Instant Desktop Environment

Instant Operating System

Instant Syndicating Standards

Alpha CrucISS Webtop

PolarISS WebOS

StarCloud

Let’s see an example to illustrated the point: Nick and Debbie are friends and they have subscribed to each other’s feed to receive updates. Their feeds are hosted on different servers.

In the Pull model, Nick has to poll Debbie’s server every time to check for updates from Debbie, and vice-versa.

In the Push model, the flow goes something like this:

1. Debbie publishes a new entry on her server (Push);
2. Debbie’s server lets Nick’s server know that Debbie has published a new entry (Push);
3. Nick polls his own server to receive updates (Pull).

Notice that the second step is a Push implemented in HTTP. Nick’s server didn’t have to poll Debbie’s server every time to check for updates.

In essence, this is what RSSCloud and PubSubHubBub are trying to accomplish: promoting an architectural design that follows the Push model using HTTP. ISS implementation on top of Drupal is also promoting this.

Yes, the third step is still the Pull model, but so what? Polling is only performed when the user is online and active, and strategies like the sessionLink can help determine how frequently the client has to poll.

Regarding the ISS implementation on top of Drupal, when a user syndicates an entry to a channel, all friends that are subscribed to this channel are notified (even if they are from a different server). The notification to a different server is done via the Services module.

Since ISS encourages a more decentralized social network and the ISS policies limits who gets notified, this helps in terms of performance and scalability. The speed at which information propagates will only be limited by the speed of the social network to filter information, which guarantees a high quality and very personalized stream of information for each individual.

The great majority of standards use XML, and ISS is no different. But we need to evolve.

As such, this is an example of how the tagcloud and taglink would be in JSON:

{"data":{
  "iss":{
    "science":{
      "tagcloud":{
        "year":["2006","2007","2008"],
        "syndicated":["0,0,0,0,0,0,4,23,45,32,34,31",
          "32,44,53,23,43,32,34,64,34,21,35,23",
          "43,23,34"]},
      "taglink":{
        "base":"http:\/\/nick.iss.im\/category\/science",
        "incoming":["http:\/\/debbie.iss.im\/category\/environment",
          "http:\/\/ribas.iss.im\/category\/work",...],
        "outgoing":["http:\/\/penny.iss.im\/category\/science",
          "http:\/\/ribas.iss.im\/category\/nature",...]}
    },...
  }
}}

What do you think? Feedback is welcome!

Our presentation entitled ISS (Instant Syndicating Standards) was great! We gave a quick overview of ISS and many attendees got interested in our work. One of the highlights of the presentation was when we used tennis balls to explain how the information would travel in the social network. It was really fun to see the balls been thrown from one side of the room to the other. Some photos of the presentation are shown below:

Bruna Griebeler at FISL 10

Tiago Rosa da Silva at FISL 10

Daniel Schmidt da Silva at FISL 10

In the 90s, after Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web at CERN research center, scientists around the world were able to share information with their colleagues by setting up their own personal Websites. The key concept behind the Web was the hyperlink, which allowed users to browse Web pages across different networks.

With the popularization of the Web, browsing Web pages just wasn’t enough. So by the turn of the millennium, the advent of search engines came to people’s assistance, most notably from a search engine created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while at Stanford University. Powered by complex algorithms, search engines would rank and present Web pages to users based on keywords.

With further popularization of the Web, searching again wasn’t enough. The top-down presentation of Web pages selected from a huge collection by an algorithm has created a very undemocratic way of sharing information. In this next decade, users will rely less on monolithic algorithms and more on their own personal social network for sharing information.

While the first decade of the Web was all about browsing and the second decade was about searching, the next decade will be about syndicating. Users will connect with their personal social network to receive and disseminate information in a bottom-up manner. Information, services and interactions will all be syndicated, allowing users to share not only information but also rich and profound experiences.

