My space odyssey

谷歌输入法出笼了

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 11:50:13 GMT

http://tools.google.com/pinyin/feature.html

下载了谷歌的输入法，惊喜似乎不多。但还是发现一点与以往其他输入法最大的不同。

1.整个架构是CS的（client-server），即与服务器相连的。以前大多数输入法是一个独立的桌面软件。
2.个性化：输入Gmail账户以实现词库自动同步更新。

这给我们带来一些新的想象空间。未来可以预见的功能包括：
◆保存用户设置：输入法里的设置相当多，不同机器上用户可以使用相同的输入设置。个人使用习惯和打字的效率相关性极高。能够使用同样的设置是对用户非常重要。

◆字词的排序个性化：长期统计个人的词汇量和字词使用频率，提高打字效率。输入法的使用时间越长，数据积累越多，个性化排序会越来越准确。现在某些输入法有个性化的功能。但是换台机器就又得重来了。

◆根据打字内容，自动分析用户喜好，精确投放广告。

输入法是每个网民必用的工具。但是，没有一个公司愿意长期做下去，因为不能带来明显的收益。目前市场上的输入法都不尽人意，尚有极大的改进空间。谷歌有实力来做一个最好的输入法，如果它能坚持下去的话。

一个好的输入法会给谷歌带来大量忠诚的用户。能从输入法切入中国市场，是一个相当好的策略。

Google Patent Search: Great research tool!

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 14:13:49 GMT

Google recently published a new service: patent search.

It's a great tool for research. I just gave it a try and found out the ones I filed as inventor and co-inventor. Much easier than the USPTO's equivalent service.

Scaled forward and inverse discrete cosine transform and video compression/decompression systems employing the same
US Pat. 6694342 - Filed Oct 16, 2000 - Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Signal interpolation and decimation exploiting filter symmetry
US Pat. 5892693 - Filed Jul 1, 1996 - Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Cellular multiplier comprising a tree of the overturned stairs type, and method of implementation
US Pat. 5497342 - Filed Nov 9, 1994 - France Telecom

Method and a circuit for encoding a digital signal to determine the scalar product of two vectors, and corresponding DCT processing
US Pat. 5218565 - Filed Sep 24, 1991 - France Telecom

Generalized digital multiplier and digital filter using said multiplier
US Pat. 4974186 - Filed Jan 24, 1989 - Etat Francais Represente par le Ministere des Postes, des Telecommunication et de L'Espace (CNET)

IM/SNS/Blog的垃圾信息及其防范措施

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 03:34:23 GMT

各种垃圾信息是困惑所有互联网用户和社区服务商的一个头痛的问题。

IM
IM的spam以life365为代表，陌生人加你，然后发广告。更多的spammers是通过手段获取你的IM好友列表，然后以你的名义发送欺诈性广告。某些IM如skype和AIM，可以向非好友发消息，其实也很容易被spammers利用。

关于某些朋友的问题，我来说明一下。
--MSN加好友的时候不需要验证。。。?
MSN验证一直有的。你总是可以拒绝来自陌生人的添加邀请。目前缺乏的是添加人的申请信息。这一个功能在Live Messenger (MSN) 8.1里加上了。Spammers的签名会很诱人。还是容易辨认的。

--不用MSN吧，Gmail和Gtalk，以及Skype应当够用了吧?
GTalk 加人目前也没有添加申请信息。GTalk的用户相对较少，spammers没兴趣。

Skype已经引起了spammers的浓厚兴趣，Skype用户可以向任何其他Skype（非好友）用户发信息。我就收到过这样的spam。你可以修改Skype的隐私选项，仅收好友的信息。估计99.99%的用户使用默认选项，恰好是spammers的盘中大餐。

躲避Spammers和更换IM不是最终的解决办法。更换IM的成本很高。学会有效地使用IM功能倒是更重要一些。

SNS
SNS网络如MySpace, Youtube也是令Spammers垂涎欲滴的金矿。我就多次收到来自这些地方的垃圾邮件。他们反Spam的办法是举报机制。

刚才有位朋友提到Wealink。若邻倒是从来没有spam（个人意见），因为这是一个实名SNS。每天的推荐文章里面总有几篇值得看的，我觉得还是很好的。实现实名制的困惑是要暂时牺牲规模和扩张速度，对于融资会有影响。某些VC首先关心的就是你有多少用户，不管你是如何弄来的。其实用户的质量也是很重要的。质量不是指用户的素质，而是服务商与用户之间的关系的质量。你的服务是否满足了用户的需要。

Blog
博客的评论和TrackBack被Spammers滥用。令人郁闷。

被spammers盯上不完全是坏事，也是一件伟大，光荣和体现个人价值的事。有些Spammers会精心挑选博客的。如果你的博客没人看，spammer也不鸟你。著名Bloggers会有较多的spam。如果你的博客被spam了，恭喜，下次你请客！

Google黑板报取消了评论和引用，取而代之的是博客搜索结果 (Collect feedback the Google way)，充分利用Google的技术。如果你的博客里有它的链接，它就会列出你的博客。Spammers于是就将Google黑板报的链接放在他们自己的博客上。有趣的是，Google最近的一篇谈anti-spam的博客依然也被spammers利用了:
http://googlechinablog.com/2006/11/search-engine-anti-spam.html (黑板报后面有链接).
本人这篇博客将会被自动收录,呵呵。

