first post

hello, and welcome to the blog for digitalpocketknife.com.

I've created DigitalPocketknife as a jumping-off point for web applications that are about harnessing the semantic web, showing off new and thoughtful mobile web design techniques, and integrating these two ideas with social aspects of life.

Got all that? Let me spell it out a little further:

Your mobile phone is your digital pocketknife. It comes with tools that, every once in a while, are really handy to have. But I'm not talking about cameras, mp3 players, walkie-talkies, or GSM tools. DigitalPocketknife is a home for web applications which bring together three forward-looking trends:

- the semantic web - a fundamental change in the way we put information onto the web

- small-scale mobile display design - why some web apps translate well to the mobile (and others don't)

- integrating the mobile web with everyday life - what kinds of moments are there, when having semantic information is really nice to have?


The first tool on DigitalPocketknife is called cultureset.com. It's something I've been working on for a while, and it brings these three ideas together in one application.

If you'd like some more detail on these three ideas, here's an overview:


1: The Semantic Web

The "semantic web" is a fundamental change to how the World Wide Web works.

People were given the tools to publish; clearly, people like publishing on the web - the number of websites is, well, BIG.

But the primary tool that people were given was about how data looks in your browser - the fonts, the colors, the placements, etc. This tool is known as HTML.

New tools are emerging, which are about what data means: to you, to your browser, to search engines, or to any person or tool that knows how to read and process this data - not unlike how a browser can understand HTML. The primary tool for publishing data for the semantic web is XML.

In some ways, this doesn't change the web at all - people still publish things on the web; browsers and other tools look at and process those things; you see what they contain.

But in other ways, the semantic web is a revolution in the world of online publishing. What you put on the web, and what other people see that you've put on the web, contains computer-processable information about the meaning of your content.

It is a new means of communication. It has the potential to change how we organize ourselves, how we make decisions, how we argue, how we refine our knowledge of the world, and how we interact as a society.


2. Mobile Design

Chances are, if you are reading this page, you've got a mobile phone, or some other kind of mobile device. Chances are, it's got a web browser too, and chances are, you don't use the browser very much.

Why is this?

1 - most websites just work better on your desktop - there's just not enough good sites out there to create that critical mass for people to start using the mobile web.

But this is starting to change. Many web designers are starting to create versions of their pages that work well in mobile browsers. And many mobile broswers are getting better and better at making pages look good in a small format.

But some web tools are not just "re-worked" to fit on the small screen; some tools are actually fundamentally designed to work well on the small screen. This requires a new paradigm of thought for the web designer - how do you effectively convey information with so little space? Without room for all those words and images, are there small, simple, and effective symbols that can convey meaning to the user?

2 - mobile browsing is slow and can be expensive. But the more that people start using mobile web applications, the better will become the cost and the performance. It's simple economics.


3. Integrating the mobile web with everyday life

I came up with the name digitalpocketknife because, as the semantic web grows, and as mobile design gets better and better, your mobile will become that pocket-sized set of tools - not the ones you use all the time (like your desktop computer), but the ones that, here and there, a few times a day or a few times a week, make the difference between frustration and success.

Having those tools available will be like having a wine opener just at the right time - when you're the one who's got it with you, you're the hero!

As I mentioned above, DigitalPocketknife is the jumping-off point for finding web applications that are about harnessing the semantic web, showing off new and thoughtful mobile web design techniques, and integrating these two ideas with social aspects of life.

There's an emphasis on the word "and" in that last sentence - I'm only going to focus on ideas that meet all three of my criteria. If I try to focus on ideas that meet just one or two of the criteria, the list of tools would be longer than anyone would want to scroll through.

So, there's a web page at digitalpocketknife.com, which is the page I hope people will bookmark on their mobile phones. It's meant to be the starting point for using tools that meet these criteria. (You can also check it out in your regular browser if you want - it's mainly just the text of this post).

I've started this blog to do several things. Obviously, I'm creating a space for discussion and communication about web apps along these ideas.

Another goal is to promote cultureset.com. It's the first tool listed when you get to digitalpocketknife.com.

I'm also here to learn. I'm sort of a jack-of-all-trades; on cultureset, I'm the DB guy, the UI designer, the Java team, the operations manager, the marketing guy, the CEO, the CFO, and now the head blogger. I'm able to get things done in all these areas, but I'm always looking to learn more, and I think a blog is a great way to get new information and ideas from other people.

So, please feel free to post things on this site. I'd like to start up some discussion threads, and they'll probably come right out of any comments people make.

Welcome to the party. Comments are open to all.