Cloud Computing

Implicit Web, Interface for Telling and Atomization of Conversations - Recipe for OMG

By Brij ⋅ May 17, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Trying to understand evolving signals around silent web. Web which we users leave behind when we share our profile data, friends information and information related to transactional experience.  I think something significant is just around the corner. These signals are coming up in memes such as Implicit Web, Atomization of conversations, Interface for telling and news feeds.

First the idea of Implicit Web, which is a fancy name for a model where systems and online services act on your digital information without explicitly asking for your interaction. Josh Kopelman, First Round VC,  has really amplified core ideas of Implicit Web. He used simple use case to demonstrate how systems are now silently working on our data and creating opportunities for smart orchestrations.

Implicit Web trend received unanimous nod at recent Churchill Club discussion -

Later on Josh expanded on Implicit Web theme by giving examples of “atomization of conversation” meme.

• Why call someone and tell them you're coming to town?  They've seen it on Dopplr. 
• Want to tell someone about your recent trip to England?  Don't bother, they've seen the pictures on Flickr. 
• No need to call me and ask whether the new movie I just saw is any good — you've seen my review on Flickster. 
• Want to know what music I'm listening to right now? — check out iLike.
• Is someone you know suffering from an illness or injury? — stay connected and informed (and offer support) at their Carepage.
  
• Did your friend just open a bottle of wine?  You can stay up to date on what they like (and don't) by following their CellarTracker reviews.
  
• And if that didn't cover it, don't worry, you probably saw it in my Facebook Status updates or Twitter feed.

Online services leveraging user information and then feeding value-addition back in user's social context is what results in atomization of  conversations. Status distribution in lifestreaming format but all acting on the data pool of implicit web. User A saying to User B, just give me your feed and I will know what you are up to!

There are two ends to this. Machine enhanced conversations consumed by my social network and my own intent as smartly captured by new tools.

This discrete transformation of our intent is what is really interesting. Though this drags us into semantic territory. Beauty of this transformation is that it's riding on our natural motivations (What are you doing?) and does not require major format/tag surgery.  It's happening right now under the banner of 140 constraint in Twitter, search-for-interestingness motivation for picture tagging in Flickr or SEO motivation to make sure that the gist of your expression is captured in your blog post title. There are many more examples like that.

What has really expedited the trend towards atomization of conversation is this new input interface, which is greatly influenced by mobile handset constraints.

Interface of constraint, which Cliff Gerrish calls it Interface for telling, is where we are going to see Implicit Web getting most of it’s innovation. I think Cliff's description is by far the best one I have seen in recent time.  This new interface of constraint is really the one which is ensuring best capturing of intent at the entry point. Commonplace expressions like "this restaurant sucks" released from iPhone triggers a chain of event and engages my complete social network. My friends get to see my expression in different contexts - Facebook news feed, Yelp restaurant review, Twitter status, picture in MessageDance so on and so forth. 

Interface of constraint is the starting point of implicit web and this constraint is a business rule which translates user's intent in a flurry of conversations. This is a very significant development and this puts systems like Twitter at the center of next generation computing architecture.  As Adam Green , CEO of Grazr, puts it Twitter is the IBM punchcard of the 21st century.

Implicit web, atomization of conversations, interface for telling and constraint-based read/write designs are all linked. Apply this new understanding in every social applications out there and you will see opportunity for refactoring lot of existing designs, I think that's where you will see, in next 2-3 years, many new startups to come in and create new values. That's where entrepreneurs step in

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