Open Web

Very cool stuff.  Keep in mind that JoliCloud is Linux, based on Google Chrome OS.  I wonder how much of this is built into Chrome OS, or was done by JoliCloud? Jolicloud (news, site) has recently launched version 1.2, introducing several features and renaming the locally-installed cloud operating system into Joli OS. Among its latest additions was Dropbox integration into the file manager. In an update, Jolicloud has also announced better Google Docs integration for easier management, previewing and editing of online documents.

Good stuff.  Florian needs to see this!

Good review of SugarSync.  5GB free, reliable and stable copetitor to DropBox.  Excellent array of mobile platforms.  Better mobile file and folder management than DropBox.  Also blocked from China!  Thank you Sursen.  Amazon enters the Cloud sync-share-store space today with 5 GB free.

OSS GitHub CloudStack Project.  A p2Web network framework for cloud computing sync-share-store with Jabber

CloudStack Manifesto Before getting into the framework specifics, it would be worthwhile to cover some of the design principles we had in mind while we were building CloudStack: CloudStack brings together the best of the web and the desktop: We strongly believe in the convergence of the desktop and the web and will continually strive to expose more services that bring out the best from both. CloudStack enables rapid application development and deployment: Out of the box, CloudStack provides a fully brand able and deployable shell application that can be used as a starting point to jumpstart application development. CloudStack also provides a scalable deployment environment for hosting your applications. CloudStack leverages existing web technologies: We built the CloudStack P2WebServer container over the J2EE compliant Jetty web server. As a result, CloudStack applications are built using standard web technologies like AJAX, HTML, JavaScript, Flash, Flex, etc. CloudStack does not reinvent the wheel: We strive to reuse as much as possible from other open source projects and standards. By creatively stringing together seemingly disparate pieces, like P2P and HTTP, it?fs amazing to create something that's really much greater than the sum of the parts. CloudStack does aim to simplify existing technologies: We will abstract and simplify existing interfaces if needed. For example, we built simpler abstractions for JXTA (P2P) and Jena (RDF Store). CloudStack encourages HTML-based interfaces: We believe that the web browser is the most portable desktop application container with HTML being the lingua franca of the web. Rather than writing a native widget interface for the local desktop application and another web-based interface for the remote view, we encourage writing a single interface that can be reused across both local and remote views. HTML based interfaces are inherently cross-platform and provide good decoupling of design from code (versus having the UI as compiled

n it needs to be. CloudStack let's you to build applications that blur the boundaries between the desktop and the web by combining the best of both worlds - the ubiquity of the web with the richness of the desktop. In a nutshell, CloudStack turns any desktop into a web addressable server and can even work behind NATs and Firewalls. You can use CloudStack to build applications that expose any type of content on a desktop - from raw files and folders to application data like contacts and calendars, that can then be accessed from any standard web browser.

I've always liked the term OpenStack.  I also am up to my ears in Cloud-computing and Cloud Document management.  So it's only natural to type in the URL CloudStack.com and see what pops.   Here's what i found; a Texas USA operation specializing in P2P Jabber sync-share-store alternative to DropBox.  Very cool. "Dead-Simple Sharing.  No uploading. No emailing. No FTP." "We build p2web-based apps that help people share their photos, videos, and documents the simple way."

DropBox the startup that makes cloud backup and syncing incredibly easy, is cash-flow positive, on track to generate $100 million in revenue this year and could be worth $1-2 billion, Fortune reports. Dropbox has a good freemium business model. The first 2 gigabytes of data are free, and after that you pay a monthly fee. If you've used Dropbox and gotten the benefits for months and have hit your 2 gig limit, are you going to take all your files off Dropbox? More likely you'll pay up. Importantly, Dropbox's margins should improve over time since it is based in the cloud, where costs are going down all the time. Add in its smart marketing (if you refer someone, both you and your friend get free space) and Dropbox has all the ingredients of a rocketship company. According to Fortune, Dropbox, founded in 2007, has had 10x year-over-year growth. Naturally, since Dropbox is doing very well and is in a hot sector--cloud computing--there are speculations that someone like Google or Amazon could snap it up.

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman gave a speech today about how entrepreneurs can "invent the future". Speaking at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, he recited a list of 10 rules of entrepreneurship.  Wow!  Not your typical MBA stuff for sure.  Put this advice in the commit to memory immediately category using the special survival of the fittest anti Alzheimer wrapper.

