Technometria with Phil Windley
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In the 17th century, William Ames wrote a book called
Technometria. Technometry meant literally "the measure of a skill or
art." As Ames used it, he meant the study of the theory of the
interrelation of the arts and sciences. (See Why
Technometria for more detail.)
This is the Technometria podcast. I'm Phil Windley and I'm usually joined
by Scott Lemon and Ben Galbraith, good friends and
great technologists in their own right. Matt Asay has been a co-host in the past. We may talk him into coming back someday.
Technometria is our attempt to make sense of the technology that
surrounds us through exploration, analysis, and, hopefully,
reason. In these podcasts you'll find discussions of Web 2.0,
programming and software development, open source, identity, new
media, enterprise computing, and many other topics.
If you enjoy these podcasts, let us know by giving them a rating or sending us a note. You might also
enjoy Phil Windley's
Technometria blog.
Ben Galbraith returns as co-host of Technometria and it gives Phil and Scott the chance to chat with him about recent travels and projects. Scott discusses his disappointing trip to the CTIA Wireless Conference. The group also discusses the iPhone and other current issues related to mobile devices. They also talk about Ben's recent work converting a COBOL application to a modern Java GUI, methods being developed to measure productivity, as well as issues with Python.
The Mono Project is an open source development initiative sponsored by Novell to develop an open source, UNIX version of the Microsoft .NET development platform. Its objective is to enable UNIX developers to build and deploy cross-platform .NET Applications. Its founder, Miguel de Icaza, joins Phil, Scott Lemon, and Ben Galbraith, in a review of the project's history, purpose, and architecture. Miguel's descriptions are technical, but clear, and the discussion is a great introduction to the project.
XRI is a syntax and resolution protocol, independent of the underlying network location, domain, application, or storage. An XRI can be used the same way as a URI. An XRI can be downcast into a URI. There is also a standard way of making an XRI clickable called XRI Resolution. XRI is the product of an OASIS technical committee. Drummond Reed joins Phil and Scott to discuss his work with XRI and how he wants it to be accepted as an open, public standard.
In this edition of Technometria, Phil and Scott talk to Joseph Smarr, the Chief Platform Architect at Plaxo. Plaxo makes great use of AJAX in its product offerings and the conversation centers on techniques for overcoming cross-site scripting limitations along with performance considerations for Web sites making heavy use of Javascript. Finally the show ends with a discussion of the coming open social Web.
The issue of patents for software is a major controversy, particularly in the open source community. On March 19, 2007, Bruce Perens held a news conference to criticize Novell's recent agreement with Microsoft as a betrayal of the open source community. On the same day, he joined Phil and Scott to discuss his criticism. In addition, he gives a clear overview of the United States patent system as it relates to software and how he believes it is a problem to open source developers.
When you look at endless variety of products in the grocery store, do you wonder how they were all developed? In many cases, the companies have just guessed, but they also may have used methods developed by Howard Moskowitz, an expert in the field of psychophysics, and author of the upcoming book Selling Blue Elephants. He joins Phil, Matt, and Scott in a discussion of his research and how technology might take advantage of it. They also discuss how China and other countries hunger for success, while the west is becoming complacent.
Bruce Sterling suggested the creation of a new type of technological device, called "spime", that through pervasive RFID communications and GPS navigation can track its history and interact with the world. OpenSpime, a project of WideTag Inc., enables individuals and corporations to better understand their environment, through the use of a series of GPS-enabled sensors. Co-founders David Orban and Roberto Ostinelli join Phil and Scott to discuss the concepts and technologies.
Craig Burton has said that the best geometric representation of the net's end-to-end architecture is a hollow sphere comprised of everything and everybody on it. Doc Searls, senior editor for Linux Journal, uses this statement to describe the hollow sphere as a "giant zero" that puts every point at virtually zero distance from every other point. He joins Phil and Scott to discuss such topics as Internet celebrities, previous attempts to improve communications using technology, and how blogging forms new relationships.
Most companies depend on good public relations to get their message across. This is particularly true with high tech businesses that want their products and services to be understood. Lonn Johnston, founder of Page One PR, has a great deal of experience working with companies as both a journalist and a public relations expert. He joins Phil, Matt, and Scott to discuss how high tech firms get noticed. He draws on his knowledge of open source startups to discuss their particular issues, as well as the mistakes they make in dealing with public relations.
In addition to being Executive VP at Pearson Technology Group, John Wait is also Director of Digital Initiatives, researching and leading development of new learning products and services. He joins Phil and Scott to discuss the current state of technological book publishing. He contends that books are still viable, but that new methods of delivery must be expanded. John illustrates methods used to track what the reader wants and states that "how-to" books are often read by the curious who are interested in how things work.
