Great entry by Jon Worren on Why the chasm still exists, on the blog of Toronto’s innovation hub MaRS. Nicely complements the last post on this blog.
Great entry by Jon Worren on Why the chasm still exists, on the blog of Toronto’s innovation hub MaRS. Nicely complements the last post on this blog.
Time flies and I am slowly catching up with my to-do list. This is one to-do I should really have completed earlier…. oh well…: in January I met with the Semantic Web Gang for our monthly podcast, which can be found here.
In it, we welcome 3 new regular members who have already started to enrich our perspectives. We talked about the new version 4.0 of the Open Calais service, and I impatiently asked Tom Tague how long we'll have to wait for the "mainstream" version of OpenCalais, which I see as an app that will turn the existing webpages into semantic webpages on-the-fly.
I also bring up some of my pet topics around a URI of URIs, and differ a little with Alex on the importance of Google showing "a la semantic" results (hint: even if it's not "semantic" as per the strict definition of a purist like Alex, I think it's a great signal of market adoption).
We'd like to hear what you think.
Ps. I also completed a post on my other blog To Revenue, on the widespread "Customer Deficit Disorder" affliction, which I think is particularly relevant to ventures in the semantic space and emanate directly from some of my past experience in the field. Check it out.

What do the Wii, iPod, iPhone, netbooks, Facebook, Rockband, and Twitter have in common?
All of the technology these blockbusters required was available before they were conceived. None of them hinged on any technological breakthrough. What Apple, Nintendo or Asus did was taking clues from the market and reassembling technological bits into one coherent solution for users. And not just coherent, but also simple and easy to articulate. The Wii? A video game console designed to maximize fun for friends and families. The netbook? A lightweight computer that fits in a handbag and lets you surf the web. The iPod? A simple music player that integrates nicely with an intuitive music store.
By reverse-engineering actual user needs, these companies opened up a vast market for people who don’t care about technology, don’t want to see technology, or hear about technology, and only want something that does the job. For the Wii, that would be a video game device that’s fun, entertaining, with a lightning fast learning curve. (more…)