Hueniverse

Early Thoughts About a Microblogging Business

While archiving the documents used to plan and implement Nouncer, I came across the original document written a little over two years ago (with some minor more recent revisions). It details my service plan, ideas for patents and trademarks, the original name for the service ‘JabAbout’, and a long list of features. It also includes the initial thoughts on the architecture and technical challenges. If you love microblogging or am working on a startup, this is a good read. One funny thing to note, it was written around the time Twitter was launched and before I knew about it – hence Twitter isn’t even mentioned as an example.

The document one line explanation of the service is: “Creating an internet service to enable companies and individuals to send messages  in real-time  to large audiences  of interested subscribers via Instant Messaging  and other technologies, and providing subscribers with tools to find and filter content to fit their needs and ability to handle the content load.”

You download the document here.

The Big Pink Elephant of DataPortability

Big part of my new job is to make recommendations regarding which community initiatives Yahoo! should consider getting involved with. Given the recent attention received by the yet-to-be-defined DataPortability organization, it was only natural for it to come up in multiple conversations.

A few months ago I explained why I personally decided to leave the DataPortability group. Now I would like to explain why I am recommending Yahoo! to stay away as well. Obviously, I only mean to stay away from the organization, not the actual principal of openness and data sharing which are at the core of Y!OS.

New Ground Rules

Being the first post in my new role as Open Web Evangelist at Yahoo!, it is important to disclose certain things. First, much of my new role involves representing Yahoo!'s interests in socially-related community and open standards.

Most importantly, everything on this blog, unless otherwise specified, does not necessarily represent the opinion of Yahoo!. As I always speak in one voice, what I write here is also the advice and ideas I am promoting internally. However, that does not imply in any way that my advice translates into actual policy.

The premise of the position is to help Yahoo! open up, but as is often the case in big companies, change is slow and I will be practicing the art of compromise. This is completely in line with the role I played editing the OAuth specification, but this time have more than just myself to be accountable to.

From all the conversations I had so far, before taking the position and now in my first week on the job, I am extremely optimistic. There is a real sense of urgency within the team to move forward and not only adopt open standards, but offer resources to the community to empower it further.