ONLY TODAY did I realise one hidden meaning of the term "atom" as it relates to blogging. I know Google Reader prefers subscriptions in either Atom or RSS2 format, but until I read some of the comments at the NPR Social Media Advisory Group, I didn't relate "atom" to "atomised" in the way that Jay Rosen says the mass media world audience is atomised. Members of a mainstream media audience have no easy interconnections. Yet in a connected, blogging world, things like the Atom subscription feed makes it easy and trivial to connect people, ideas and commentary. As Euan Semple notes, "This fundamentally changes the relationship between broadcasters and their audiences." Semple points out that Rosen wants to apply "open source wisdom" with his site NewAssignment.net which he described as "Organising people horizontally using the internet to contribute and collaborate".
Atomisation is a major by-product of disaggregation. All around us, the worldwide web is splitting apart into information atoms. People are tacking widgets onto their sites to show photos, visitors, playlists and newsfeeds. The time is ripe for connecting all these widgets together and to ensure when cobbled together, the information still works. That's the point Marc Canter is making about Digital LIfestyle Aggregators, right?
We expose multimedia degree students to tools like Netvibes, Pageflakes, and the XSPF music player. These DLAs work elegantly and they let us play our content across multiple platforms while at work, while using our mobile phones and while deep inside social networks. In my opinion, this is the most important manifestation of Web 2.0.
Marc Canter knows how to make these widgets really move. He has "a framework into which to throw widgets will be all we need. The intelligence will be of our choosing and will be embedded by means of widgets. And what a widgetsphere that will be." This is a world where widgets evolve from "APIs and Pipes and scrapers and applications" and they all talk to each other. I want to play in that widgetsphere.
Ivan Pope -- "Widgify"
Marc Caner -- "Social Network by API"
XSPF plays MP3s on your website. Smooth.
Euan Semple -- "When is an audience not an audience?" But some of the commentators don't agree with the terms of reference
