The Ripples in the Pond

All predictions are pointing towards integration, to a point where the line between disparate services and applications might blur so much that integrated offerings employing multiple applications & tools will become seamless.

This is already the case with personalized pages like iGoogle and NetVibes, but new technologies have added a whole new dimension to this concept. Mashup sites like Yahoo Pipes, and radical new versions of search sites like Cuil, Google Base are all stretching the boundaries of the Web.

With ever smarter devices on one side and ever expanding and intricate networks on the other....the stage is being set for a new web, where the twin hurdles of geography and time will somehow be eliminated. If it does, maybe then it'll be time for another version change. Talk is rife of web 3.0, shouldering the great expectations of Symantic web and Linked data. But until this functionality has a viable form and until it delivers...Web 2.0 it is.

The Rock in the Pond

Was the Web a different place before Google? It might just be true. You had search engines and content but somehow you could never get what you were looking for because you couldn't exactly search, or search exactly! Google put an end to that, allowing users to talk to the net, for what they wanted, without the pretense of being all things to everyone.

It was the first and still is the best marriage of form to content, and interestingly, when Google first came online, the interface was a big draw and design enthusiasts as well as professionals commented on its Apple like austerity. The fact was, the makers of Google did not know HTML, and just wanted a quick interface (3).

Nevertheless from that hermetic visage, what has spawned, is a whole new way of experiencing the web. Since it became the de facto Yellow Pages for the web, everyone started setting shop and waited to be found. If Microsoft and IE represented the flag bearer of the Web 1.0 world - Standardized, Static, Desktop bound, Google is the masthead for Web 2.0. And more than that, its presence and story have been inspirational to individuals with nothing to show but ideas.

The effect of all this, has been a phenomenal lowering of the entry barriers to putting your 'stuff' online, and virtually, new technologies being born a minute. The impact has been so ruthless in some areas where middlemen operated that there has been literally a wipeout - ask the Air travel ticketing agents, and the Real estate agents! Additionally, participating in this online world was greatly facilitated by other entrants in the scheme of things. Applications that made the web that let you make the "stuff". Sure, Google provided a mechanism to search, but for the new interactive web, what was needed was a relevant form for the tremendous potential. The Wild Wild Web needed Rails. Enter Ruby on Rails.

It is impossible not to notice Ruby on Rails. It has had a huge effect both in and outside the Ruby community... Rails has become a standard to which even well-established tools are comparing themselves to. rubyonrails.org/ -

“Ruby on Rails is a breakthrough in lowering the barriers of entry to programming. Powerful web applications that formerly might have taken weeks or months to develop can be produced in a matter of days.”
-Tim O'Reilly, Founder of O'Reilly Media

Ruby's success has been phenomenal along with some scaling problems, but even then its single most persistent achievement has been its adoption and use by some of the best web 2.0 apps online. There is no doubt there will be better ones to follow, but each successor will only add to the demystification of web programming - and that's a big achievement!

The Big Pond

Picture this - the biggest collective memory of ideas, actions, thoughts and feelings. Web 2.0 is soon becoming the best realization of a collective memory of human history and endeavor. Of course, that's overstating it a bit, but let the data speak - a Terabyte used to be big until recently - well, YouTube contains 530 Terabytes of videos as of end 2008. Hold the press! - We have the Peta Byte? That’s the amount of data that is processed by Google servers every 72 minutes! The English Wikipedia is 25 times bigger than the next largest English-language encyclopedia. As the July edition of Wired termed it - “The quest for knowledge used to begin with Grand Theories. Now it begins with massive amounts of data. Welcome, to the Petabyte Age!"

In this age of information overload; the basic flow of information - top-down since time immemorial with gatekeepers managing the flow of information - is changing, and fast! In whichever field you look at - science, art, literature, commerce, and entertainment, the browser has changed the dynamics. Imagine a million minds with a billion ideas able to express, connect, collaborate and then create.

In the book "The End Of Science: Facing The Limits Of Knowledge In The Twilight Of The Scientific Age-John Horgan ", spoke to top living scientists who surmised about their dilemma of grappling with the reality of a slow down in discovery and inventions. So when the fundamental source of empirically derived knowledge looks like drying up, where do you go?

Moore, Metcalfe and Kurzweil

By conventional wisdom, the whole is almost always greater than the sum of its parts. For the Web, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, manifold. Take the main components that make it work - the users, the computational elements at their disposal, and the web.

Gordon Moore famously predicted 40 years back that the number of inexpensive computer transistors on a chip will double every two years. And it has been true ever since. The power held in the palm of one's hand today - in PDAs, Cellphones or Laptops - is so much more than what resided in top secret research facilities, filling a whole room, just a decade ago. And as Moore's law predicts, the pace of related innovations follows through. Adoption, inclusion and to an extent immersion do not remain an issue any more - everyone’s logged in!

Robert M. Metcalfe, co-inventor of the Ethernet, and founder of 3Com said

"The value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system (n²)". Pointing out the similarity between a human neural network and the Web he further said "Just like a synapse between two neurons; the web spreads ideas from one person to another, connecting one brain to the second".

