News sites learning from Blog sites

The newly redesigned AOL news site now looks like a Blog site.

AOL's News Sites Adopt Look of Blogs

The influence of blogs over news sites has also spilled over into some major news sites like USAToday.com. Just look at how they've opened up their platform for user comments. The folks over at Washingtonpost.com are also developing ways for their news site to evolve into a community where bloggers can actively participate.

The thing to remember is most blogs are not meant to be objective because it is after all a personal log/commentary about whatever topic the blogger wishes to address. Some folks get caught off-guard when they see non-factual information being shared in a blog or when the opinions get too one-sided. A busy blog will hopefully generate comments and opinions from all sides of the corner.

For a snapshot of community blogs in our area, check out ezColumbia's blog section.

Technorati Tags: percworks, Robin Abello, Technology, Community, AOL, Blogs, USAToday, Washington Post

Art in the workplace

Need to justify spending for artwork?

The biggest software company in the world has 45,000 pieces of contemporary art hanging in its corporate complex (Microsoft's art collection has some hangups).

Why does Microsoft collect art?

A New York gallery owner remarks, "Because they can. And they should. They are involved in culture. Technology is culture. And the art informs the culture."

A Microsoft staff member shares that her aim is to spark creativity and to give workers, who spend so much time in the plastic environment of phones and computers, access to contrasting, tactile objects.

It turns out, by the late 70s, companies started buying art to stimulate employees sequestered in office parks. I was just reading earlier today how kids with ADD improve their focus when they're exposed to the outdoors more. What is art that it can stimulate employees, stimulate our minds and soul? to perform better? to think better? be more creative? think outside the box? remember the world outside instead of just thinking of the world inside the office park?

If you've been thinking about spicing up your home office, now you have some motivation to justify that expense.

Technorati Tags: percworks, Robin Abello, Technology, Community, Microsoft, Art

Web Apps on Steriods

Just read about Google Gears tonight. Is this the framework of the hybrid web we've been waiting for?

One of the problems of relying on web apps is what happens when the internet is down. Granted that our broadband connections are getting better everyday, what about when you're travelling and you don't have access to the internet?

If a system can be built such that it intelligently keeps copies of data locally just in case the internet goes down or is not accessible and it can synchronize automatically when the internet is accessible again (all done as efficiently and painless as possible), the future of web apps looks even more promising.

Of course there's a wrench to this equation. One of the appealing things about web apps is the ability to access your app from any computer. But if there has to be this mechanism of keeping copies data locally, it means you're sort of tied down to your own computer again. Unless we create some kind of peer network that can intelligently keep copies of the data in various points of the network from the immediate local peers in the LAN to various branches up the WAN. And these caches will need to be intelligent enough to synchronize their data and elect who has the latest fresh data.

Sounds complex. I remember similar functionality with cache clusters when I was at Inktomi. But even the simple model that doesn't have to use this complex network of caches can allow your online word processor to be both online and offline. So Google docs can really work locally, just like Microsoft Word and Excel.

Technorati Tags: percworks, Robin Abello, Technology, Community, Web Apps, Google Gears