Spam的防范
从用户角度来讲，验证，阻止，删除，拒绝，隐私级别的设定，是多数IM提供的工具。用好就是。总的来说，IM还是最安全有效的通讯工具。是用户可以掌控的。而email已经有点失控了。

从服务商的角度来说，有规模的spam行为是有规律可循的：
1) 同样的信息发给多个用户。
2) 短时间连续快速发送信息。
3) 关键字集合有限

防范的措施包括：
-在用户提交信息时过滤
-防止多次发送相同信息
-设立连续提交的时间间隔，防止快速提交
-设立机器验证码
-建立帐户黑名单
-建立关键词黑名单
-提供举报机制

都是很简单有效的办法，可以防范绝大多数规模垃圾信息。高级的过滤措施需要应用一点统计的方法，有兴趣的朋友可以看看下列文章:
Google研究员吴军关于防止搜索作弊的数学方法
http://googlechinablog.com/2006/11/search-engine-anti-spam.html
创业家/投资家/编程高手Paul Graham关于过滤垃圾邮件的统计建模法
http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html

码字不容易，向搜狗拼音鸣谢。

我们MSN群中一个群友的中秋诗

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 08:32:11 GMT

女友几时有
把酒问群友
不知群里小妹
可有男朋友
我欲离群而去
又恐群外孤寂
泡妞更加难
枕边空
梦犹在
夜难眠
不应有醉
何时才能把梦圆
女有黑白美丑
男有高矮肥瘦
此事古难全
但愿群长久
光棍不再有
祝大家中秋快乐

FYI: What Do 'Heavy Users' Do Online?

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:44:44 GMT

IM is becoming the most important application on the internet, according to this article:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004131

Here is the chart on what people do.

Same in China and probably in the rest of the world.

FYI: 80%白领患上“IM依赖症”

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 03:15:38 GMT

原文：中关村周刊/高煦 http://www.yunnan.cn/1898/2004/11/11/230@174198.htm

曾经有一句广告词风靡一时，说的是成功人士“手机、呼机、商务通，一个也不能少”；然而几年过去了，手机依然笑傲江湖，呼机和商务通却几乎销声匿迹了，在网络的虚拟空间取而代之的是诸如MSN、QQ等即时通讯(Instant Message，简称IM)工具。据国内领先的人力资源网站——中华英才网近日做的调查显示，大部分的白领阶层都在使用IM工具进行业务交流，IM工具俨然已成为白领人士工作的“左膀右臂”，而且他们大都患上了“IM依赖症”。

　　80%的白领使用IM工具

　　中华英才网对白领们的工作交流方式进行的调查显示，80%以上的白领喜欢用IM工具进行日常网络交流，只有20%的人采取诸如打电话、发手机短信之类的方式进行交流。这表明了两点：其一，在网络日渐普及的情况下，白领们已经不知不觉对网络形成了一定的依赖性，尤其是在现代办公环境下，大部分公司几乎一天24小时都能提供上网条件，白领们就是更乐在其中了；其二，IM工具作为即时、有效的聊天工具，已经以其简单、快捷、易掌握的特点俘获了大多数白领的“忠心”，甚至到了“一日不见，如隔三秋”的境地。

　　在调查白领们最喜欢用哪种IM工具时，选择用MSN和QQ的白领人数占到了所有调查人数的70%。据了解，大部分选择MSN的白领表示，用MSN是因为其界面设计得简洁、方便，在聊天功能具备齐全的情况下，页面设计视觉效果深得大家喜欢，不愧为“办公室的好帮手”；而也有部分白领人士则表示，QQ比MSN更早进入他们的视野，有“先入为主”的观念；不过，有50%的白领也表示，既然全部都是免费注册的工具，他们经常是MSN、QQ都一起用，因为在他们的朋友中，分别使用不同的聊天工具，当然要分而待之了。

　　没有了MSN，怎么办？

　　前一段时间，许多白领打开电脑，想登录他们熟悉的MSN时，才赫然发现居然无法登录！而另一部分能登录的人则在与好友聊天的途中莫明其妙地收到名为“Funny”的文件。当他们把文件打开之后，遭遇的是竟是“病毒“的侵袭，无法正常使用电脑。

　　这次MSN的“fans”们损失可真大了。首先，电脑染上病毒，让公司的网管们小小紧张了一把，要紧急发布公告，要提供杀毒良方；其次，习惯了使用MSN的白领们只能选择要么把不太紧急的事推迟，要么一个一个地打电话通知大伙儿开会；再不行，就用邮箱逐个发邮件。

　　调查显示，对于平时习惯使用MSN的白领们，20%表示不知所措，着急且无奈；30%的人则转而使用公司内部邮件系统按部就班地安排各项工作；而35%的人则表示影响不会太大，用其他IM工具、手机、电话等方式照样能井井有条地安排工具，只是影响了在办公时间与好友多聊一下天的机会；剩下的人则表示，无所谓，因为公司限制上班时间随意用MSN聊天，所以这次事件并没有给他们带来任何影响。不过，此次调查也显示因为这次MSN事件，有一些 MSN“Fans”会考虑以后更多地信任其他网络沟通方式；而一些脚踩两条船、手握两窗口的白领人士也可能成为QQ的“铁杆”用户。

　　鉴于此次MSN风波，中华英才网的专家表示，随着网络的普及、新技术的层出不穷，网络给大家提供了越来越多的便利。对于白领们来说，虽然IM这些即时聊天工具给他们的工作、交友、沟通带来了前所未有的便利，但是过度依赖，也会给他们的工作、生活、业务带来负面影响。专家们建议白领们，现代网络要利用，但也要防患于未然。多种选择、安全使用，才会让这些实用工具真正成为你的网络之翼。