Sharing Information

As of today, there is no existing technology that allows individuals to share information in a bottom-up manner on a global scale. ISS (Instant Syndicating Standards) is a proposal to create just that: a distributed worldwide recommender system perfectly tuned to output a very personalized stream of information for each individual, where information flows from the personal social network towards the whole wide world. This is accomplished by allowing each individual to create their own broadcasting channels and to connect these channels with the ones created by their personal social network. This trustful and cascading network of syndicated streams filters out irrelevant information, while still letting good information pass through at each level.

The key concept behind ISS is the tagLink. The tagLink is a semantic link created by individuals showing how their friends’ channels are connected with their own channels. If a user becomes interested in a particular channel from a friend, he may subscribe to this channel and add it to his own channel. Thus, each individual receives exactly what he wants based on these subscriptions, and all information that reaches them goes through friends’ approval first.

Sharing Services

ISS is being developed as a set of services on top of Drupal. This service-oriented architecture promotes interoperability and allows individuals from different networks to share information with each other. The ISS services englobes user, channel and content management. These services together with services that provide file, language, search and session management will transform Drupal from a Content Management System into a Web Operating System.

The key concept behind the Drupal WebOS is the serviceLink, which is a structured format that links services together, including services from different networks. For example: a user may browse his way to a friend’s profile and become aware of her interests by visualizing her channels. If there is a common interest, the user may subscribe to a channel and create a taglink that connects her remote channel with his local channel. The fact that the friend is from another network is totally transparent to the user. This is possible when these systems follow a set of open standards called IOS (Instant Operating System). Users will be served by multiple WebOS.

Sharing Interactions

The services provided by the Drupal WebOS can be accessed through a Webtop, i.e. a Desktop Environment that works on top of the Web. The Ext Webtop is a Webtop created using the Ext JavaScript Library following a set of open standards called ITOP (Instant Desktop Environment). From this Webtop, users can share interactions with each other.

The key concept behind the Ext Webtop is the sessionLink. The sessionLink is a service that follows the publish/subscribe pattern and provides users and applications with (almost) real-time updates for subscribed services. For example, when a chat application is loaded in the Ext Webtop, the Webtop subscribes to the user.im service to be kept aware of any updates. More sophisticated interactions may also be shared, including sharing the whole Desktop Environment (this is called an Instant Session). In an Instant Session, when a user opens a window in the Webtop, his friend sees the window being opened. Likewise, when his friend closes a window, the user sees the window being closed.

Conclusion

In this text, we have presented ISS (Instant Syndicating Standards), an open set of standards that challenges the top-down model of information-sharing and gives place to a bottom-up model, where each person has a unique voice and equal opportunity to contribute and benefit. In this way, we hope to bring people closer together to discuss common interests and share information in a more open and democratic manner.

Also, we have presented the IOS and ITOP open standards, which we believe will help people to have more rich and profound experiences. We want to bring the Instant from Instant Messaging to the Web. And by Instant, the most important aspect that we want to exploit is not so much the When, but the Who. We want to empower individuals to “exchange” their Operating Systems and Desktop Environments with friends much the same way that they exchange Messages with friends when using Instant Messaging applications.

Along these two decades, the Web has evolved tremendously. The Web’s influence in democratizing access to information is evident. Yet, there is still a long way to go before reaching a truly democratic Web, where information flows freely in all directions. Also, there is still a long way to go before reaching a truly interactive Web, where people can connect with each other to create rich and profound experiences. We hope that the work here presented will help shape the way we share information, services and interactions in the next decade, as we believe that this will fundamentally shape us into better individuals and into a better society as a whole.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following organizations for sponsoring my work:

• The GIMSCOP research group from UFRGS university for sponsoring the development of the Drupal WebOS and Ext Webtop. Special regards to my mentor Dr. Jorge Otávio Trierweiler.
• The PPGC (Computer Graduate Program) from UFRGS university and the CAPES brazilian federal agency, who provided me with a scholarship to develop ISS. Special regards to my mentor Dr. José Valdeni de Lima.
• The Knight Foundation, for sponsoring the development of ISS on top of Drupal. Special regards to the UFRGSWeb team for helping me out and for giving me the opportunity to mentor them.

