And Still I Persist

Twelve years ago, I published The Art of ‘Ware, a reinterpretation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War as applied to developing and marketing technology. I am now working on updating it and have the entire work-in-progress posted here on the blog (see the ‘Pages’ section in the right-hand column). I am particularly interested in replacing and/or supplementing my own commentary with that of others; see here for details. ..bruce..

I’ve given up on reddit and Digg as both largely been hijacked by groups of political activists (ok, I’ll be honest, groups of barking moonbats) and folks posting “the most amazing photo ever”. In the meantime, Guy Kawasaki has started up Truemors, which seems to avoid both annoyances. Check it out. ..bruce..

As I have mentioned frequently on this site, I have been actively researching, developing and delivering a new approach to solving some of the common problems in running business. We have given the name Boomerang to this technology, and it revolves around the notion of what is coming to be known as “Content Based Integration”, a new twist on time proven approaches that have been around for over a decade. Many of you have seen an example of this approach in action: my own Hardtack application all the way to Google News use this new technique. Lets take a closer look at this coming revolution and what it means.

What is Content Based Integration?

Boomerang is a system for enabling enterprise use of “Content Based Integration”. Content is the name for what makes the World Wide Web tick - information in human and machine readable form. For the most part one can think of content as a coherent set of written or illustrative information on a specific subject. When you look at a web site like Amazon.com, you see a wide set of small frames of information - each one of them have words and pictures in them - each one of those frames holds content. Content conveys information along with tags and attributes that describe what it represents and how things relate.

Many IT experts suspect the next big wave of revolution in systems will come from the ability to allow users to subscribe to content on subjects that matter to their work or their interests, and use dynamic web based and desktop systems to assemble this content for them. Think of it as a newspaper that re-publishes itself several times an hour, but only contains the things you want, and are interested in. Another term for this is “Mashups“, a term that I think strips some of the meaning of what really should be going on.

You can see early efforts to master this new techniques in products such as Yahoo Pipes, IBM QEDWIKI, and others. The persistent theme behind these examples is that they try very hard to piece something useful and relevant together from whatever they can scavenge from the broader internet. For these current first generation of tools all of the engineering focus went into how to build a wizzy, glittering front end that contained all of the fancy, next-gen Web 2.0 (TM) features on full display.

Sadly for them, once you build these wonderful front end manipulation tools, you are left to discover you don’t have much to put in there. Let’s face it, there are only so many ways you can glue Youtube, Google Maps and Amazon together. Moreover there are very few (if any) corporations that will find this kind of Mashup compelling enough to spend money on.

The real key is - how do you build a platform that can quickly and easily go from mountains of enterprise data into a steady, rich stream of enterprise content. Content that is formed and tagged, ready for infusion into these emerging Mashup tools. Crossing this gap is where Boomerang fits in

Hardtack as a Boomerang Application

Many visitors to this site have also taken a look at Hardtack. It’s a fun application, but it is also a grand example of how this next generation system works. Data from MLS systems are fed into the Boomerang Feedkit, and transformed into content. That content is tagged based on what zip code it covers, what kind of product it represents, what price point it falls into and when it was sampled. Collections of related zip code content can be fused into towns, towns into cities, then into states and on up to the national level. Product types can be sorted out, price points can be filtered and the content can be aligned and aggregated any way there is a need for it.

When you access the web site, you are really taking different views on the same multi-dimensional set of content data, though you would probably never know unless you read this article.

In our plans for later this year - to allow access to the content in a raw form - either via RSS or XML. This will allow more folks new ways to pipe the content we are keeping to ourselves for now into these next generation Mashup systems. I can’t wait to see the results.

The Washington Times issued a challenge that so far nobody has met — and contrasts it with an earlier generation:

We had challenged readers to name one modern American celebrity, apart from the late football star Pat Tillman, who served or fought for his or her country in the past 15 years. Nobody could name a single soul, which is in sharp contrast to World War II, when professional actors and others in the entertainment industry patriotically tossed aside lucrative scripts to fight in defense of their country.

Among them: Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Walter Matthau, Charles Bronson, Gene Autry, Robert Conrad, Gene Roddenberry, Robert Altman, Jack Palance, Humphrey Bogart, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda, George C. Scott, Glenn Ford, Brian Keith, Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Kirk Douglas, Shecky Greene, Paul Newman, Jack Lemmon, Jackie Cooper, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Cliff Robertson, Rod Steiger, Dennis Weaver and Robert Stack.

Also dressed for battle were James Arness, Alan Hale Jr., Victor Mature, Telly Savalas, Arthur Godfrey, Tyrone Power, Ed McMahon, Lee Marvin, Don Adams, Sterling Hayden, John Russell, James Whitmore, Rod Serling, Jack Warden, Ted Knight, Burt Lancaster, George Kennedy, Art Carney, Burgess Meredith, Cameron Mitchell, Kevin McCarthy, Martin Balsam, Jackie Coogan, Dale Robertson, George Reeves, Russell Johnson, Robert Preston, George Gobel, Gene Raymond, Karl Malden, Red Buttons, Robert Taylor, Charles Durning, Lee Powell, Carl Reiner, John Agar, Jeff Chandler, Ossie Davis, Frank Gorshin, Werner Klemperer, Rick Jason, Charlton Heston, William Holden, Robert Montgomery, Desi Arnaz, Norman Mailer, Alex Haley, Louis L‘Amour and Bob Keeshan.

In fairness, many of these served likely before starting their showbiz careers — but it still raises the issue of the profound disconnect between modern Hollywood and the modern military. ..bruce..

My father and both of my grandfathers served in World War II. Dad survived Pearl Harbor, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, and the invasion of Guam, as well as two tours of duty in Vietnam some 25 years later. My son Jon, my father’s namesake, now serves our country in the USMC and may deploy to Iraq some time next year. I have one daughter who served in the Army National Guard and another who is contemplating elisting in the Navy, as well as a son-in-law who has served in the Marines and is now in the US Coast Guard. I’ve had three brothers-in-law who served in the US Armed Forces as well.

As a Navy brat, I grew up surrounded by military men and women (and the children thereof). I knew first hand — though not as well as my older siblings — all the disadvantages to a military life. The pay is low, the service is inefficient (the old Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego still remains a dark icon of my childhood), the internal politics and power struggles can be appalling (go back here and read why Dad left the Navy after 29 years instead of 30).

So where do we get such men and women who endure all this in order to keep free and safe — at the risk and cost of their own lives — not just our country, but much of the world as well? As I’ve said before, I read history in general and military history in particular. One searches in vain to find another country, another military, that has spent so much of its blood and resources merely to defend itself and to free others. I have little patience and even less respect for those who speak of “American Imperialism” — we are the least imperialistic, most altruistic superpower that has ever existed.

A flag waves today down by our mailbox. I spoke on the phone a little while ago with our next-door neighbor, who called just to say how much she appreciated that. I look at it, remember my visits to Arlington National Cemetery and the USS Arizona Memorial, and weep in sorrow and thanks at the price so many have paid. The peace, freedom, and prosperity we enjoy cost the best blood of the 20th Century, and we’re making a down-payment on the 21st Century as well.

Which is why we should always remember. ..bruce..

[UPDATED 05/28/07 - 1021 MDT]

For something a bit more lighthearted, here is a video of the Andrews Sisters singing “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” back in 1941. Hat tip to Say Anything, which has other videos as well. ..bruce..

[UPDATED 05/28/07 - 1127 MDT]

A note from my mother, who is herself one of my heroes:

Good morning, Bruce, My flag is flying, too. I went out to Ft. Rosecrans yesterday to visit the memorials to Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Ralph Gordon, Rory Gordon, Jon L[ewis], and Marguerite Dykeman, and all the other flag-decorated graves along the path. I thought how appropriate it was that Grandpa’s grave overlooks the sub base — because he was on subs in WWI — and Dad’s was on the Pacific side, with a radar tower in sight. You might recall that Ralph was killed on a carrier landing on the Bonny Dick just before Jacque was born. And Jon L was a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. Love, Mom

‘Nuff said. ..bruce..