　　IM渠道妙用

　　自从腾讯公司不知哪儿来的想法，有了利用QQ就可以建一个主题群的功能，中关村的年轻人把QQ的作用发挥到了更高的境界。例如，在 IBM的渠道中，就有人建了个“IBM集中营”的QQ群，这个群里汇集了来自各个IBM经销商的销售精英，每天都有许多交流在这里进行，如今天R系列某型号的笔记本卖多少钱，或者X系列的某款机架式服务器最低出多少钱；又或者是A经销商有大量的某种产品库存；还有近期要主推什么型号，不要推什么型号，最近又有什么新产品要上市等等。

　　总之，只要是你想知道的，一下子就能够在这里得到解答。而以前，经销商想寻个价格，或者想了解渠道库存，估计得打遍中关村几十个经销商的电话，也未必能得到比较满意的答案。

　　至于MSN，似乎天生就被渠道看作是专业的商务通讯软件，所以但凡在中关村工作的，几乎是人手一个MSN号。这东西好在哪儿呢？首先它是微软的产品，经常捆绑在操作系统上，用的人自然就多了；另外，这已经是大家比较公认的商务通讯工具，不会被认为是简单的聊天工具。有时侯开QQ，明明是真的工作上的需要，别的同事看到后却立马会说“又在聊天啦？”而很多时候，你用MSN瞎侃了半天也没人说你。这也难怪微软潜心发展MSN。前途远大的小 M，已经突破了老板们对员工利用即时通讯软件聊天误工的“愤恨”。

　　近来，更是有人把MSN利用到了更为绝妙的地方。

　　在中关村有个公开的流行秘密，那就是拿返款(也称“回扣”)。以前，有些人为了拿返款，要么偷偷摸摸地拿着手机找个没人听到的地方去说，或是特意跑到对方的公司，单独找销售代表说这事儿；可现在呢，只要在键盘上敲几个字，就可以在公司神不知鬼不觉地“中饱私馕”。

　　看来，这中关村要是少了MSN或者QQ，也许整个经济又该后退好几年了。（彭酷）

　　最廉价的国际交流工具

　　“禁用MSN？不太可能吧，这样会降低工作效率的。”如君说。如君是中关村一家高科技企业的中层管理者，手下掌管着10来个员工。

　　“开始的时候，公司规定内部员工都不准在上班的时候使用即时通讯软件，如果谁通过网络登陆，很快就能被网管发现。而且，有的时候，正在聊天的同事如果发现我在他座位附近便显得很紧张，样子有点可笑；有的时候如果过去和他谈工作上的事情，紧张得他还会用报纸之类的东西遮盖住屏幕，欲盖弥彰。但是从今年4月份开始，公司内部开始使用MSN来互相传递消息，同时也对外联系业务。”如君说。

　　一项公司制度被改变了，从禁用到通用，原来，这样的扭转来自公司最高层管理者对即时通讯软件态度的改变。如君说，以前，老板很讨厌员工使用聊天软件，即便是在下班时候，也不能利用公司的网络聊天，否则罚款。原因其实很简单，就是为了让大家提高工作效率，瞎聊没啥好处。

　　后来，公司的国际业务多了，老板发现，使用MSN是与众多国际友人进行交流的最廉价工具。因此，老板开始使用MSN。于是乎，使用 MSN来传达工作内容便开始在公司流行了。 “其实，有的聊天软件可以留言，我觉得这比打电话要快，也省事。工作忙起来的时候，电话特别多，响得我头都发痛。有的时候，几句话就能说清楚的事情就在 MSN上说，一边交代一件事情，还可以同时和别人打电话说另外的事情；如果觉得事情很重要才直接打电话。我觉得效率是提高了。”如君说。

　　可能是因为工作太忙了，如君发现，同事们基本上没有在上班时间利用聊天软件专门聊天的，如果遇上自己的同学、朋友，打个招呼就OK 了。“不过别被老板发现是和朋友打招呼或者是玩MSN上的游戏，这样老板的脸色还是有点不好看。基本上在我这里就是对大家睁一只眼闭一只眼，只要不是太过分的，都随他们。反正工作效率已经得到了提高。”如君说。（小仔）

　　MSN，你爱她到底有多深？

　　我来这家公司以前，没有接触过MSN，平常只用QQ，后来到公司看到同事都用MSN，就也申请了一个，用了一段时间，感觉是比QQ用起来方便很多，慢慢地便喜欢上了这个即时信息传送的平台。

　　我每天上班开机后的第一件事就是打开MSN，日常业务联系很多，有些人联系过两次后，就会要来MSN以保持联系，方便以后工作上的往来。这样打电话和客户沟通就有一大部分被MSN交流取代，而一般通知公司同事什么事都用MSN，甚至有时即使是同一办公室的同事也用MSN“对话”，形成了一种氛围。当然，除了业务上的联系外，也难免会在工作时间和自己的朋友“偷偷聊上一聊”，有的人甚至有两个MSN，一个专门联系工作上的合作伙伴，另一个则专门为亲朋好友开设。

　　以前也经常有MSN登陆不上的情况发生，但由于我的客户大都在北京市内，MSN上不去时就打电话联系一下；至于与朋友聊天，影响不是很大，都是熟人，打个电话说一声就行了。

