Tags are wonderful. When you put a bunch of tags together, you get a tag cloud. Wordle is a web site that allows people to create tag clouds from any text. You also get to customize font, color and layout.
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There is a gallery of Wordle tagclouds. If you are on Flickr, check out the Wordle group.
The Web is an ubiquitous technology for information sharing. Living in the 21st century, the age of digital technologies, we often forget that some fundamental ideas of the Web really came from the age of analog. Alex Wright wrote a fascinating story about Paul Otlet, a Belgium innovator who dreamed about the Web in the 1930’s.
Important works by Otlet began with an attempt to create the world largest paper-based database of every book ever published. After Otlet and his associates created a large database of books and information, they used it to help people to find information. People would send in questions, and Otlet would use his system to find answers. As the number of users grow, scalability became an issue. Otlet believed that the paper-based approach must be scrapped. To solve this problem, Otlet sketched ideas of new technologies to create a “mechanical, collective brain” that would house all the world’s information and made readily accessible over a global telecommunications network.
According to some scholars, Otlet may have dreamed the Semantic Web and social networks. Hyperlink is an important concept in Otlet’s design of the Web. His vision of hyperlink is very similar to which of the Semantic Web. Hyperlinks are not just “pointers” to information, but also carry meanings about the information that they point to.
Recently a museum was built to house Otlet’s work in Mons, Belgium. “Later this year, a new corporate citizen plans to open a data center on the edge of town: Google.”
The United States of America has been the powerhouse of technology innovation for the past half century. One question that many people ask is can the US keep its edge? An Economist.com article overviews the inner structure of technology innovation and key problems that the US must address if it wants to keep the lead.
What’s damaging the US’s ability to innovate?
Why has the US been so successful in innovation?
Read the full story — Can America keep its innovative edge?
The future is mobile computing. Recently Google showed off its latest Android platform.
The demo is extremely cool. However, it’s still too early to say who will outcome strong in the future mobile computing world. Both Microsoft and Apple have good ideas and secret technologies under their sleeves. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 will supports a multi-touch interface and may work with its Surface computing technology. On the other hand, Apple’s iPhone may get a 3G upgrade.
