Socailtext is adopting Twitter annotations for a new service it is calling Socailtext Connect. The service is a method for connecting legacy apps by surfacing events that appear in an activity stream. The service, now in beta, uses the work done on the Twitter annotations spec to create a social layer that makes events in systems readable both by machines and human. The connector serves as a bridge between an on-premise or cloud-based enterprise application. Sponsor It’s the machine-to-machine communication that makes this most significant. In many respects it’s a reminder of how far we have come since the first versions of RSS became such an integral part of the Web. RSS, Atom and other syndication technologies have shown us how the Web can be programmed for machines to communicate, trigger events and provide us with information and insights for our daily work. It’s that connection which makes annotations powerful. Apps can be connected by providing, to use a metaphor, an invisible thread that finds the event and pulls it to the surface. But is this new? It’s similar to Salesforce.com’s activity stream that surfaces events from the Force.com platform. It’s also similar to Socialcast , which pulls in updates from legacy applications into an activity stream. The annotations that Socialtext is adopting is part of a deeper effort to build on the work done in recent years to preserve what many call the open Web. The Socialtext news is also a sign that the enterprise is advancing faster with activity streams than their consumer counterparts. Today, the Web is transforming in a way that requires machines to better communicate. This is especially true in the enterprise where the Web is the network that operates both internally and externally to systems of multiple varieties, such as wireless networks and fast emerging smart systems. One trillion sensors will emerge in the next five years on everything from smart meters to heart devices. That means the Web becomes just a part of the Internet, serving as a system to connect other systems. Socialtext co-founder Ross Mayfield says activity streams are quickly evolving into application streams. As more software emerges so will be the need to connect machines to trigger events. People will be notified through this complex network. Socialtext Connect will provide the ability for events from these systems to be passed as a message that people or machines can subscribe to and follow. An application could subscribe to another application that triggers an event such as a reminder to a system to replenish an inventory system. These “app bots,” as Mayfield calls them, serve as an environment for messaging. Michael Cote , an analyst with Red Monk, made the point in conversation that there is this new interest in messaging services. Annotations fit that bill to some extent. Is middleware the new hot stuff? It is starting to seem that way as the need continues for that special glue that can connect all aspects of the dynamic supply chain. Discuss

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We are all aware of the floundering print industry that has seen a steady decline in revenues over the last several years. Newspapers that once thrived on the cash-cows that were classifieds and print advertising have had their lunch eaten by the disruptive forces of Craigslist and online advertising, which have slowly chipped away at print ad sales. Soon, however, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Internet advertising revenues will surpass those of print advertising to become the second largest segment of advertising in the U.S. behind television. Sponsor “Over the next five years digital technologies will progressively increase their impact across all segments of entertainment and media … It is clear that the consumer is firmly in the driving seat of these changes.” – PricewaterhouseCoopers Report As reported by the Wall Street Journal , The PwC report found that in 2009, online ad revenues continued to climb to $24.2 billion, while print ads fell 28.6% to $24.8 billion. Online ads are expected to rake in $34.4 billion by 2014, which means print ads should dip below their online counterparts in a matter of months. PwC’s figures for online revenues don’t include mobile advertisements, which they believe will nearly quadruple in the next four years from $414 million to $1.6 billion. “Over the next five years digital technologies will progressively increase their impact across all segments of entertainment and media (E&M) as digital transformation continues to expand and escalate,” a press release from PwC said Tuesday. “The uncertain economic background has done nothing to slow the pace of change, which has been far quicker than predicted 12 months ago. It is clear that the consumer is firmly in the driving seat of these changes.” According to the report, increased access to broadband has played a large role in helping boost online ad revenues. The Wall Street Journal reports that broadband penetration in the U.S. nearly doubled from 34% in 2005 to 64% in 2010 thanks partly to $7.2 billion in federal stimulus money put towards expanding broadband access. Additionally, PricewaterhouseCoopers expects that global consumer spending on Internet access will increase from $228 billion 2009 to $351 billion in 2014. It was only a matter of time until online ad sales outpaced those of print, and once they do, they will only continue to gain momentum. Legacy media are driven by numbers and are slow to change their ways, and thus have not thrown their entire weight behind online initiatives. When the scales tip over to online advertising in the next year, those that have been reluctant to embrace new and online media will be forced to allocate additional resources to the winning market. The ultimate demise of print media is still many years away, but it is pretty clear that ad revenues are slowly dropping away. It will take one of the predominant newspapers ceasing to print physical copies to set off the domino effect that will likely follow, but it is unlikely to happen any time soon. While newspaper ad revenues have been falling, they’ve been leveling out, and a balance between print and online is likely to exist for several years before print entirely fades away. Discuss