　　我有个同事，他对MSN的依赖性比我就大得多了。记得前不久MSN无法登陆，可是把他难为坏了：翻箱倒柜的找名片，通过熟人找“熟人”，最麻烦的还有逐个发邮件。因为他很多要联系的客户都是国外或是外地的，用MSN能省去他很多麻烦。记得当时有个韩国客户，前些天一直谈得很好， MSN登陆不上后就突然和那边断了联系，还好最后没有影响合作，要不损失就大了，后来他还跟人家好个道歉。现在都恢复正常了，但他也算“吃一堑长一智”，把一些重要的联系方式都做好了备份。

　　被MSN俘获的工作一族，时常为MSN无法登录而大伤脑筋，然后大骂微软整出个破烂伤人感情。就好比游戏能益智，沉迷就成祸端；对MSN，巧用好过成瘾。（紫伶）

　　过犹不及

　　和Ellen吃午饭很紧张，才聊了不久，她就要走；作为项目经理，她每天都很繁忙，主要是为几大IT知名厂商提供数据库服务。“不行不行，我必须得走了，临出门前我在MSN上招集了所有组员开会，我自己不能迟到。”

　　Ellen是典型的善于利用MSN通知会议、甚至进行网上会议的一个例子。她认为这样非常方便，能够及时沟通。很多年轻的中层管理者都像Ellen一样，用MSN来减少沟通成本、增加沟通效率。

　　可是，另一位同样职务是项目经理的刘先生，对此却持相反态度，因为MSN依赖症已经成为办公室人与人之间面对面沟通的障碍。

　　“你看看这交来的方案，根本就不是我想要的。他们之间根本就没有沟通清楚。”他说，“有了MSN，虽然项目组内部沟通及时了，但是，大家都习惯于网上沟通，不管什么事情都用MSN，越来越少地当面沟通。但是，很多工作是必须当面沟通解决的，光靠网上交流写怎么说得清楚呢？”

　　刘先生不止一次要求项目组的成员，在形成方案之前必须开会讨论，“头脑风暴”之后，再行总结、提炼、成稿。“现在可好，大家都不为抢不上会议室而发愁了，时常通过MSN就完成了集体会议。可结果却是越来越不习惯于面对面地交流，断网了就好像无法工作了。”

　　这样的事情发生不是一次两次了，因为沟通不利，往往耽误项目进度；本来沟通是及时了，结果却适得其反。正所谓“过犹不及”。（西域）

　　MSN时代的白领生活

　　上班后的第一件事情是打开电脑，打开电脑后的第一件事情是打开MSN，打开MSN后的第一件事情是看看朋友的们的名字有新的变化没有，这是石头这几年来养成的习惯。看网友的MSN名字是一件很有趣的事情，不同网友的不同性格以及在每一天的不同心情，都会在MSN上表现出来。“抱着金字塔睡，忽然遇到胡夫”、“天气好冷啊”、“手机掉水里了，上班迟到了，老板发火了”，随便一句话，精辟也好，随意也罢都可成为网友MSN的名字。有的网友甚至一个字不用，随手点几个标点符号就成为自己同行网络的“名片”。

　　MSN的确已经成为很多人，尤其是白领一族的名片。这张名片不仅用于个人感情交流，也用于工作挣钱。很多时候，感情交流和工作挣钱是分不开的，聊天就是工作，工作就是聊天。很多sales在跟客户见第一面的时候，或者第一次打电话的时候都会不经意地说一句：“您有MSN吗，我把您加上”，或者“我的MSN是×××，有什么事情咱们网上聊”。如果被询问者说没有，那么sales们大多会相信他不是没有，而是不想给。不少人有这样的习惯：自己的MSN只给自己的好朋友。

　　不过，人们通常也不排斥把自己的MSN给同事，因为从某种程度上讲，MSN已经成了白领们在写字楼里必备的生存工具。有人的地方就有组织，有组织的地方就有政治，在有政治的地方话就不能乱说。有些话可以说，有些话不可以说，有些话可以对这些人说，有些话可以对那些人说。公司是一个经济的组合体，也是政治的组合体。在这个政治的组合体中，MSN正在扮演越来越重要的角色。老板着急了，上火了，喜欢谁，不喜欢谁，谁要升了，谁要被开了，几乎所有公司政治的蛛丝马迹都会在MSN上反映出来。那些把键盘敲得噼里啪啦响的白领们正在联系的，其实不一定是远在天边的客户，很可能就是他(她)抬起眼皮就能看到、举起手臂就能触到、打个喷嚏都能喷人一脸吐沫星子的同事。（顺子）（中关村周刊/高煦）

Collect blog feedback the Google way

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 03:15:41 GMT

Have been following the series of facinating articles by Google Scientist Jun Wu on Google China's Blog site:

http://googlechinablog.com/2006/04/blog-post_10.html
http://googlechinablog.com/2006/04/blog-post.html

Found the Google way of doing things:
1) Collect feedback by search
Great idea! What can you expect from a seach-centric company?
Never quite understand how to use trackback or pingback anyway. Need a good filter though, because those advertisers will figure out this soon. Johnny Ding has more details on this:
http://spaces.msn.com/johnny-ding/Blog/cns!72DC1EBA6DE56B11!110.entry

2) Leave no place for comments!
Don't quite understand the motive. My guess is that spammers are taking advangtage of those spaces to put their ads in all the blog comment boxes.

BTW, I noticed that most feedback is from MSN Spaces users.

