I run a software startup called oneDrum. We provide a real-time platform that makes existing desktop applications collaborative. Initially we're targeting Microsoft Office, but later in the year we'll offer an SDK for anyone to use.

I have a girlfriend (Sarah), a 4-year old son (Zac) and a 2-year old daughter called Stella.

I'll be using my blog to talk about oneDrum, the family, and random musings on politics, technology and music.

Opera Unite

As a jaded software engineer, I struggle to get excited about most “innovations”, but I am excited about Operas new Unite product.

In case you have not read about it yet, Unite allows Opera users to turn their browser into a server through which they can directly share files and services rather than relying on third parties such as Google or Yahoo to mediate. There is an API developers can use to build and deploy new services on top of Unite.

I don’t know whether Unite will be successful - it will be hard work to build momentum from the small Opera install base, so the initial services will need to be pretty compelling.

But I do think that Unite or something like it is a marker for Web 3.0 because it represents a service level on top of the internet that is empowering: I can create interactive applications that I control.

At oneDrum, we’ve adopted a similar philosophy.

  • We also embed a webserver (Jetty) in out client so that users can easily connect.

  • We provide a sandboxing and deployment mechanism (OSGI) that we will eventually open to third party developers

But we do a set of other things that allow developers to create more sophisticated applications faster:

  • We support first class languages like Java and C++

  • We provide mechanisms to converge data and documents such as Operational Transforms (similar to Google Wave)

  • We provide a workflow layer that allows developers to define valid user interactions.

I think that with oneDrum, Opera Unite and Google Wave we can see a significant shift in the emphasis of the internet from data to behavior - doing things together, not just viewing the same pages.

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