Ben Werdmuller

Category: Software development

  • So why do we need apps anyway?

    Ebooks don’t cut it: everyone wants an app NB (May 20, 2010): A lot of my suggestions for web-based apps are part of the Google Chrome Web App Store. In fact, the .crx file used there is a zip file with very similar characteristics to epub. (I assume, as Chromium is open source, that .crx […]

  • Direct messaging in a social web architecture

    This post is the third segment in my series on an architecture for the social web. Previously: How social networks can replace email, which is a non-technical approach to the issues, and my follow-up describing how to build a social web architecture using available technology today. So what about direct messaging? In my previous post, […]

  • Activity Streams and OAuth: a social web architecture

    My previous post was a response to Gartner’s prediction last month that social networking would replace email as the “primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users.” In it, I named some properties that would need to be held by any social networking system that would successfully replace email. Ease of use […]

  • PubCasts: subscribe to publications through RSS

    This is inspired by the iBooks launch, but it’s applicable to any ereader that uses the ePub format. (Or, indeed, it could use any ebook format – MobiPocket, Kindle, DAISY, etc.) A podcast is just an RSS feed with a file enclosure – part of the RSS standard – that points to an MP3 file. […]