Dudu Mimran Blog

#140conf in Tel Aviv

Today on #140conf Google proved again they are the new Microsoft. They talked about their products and technologies instead of praising Twitter and the good change they brought on us. Microsoft are the inventors of the strategy of not acknowledging others' achievements as if that would diminish their position and Google just follows the same path. It always reminds of employers that never give employees a good word or a complement just to make sure they don't ask for a raise.

Amazon EBS Boot

Amazon boot option from an Elastic Block is a game changer. Many topics related to dynamic scaling of web apps are solved with this cool new feature. Amazon proves they are the ultimate cloud platform and I can't see other keeping up the race regardless of the big words. It is very nice to see Google not taking over this portion of technology.

Israeli Grid Technology Conference

Last week I was on IGT conference which is the Israeli grid technology conference. It was interesting to see the change from one year to another where last year it was all about new technologies and new ideas and this year the main theme was of commercial companies and integrators discussing how to apply it. I personally found it more boring but I guess that is the way new industries evolve.

Jeff Pulver

Jeff Pulver is a great man with warm heart and i enjoyed very much today #140conf in Tel Aviv today

The web is changing

I have been reading about the whereabouts of News Corp., Google and Microsoft in recent two weeks and I noticed something weird happening here about but could not put my finger on it. To those who do not know the storyline here is a short description posted on Hitwise today:

Two weeks ago we posted on Rupert Murdoch's threat to block Google from Indexing News Corp. content. While at first it seemed as though Murdoch was merely posturing with hypotheticals, reports continue to indicate that News Corp. is seriously considering choosing Bing as the exclusive "indexer" of their news content.

via weblogs.hitwise.com

At first I thought Mr. Murdoch was playing tricks on Google but when Microsoft entered the picture with their proposal to News Corp. to exclusively allow indexing of their sites on Bing only things got clearer. I am not talking about the not surprising tactic from Microsoft's arsenal but on a total different thing.

The new phenomena here is the change of balance between publishers and Google. The status que until today was that everyone just wished Google would index their websites and the more the merrier. Indexing meant traffic which summed up to more revenues from advertising. Industries has been created on this raw desire to be indexed on Google, for example SEO and SEM were millions of dollars have been poured into it. News Corp. as a big website with big assets understood that Google is no less important to them then the opposite.

I am not sure whether Bill Gates got it and talked to News Corp or the other way around (though it smells like Bill's way of thinking) but something has changed here.

Now that this has happened we can contemplate on few directions. For example what will happen if other websites will follow through and will deindex themselves from Google? And also is this happening because Google is no longer the main hub for getting users to websites where social bookmarking and tiny urls on twitter fill the gap? Is this the reason Google is developing operating systems to grab hold on users while they know they loose ground in the pure web market?

I think this is a serious topic for Google to think on.

Dudu

Is Web 3.0 The Right Name for The Next Internet Uphill?

I get to see here and there the term '3.0' used in reference to the next internet/technology revolution and somehow it does not feel right to me. I am not sure about this but for me the coined term '2.0' was a metaphor belonging to the concept of software versioning. If the the first internet era where infrastructure was established is called '1.0' implying the first version of a product then what we had recently was a '2.0' where the product, hence the internet, has become more streamlined towards users in terms of services, ease of use and diversity. As in software there are always other versions such as 3.0 and 4.0 etc... but none of these compares to the unique characteristics '1.0' and '2.0' have.

In software usually the 1.0 includes basic infrastructure for enabling core functionality as well as diverse set of features coming from the delirious minds of the developers and maybe potential customers. It is usually very spread out and less focused though very appealing thanks to the creative sense of it. The 2.0 usually is an organized effort to address the needs of specific audiences after getting real feedback and real experience with the 1.0 version. I believe the internet did behave in correspondence with this lifecycle during last two uphills.

If we try to envision the next uphill (assuming there will be one, hopefully) then it can come in two flavors (or more I have to be humble): The '3.0' style where the product/internet becomes less creative and spread out while maturing current capabilities and extending them to address more perfectly different users' needs. The second option is to have a spinoff on the '2.0' product series but actually to create something new which can and should be called '1.0' again.

I personally prefer option 2:)

Bad YouTube Experience

Yesterday while I was viewing a video on YouTube I was aggressively interrupted by a video/flash based commercial with sound. I am not sure whether that was a glitch but someone need to pay attention to the fact that people can not hear two different soundtracks at the same time. Two videos is easy since you can focus your eyes on a certain area but two sounds is too much for me:)

What is wrong with Microsoft? Adobe Air vs. Silverlight

The new war on the rich desktop client is being won easily! by Adobe Air. You would expect Microsoft to win it swiftly  with all their expertise and real estate on desktops but somehow it is being played by them so cumbersomely. Microsoft first tried to chase the flash in-browser capabilities with their own version of Silverlight while at the same time Adobe was already crawling into the desktop. While still being stuck at solving the rich in-browser puzzle Adobe is becoming a very cool first mover to the rich desktop market. 

Few weeks ago Microsoft launched something called Out of Browser experience which looks like an unplanned feature aiming to strike back. SSB or Single Site Browsers are nothing new (see Fluid, Bubbles and Prism as examples) and a shortcut to a website is nothing even close to really installed client.

Maybe it is the cross platform portability aspect that holds things back, an issue within Microsoft that is not solved strategically yet (and should have been a long time ago after noticing that Windows is not the only operating system in the world). 