Over the course of time both these laws have helped shape technologies; physical hardware is constantly getting smaller and cheaper to produce, fueling more uses/users for devices - that’s Moore's Law. On the other hand, software and web aps are becoming increasingly user-driven, user-centric and user-friendly - making it easier for Networks to expand and evolve between these technologies - that's Metcalfe's Law.

Another pioneer, this time in artificial intelligence - Raymond Kurzweil - estimated that the human brain's networked intelligence produces the equivalent of 1016 computations per second. In fact its superiority is pricesely not because of its neural capabilities, but because of its networking capabilities. In other words, the brain is 106x104, or 1010, times smarter than it should be, simply because it is networked.

So, as a sum of its parts, Web 2.0 is a more composite and functionally relevant tool today than ever before. And because this kind of connectivity lets you extend beyond geography and time, the talent pool at its reach is phenomenal, with collaborations and connections that can happen across geography, age, sex or race. In no other era of human civilization has there ever been a platform for ideas to be shared or conversations to be had - with such ease and immediacy - without the other senses getting in the way.

The transition of Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 is an evolution from micro to macro, from the plurality of siloed desktops to the singularity of networks. If Web 1.0 was the evolution of web capabilities in siloed clusters, Web 2.0 is the actualization of those capabilities in networks.

Web 2.0 - Singularity of Networks!

How Web 2.0 is reshaping information and its management.

Nomenclature and Beyond

Web 2.0 is another title, in a long line of titles, taking advantage of the feel good factor attached to a second home coming. It is the ideal comeback name for the resurrection of the internet after the Dot-Com burst when all gloom and doom was forecast for the web.

Officially, a name coined by Tim O'Reily, it was gradually popularized by the mainstream media and helped spawn many suffixed version 2s in its wake.

Web2.0, and all its surrounding context and its transition from web1.0, deal with one thing, information and its flow. A commodity since early on in Human history, Information has been constantly traded. From word of mouth to written form, from simple words to complex diagrams; information and the industry around it reflect the evolution of the Human race.

The arrival of the Personal Computer; powerful, yet completely subversive to human inputs, was a seminal event offering a single physical unit that could outperform humans in certain areas with amazing speed. Eventually, its single unit status, was the real hindrance to the aforementioned progress. Its real power would emerge only when more than one unit were combined or networked. Just as the true purpose and value of information lies in its flow – the device's value progressed as it started connecting to other devices. Enter the Web, or to be more precise Web 1.0.

Fundementally, as a way to collect and consume information, the initial internet era had content and relevance, but as an interactive medium, it needed better delivery mechanisms and better form. This state of the web where function was mismatched with form, and delivery meant dial-up, was the age of Web 1.0.

The WWW, was like the Wild Wild West at the start of the coast-to-coast migration in America, to borrow a real life example. As, in the west, the land became productive due to two main changes – Railroads and Settlers, similarly, Web 1.0 always had potential, but it is now, with Web2.0 that the potential is finally being realized.

The connectivity, accessibility and networking that the Rails provided, drove the settlers in, in the west, and similarly with Broadband and Terrabytes, Flash and Ajax, Social Worlds and Virtual worlds, Mashups and Wikis, Podcasts and WebCasts; the web is literally being defined and populated by its networked users... who are settling in droves.

In a way, Web 1.0 was a precursor - a laying down of the wires, protocols, systems, guidelines and possibilities, and Web 2.0 is the realization of those possibilities; where instantaneous connection, communication and collaboration are its sine qua non.

Word of Wisdom

Imam Ali (AS)
Source: Nahjul Balagha

His Last Will and Testament

Imam Ali's (AS) last will to his sons Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Hussain (AS):

My advice to you is to be conscious of God and steadfast in your religion. Do not yearn for the world, and do not be seduced by it. Do not resent anything you have missed in it. Proclaim the truth; work for the next world. Oppose the oppressor and support the oppressed.

I advise you, and all my children, my relatives, and whosoever receives this message, to be conscious of God, to remove your differences, and to strengthen your ties. I heard your grandfather, peace be upon him, say: "Reconciliation of your differences is more worthy than all prayers and all fasting."

Fear God in matters concerning orphans. Attend to their nutrition and do not forget their interests in the middle of yours.

Fear God in your relations with your neighbors. Your Prophet often recommended them to you, so much so that we thought he would give them a share in inheritance.

Remain attached to the Holy Book. Nobody should surpass you in being intent on it, or more sincere in implementing it.

Fear God in relation to your prayers. It is the pillar of your religion.

Fear God in relation to His House; do not abandon it as long as you live. If you should do that you would abandon your dignity.

Maintain communication and exchange of opinion among yourselves. Beware of disunity and enmity. Do not desist from promoting good deeds and cautioning against bad ones. Should you do that, the worst among you would be your leaders, and you will call upon God without response.