I would also like to thank the following open source communities for their contributions:

• Dries Buytaert and the Drupal community. Special regards to Scott Nelson for the Services Module and Dmitri Gaskin for the JSON Server Module.
• Jack Slocum and the ExtJS Community. Special regards to Todd Murdock for the Web Desktop extension and Thorsten Suckow-Homberg for the LiveGrid extension.

Further Information

• ISS (Instant Syndicating Standards)
• IOS (Instant Operating System)
• ITOP (Instant Desktop Environment)

References

• http://iss.im/references

I’m glad to announce that the Instant Syndicating Standards project was selected from over 600 applicants. We will be presenting on the 25th at 9AM. Other Drupal related projects will also be presented (check the full schedule). By the way, FISL’s site is powered by Drupal and the artwork is beautiful!

I’m glad to announce that our proposal has been approved! Our proposal aims to develop ISS support in Drupal. This will allow people to create and share a personalized stream of information within their social network, helping them to filter and recommend articles to others interested in the same issues.

I would like to thank Jose Zamora and Ken Rickard for all their effort in this process!

The ‘Contacts’ sidebar helps Nick discover new channels created by his personal social network.

The ‘List’ presents all aggregated entries from channels subscribed by Nick. Colors play an important role. Entries in blue are incoming entries, i.e. entries that have been received. Entries in red are outgoing entries, i.e. entries that have been sent. And entries in purple are entries that have been shared.

If Nick wants to share a specific entry, he may do so by tagging the entry appropriately. The Figure shows that this particular entry is already tagged with Science. He may add new tags by selecting them from his own tag cloud, or he may create new ones by typing them. When he syndicates this entry, he publishes this entry to the channels identified by these tags. Everyone subscribed to these channels will receive a notification.

Nick has associated Debbie’s Environment tag with his Science tag (i.e. he has created a taglink between the two channels). Every time Debbie publishes something tagged with Environment, these entries are automatically tagged with Science for Nick.

Thus, for users to share information, they don’t have necessarily to share the same concepts. All they have to do is to show how their friends’ concepts are associated with their own concepts.

It is important to remember that entries received are not published in Nick’s channels automatically unless they have been approved and shared by Nick himself.

<tag name=”science”>
<tagcloud type=”syndicated” year=”2006|2007|2008”
data=”0,0,0,0,0,0,4,23,45,32,34,31|
32,44,53,23,43,32,34,64,34,21,35,23|
43,23,34″/>
</tag>

By comparing the data for this tag with the data from the other tags, it’s possible to build a tagcloud to reveal what were the most syndicated tags in January 2008.

So far, we have the following types:

• Syndicated: number of entries syndicated;
• Authored: number of entries authored;
• Subscribed: number of subscribers;
• Commented: number of comments (from personal social network);
• Shared: number of entries shared (from personal social network).

We are open for feedback. Thanks!

• merge tagcloud and taglink into one, and
• create the tagcloud and taglink elements.

This is how it would look:
<iss>
…
<tag name=”science”>
<tagcloud type=”syndicated” year=”2006|2007|2008″
data=”0,0,0,0,0,0,4,23,45,32,34,31|
32,44,53,23,43,32,34,64,34,21,35,23|
43,23,34″/>
<taglink type=”base”
push=”xmpp:nick@iss.im?;node=science”
pull=”http://nick.iss.im/category/science”/>
<taglink type=”incoming”
push=”xmpp:debbie@iss.im?;node=environment”
pull=”http://debbie.iss.im/category/environment”/>
…
<taglink type=”outgoing”
push=”xmpp:penny@iss.im?;node=science”
pull=”http://penny.iss.im/category/science”/>
…
</tag>
…
</iss>

We believe now it’s more compact, clean, and easier to generate and process. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks!