Web 2.0 definition

Through a Luis Suarez Blog post, I have found a presentation by Mike Roche from IBM titled Bringing People and Processes Together. In this presentation, IBM explains what has been doing in the area of KM and how it is embracing social software within the enterprise with a number of different Web 2.0 related tools.

For me, the interesting part is, IMHO, one of the best definitions I’ve heard about Web 2.0:

Web 1.0 was about connecting computers and making information more readily available

Web 2.0 is about connecting people and amplifying the power of working together

And their main characteristics:

  • Easy, responsive, browser-based interfaces (“AJAX”)
  • The “social” factor – users make the software better
  • Tagging – using simple keywords to build up rich categorization without a fixed taxonomy
  • Feeds – RSS and Atom allow users to download content from the internet on-demand
  • Simple extensions allow people to use web-services from their familiar tools
  • Public web service APIs enabling decentralized innovation
  • Early deployment, iterative improvement based on usage data
  • Tends to have a viral adoption pattern

Comments

Comment by Luis Suarez on 2006-12-05 18:37:14 +0000

Hi Ferdy ! Thanks a lot for the feedback comments and for the trackback to my weblog post. Yes, indeed, that is certainly one of my favourite Web 2.0 / social computing quotes out of the several dozens I have been exposed to thus far. I have actually weblogged about it not long ago in my other Internet weblog under the title: Web 2.0 in Search of Better Definition or Just Moving On

May be worth while a read, too. Either way, I have really enjoyed the summary you have put together on what Web 2.0 is all about as it can certainly be very enlightening for those folks new to this movement. Thus thanks again for that !

Comment by Ferdy on 2006-12-06 00:43:00 +0000

Luis, I appreciate your comment. And thanks for the link to your other Internet weblog post, I have found it very interesting.

I agree with you that everyone needs to find their own definition. If you want to embrace some initiatives related to Web 2.0 in your enterprise, you must explain it properly and in a convincing way. This is the reason why I’m trying to find a definition that “fits” in my enterprise.

Comment by Luis Suarez on 2006-12-06 19:30:34 +0000

That is terrific, Ferdy, and certainly you are not alone in trying to figure it out ! I think that we are witnessing an era where more and more of our knowledge workers really are keen on sharing their knowledge and collaborate with others, but most of the times the technology presents a whole lot more barriers than whatever you would have possibly ever imagined. Something that social software is trying to help prevent from the start.

However, with that said, we should not forget that we should also be proactive in helping pave the road so that even though social software may not be that difficult to adopt we would still be able to provide the necessary support, training and facilitation to those folks who may struggle initially.

That way, the more we help provide a comfortable environment for knowledge workers to share what they know, the much better off it would be for all of us. And if that means letting people find their own definition for social computing then let it be. Let’s just focus in what really matters: knowledge sharing and collaborating.

Thanks again for the feedback!

Things you do NOT want your System Administrator to say

Tell me again what that ‘-r’ option to rm does

Was that your directory?

where did you say those backup tapes were kept?

And a few more at 101 Things you do NOT want your System Administrator to say.

(Via Microsiervos)

Worried about the trend of your project?

Trying to determinate the best way to implement Continuous integration at our shop, and specifically, which information we must generate after nightly builds, I’ve discovered QALab, an opensource project that “collects and consolidates data from several QA tools and keeps track of them overtime, allowing developers, architects and project managers alike to be presented with a trend of the QA statistics of their project

It collects data from the following tools:

  • Checkstyle: code style validation and design checks. QALab keeps track of number of violations per file and overall.
  • PMD: Code checks (possible bugs, dead code, sub-optimal code, etc). QALab keeps track of number of violations per file and overall.
  • PMD CPD: Duplicate code (always a bad idea) detection. QALab keeps track of number of the overall number of duplicated lines.
  • FindBugs: fantastic tool to detect potential bugs (really!). QALab keeps track of number of violations per file and overall.
  • Cobertura: Coverage tool. QALab keeps track of percentage of branch and line coverage.
  • Simian: excellent duplicate code detection (non-open source). QALab keeps track of number of the overall number of duplicated lines.

(Via The Server Side)

WDz vs. Traditional Mainframe Development Tools Productivity Study

During a Debug tool for z/OS presentation, the IBM folks gave us a study, written by Branham Group, focused on comparing various productivity efficiencies and techniques between the IBM WebSphere Developer for z/Series (WDz) and traditional IBM mainframe development tools based on the z/OS platform.</>

The target was to build a useful working application for the mainframe in Cobol, CICS and DB2. Conclusion of the study is that IBM WDz tools are more productive for building robust mainframe and web based apps. Great!

But …hmmmm… , why I don’t feel as excited as Timothy Sipples and his “Friendly Application Development”? Perhaps is because “web based apps” was not in the title. Oh! I see, “while is possible to do this development [Web Service, Service Flow, web based interface] by hand, this is not realistic and as such was deemed as an unsupported feature of the tradicional IBM mainframe development tools”.

You can drawn your own conclusions reading this study at “WDz vs. Traditional Mainframe Development Tools Productivity Study”.

PD: But if you think you’re going to increase the productivity in terms of the number lines of code per developer per unit of time, the number of bugs per tester per unit of time, etc, you’re wrong, remember the unproductiveness factor.

CodeGear Launch: JBuilder 2007

CodeGear, former Borland Tools Unit, will release a new version of JBuilder later this quarter. This new version is completely rebuilt and re-architected to take advantage of Eclipse 3.2. It’ll have nice features as UML2, VisualEJB, OptimizeIt or Team development capabilities (more details at the official announcement).

Curiously, today I’ve received an IBM developerworks email remembering me that NOW is the best moment to consider IBM Rational Application Developer. Coincidence?