MSN Space blogging using Performancing - A firefox extension

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 08:26:37 GMT

Have installed Performancing in Firefox for a while. Heard that it is hooked up with MSN space to publish and edit blogs. Cool.

Tried to test it a number of times. But have never succeeded in connecting with MSN Space from Preformancing.

Only yesterday, finally figured out how to use it. The password is not your regular hotmail one. It is the same as the 'secret word' you use to do "email publishing" in MSN Space. Need to set up the "email publishing" first.

Now many desktop blog editors support MSN Space publishing because it is based on the standard MetaWeblog API. Good stuff!

BTW, the firefox extension is here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/addon.php?id=1730

Google China Blog: The beauty of math and a bug

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 06:55:57 GMT

似乎有一个 bug 在 Google 科学家吴军的文章里:

http://googlechinablog.com/2006/04/blog-post.html

< <接下来的问题就是如何估计 P (wi|wi-1)。现在有了大量机读文本后，这个问题变得很简单，只要数一数这对词（wi-1,wi) 在统计的文本中出现了多少次，以及 wi-1 本身在同样的文本中前后相邻出现了多少次，然后用两个数一除就可以了,（P(wi|wi-1) = P (wi)/[P(wi-1,wi)]。>>

P(wi|wi-1) = P (wi)/[P(wi-1,wi)] 好像大于1嘛？

正确的计算似乎应该是 P(wi|wi-1) = P(wi-1,wi)/P(wi-1)

Google中国的黑板报博客没有地方留言。不知道为啥。

http://googlechinablog.com/

FYI: How To Do What You Love by Paul Graham

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 02:08:41 GMT

The original

http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html

and it's Chinese Translation

http://www.wanglianghome.org/zh_CN/translation/HowToDoWhatYouLove.html

As always, Paul's article is interesting and insightful. His writings have been popular on the net and I have seen his articles being re-posted here and there by his fans.

The first and only time I met Paul was soon after his startup "Viaweb.com" was acquired by Yahoo. It became Yahoo!Store. And Paul became its Product Manager.

It was during 97 or so, at Apple's big conference hall in Cupertino, in the evening. Paul gave an exciting speech to an enthusiastic audience about the Viaweb story.

One of Paul's tips on building a successful startup is still with me. It is to choose the location near food places. Software development is not something you can do within the time frame of 9 to 5. Especially true for creative software development. Being close to restaurants, developers don't have to go home for dinner. They may go back to office after dinner if they need to.

Another thing I remember about Paul is his partner, the first famous hacker that caused widespread damage in late 80s, Robert Morris. Robert was the co-founder of Viaweb and is currently a Professor of Computer Science at MIT. His name appears in Paul's articles quite often.

http://tlc.discovery.com/convergence/hackers/bio/bio_05.html

WC Media - The next Nasdaq darling?

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 02:25:59 GMT

Following the huge success of Focus Media on Nasdaq and its acquisition of Target Media and Framedia, here comes WC Media!

Pictures taken at 渝信川菜's restroom in Shanghai in January 31, 2006.

FYI: Thinking in Web 2.0: Sixteen Ways

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 03:07:45 GMT

A good collection of the web 2.0 ways of doing things by Dion Hinchcliffe. The oringinal (http://web2.wsj2.com/thinking_in_web_20_sixteen_ways.htm) seems not accessible from China. Got alert to this article from its Chinese translation:

Web 2.0 编程思想：16条法则

With apologies to Bruce Eckel, I sat down this afternoon and put together a draft list of the first-order elements of Web 2.0 thinking. It's not that I have the hubris to consider this list official in any way but it should be a serviceable starting point for debate, discourse, and reference. I'd also like to give credit to Jeremy Zawodny for his write-up pointing me to Tom Coates' excellent presentation notes from his Future of Web Apps talk which partially inspired this effort. I think both of them have really solid source material. But they still don't quite capture a complete high-level picture of the ingredients, forces, and decisions that have to go into thinking about, using, and building complete Web 2.0 software experiences.

That simple fact is that creating software of any kind is hard work. And creating good software is very, very hard. Never mind creating insanely great software (to loosely borrow a phrase from Steve Jobs), which is so rare that it practically never happens, which is a real shame. And that in the end, that's the goal of enumerating ideas like this, so we can build on the shoulders of giants and start off with some of the hard decisions already done and get closer towards the truly great software.

And to be sure, the state of the art in software does regularly improve as well as our shared understanding of what makes software good. Of course, the problem with determining the "goodness" anything is that it must be measured with respect to something, some criteria. And in general, the tenets of Web 2.0, such as they are and as ill-defined as they are, tend to state that software that is open, social, interactive, remixable, hackable, and gets better the more its used, is likely the place to begin.

So, in this vein, I took my own studies of Web 2.0 as well as many raw inputs as I could find and came up with a roughly structured list of how to "think" in terms of Web 2.0 ideas. Let me know what you think and as always add your own in the comments below. Let's create a really terrific guide for those who are just discovering this fascinating and useful study of the next generation of online software.

