Comments on: Gowalla My Dreams

By: gry planszowe

gry planszowe — Sun, 02 May 2010 12:07:27 +0000

Thanks for writing this post. Now everything is clear for me.

By: john ratcliffe-lee

john ratcliffe-lee — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:38:05 +0000

this is exactly the reason i use these services. they’re all “keys” in the sense that it’s real-time human evolution taking place. we’re changing how we live, operate and communicate and it’s fascinating. i didn’t sign up for gowalla and foursquare b/c i wanted to play a game. i signed-up so i could, hopefully, use the data i’m generating. the network created by the service creates context among friends and then (which i wish still worked), the RSS/KML feed my account generated gets plot on a map via yahoo pipes and embedded on my blog. early on, gowalla gave me access to beta test a feed of my check-ins and along w/ foursquare – neither really worked very well. pipes couldn’t parse any KML data from the feeds. so, long story short, you’re not alone in your dreaming.

By: Josh Williams

Josh Williams — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:39:13 +0000

This is good stuff Jeffrey. Hopefully we’re not that far off. Good dreams indeed. :) Perhaps we can make them come true.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:42:53 +0000

I think you are not dreaming; it is something we probably all want to see at one point.
Now, I’m a bit pessimistic as to *how* it will be done. Privacy will be an issue (is already, if we look at google). The key is not technology – as you said we already have it (microformats, svg being implemented even ie9 as we speak, and so on) -, the key is information.
I’m sure some companies are willing to get information by all means. Business still is business, even if the ultimate goal is very seducing (I’d really love an extended gmap as you described it).

By: blancaperse

blancaperse — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:32:58 +0000

What about closing the Networks? You choose the machines and the people you give the information to. From “Big Brother” to “Cool little brothers”. There are thousands of unemployed programmers who could go on developing aplications for specific users & needs. (For instance, a sort of facebook with a proper search engine or a decent way of indexing all that mad information)
Apologies for my quick comment in fb, btw. I just don’t like Google, I would write a 500 pages book against them. Keywords, “clumsy greediness”

By: Eric Marden

Eric Marden — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:54:54 +0000

I say, Bring it on! With new exploits will come new ways to protect ourself. However, the internet is here to serve us, and as masters of this domain we can make it sit up, fetch our slippers, and tell the robots to get off our lawn (if we want).

By: Don Rogers

Don Rogers — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:40:45 +0000

Sounds great! Anything that will save me time that could be put to more productive use, I am all for. Trying to update or save information in ten different places waste a lot of time, but is necessary for doing and building a business.

There are issues of privacy and possible invasion of, but we have that just sitting in our living room and someone unlawfully entering our home. We just hope the locks on the door will deter intruders, maybe add some alarms. The Big Brother scenario has already happened to some degree. Here is to hoping it is the nice big brother who teaches you how swim, and not by throwing in water over your head.

By: Jeffrey Zeldman

Jeffrey Zeldman — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:38:11 +0000

This looks like a step in the right direction.

@lieb: Indeed it does.

the real limitations have exclusively to do with paying for the work to get done. there are tons of good software ideas that just aren’t good business ideas. if you can strike a chord and come up with a business idea that doesn’t have to “get monetized”, because it’s already a business idea… then the world (and it’s lack of true, and friendly interoperability) will certainly change.

@Nater Kane: Then we need to get the makers of Twitter interested! They do cool stuff whether there’s a business case for it or not. ;)

By: lieb

lieb — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:35:12 +0000

This looks like a step in the right direction.

By: Khürt Williams

Khürt Williams — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:39:49 +0000

So long as these services offer a gloabal “opt-out” box the future will no be dytopic. In the mean time we are nowhere close to the utopia of seamless access to information. I hate the fact that I have to maintain accounts on foursquare and gowalla because neither communicates with the other.

By: Ray Drainville

Ray Drainville — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:10:34 +0000

The vision you paint is certainly non-dystopian–for now. It’ll only take a couple of dickheads to demonstrate the inevitable dangers of sharing personal information so easily. Soon afterwards we’ll move to new ground, where evolved phishing attacks & other exploits will not only expose, but use, our information in wholly unintended ways.

The older I get the more amazed I am by what we can create–and the more disgusted I become by what some of us choose to do with those creations.

By: Antoine Butler

Antoine Butler — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:57:23 +0000

What you describe would indeed be awesome but like other services out now, it feeds our biggest big brother fears.

One day our culture, how we interact with each other and our government will be changed for ever. A cool idea, turned great product, turned tool of oppression – isn’t so cool.

Too serious?

By: Nater Kane

Nater Kane — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:55:04 +0000

you’re not dreaming at all.

i’ve spent a lot of time thinking about exactly these things (or flavors thereof) over the past few years.

though many API’s can be frustratingly limited (ie. basecamp still doesn’t have file access in their API w/ the exception of links to files uploaded as an attachment to a message, and of course Gowalla’s now infamous lack of write access w/ their API), there are so many integration points the only REAL limitations are related to finding a good business case (unrelated to finding a business need, since the “needs” are obvious).

ok, that’s not true. the real limitations have exclusively to do with paying for the work to get done. there are tons of good software ideas that just aren’t good business ideas. if you can strike a chord and come up with a business idea that doesn’t have to “get monetized”, because it’s already a business idea… then the world (and it’s lack of true, and friendly interoperability) will certainly change.

i’ve only seen a few APIs that truly “play well with others”. but things are getting better. i think people are learning that mashups are now, not much more than just cute toys, unless they bring something authentically unique to the table.