BootCamp and Parallels.Folowing the IBD/TIPP Home Computer Purchase Outlook Index, Dell is still the ruling champion with a 47%, then Hewlett Packard with a 13% and finally, the third one being Apple, with a  12%, laptops being a 15% share.

I have pondering the issue of buying a Mac but I do not come to a final decission since I have never really been an early adopter and there are a number of nice alternatives such as having a normal PC running Ubuntu, for example. Anyhow, it is still a good choice as a main desktop for home mainly for multimedia content or very much Web based use.

I was back in Innsbruck where I was invited to give a talk on “Social Semantics” and attend  the DERI Innsbruck Christmas party. It was really good fun. I lived in Innsbruck for two years and it is always full of good memories. Particularly now, in Christmas time, it is really cool to see the Christmas market, I think it is really worthwhile.

Also, I met Carina there and since I know she reads this blog, let me tell her and you all: Frohe Weinachten!!

Leapfrogging  is a very interesting concept. I found this leapfrogging article in Worldchanging  where it is described as the notion that areas which have poorly-developed technology or economy bases can move themselves rapidly through the adoption of modern technology. This means that countries do not need to go from the stream machine to tech revolution of chips, but jump directly to 21st Information Technology revolution as it stands.

The article mentions the use of mobile phones in India and several countries where it is much cheaper not to build up the wire brick and mortar infraestructure, but simply cellular networks or how Brazil is getting freed broadband and Linux machines which will leverage the potential of IT.  As far I see it, leapfrogging is a very interesting phenomenon specially for emerging new ecomonies such as India, China, Brazil or Mexico, which will probably become signifcantly powerful in the next quarter of the century. But it also helps with poor or under developpment economies in those technologies where no infrastructure is needed, namely: mobile phones, solar power, wifi, etc.

In a sense, leapfrogging is something all countries have experience at some point in time, when adopting a new technology. It makes life a bit easier and better, hence it is quite cool.

How to bring search engines inside the Chinese Walls of companies have been always one of my major interests for resarch. Now IBM and Yahoo have joined to launch IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition which shows up as a potential competitor for several solutions out there in the market, such as Google Search Appliance or Google Mini.

To me, this is really the future of search engines, a combination of the information napping behind the organizations boundaries and the huge cosmos of information which is out there on the Web. But for that we need more powerful search engines that probably would need some kind of semantic technology (or something similar), such as Hakia or the Semantic Web Search Engine (SWSE).  If I understood correctly, the first one is not really using semi-structured data and it is also keyword search based but the second one does crawl, index and navigates through structured data. Having so much out there (and also in companies), the second seems to be the right track to follow.

Here in UC3M, we have a great wifi coverage, basically a 100% thanks to the wifi uc3m network. However, I found out that IMAP was blocked (no email checking), skype was not working (ooooh, no talking either) and finally, if you are in a meeting working with Subversion, SSH or stuff like that, it does not work either. Just port 80. Sad but true.

However, the Eduroam network, a powerful, fast and reliable open network that works in a number of Spanish Universities is up and running, providing all these services. Why is that? In a nutshell, because you login as a member of the academic community and there you go… good quality wifi.

IMHO, this looks reasonable  and since it is so difficult to find wifi around, it is a great chance to make yourself fully mobile and self-contained on campus, no matter where you are.

It is quite frustrating to be working the weekend, but deadlines always have the last word. We were currently making some late bird submissions to a couple of conferences and we hope to get good results for next year. In the meanwhile and just because I am too stressed in my academic career (didn´t I hear a thousand times that academia was not stressing??) I got these pretty cool pointers  from Axel Polleres (thanks!!) about how to make a great academic career.

• First of all, Notes on Getting a PhD
• Some pointers on general tips for students
• And this book, A PhD is not enough: A Guide of Survival for Science

The latter should be a must-read, so I will try to get it in the next few months. Probably there is loads to learn, from that perspective.

Writing good reviews is an essential service to the scientific community. Here’s some guidance from Boi Faltings on how to accomplish this. Personally, I have always found difficult to give a good review. Either you are very hard and harsh, or smooth as silk when telling somebody that you do not like his work, so I guess it is something that inspires a lot of respect in me.
(Thanks, Manfred).