Web 2.0 - The MTV of Technology

There have been so much attention by the masses on this thing called Web 2.0. Everyone sings praises about Web 2.0, everyone thinks it’s today’s biggest thing, and oddly, also the next big thing. People who are in it thinks they’re cool and they are like the rock stars of tech. People who are are not in it hope that they could be part of it. Even Singapore government thinks that the country is losing out for not having our very own YouTube or Flickr.

This whole “Web 2.0″ thing, to me, is similar to the introduction of MTV to music. It brings the advancement of technology to the masses, to the public eyes, just like how MTV brought music to our homes in the early 1980s. Both of them bring what are usually hidden from the general masses to the public eyes and make them appear cool. Artists who have not been producing music videos suddenly start to produce music videos upon the arrival of MTV. Similar phenomena is happening to technology, the nerdy engineers and programmers who were previously working behind the scenes are suddenly feeling that it is time they get into “Web 2.0″ so they can also be celebrated and be like a rock star. This whole “Web 2.0″ thing does not really just affect the engineers, it also affects a lot of businesses and people in general. Suddenly lawyers and docters are seen reading books on AJAX or Ruby on Rails and printed media companies and many other previously non-technology related businesses are trying to be ‘in’ by attempting to introduce some “Web 2.0″ elements to their otherwise unrelated businesses.

Music has changed due to introduction of MTV, just like how technology culture has changed due to Web 2.0.
The arrival of MTV is due to the widespread of the television boxes, and the arrival of Web 2.0 relies on the widespread of the WWW.

Suddenly music, regardless of how good they are musically, suddenly became uncool if it does not have a music video that accompanies it.
Similarly, suddenly, technology, regardless of how innovative and creative an idea is, suddenly became uncool if it does not revolve around Web 2.0, thus not-so-publicized and accessible by the masses.

Personally, I do not know what this whole “Web 2.0″ culture is all about. Suddenly techies and geeks are interested in gathering around in “unconferences (the term coined by the “Web 2.0″-ers to appear to be different). What do they do in unconferences? Most of the time, nothing constructive is being discussed in these unconferences and a lot of the times I see the attendees trying their best to bash each other, so the bashers could appear ‘cooler’ then the bashed ones. And the best thing of all, almost all unconferences that are taking place in Singapore also involves the debate that attempts to define the term “Web 2.0″. Doesn’t that sound ironic? The attendees think they’re the cool “Web 2.0″-ers, thus they’re the ‘in’ bunch, but all of them seem to have different concept of what “Web 2.0″ is, and only care about bashing other people so they would appear to be knowing more about “Web 2.0″ than the general others. Before this whole “Web 2.0″ thing, I don’t see electrical engineers gather around every other month just to debate on the definition of “Electrical Engineering”, as most of the time, they are in their labs late in the night cracking their heads trying to think of the best ways to cram more transistors on a tiny surface.

Seriously, technology is not Web 2.0 and Web 2.0 is not technology. It is nothing but a yuppie culture that uses technology as a tool. The ones that we really need to celebrate are the engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, etc, that are doing the actual real work of advancing technology. And Singapore, as a country, do not have to feel lose out by not having our own Youtube or Flickr, at least as far as I know, so far the technological research activities are going on in Singapore rather extensively. Singapore has been contributing a lot to the advancement of technology. One of the example is the contribution of I2R (Institute of Infocomm Research - part of A*Star) to the IEEE on the improvement of wireless technology. That, to me, sounds like something that is really worth celebrating than any Web 2.0 site or “rock star”.

A piece of music, even if it doesn’t have an accompanied music video, can still be a very good piece of music. Musicians should never feel lose out for only capable in producing good music but not in producing good music videos, and music listeners should really pay more attention to the music proper, rather than to music videos and MTV.

Only the proper music, is music. So if you are really into music, do concentrate on the music actual.

Yahoo! Pipes - An Interesting Tool for Making Mashups

There have been a lot of new Web2.0 sites that are launched everyday and it’s been awhile since I really get excited over a really good one.

As I was reading my newsfeeds just now, I discovered this new service by Yahoo! - Yahoo! Pipes. It’s a web-based widget-development tool for users to create mashups using feeds and APIs. It’s so easy to use and looks kind of fun. Now making mashups no longer need experienced programmers.

To try out Yahoo! Pipes, I challenge anyone to make a mashup using Ping.sg’s data. I can make an API for any data, provided it’s not confidential like email addresses, that you need, just simply let me know.

Now I’m gonna find some time to play around with it when I’m free. Let’s see if I could come up with something interesting.

Yahoo! scores for this one over originality, revolution and ease-of-use. Let’s see what Google and Microsoft are coming up next.

Now I can’t wait to leave my boring Final Year Project lab at I2R so I could play around a bit with Yahoo! Pipes.

Looking for Feed Analytical Tool/Script

I have been looking for a good feed analytics tool or script that is as good as Feedburner but haven’t yet found any. Anyone knows of any that fits the following criteria, please do let me know:

1. The most important statistic that I’m looking for is the number of subscribers to some particular feeds with accuracy as good as possible as Feedburner’s. Some other statistics can be a bonus.
2. Would be best if the script can analyze from server logs though I wouldn’t mind if extra client-side or server-side scripting is needed.
3. Hosted on the same server as the feed (preferably), if needed to be on a separate server, no delays are being introduced.
4. Best if I can still keep the original feed URL without redirecting.

The reason Feedburner doesn’t fit what I need is mainly due to point 3. I know there is a paid service from Feedburner that satisfy point 4 above but I believe the 30-min delay would still apply even if I am to use their paid service.

Anyone knows of any script or tool that fits the above criteria for feed analyzing, please do let me know. I thank you in advanced for that.

Ping.sg v1.00 Is Finally Launched

Just launched Ping.sg v1.00 about 1.5 hour ago. I’m glad it ran quite well on the server as I haven’t got any time to test it on a remote sever. I actually worked on it until the very last minute. Managed to integrate Veron’s designs with all the views (quite tedious), and did a little extra new features. Some of the major features I wished I could have launched together with v1.00 did not make the deadline. Nonetheless, v1.00 is not the end. I’m still going to work on it, especially on ‘groups’ function. And also, I have yet to make an official announcement at ping.sg’s blog.

Feeling quite happy as so far the feedbacks are all positive.

Time for me to get some rest, at least until this weekend. I have been working very intensively for the past 1 week or so, not just on Ping.sg v1.00 but also on some clients’ projects which deadlines are drawing near.

Let’s hope there wouldn’t be any newly introduced major bugs with v1.00 so that I can enjoy a good weekend that I deserve. Sek Ling is on the way to Singapore now. :)