I've never been one for future prediction posts, but I can't but help think that Microsoft might have released something significant with Kinect.

Of course they aren't they only ones working in this field of gesture and touch screen computing (e.g. Nokia). What's different is that:

• Kinect was designed for the Xbox 360, but its a generalised "natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images"; and
• The smarts behind Kinect are available to anyway to play and experiment with for just AU$199.

I'm particularly encouraged by hearing this reported comment from Microsoft:

We are perfectly comfortable with hobbyists taking advantage of that raw data [that is output from Kinect] to explore the exciting possibilities of Kinect for Xbox 360 for themselves.

The game console industry hasn't always had a comfortable relationship with the hobbyist and research industry, which I can understand when you consider their business models. Still, while we might view the Xbox system as being a 'closed' one, Microsoft Window's proprietary operating system is actually open for people to develop on top of and perhaps its this heritage that makes them a little more comfortable with the idea. I certainly hope so - the innovation around Kinect is going to be interesting, to say the least.

From my colleague, Dion Hinchcliffe:

"The Social Business Power Map, presented above, is an attempt to identify the major social media trends, how they can be mapped generally along consumer/enterprise axes, and where they are in terms of their overall maturity level today"

Dion provides a more detailed breakdown of each technology in his post and also makes this comment about social networks, which he places in the mature state:

"Social networking is now expected to surpass the top used application online, Internet search, in the near future. There is little likelihood that social networking will be disrupted in the near term though certainly most businesses have not yet adopted them internally and many current block their use from inside the firewall. Unfortunately, the number of businesses blocking access to social networks is going up, not down as they continue to get a handle on managing the perceived risks of social networking. See my discussions on CoIT and how workers are increasingly using their own IT to route around excessive control of their channels of communication."

Hopefully I won't be accused of being a troll, because I'm not hiding behind anonymity here on this blog. However, I can't find any way to sugar coat this: I found this book both disappointing and frustrating.

Disappointing because my expectations had been built up by the promotion surrounding the author and this book. Frustrating because the critical thinking I was expecting lacked clarity and depth.

This doesn't mean there aren't some interesting ideas in the book. Certainly, we should explore issues such as how the Internet affects our ability to be creative (and earn a living from being creative), and how it changes how we think and behave. But I'm simply not convinced by the author's arguments (or rather, the way they are articulated in this book). Also, while the main thrust of Lanier's manifesto is focused on the impact of information technology on dumbing down and control of how we create and exchange meaning, I think he fails to address another important aspect of people and culture, being relationships.

If anything I formed the impression that far from being unhappy with the digital world, the author is simply disappointed with the industrial revolution that is taking place online. He says on many occasions that he isn't anti-Web - in fact his concluding argument attempts to demonstrate that point - but his nostalgia for the past is obvious. His problem then is perhaps that the Web has suddenly been invaded by the Proles*. And perhaps that is the core of the warning in this book that you will need to answer for yourself - has 1984 come to pass or is this just another conspiracy novel?

BTW Compared to the book, Lanier's essay on Digital Maoism is worth reading.

*Yes, the irony of linking to Wikipedia is noted :-)

Something to investigate over the summer break, NoSQL:

Next Generation Databases mostly address some of the points: being non-relational, distributed, open-source and horizontal scalable. The movement began early 2009 and is growing rapidly. Often more characteristics apply as: schema-free, replication support, easy API, eventually consistency, and more. So the misleading term "nosql" (some call it "not only sql") should be seen as an alias to something like the definition above.

I'm particularly interested in the schema-free variety of NoSQL databases, like the Apache CouchDB project. However, this is just one variety of NoSQL.

Hat tip to Redmonk.