Thinking in Web 2.0

Before you even begin, understand your goal simply. Whether you are a Web 2.0 application creator or user, clearly conceive your goal. Things like "I'm here to save a bookmark for use later" or "I am going to help people create shared, editable web pages" helps keep you grounded and oriented. So much about the initial attraction of Web 2.0 is its simplicity, with unnecessary complexity deliberately and carefully hidden. From a creation standpoint, think Google's home page or the spare, clean lines of del.icio.us. And from a end-user's view, the eponymous instaview provided by an initial page load of Diggdot.us. You can and will add more later but get first things first. Build a feature at a time. Complete a goal at a time.This may sound simplistic but it'll help stayed focused later, and you'll see what I mean.
The link is the fundamental unit of thought. It's called the Web for a reason. The link is the foundational element for connecting the entire Web together. Your information, your relationships, your sense of navigability, and even chunks (of chunks) of content are all referenceable by a URL. The implications here are manifest and include but are certainly not limited to:
1. Everything on the Web is linkable with a URI or URL (and if isn't, it should be!)
2. Saving any link lets you get back to what the link originally referenced, and it lets you share it with anyone, anywhere, at any time.
3. The anytime piece in #2 is crucial and means the link is really a permalink that won't change or go away without good reason and prior warning.
4. Links should be human readable, consistent, and their purpose self-evident.
Data belongs to those that create it. Yes, you heard me. Everything a user creates, contributes, or shares is theirs, unless they have given away the right explicitly and by free choice. Any information they contribute to the Web should be editable, deleteable, unshareable by the contributor whenever they feel like it. This also means indirect data like their attention records, log entries, navigation history, site trails, or anything else that might be tracked. And all Web sites must clearly and simply state what information a user is creating and give them a way to stop creating it and even clean up.
It's about data first, experiences and functionality second. Whether it's text, images, audio, or video, the Web ultimately revolves around data. In other words, you can't have presentation without something to present. All this data is locatable with a URL that is easily found (see #2). Another way of looking at this is that the the Web is ultimately about nouns first, and verbs second, though the shift is slowly moving towards verbs these days. Examples of nouns: calendar entries, family photos, stock quotes. Examples of verbs: making an appointment, sharing a picture, buying a stock.
Be prepared to share everything with enthusiasm. Share everything possible, every piece of data you have, every service you offer. Encourage unintended uses, bend overbackward to contribute, don't keep anything private that doesn't absolutely have to be. Go beyond sharing and make discovery, navigation easy, obvious, and straightforward. Why: In return, you will benefit many times over from the sharing of others. Note: This is not a license to violate copyright laws, you will not be able to share your ripped DVDs or commercial music recordings, those are things you agreed you can't share. But you might find yourself using and sharing a lot more open source media. And for heaven's sake, learn the Creative Commons license.
The Web is the platform; make it grow. Sure, there are other platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac), but they don't matter as much any more (this list is after all, how to think in Web 2.0). In other words, don't leave the platform, don't break the platform, but please, by all means extended the platform. The data and services you provide on the Web become part of the Web and you become a steward of your corner of the Web platform as a result. And please be a good steward and look after those that care about what you've added.
Understand and embrace the "capability gradient". The Web is a big place now, in every country of the world, and it now contains 1 billion users. The point here is that all parts of the Web are slightly and uniquely different, as are all Web users. For the machine part of the web: simplicity is almost always preferred for speed, reliability, reuse, and integration. So too is it with the experience you provide people on the Web. It's been documented time and again that loyal users soon become expert users that want to do more, faster. Support them. Gracefully retrograde. Also, many, many people will come in below the capability gradient that you expect. They may not speak your language, have your cultural assumptions, or even know how they got there. Make it clear to them too.
Everything is editable. Or it should darn well be. And if it isn't, go somewhere else. Sure, a few things might not make sense being editable, but for the rest, it's the Writeable Web. That doesn't imply that original content is ever lost and often this only means that users should be able to easily comment on or otherwise annotate the content they find. And if you're smart, they'll be able to do a whole lote more than that (i.e. fork off and create their own works based on the original, etc.)
Identity on the Web is sacrosanct. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean you get much privacy (really a 20th century notion anyway). But verifying identity must be expected and be thankful when only an e-mail verification is required. However, this absolutely means you must protect the privacy of your users if you promised it. Be warned that you may have to stand up for your users against authorities somewhere in the world, if that's what it requires. And you might even win in the long run. And if you're not prepared to do that, you'd better tell them. On the other side, if identification is required, don't ever fake it, or one day we'll all need to give up our last scraps of privacy to do anything we want to do on the Web. So, this must be an unbreakable compact between Web user and anyone running some corner of the Web. Or we will ultimately completely lose what little anonymity and privacy we can muster now.
Know thy popular standards and use them. From a consumer or creator standpoint, the data you will exchange with everyone else will be in some format or another. And the useful of that data will be in inverse propotion to how well-known and accepted its standard is. This generally means using RSS, OPML, XHTML, simple XML, JSON. This means tending to avoid SOAP, XSD, and even as much as its pains my inner geek to say it, RDF, ATOM, and others. And please, contribute your standards with your vote either way, below.
Obey the law of unintended uses. If you make highly interesting data and services open and shareable in widely used format, you will get what you deserve: Other that will use your corner of the Web platform to build on. Maybe even (and probably in fact) a great many others. Prepare for this. I don't know how many times I've seen a podcasting service get disrupted because they were popular, a site go down flat when it was Slashdotted, or del.icio.us/popular grind to a halt. Know this: The law of large numbers on the Internet means that even small corners can get vast traffic if they are remotely interesting. Strong encourage the attention but it can be extremely valuable,, but always prepare.
Granulate your data and services. We should have learned this long ago but large monolithic chunks of data are only convenient for unattended downloads and other batch operations. Break up your data, makes its individual internal pieces URL addressable, and do the same with services. Conversely, don't create large, elaborate, Christmas Tree data structures or services. Keep it simple, very simple. And make the pieces sensibly organized, and make those pieces easily findabe.
Provide data and services that are for user's individual benefit. At the risk of slipping into a socio-political tarpit, there is little incentive for users to contribute time, attention, and information unless they are the primary beneficiaries. Social sharing is a terrific benefit that is greater in the large than the individual benefit, but you won't get there unless there is personal incentive. Nuff said.
User-driven organization and filtering are not just nice to have. Not critical, but very important. Let users tag and organize data in ways that make sense to them, because you'll never figure it out in time. Users understand their own thinking processes and mental models best. Making sure your place on the Web can work for them can in ways that actually work the way they work and think. Things like tagging and folksonomies can be a long term critical success factor.
Offer/use rich user experiences. The Web is still in heated competition with native software. Why? Because it still feels better and runs better. But not for long. (Sure, this might take 5 years or 15, but it'll happen.) Yes, I'm talking about Rich Internet Applications, Ajax, and all that marvelous dynamic interaction. It works and helps make the Web a true "platformless" platform, if you you know what I mean.
Embrace and enable rapid change and feedback. This often just means be ready for a very fast pace but it also means using lightweight tools, techniques, and not making the painfully inrreversible decisions (using an all-encompasing Ajax framework instead of one that is blendable, or building everything in C++ when Ruby might be a lot better.) This also means having a very rapid method for taking defect reports, fixing the bugs, and putting new versions out. And darn it, make it super easy for your users to get a hold of you. From a user perspective, report every problem you find and be sure to gently complain about what bothers you most, even if it isn't a bug.

