http://www.infoworld.com/columnists/jon.html Lead With Knowledge, from InfoWorld.com en-us Copyright (C) 2007 InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:01:08 PST http://backend.userland.com/rss Kathy_Badertscher@InfoWorld.com webmaster@InfoWorld.com 40 http://images.infoworld.com/img/img_hdshot_82x74_Jon.gif http://www.infoworld.com/columnists/jon.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/13/51OPstrategic_1.html I’m a huge fan of the CAPStat (formerly DCStat) program. At InfoWorld’s recent SOA Executive Forum this fall, I taped a video interview with Dan Thomas. His innovative efforts led to the Web release of a set of data feeds from the office of Washington, D.C.’s CTO, detailing information about such areas as real estate, reported crime, licensing, and service requests. Earlier I published a podcast and a column on this topic. But despite my cheerleading, the hoped-for citizen-led mashups haven’t yet materialized in a big way. Wed, 13 Dec 2006 03:00:00 PST jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/13/51OPstrategic_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/06/50OPstrategic_1.html From time to time I get recruited to help someone export mail and contacts from one e-mail program and import the data into another. The fact that a civilian must recruit a geek to accomplish this seemingly mundane task speaks volumes about our industry’s sad history of data lock-in. Wed, 06 Dec 2006 03:00:00 PST jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/06/50OPstrategic_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/29/49OPstrategic_1.html Like many of you, probably, I tire-kicked Google Spreadsheets when it first arrived on the scene, then forgot all about it. A nice bit of AJAX hackery, I thought, but no serious competition for Excel. I was wrong, though, and here’s an anecdote that explains why. Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:00:00 PST jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/29/49OPstrategic_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/22/48OPstrategic_1.html At the Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT in September, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos gave a keynote talk on the slew of new and innovative Web services his company has recently launched. His discussion of MTurk, S3, and EC2 held no surprises for me, or for readers of this column and of my blog. But one of the questions posed by an attendee, in the Q&A period following Bezos’ talk, was a stunner. Wed, 22 Nov 2006 03:00:00 PST jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/22/48OPstrategic_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/15/47OPstrategic_1.html If you set out to explore XQuery, the XML query language, you’ll soon encounter a collection of examples, or use-cases, that show how XQuery can query and transform XML data. These scenarios are elaborated in a W3C document that presents a sample data set — about books, authors, prices, and reviews — and enumerates a set of queries against that data. For each query, there’s a description (“List names of users who have placed multiple bids of at least $100 each”), a solution written in XQuery code, and an expected XML output. Wed, 15 Nov 2006 03:00:00 PST jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/15/47OPstrategic_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/08/46OPstrategic_1.html If you search the Web for “fortune500.xml,?you’ll find an ordered list of the Fortune 500 companies. It’s just what you’d want if you were writing a custom portfolio application. But it didn’t exist until last week when Doug Purdy, a Microsoft program manager, created it while writing his own personal portfolio application. Because he also blogged the list, you can use it, too. Wed, 08 Nov 2006 03:00:00 PST jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/08/46OPstrategic_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/01/45OPstrategic_1.html There’s one thing I wish screen-sharing systems would do well: screen sharing. I watch a lot of demos projected to my computer. It’s always a struggle, both for the presenter and for me. Windows or Mac? IE or Firefox? Who has the latest version of the client? Who’s the host? Which application is shared? Can you see my screen? Wed, 01 Nov 2006 03:00:00 PST jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/11/01/45OPstrategic_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/25/44OPstrategic_1.html Two weeks ago I wrote about an invitation to join Sun’s Oct. 10 debut in Second Life. On the same day, coincidentally or not, IBM invited me to its alumni virtual block party on the 12th. I’d been itching to try my hand at virtual cinematography, so I donned my avatar, went to the party, and used the in-world movie camera to document the event. Wed, 25 Oct 2006 03:00:00 PDT jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/25/44OPstrategic_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/18/43OPstrategic_1.html A dozen years ago, I wrote a Byte cover story on the subject of computer-telephony integration. CTI was “right around the corner” back then. Every time I revisit the subject I conclude that, regrettably, it still is. Wed, 18 Oct 2006 03:00:00 PDT jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/18/43OPstrategic_1.html http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/11/42OPstrategic_1.html A well-known company issues a press release inviting reporters to witness its online debut. The year? Not 1994, but 2006. The company? Sun Microsystems. I had to pinch myself when I read the announcement: “Please join John Gage for a special event in Second Life.” It’s been a while since I got one of those. Wed, 11 Oct 2006 03:00:00 PDT jon_udell@infoworld.com,letters@infoworld.com (Jon Udell)http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/11/42OPstrategic_1.html