Some Random Dude is a blog by P.J. Onori that covers design & technology in the broadest sense possible.

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Posts Tagged ‘web-2dot0’

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A Better Web is Coming – Big Business Or Not

Posted on 22 March, 2007 at 4:55pm with 4 comments

I read a very interesting article, Why the Semantic Web Will Fail, about one person’s thoughts on why the web will never reach its full potential due to the greed and short-sidedness of big business. The author makes some very good points in the article and it is quite compelling to read.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Semantic Web will never work because it depends on businesses working together, on them cooperating.

We are talking about the most conservative bunch of people in the world, people who believe in greed and cut-throat business ethics. People who would steal one another’s property if it weren’t nailed down. People like, well, Conrad Black and Rupert Murdoch.

And they’re all going to play nice and create one seamless Semantic Web that will work between companies – competing entities choreographing their responses so they can work together to grant you a seamless experience?

I think the author is right about one thing – big business is not a big fan of an open, sharing web and will fight it tooth and nail in the name of profit. My feeling however is that business really does not have a choice in the matter. The web is built on a very open, uncontrollable model – opening up infinite possibilities for individuals, competitors and or startups to ruin them in a heartbeat. The web is moving towards a more open model, like it or not. We do not rely on big business, big business relies on us. If corporations do not want to work in that model, all it takes is $15 for a domain name, $100 a month for hosting and word of mouth for some David to take down Goliath.
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Daily Delicious – Nikon plus Flickr equals smart

Posted on 13 February, 2007 at 10:57am with no comments

I have many different interests so it is rare when a site hits on every major one of them. The Stunning Nikon site is well designed, has some very interesting interface treatments, covers some absolutely great photography, takes advantage of Web 2.0, and is user-generated through the Flickr API. Sure, pulling in photos through Flickr is not difficult to accomplish, but the execution of this site in particular really excited me. I may be wrong, but I am almost certain Stamen had something to do this with. If the name sounds familiar, that is because they are also responsible for the Digg Visualizations, most recently the BigSpy project.

With so many great photographers out there, it only makes sense to pick from such a large and talented pool. Sites like these engage not only a company’s current user base, but it also acts as a great bridge to relations for new users. If companies actually care about their customers and wish to aid them (in this case, promotion), people are obviously going to respond in a positive way. I truly am surprised that this is not happening more often. Hopefully sites like these will help change that.

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Daily Delicious – (Internet) Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Posted on 7 February, 2007 at 1:17pm with no comments

A ran across an interesting article, Where Did My Beautiful Internet Go?, a couple days ago on one person’s thoughts the direction the internet is going. With RSS, syndication and the rise of the blog, the author feels that the visual design and originality of the internet as a whole has taken a hit. Honestly, it is hard to argue with this preface if one looks strictly from a visual standpoint. Nonetheless, I feel the quality of design as a whole on the web is at an all-time high with the future looking even more promising. The argument really comes down to whether you think of design strictly from a visual standpoint or consider it to be a collection of the entire experience. With myself leaning greatly to the latter, I look at the current trend on the web as good. We cannot put the usability and accessibility of information aside from this debate – they are a crucial piece of design on the web, if not the most important.

Sure, I have a bone or two to pick with certain visual design styles, and the lack of visual originality with many sites, most especially blogs. However, many of the root-caused for those very issues have allowed for an unprecedented increase in user-experience design and accessibility. The rise of the blog and the general theory behind Web 2.0 has allowed the user and other sites to have greater access to content – allowing for a richer experience. Usability and web standards have definitely stifled visual creativity at times, but the movement is responsible for a much accessible and compatible internet. A site can be absolutely visually stunning, but if the public cannot easily access the information or interact with it, the design failed.

With information becoming more modular with every passing day, we are going to have to get comfortable with letting go of controlling how our content always looks. We need accept the fact that (many) people prefer to access data from an RSS reader or a web aggregator. While one may be of the opinion that certain content looks more appealing under a certain strict visual style, imposing those beliefs onto the audience is not the job of a designer nor is it responsible. Time would be better spent working with those technologies to make the content look its absolute best under all circumstances. Fighting this is useless, content and information is only going to become more free.

Design, especially on the internet, is a balancing act. Communication and aesthetics can, at times, conflict with each other which forces compromise. At this moment on the web, communication has taken the higher priority – which probably has to do with the fact that it was so neglected in the early years of design on the web. What we are seeing now is a natural return to balance. Honestly, this is a good thing.

So, our ‘beautiful internet’ is still here and thriving, it is just becoming beautiful in an entirely different way.

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