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It’s been just over a week now since Apple failed to announce the cloud-based music service many of us hoped would replace

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Dedicated e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook are coming under increasing pressure from mobile phones and tablet devices like the iPad. According to the latest research from Informa Telecoms & Media , sales of e-readers with broadband connections will peak in 2014, as users decide to opt for multi-purpose devices like the iPad. According to Informa, the best way for e-reader manufacturers to survive is to focus on cheap devices that don’t feature built-in wireless connectivity. Sponsor The Real Question: E-Paper or LCD Displays? Many readers swear by e-paper displays that look and “feel” more like regular paper than traditional computer displays. These e-paper displays don’t need backlighting and consume far less power than tablets that use back-lighted displays. A number of e-paper manufacturers are working hard on developing color displays with faster refresh rates that will allow Kindle-like devices to compete with the feature set of tablets. The question, of course, is if users will really flock to low-end e-readers or if they will opt for more expensive multi-purpose devices like the iPad instead. In the near future, some of these tablets will likely feature more advanced e-paper displays that will combine the best of both worlds, though they will probably cost about the same as an iPad. The Disadvantages of Dedicated E-Readers For now, however, these advanced displays aren’t ready for the consumer market, while tablets are getting more market share and iPad apps like Wired’s new magazine app get a chance to show the advantages of tablet computers. A number of universities have experimented with the Kindle as a textbook reader, and it’s quickly becoming clear that today’s e-readers aren’t ready for this market, as students ask for a more flexible devices that are more akin to tablet computers than a dedicated e-readers. Sony Expands This study comes on the same day that Sony announced its plans to expand the availability of its e-reader to Japan, China, Australia and a number of European countries. Asia is one of the fastest growing markets for e-readers, so this move definitely makes sense. With its low-end e-readers , Sony will be in a good position if Informa’s predictions turn out to be true. Discuss

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Google showcased Google TV this morning at its Google I/O developer conference, entering what’s been a growing arena since this year’s Consumer Electronics Show last January. The most obvious feature brought to television by the company that wants to organize all the world’s information is search, but that’s far from where Google’s innovation to bringing the Web to the TV ends – it’s just the beginning. Sponsor Google TV will be offered as an Internet and wifi enabled box that can connect to a television using an HDMI connection. It will have a keyboard and a “pointing device”, though no more specific information on the hardware was offered. Much of this morning’s demo consisted of showing off the search feature and how users will be able to browse the Web using their television. Searching on Google TV allows users to find content both on the Web and on the TV. From there, they can view web content, view TV content or even set their DVR to record TV shows that air at a later time. The demo got interesting when the presenters started showing off some of the integration with smartphones and the Android marketplace. Not only can Google TV be controlled using a smartphone and speech recognition, but the Google TV hardware will be able to run any Android app in the market place that doesn’t require phone-specific hardware to operate. So Pandora, Twitter, Facebook – anything that’s an app for Android – will be available in a simplified form for the television. Google also previewed a number of integrations and partnerships, such as with the NBA or Netflix. These integrations optimized Web content for the television experience by connecting online schedules with DVR programming in the case of NBA.com or by allowing users to peruse suggested content according to previous Netflix viewings. As Google notes in its blog about Google TV, much of what it showed today is just the tip of the iceberg, as the company is opening up Google TV to developers with an upcoming SDK and API release. We think this is likely where Google TV will be most exciting – the creations of developers using Google developer tools. Instead of having a more closed system, Google’s use of developer tools and integration of the Android market place is going to make Google TV the real rebirth of Web TV. Google is working together with Sony and Logitech to bring Google TV to televisions, Blu-ray players and companion boxes, and you should expect to see it in Best Buy stores by next fall. Discuss

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