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From “The future of XML“:

The wheels of progress turn slowly, but turn they do. The crystal ball might be a little hazy, but the outline of XML’s future is becoming clear. The exact time line is a tad uncertain, but where XML is going isn’t. XML’s future lies with the Web, and more specifically with Web publishing. […] Word processors, spreadsheets, games, diagramming tools, and more are all migrating into the browser. This trend will only accelerate in the coming year as local storage in Web browsers makes it increasingly possible to work offline. But XML is still firmly grounded in Web 1.0 publishing, and that’s still very important.

Passthru from Slashdot. Great read from IBM.

From “OpenSocial or OpenGadget? - ReadWriteWeb“:

Steve O’Hear (who edits our digital lifestyle blog last100) has an interesting post on his ZDNet blog that questions whether Google’s OpenSocial initiative is at all about data portability, or if in fact it really just about widget standardization. O’Hear quotes heavily from a recent article by Marc Canter, who is a strong advocate for open standards and data portability, that ran on CNet.

I see the same issue with Facebook’s JS Client Library.

I love client-side technologies, but I’m increasingly thinking that the propagation of such libraries is calculated by the providers more in terms of securing data and activity custodianship, as an alternative to truly opening one’s data APIs, rather than with scalability and processing decentralization in mind, like some argue.

It’s not a bad thing by any stretch, but I’m not sure associating them with true openness and data portability is entirely appropriate.

From “JavaScript Client Library for Facebook API“:

This JavaScript client library allows you to make Facebook API calls from any web site and makes it easy to create Ajax Facebook applications. Since the library does not require any server-side code on your server, you can now create a Facebook application that can be hosted on any web site that serves static HTML.

Now let’s compare this to the Open Social API description:

OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network’s friends and update feeds.

Is it just me or are others also thinking this is a missed opportunity for FB to take part in Open Social?

On the other hand, it could also lead to just that with what could be a simple wrapper to interconnect both ecosystems. That’s if FB decides not to go that way on their own and doesn’t expressly block such development through technical or legal means.

From Jeff Chandler’s “Calais Offers WordPress Plugin Bounty“:

Calais which is a metadata generation web service that is powered by Reuters is offering up a $5,000.00 bounty to anyone who can develop a plugin that meets the following criteria: tag auto suggestion, semantic cloud, GUID incorporation.

I can’t go for this one, having other immediate priorities and commitments, but it sounds like a neat and challenging project to tackle.

From “php.pdo: PDO 2: Request for Comments“:

It became apparent over the past year or so that PDO has been a good and valuable addition to PHP. Like JDBC in the Java world, PDO offers similar advantages, such as consistent data access APIs and better consistency across the various drivers. It has also become clear that there is still room for improvement around the functionality, consistency and broader vendor support for PDO.

I love PDO. My only real pet peeve with it is that it wasn’t right in PHP 1.0.

I’m looking forward to see some of the proposed improvements come to life.