Actually their platform conflict raises an interesting strategic problem: on one hand their milking cow which is MS-Windows has to be advocated ferociously, on the other hand they look into other areas for growth and these areas potentially address users that are not feeding their cow but their rivals. And now to the big question: should I admit the existence of other users and support them and by that indirectly affect badly my cows condition in comparison to others. Or should I ignore them in hopes that others' cows will die without our support or at least not get stronger. I think it is a question of balance. First, how old is your cow? Every cow will die at the end and knowing when it is over the top is a good thing. Second, Is your cow really threatened by others and how the threat affects it in terms of making her life shorter. Third, has the business changed to chickes and eggs and you didn't notice it?

Sorry for the animals metaphor but I got into it:)

The Web Crawls Silently into the Desktop

Recently I got deeply interested into rich Internet technologies such as Adobe Air and Microsoft Silverlight and it is hard to not see the trend of returning to good old desktop applications with one big twist - the web included. These rich desktop applications are naturally integrated into the web with its rich services, content while enjoying UI breakthroughs achieved by browsers and site designers. It is great to see unique and smooth UI concepts being delivered across different platforms without being restricted to each platform's local UI structural constraints.

Although it is just the early days of Adobe Air and others still the trend of providing users with new rich and broad user experience is exciting.

More to come... (and who can say it is not exciting time in tech world:)

P.S. I am mainly talking about Adobe Air since it seems the major platform (for now) to catch up upon users and developers. Having said that I have to mention, Silverlight Out of the Browser experience (horrible name as only Microsoft knows to invent), JavaFX (which they promise to have a big comeback this year?), Titanium (I think mostly enterprise) and all SSB (Single Site Browsers) and local browser enhancers (Google Gears).

UPDATE: Just saw this article Adobe AIR Turns Web Developers into Desktop Developers which is an excellent prespective. The mass of professional now can cross the barrier thanks to this web-desktop technologies.

Israel's Mistakes Since the Disengagement from Gaza

The disengagement from Gaza made few years ago was actually the moment Hamas started getting stronger below the nose of Israel until they have become the authority over there. Eventually the extremist voices in Gaza won over the more rational ones such as the Fatah and that was certainly not on Israel's plans. Many voices are heard nowadays in Israel mentioning the disengagement as a big mistake and that the only way to maintain a quiet zone would be to control them tightly as we did in the past.

I personally do not agree with this since it takes us to an "endless" road and I don't believe that occupation as a way of life can last. There are people there that deserve the basic right of freedom and we, most of anyone else in the world should not take it from them. Anyway, it brings us to the dead end again where if we don't control them there is (or at least was) a fertile ground for the extremist to take over. So, what could have we done differently or even do after the current war to prevent this from happening and help get out the extremist out of the picture without brutal intervention.

If we take a look at the rational for why the people in Gaza selected and support Hamas then based on Hamas's propaganda they are the fighters that will bring back the land of Israel to the Palestinians and they are doing the holy war (forgetting for a moment they have been hiding for the last two weeks and that they used the civilians as human shelter but anyway). I don't buy this cause. I think this cause is something that smells like Tehran and if I assume normal people from Gaza are the same as you, I and everyone else, then it just does not sound logical. What I "buy" more is that the people over there are desperate mentally and financially for a long time now and Hamas has been helping them in the very basic stuff while preaching their extremist propaganda meanwhile. As a very hungry person you don't really care about what you need to vote once candidate brings you food. And this principle goes a long way towards fundamentalism and other areas extremists find benefit in.

If I am right on this then the logical step for us following the disengagement was actually to help the people in Gaza. To help them live better, work more, own more stuff and have "more" to lose in the face of a potential conflict. I think we tried for a while but with the first fist we got from them we said, well, they can manage it own their own and if they don't need or want our help then we won't give it to them. That was wrong! The fist aimed at us hurt only our pride and its sender, Hamas instructed by Tehran, aimed exactly at that. To make us leave them alone so they can stay in their miserable lives so Hamas can be their heroes and save them with small peanuts. That was our mistake! We should have kept on making their lives better, build factories, build hospitals, build universities and more so that Gaza people could get strong enough to say no to the extremists. Clear thinking is something possible only when basic needs are satisfied and you can not expect the hungry man to think in an enlightened way. To emphasize I do not suggest they would have started falling in love with us, no no, they have a long long history of hate with us and this does not go very fast. Still, they would have been given the option to select to either live in some kind of comfort and stay more moderate in their actions or go back to where they were in order to serve foreign interests of the extremists.

Just take a look at the west bank and although there are a lot of bad vibes still their better living standard makes them be more rationale and that is all we need. At least at the moment.

This logic also explains why Hamas is disturbing the humanitarian aid, since it is easier to control poor and hungry people then the ones who eat and are full.

This approach requires a big leap of faith from us since at the mid and short term you are actually helping people who really hate you at the moment. But on the longer term that is the way to create good relationship with people in general and especially neighbors.

This thinking takes me to a few days after the fighting will end and I think that we as a nation should do all in our ability to help them and adopt it as a national long term strategy. It may take years until confidence can be regained but I expect that the "responsible" voices within their people will rise up much faster and become counter force to the extremist. I personally do not see helping them as a point of weakness for Israel though some may perceive it as such for a while. It is actually a real vote for self confidence and strength.

I do not think we have some kind of genetic difference not allowing us to become good neighbors. We are doing it quite well with the Israeli arabs. It is not that it is all roses between us and the Israeli arabs but at least there is some co-existence and civilized discussion among us. I think also that once Israeli arabs will see that their brothers the Palestinians start to live better then our co-existence will improve.

A combined approach of educating the Gaza people on the real forces behind the scenes (Iran), helping them live better and recover fast from where they are now and presenting them a long term vision into the future can help us solve this never ending story and start a new better one.