Of course, Web 2.0 is an extremely large and involved topic and no one could possibly list all the importants Web 2.0 ideas and ways to think about it. So I encourage you, since you're here and evidently interested, to take a few minutes and add the things I missed. Web 2.0 is all about participation after all.

Update: Russell Beattie did quite a number on this article today, specifically saying that it lacked "anything about actually making money or creating a lasting business." I would argue that's entirely outside the scope of how to create an intrinsically great Web 2.0 application. I do agree that business models that provide monetization in some form are vitally important to creating lasting Web apps that will be here for more than a few months. It's just orthogonal to this particular discussion. It does make me think, however, about updating my how to monetize Web 2.0 article. Anyway Russell, thanks much for contributing to the discussion, and I think you're criticism of the "if we build it, we hope they'll come" model is largely right.

That's not to say that some folks aren't making a huge pile from it all.

test again blog by email with photo. it works!

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:55:48 GMT

this blog is sent by email with a photo attachment. Check email publishing in your msn space settings!

Mouse loves rice

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 01:46:53 GMT

One of the most popular songs in China. Now got an English version (flash):

http://cartoonfile.163.com/newcartoon/upload/swf/13-05-2005/kumeotar.swf?EOu7cmaMhPuO

Here is the original song in Chinese (flash).

http://cartoonfile.163.com/newcartoon/upload/swf/28-05-2005/jsxwureh.swf?JIS94JICGA9I

Only simple thing can be popular.

Products have to be simple to use to be really poplular.

FYI: Why We Invested in FeedBurner

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 05:21:02 GMT

http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2006/02/why_we_invested.html

Chat with LVHB

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 06:14:14 GMT

> hi

lv.hongbo > hi

Alex > our chat log will be published in my msn space.

lv.hongbo > really?

Alex > this is a tool that can record the log and have it published in msn space.

Alex > I know the trick.

无线系列: A big-time phone maker that nobody knows

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 15:36:17 GMT

Well, few people know.

What's in common in IPAQ, Treo, Dopod(多普达）？
他们都是一家公司做的：
台湾的宏达国际（HTC）
目前它是世界上最大的Window's Mobile手机制造商
并已成为全球最大的智能手机制造商
大约占据全球智能手机市场的六成份额
老板是大佬王永庆的女儿王雪红
http://spn.com.cn/sp1/index/19612.html

它的顾客遍布全世界
多半是各国的移动运营商
包括美国的Verizon Wireless，T-Mobile, Cingular/AT&T Wireless, Sprint
这些运营商只需要贴牌
就可以通过自己的渠道推自己的手机！
和品牌手机商Nokia，Motorola分一杯羹
现在HTC的手机有20多个贴牌分销商
http://www.i170.com/attach/726771EF-6F75-42AA-A5F9-C694FCF44248

Nokia采用的战略很像Apple，Sun Microsystems
自己控制主要的硬件和操作系统
这种模式就象历史所证明的那样
终将由于开发商的支持少
象Apple和Sun一样
走向边缘化

HTC的战略沿袭PC领域的纵向整合（Vertical Integration)
在整个价值链中
他们只提供其中的一部分: 系统设计与制造
OS由微软提供
品牌，营销，渠道由分销商控制
中国的多普达是HTC设立并控股的一个营销公司而已
所有的系统研发都在台湾进行

纵向整合有利于形成产业规模和专业化
在价值链上的每一环节上都由最专业的公司负责提供最好的组件
该模式在PC行业取得巨大成功
以Window's Mobile为OS的智能手机使用这种模式
是否能取得成功
且让我们拭目以待