Knowledge and Ignorance
In reply to some one who posed Imam Ali (as) a difficult question, Imam Ali (as) said : 'Ask in order to understand, and do not ask in order to find fault, for surely the ignorant man who wants to learn resembles a man of knowledge, and surely a man of knowledge who wants to be difficult resembles an ignorant man who wants to find fault. '


The Station of the men of Knowledge
The man of knowledge is the one who recognizes that what is known is very little compared to what is not known, and as a result he considers himself ignorant, and accordingly he increases his efforts to know more by going out in search of knowledge.


The Purity and the Nobility of Knowledge
Do not talk about knowledge with the foolish so that they deny you, nor with the ignorant so that they find you oppressive, but talk about it with those of its people whom you meet who will accept it and understand it.


Knowledge and Acting on it
O you who carry knowledge around with you; are you only carrying it around with you ? For surely knowledge belongs to who ever knows and then acts accordingly, so that his
action corresponds to his knowledge. There will be a people who will carry knowledge around with them, but it will not pass beyond their shoulders. Their inner most thoughts will contradict what they display in public and their actions will contradict what they know.


The purity and nobility of knowledge
When a dead person is placed in his grave, four kinds of fire will cover him, but then the prayer will come and put one of them out, and the fast will come and put another one of them out, and then charity will come and put another one out, and knowledge will come and put the forth one out, and it will say : 'If I had come sooner, I would a have put all of them out, and given you delight for I am with you now, and you'll not see anything else distressing.


On the Heart
I am amazed at the heart of man: It possesses the substance of wisdom as well as the opposites contrary to it ... for if hope arises in it, it is brought low by covetousness: and if covetousness is aroused in it, greed destroys it. If despair possesses it, self piety kills it: and if it is seized by anger, this is intensified by rage. If it is blessed with contentment, then it forgets to be careful; and if it is filled with fear, then it becomes preoccupied with being cautious. If it feels secure, then it is overcome by vain hopes; and if it is given wealth, then its independence makes it extravagant. If want strikes it, then it is smitten by anxiety. If it is weakened by hunger, then it gives way to exhaustion; and if it goes too far in satisfying its appetites, then its inner becomes clogged up. So all its shortcomings are harmful to it, and all its excesses corrupt it.

There are four things that make the heart die: wrong action followed by wrong action, playing around with foolish people, spending a lot of time with women, and sitting with the dead. Then they asked Imam Ali: 'And who are the dead, O Commander of the believers?' He replied: 'Every slave who follows his desires.'

Surely want is a trial, and having sickness of the body is more difficult to bear than indigence, and having a sickness of the heart is more difficult to bear than having a sickness of the body. Surely being very wealthy is a blessing, and having a healthy body is better than being very wealthy, and having awe of God in your heart is better than having a healthy body.

Surely hearts have desires, and they turn towards, and they turn away ... so approach them by means of what they desire and what they turn towards, for surely if the heart is forced to do some thing against its will, it goes blind.


On Intellect
A person's intellect becomes apparent through his dealings, and a man's character is known by the way he exercises authority. The intellect is a king and characteristics are its subjects, so if it is weak in governing them, disorder takes place.

The intellect is better than desire, for the intellect makes you a king over your destiny, and desire makes you a slave of your destiny.

The intellect is a natural disposition which learns from experience.

The intellect is what arrives at what is correct through reasoning, and recognizes what has not yet happened through what has already taken place. Use your intellect to understand something when you hear about the intellect that examines, that is, and not just the intellect that repeats what it hears, for surely there are many who repeat the knowledge that they hear, and there are few who examine it.

The one who has an intellect longs to be like the righteous people so that he can be of one of them, and he loves them so that he can be united with them in his love, even if he falls short in emulating their actions.

The one who has an intellect does not openly display it except in one of two situations: when he is furthest away from seeking something in the world, and when he is furthest away from abandoning it.

Surely hated adversity has final objectives in which it will inevitably end, so the one who has an intellect should try to sleep over it until this happens, for surely any attempt to stop it before it has come to an end will only intensify that hated diversity even more.

The first opinion of the person of intellect is the last opinion of an ignorant person.

The one who has an intellect finds harshness of life amongst persons of intellect more agreeable than a life of ease amongst the foolish.


The Station of men of Knowledge
Know that the slaves of God are those who seek to preserve knowledge of Him, safeguarding what safeguards it, and lettings its springs flow freely. They are united by friendship, and they meet with love, and they drink from the cup that quenches their thirst, and they go on with their thirst satisfied. They are not troubled by doubt, and they are not quick to backbite. It is on this basis that their natural disposition and character rest, and on this is based their love, and by this they are united. They are like seeds that have been assessed and selected, some to be kept and some to be thrown away, identified through purification, and refined through clarification.


This World and the Next
Imam Ali (as) wrote to Salman al Farsi (ra) : To continue, surely, the likeness of this world is that of a snake: it is soft to touch, and deadly poisonous. The ignorant child is distracted by it, and the one with understanding and intellect is cautious of it. So turn away from what fascinates you in it, for how little of it stays with you.


The Life Transaction ( Religion ) of Islam
I am making a connection which no one has made before me: Islam is submission, and submission is certainty, and certainty is the affirmation of the truth, and affirmation of the truth is acknowledgement, and acknowledgment is performance of what is obligatory, and performance of what is obligatory is appropriate action.