Full circle or what is old is new again.....

Smashing is what I would say about Mashups and API. I think it truly reflects the cleverness of some folks. It could be compared to things that are so common place today, but are someone's clever insight into opening a can with a pull tab, or making light switches glow in the dark, obvious after you see it, but did not think of it. Taking common programs and working them in a new way to synthesize the information or data to be more useful, easier understood, and possibly even providing new insights. Being a practical person, many of the Mashups that I look at caused me to think,"I will never use that". For instance "lifestream" - were everything you do on the web is captured and presented so that your "followers" can see what you are up to at any given moment. Gee, my life is not that boring that I need to see what others are doing to get ideas about what I should be doing. Then again I looked at the followers and they were all of a certain age...young. In some ways this is replacing the town square and the "Mall" where we would hang out with friends and talk about what we are doing. Now it is virtual. Not for me. It is too much an invasion of privacy which is discussed below.

Another Mashup was "typeracer" providing the opportunity to compete with unknown thousands of other folks entering information onto their facebook page, web page, or blog. It provides the top performers "something to brag about". Well I guess when your world is online, and those who can talk the fastest...type the fastest...get the most. Interesting, but I can spend my time in a more productive fashion.

Let me interject here that I found the readings on API and Mashups very interesting. Some of it was deeper than I need, but it is helpful to understand how the programs are working. It was also a good place to learn about some new web sites and to explore some new links.

I did not find the explaination of Rollyo to be clear. I will need to go back and poke around some more to fully understand what is going on there and if there is any potential use for me. The privacy issue is near and dear to my heart. To visualize my image of putting too much personal information out on the web I would imagine it this way: have a thousand people in a large room, you are standing in the middle with a spotlight only on you, everyone can see you, but you cannot see anyone else. In other words you have no idea who is looking at you or your information. The 9,000+ entries for "privacy" indicate that it continues to be a hot topic. Bloggers were concerned with site privacy; about governement privacy protection; intellectual freedom and privacy; there were generational perspectives on privacy where young folks did not think it to be a big deal and older folks where up in arms...; and then there is Google that everyone likes to beat upon, and how Google is the worst when it comes to privacy protection. I am all in favor of privacy protection.

This have been a fascinating course and I am just delighted that I put the effort into it rather than being a Ludite. I need to force myself to be more technologically involved but I find it pulls me away from other activities that are established in my life. I have had some great chats with folks from all over the world thanks to facebook. I have re-connected with friends and former co-workers and I believe made some new friends in the process. I do hope that the Web 2.0 course work, with all the links, will be available for some time in the future. I say this because I plan to review what I have done, and turn around and offer an "introduction" to the various 2.0 technologies to my co-worker. I will at least be able to tell them a bit about each one, show them what it is, and provide some links for them to go and practice on their own. If the course director is still reading this far down...thank you...for a great experience.