Remix

I know, I know, it's Microsoft's idea but it's one idea that's very cool; a technology called Photosynth, an image mapper that takes pattern recognition to a new level by picking out edges and other discrete elements in digital images and storing them in a database. When similar features are discerned in multiple images of the same subject material, the fun begins to unfold as the system builds a 3D representation of the image collection to allow one to roam interactively in 3space of any thing that has been digitally photographed. It's a Mashup picture style and it's, I daresay, revolutionary, something not readily associated with Microsoft, the king of buggy operating systems and expensive bloatware. (Photosynth should run on everything, BTW but it doesn't. XP/Vista/Explorer are required to try the app.)
The reason why I write about Photosynth is the notion that data will become infinitely malleable when intuitive visual tools like these are integrated into the semantic web where anything linked can be messaged with consummate ease once interface elegance is married to modular semantic web editors like Protege/Timeline etc., etc., thus allowing non coders like myself to build mashups of unimaginable power and sophistication.
In the Salon article Delight in Disorder, David Weinberger expands this concept by talking about remixing the world by going past rigid taxonomies to codify content any way we want as the web has removed the constraints of physicality when dealing with data and how it can be manipulated. This can be a train wreck in the making but one never knows do one?

Last but not least, a competitor to Photoshynth has arrived called Quakr and it runs on everything. Web 2.0 rules, Web 3.0 is coming and yes, the Singularity is near.

To get a sense of how content is being accessed and processed check out Joshua Lock's Blog. It's a good read.

"And the beat goes on." Big Bopper