ReadWriteWeb Report: The Real-Time Web and Its Future
The value and potential of Facebook and Twitter real-time updates are obvious. So obvious that companies and websites implementing real-time systems for themselves are gaining significant benefits. The report The Real-Time Web and its Future, edited by ReadWriteWeb lead writer Marshall Kirkpatrick, interviews 50 companies, developers and executives leveraging real-time web technology. It also provides insights gained from more than 300 industry leaders that participated in the Real-Time Web Summit in October 2009. The report features best practices and innovation in leveraging real-time, and profiles of 20 people you should know and understand to participate effectively in the real-time market. Topics covered include benefits of real-time, real-time as a service, user experience, and changing older organizations.
Note: The report isn’t free, but you can download the Table of Contents and a sample chapter at no cost.
The real-time internet is something lawyers are going to have to pay attention to. Twitter is just the beginning. Whether one likes or deplores this move to fast and automatic updates, it’s upon us and will spread to the web. Think: Google Wave. IBM has a new version of Lotus Notes that will compete with Wave. PubSubHub, RSSCloud… terms we’re likely to have to understand in the very near future.
We’re going to need, if it doesn’t already exist – I haven’t checked – a technophile/technophobe analogue to Ambrose Bierce’s definition by, comparison, of conservatives and liberals: “Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others.”
It’s remarkable how well the transposition works.
IT Technophobe, n: an [information]technology user who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the [IT] Technophile who wishes to replace them with others.
One good thing about it is that it’s a TOE-OSFA* definition.
*Theory of Everything – One Size Fits ALL