无线系列: 关于手机OS之未来

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 17:58:41 GMT

我前一篇文章说
现在的手机五花八门
恰似春秋战国时代
春秋战国之后
必有大秦一统天下

至于何时达成统一
其时间表不是我说了算
但是3到5年内必见端倪或更早

达成统一是市场的需要
这样的市场效率最高
对于开发商来说
只做一个版本的软件是最开心的：
成本最低，市场最大
对于用户来说
手机升级不必重新学习如何使用新的手机和其中的软件
这里我们假设手机的功能越来越多
除了通话之外
还有上网，娱乐，办公等功能
以及与桌面电脑的同步与兼容

什么样的手机OS会一统天下呢？
一定是最多软件开发商支持的那一种
如何得到开发商的支持呢？
给他们提供最好的开发工具
提供功能最多且稳定的OS
创造最大的市场潜力

开发商，OS提供商，用户之间渐渐形成一种相互依赖和促进的关系
彼此间产生了一种默契和攻守同盟
其他OS商很难打进来
微软在桌面操作系统的垄断
对开发商和用户都是有利的
反垄断一事早就不了了之
当年的反垄断急先锋Sun Microsystems现在已和微软结盟
总的来说
OS市场是Winner takes all.
其他OS都将边缘化或者消失

谁有这样的实力占领未来的手机OS市场呢？
只有微软

微软的编程工具是最普及的
会使用的人最多
微软的OS经验最丰富
在掌上电脑OS之争中
已将历史上最成功的掌上电脑先驱Palm彻底打败
很有讽刺意味的是
Palm的手机Treo也将使用微软的OS！
http://www.cnii.com.cn/20050801/ca331519.htm
对此Palm的解释是
我们的用户要求使用微软的Windows!

为什么用户这样要求？
关键在于和桌面软件的兼容
使用有OS的手机的用户
多是白领专业人士
电脑是办公不可或缺的工具
手机的应用将远远超越通话的功能
成为一个移动电脑
必须能处理和共享各种文件
尤其是微软的Word，Excel等Office文件
于是手机和桌面之间必须有很强的兼容性
最初PalmOS只是解决了通讯录和日历上的同步和兼容
随着功能的升级和掌上电脑应用的普及
部分兼容渐渐满足不了用户的需求
用户需要的是全面兼容
桌面电脑的标准为微软所控制
任何其他手机OS提供商都将无法和微软匹敌
市场将逐渐被微软蚕食和占领
最近，手机老大Nokia宣布要将微软的MSN Messenger预装到它的手机上
http://www.daynews.com.cn/mag6/20060114/ca521933.htm
改天，Nokia出一款Window's Mobile手机
我也不会奇怪
这实际上是一件指日可待的事

所以手机OS是否为Window's Mobile的天下
就很清楚了

无线系列: 浅说中国的移动市场和手机软件

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 04:47:32 GMT

这个市场太不成熟
很难赚钱
更难赚大钱

如果要在软件上赚大钱
必须能卖很多copy
软件的优势在于复制成本约等于零
如果不能卖很多copy
软件的成本优势无法体现出来
还不如去卖汉堡包

太多的终端平台
使得一个软件产品
无法卖很多copy
这样便降低了软件的经济效率
阻碍了无线软件市场的发展

现在是中国手机市场的春秋战国时代
手机的种类五花八门

各种手机都有区别，其区别在于
- 操作系统：Nokia s60, s40, Brew, Window's mobile,

Symbian, Kjava, Unijava，。。。
- 屏幕尺寸，彩色的精度
- 手机键盘
- 存储容量

硬件的区别关系不大
但是软件的区别对手机软件产品的影响甚大

每一个产品需要被移植到几十种，甚至上百种手机
如果移植和测试的成本还能被控制的话
购买上百种手机
加上每一款新的手机都需要购买
这对手机软件开发商是一笔不小的开支

产品的版本管理将是一个恶梦
一次bug，补丁，升级
要涉及上百个的版本
做过版本管理的人知道我在说什么

用户在下载手机软件产品时
必须输入自己的手机型号
不是每个用户都知道自己的手机型号
这增加了下载的门栏
直接从手机上网下载
服务器通过识别手机型号
可以降低下载的门栏
但是这无法解决手机产品的多版本问题

Nokia的产品战略是很好的
它将手机的操作系统做了规范化
建立了s60,s40等手机软件运行环境系列
所有界面基本是标准的
减少了开发商的开发成本
降低了用户的学习曲线
所以支持Nokia的软件开发商是最多的
所有下载手机中Nokia占了约70－80％的份额
成了一个良性的循环

但是同一系列的Nokia手机还是有区别的

没有统一的终端平台
就没有软件市场
就无法成就规模
就无法造就成功的软件公司

日本的移动运营商Docomo对手机终端标准有绝对的控制
所以它成了世界上最大最成功的移动运营商！

如果中国的移动运营商不建立和控制手机终端标准
中国的移动市场将无法健康地持续成长
也无法培养成功的软件开发商和内容服务商
中国的移动运营商也无法建立一个双赢的良性循环

如果联通先于移动建立自己的手机终端标准
它将可以吸引大量的内容服务商
成为与中国移动数据业务竞争的一个重要筹码

目前要在中国的移动市场赚钱
还得靠短信，彩信，彩铃等对终端不敏感的产品

春秋战国之后
必有大秦一统天下

Financial Times Report: Investing in China

Sat, 07 Jan 2006 01:51:33 GMT

dated October 2005:

http://www.xiaobao.info/pdf/FT%20Report%20-%20Investing%20In%20China.pdf

60 pages. Lots of stuff. Yet to read it all.

Photo Album: Mayor's Feast on June 10

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 03:22:39 GMT

Mayor's Feast on June 10

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