Wave has finally taken over gDOCS.  Entirely.  Are you paying attention Florian and Jason?  This is it.  Your ship has come in.  The final key for Google will be that of being able to work with native OOXML documents, in a Wave, without breaking them.  Round-trip of in-process compound business productivity documents is the last part of the puzzle Google needs to crack the mighty Microsoft monopoly. excerpt: "When we launched the new Google Docs last April, one of the big changes was moving comments to the sidebar and letting people reply to comments. Today, we're updating comments in Google Docs to facilitate rapid and seamless discussions and integrate with email in an intuitive way. Since there are a number of significant" improvements, this update is only available for newly created documents for now.

Real-time co-creation and co-editing: With Novell Vibe, people in your organization can author and edit online documents together, character by character, in real time. Teams can dramatically accelerate the completion of projects that used to take weeks. Because collaboration unfolds in a shared workspace, no one has to manually merge content from multiple contributors to create a unified, finished document. Enterprise social messaging: As easy to use as Facebook or Twitter, Novell Vibe consolidates direct messages, chat, blogs and wikis from within Novell Vibe into one message stream. Creating new groups and inviting members from inside or outside your organization is as simple as sending an e-mail. You can even jumpstart ad-hoc conversations in seconds to tackle projects that can't wait. File synchronization and management: Files on your desktop, regardless of authoring application, can be synchronized to the Novell Vibe file repository based in the cloud. As a result, users always work with the latest versions of important files on their desktops and in Novell Vibe. The Novell Vibe unified message stream: Direct messages, social feeds and group conversations from within Novell Vibe are unified in one intuitive interface. This eliminates the need to constantly switch between locations to see all your content. Using powerful filtering, sorting and tagging capabilities, you can determine exactly what you want to see and whom you want to follow. Advanced information management: Novell Vibe keeps a persistent record of all your work and conversations. Its comprehensive search function quickly locates files, messages, attachments, groups and people to save time and boost productivity.

The company halted its work on Wave, but aspects of its radical approach to communication have been reincarnated for business collaboration. When Google Wave launched in 2009, the company suggested the program was a "new category" of communication because it combined the virtues of e-mail, instant messaging, and methods for sharing pictures, links, and other documents. Among its other features, Wave went a step beyond IM by letting people see what their message partners were writing as they typed it. That meant that the people on the receiving end of your messages would see characters appear onscreen even before you had finished formulating a sentence. It was a radical approach. I tried Wave myself and found it very distracting to watch people type, delete, retype, and misspell their thoughts. People I had persuaded to try it with me never signed in again, unsure as to how it was useful. We weren't alone in our confusion: last year, Google announced it would stop developing Wave. And yet, Google Wave lives on-in business software.

CSS is a simple, declarative language for creating style sheets that specify the rendering of HTML and other structured documents. This specification is part of level 3 of CSS ("CSS3") and contains features to describe layouts at a high level, meant for tasks such as the positioning and alignment of "widgets" in a graphical user interface or the layout grid for a page or a window, in particular when the desired visual order is different from the order of the elements in the source document. Other CSS3 modules contain properties to specify fonts, colors, text alignment, list numbering, tables, etc. The features in this module are described together for easier reading, but are usually not implemented as a group. CSS3 modules often depend on other modules or contain features for several media types. Implementers should look at the various "profiles" of CSS, which list consistent sets of features for each type of media.

Adobe Systems has proposed a standard that could make it easier to create Web pages with fancy layouts seen more often in magazines. The company proposed a technology it calls CSS Regions (PDF) yesterday to the World Wide Web Consortium, which standardizes the Cascading Style Sheets technology widely used to control formatting on Web pages. Adobe also described the technology at a CSS Working Group meeting in Silicon Valley. "This proposal is intended to support sophisticated, magazine-style layouts using CSS," said Arno Gourdol, director of engineering for runtime foundation at Adobe, in a mailing list posting.

OSS in the Cloud.  Good reference point

Excellent analysis.  Alfresco comes out as champ.  Also comparisons for Drupal and Liferay

Google's Honeycomb operating system is specifically optimized for large-screened tablets, but the first bits of the new platform are starting to now filter down into Android smartphones. The Android Developer Blog notes the release of an "Android Compatibility Package" that includes a new Fragments API for developers building software for Android 1.6 and up. Fragments are a key element for Honeycomb tablets such as Motorola's Xoom, as they allow for multiple windows of activity on the device display, which can greatly increase the usability of an app.